A Bush-era top-level State Department official has made the bombshell claim that the Biden administration knew who the Kabul bomber was and even had a drone strike lock on him but refused to take action for reasons that remain unclear.
This claim was made by former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs Rogelio “Roger” Pardo-Maurer during an appearance this week on Univision, as reported by Jorge Bonilla of MRC Latino.
“What is being said by people who were involved is that the Department of Defense already knew who the bomber was and when [the Kabul bombing would happen], and that a Predator drone had a lock on him,” Pardo-Maurer said, according to a translation from MRC Latino.
“OK … and that they refused to grant permission to fire upon that bomber. [Permission] was requested and was denied. Why? Because we are in the process of negotiating with the Taliban, who aren’t even in control of their own government or their own people,” he added.
MRC Latino identified him as “Roger,” but a 2001 article from The Washington Post named him as “Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere affairs.”
Similarly, a 2002 article from The New York Times named him as “Rogelio Pardo-Maurer, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere affairs.”
It’s presumed “Roger” is his nickname. Bottom line is that he was a top-level government official, so he’s obviously someone who knows a thing or two. And if what he purports to know about the Kabul bombing is true, there may be serious political consequences in store for the Biden administration.
The Aug. 26th bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul left 13 U.S. service members and over 100 Afghans deceased.
Meanwhile, the administration’s appeasement of the Taliban has led to a situation where there are now thousands of Afghan allies and hundreds of U.S. citizens still trapped in Afghanistan despite the withdrawal of U.S. troops being complete.
Another possibility for why the administration didn’t act is because they were worried about civilian casualties. But again, why would that matter to this administration?
During the administration’s last day in Afghanistan on Monday, it had no qualms about drone-striking a car allegedly containing an ISIS-K suicide bomber. It’s since been learned that the strike also killed a family of nine, including six children.
So, what changed between when the administration wasn’t willing to drone strike ISIS bombers and when it suddenly decided to go ahead and authorize a drone strike that wound up killing nearly a dozen innocent people?
The Staff: Someone with a brain decided it had to go in order to protect and save American lives. War is terrible and innocent people get killed for terrible reasons. Biden admin. could have saved many local people and Americans if they had to courage to say fire when it counted.
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