(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) President Joe Biden on Monday night announced that a U.S. drone strike had killed notorious al-Qaeda killer and Osama bin Laden 9/11 henchman Ayman al-Zawahri, nearly a year after Biden’s disastrous and deadly withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
The announcement comes on the heels of a roundly-condemned move by the Biden administration to release Russian arm-dealing terrorist Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” in a proposed swap involving LGBT activist and WNBA baller Brittney Griner, who is being tried in Russia on drug charges, and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia.
“He’s absolutely one of the worst in the world, and he’s going to be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into Russia loaded up with drugs,” former President Donald Trump said when news of Biden’s reported trade for the freedom of the deadly Bout surfaced.
When the Kremlin-backed arms dealer was convicted in 2011 for attempting to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of missiles to terrorists to attack U.S. military helicopters, then-Attorney General Eric Holder said that, “one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers is being held accountable for his sordid past.”
“Today, he faces the prospect of life in prison for his efforts to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to terrorists for use in killing Americans.”
Or not, depending on how successful the Biden administration is in its effort to facilitate his release. Whatever the fate of one terrorist, the Biden administration touted its killing of another.
“On Saturday, at my direction, the United States successfully concluded an air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed the emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahri,” a twice COVID-positive recovering Biden croaked from the Blue Room Balcony of the White House.
While the Biden administration took its victory lap, others were calling for perspective, even while acknowledging that a deadly terrorist has been eliminated.
1) The killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri will be sold as a counterterrorism success. But that narrative masks the undeniable truth that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a safe have for Al Qaeda. https://t.co/CGc5Fs8oMw
— Bill Roggio (@billroggio) August 2, 2022
That’s directly attributable to the “disaster” Biden made of the troop withdrawal, “which left the Afghan government to the predations of the Taliban,” wrote Roggio, a terrorism analyst and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“The Taliban-Al Qaeda alliance remains stronger than ever.”
The terrorist al-Zawahri was taken out by a CIA drone strike that sent two Hellfire missiles into his resident safe house in Afghanistan, reported the New York Post.
“Now we make it clear again tonight,” Biden said, “that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide: if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”
Or negotiate your release in exchange for a pot-smoking, LGBT-activist WNBA baller.
