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Pompeo says Afghanistan ‘debacle’ could lead to new 9/11-type attack on US

Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Sunday that America is more likely to face another 9/11-type attack thanks to President Biden’s disastrous exit from Afghanistan last year.

Pompeo, who served under former President Donald Trump, blasted Biden over how the US withdrew from the war-torn country, arguing the “debacle” has put the Taliban in “full control” there and made Americans less safe as a result.

“We are more likely to be attacked like New York City was 20 some years ago, we’re more likely to be attacked from [Afghanistan] today than we were just one year ago,” Pompeo told host John Catsimatidis on the “Cats Roundtable” radio show Sunday morning.

Pompeo said the withdrawal was a "debacle" that has made the country less safe.
Pompeo said the withdrawal was a “debacle” that has made the country less safe. U.S. Army via AP, File
Pompeo said the withdrawal has left the country more likely to suffer another attack like 9/11.
Pompeo said the withdrawal has left the country more likely to suffer another attack like 9/11. Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Pompeo, who was the director of the CIA before taking over the State Department in 2018, said earlier on WABC 770 AM that the exit humiliated the country and even emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine earlier this year.  

“We are now one year from what everybody saw with their own eyes: Americans left behind. Thirteen Americans dead. The Afghan people clinging to American aircraft as we turned tail and ran out of that country.

“To have had that debacle embarrass our country on the world stage, made us less safe, convinced Putin that he could begin his aggressive conduct in Ukraine,” Pompeo said.

Last August, US forces left Afghanistan after being in the country since 2001. During the withdrawal, 13 US service members were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport.