Blinken says US will ‘have the means’ to monitor terrorist threats after troops leave Afghanistan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. would still have the capability to monitor for intelligence in Afghanistan on possible terrorist attacks after troops withdraw from the country in September.

During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” host Martha Raddatz asked Blinken about the U.S. having a diminished ability to collect intelligence without troops on the ground.

“We will have the means to see if there is a resurgence, a reemergence of a terrorist threat from Afghanistan,” Blinken said. “We’ll be able to see that in real time with time to take action. And we’re going to be repositioning our forces and our assets to make sure that we guard against the potential reemergence.” 

EXCLUSIVE: Sec. of State Antony Blinken defends Pres. Biden’s pledge to withdraw troops from Afghanistan: “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, and we went because we were attacked on 9/11… we achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve.” https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXX pic.twitter.com/W9zp8moZQh

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 18, 2021

When Raddatz asked about doubts on trusting the Taliban, the secretary explained that the U.S. had “different capabilities, different assets” than in 2001, the year of the 9/11 terrorists attacks.

“Well, that’s exactly why we’re going to make sure that we have assets appropriately in place to see this coming, if it comes again, to see it and to be able to deal with it,” Blinken said. “This is, again, a very different world than the one we had in 2001. We have different capabilities, different assets, and I think a greater ability to see something coming with time to do something about it.”

President Biden announced last week that he planned to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of this year to end America’s longest war.