U.S. counterterrorism operations killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri over the weekend, President Biden stated Monday night.
In his brief remarks from the White House balcony, Vice President Biden said, “
Al-Zawahiri, according to the president, was assassinated in Kabul.
“After relentlessly seeking Zawahiri for years under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump, our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year,” Mr. Biden said. “He had moved to downtown Kabul to reunite with members of his immediate family.”
A senior administration official informed reporters over the phone Monday night that the United States had multiple, independent sources that confirm al-whereabouts Zawahiri’s in a safehouse. The official added that the strike was the culmination of months and years of cautious, methodical, and relentless effort by counterterrorism officials.
The president claimed he ordered a “precise strike that would eliminate him from the battlefield once and for all” after he had evaluated “clear and convincing evidence” of al-location. Zawahiri’s Just one week ago, the ultimate go-ahead to “go after him” was given.
At 9:48 p.m. ET on Saturday, a drone killed Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of the safehouse while his family members were scattered throughout the building.
“None of his family members were hurt and there were no civilian casualties,” the president said. The U.S. government has a high level of confidence that no one else was killed in the strike, according to the senior administration official.
A senior administration official said the president was kept informed as the U.S. government focused its attention on al-Zawahiri. As soon as the safehouse was found, the president sought to learn more about how the safehouse’s doors and windows were laid out in order to prevent any other deaths.
According to a senior administration official, the president gave the go-ahead for a targeted airstrike on July 25 that was designed to minimize civilian casualties.
As a result of the murder of al-Zawahiri, the main terrorist plotters responsible for the events of September 11, 2001 are all either dead or in custody.
The FBI added his death to its “Most Wanted Terrorist” poster on Monday.
On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the president recalled his recent trips to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Ground Zero, New York, where he saw the bronze names of those who perished as a reminder of the pledge Americans made to “never forget.”
“One more measure of closure” for those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks is what Vice President Biden hoped for in taking action against al-Zawahiri.
The president was aware of the timing of the strike, which occurred about a year after U.S. soldiers departed from Afghanistan. It has long been argued by the Biden administration that it can continue to confront terrorist threats to American citizens from “beyond the horizon” without boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
He stated that after 20 years of war, “the United States no longer needed thousands of people on the ground in Afghanistan to safeguard America from terrorists who seek to do us harm” when he terminated the military deployment about a year ago. “To the American people, I swore that we’d keep up our counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere. That’s exactly what we’ve accomplished.”
The CIA was claimed to have carried out the strike by two persons familiar with the situation.
The president, who had a relapse of COVID-19, made his statement from a White House balcony after testing positive for the virus.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, acknowledged on Monday that a drone had carried out an airstrike on Kabul. A flagrant violation of international norms is what the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers.
“The Taliban gravely breached the Doha Agreement and repeated guarantees to the world that they would not allow Afghan land to be exploited by terrorists to undermine the security of other countries,” stated U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
It’s “very hard for me to think [al-Zawahiri] was in Kabul without the knowledge of at least some of the Taliban leadership,” former Acting CIA Director and CBS News contributor Michael Morell said after the president’s statements.
It also sends a message to any other al Qaeda members in Afghanistan that they should be concerned about their own safety, despite the fact that the United States no longer has soldiers stationed there, according to Morell.
Al-Zawahiri has been on the run for some time now. Al-Zawahiri was near the top of the FBI’s 22 most wanted terrorists list after the 9/11 attacks, announced by then-President George W. Bush, who included him with Osama bin Laden.
Even though al-Zawahiri had long held the title of “No. 2” in al Qaeda, many experts now believe he was actually responsible for the overall planning of bin Laden’s operation.
In 2011, U.S. special forces killed Bin Laden, but al-Zawahiri evaded attempts on his life and a worldwide manhunt until he was assassinated in a drone strike in Pakistan.
The date of Zawahiri’s last video statement, which he released on September 11, 2021, has not been confirmed, although he has continued to make video pronouncements. The U.S. government offered $25 million for information leading to his capture after years of rumors that he had dead.
FDNY-Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro commended Vice President Biden for “helping to provide another level of closure to all impacted by these assaults” in a statement released Monday.
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Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr, who was instrumental in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, has passed away.
Starr passed away on Tuesday at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, Texas… owing to postoperative problems… that’s what his relatives say.
Starr led the massive Whitewater investigation of the Clintons in the 1990s and is famous for this. The investigation started with the Clintons’ real estate dealings and widened to encompass the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
Starr’s career as an attorney was highly successful… It was Reagan who put him forward for a position on the Supreme Court of the United States. District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Later becoming U.S. Secretary of State under former President George H.W. Bush. State Department’s top lawyer.
Starr was a United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia and argued 36 cases before the Supreme Court. He worked as an associate attorney general under William French Smith and as a law clerk for Warren E. Burger.
Active in the field of higher learning, during his 25 years of teaching, he has held positions at New York University, George Mason University, Pepperdine University, Chapman University, and Baylor University. In addition to his role as President and Chancellor of Baylor, Starr formerly served as Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.
Starr attended Sam Houston High School and Trinity University to receive his Bachelor of Arts after he was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He earned an M.P.S. in political science from Brown and a J.D. from Duke.
Ken’s children, Randall, Carolyn, and Cynthia, and his wife of 52 years, Alice Mendell Starr, survive him.
In a statement released in Starr’s son’s honor, the family expressed their “deep sadness at the loss of our dear and loving Father and Grandfather, whom we admired for his prodigious work ethic, but who always put his family first. The love, energy, endearing sense of humor, and fun-loving interest Dad exhibited to each of us was truly special, and we cherish the many wonderful memories we were able to experience with him.”
The visitation will be held on September 23 in Waco, and the burial will take place in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
A 76-year-old Starr in some circles of politics passed away.
CHERYENNE, Wyoming. Following a crushing defeat in the Wyoming Republican primary to an opponent sponsored by former President Donald Trump, Representative Liz Cheney became increasingly outspoken on Wednesday about considering a 2024 presidential candidacy.
The three-term congressman stated on NBC that Trump poses ““a very grave threat and risk to our republic,” adding that she plans to join “a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats, and independents” to stop him.
She wouldn’t confirm or deny whether or not she was considering a presidential run, but she did admit, “it’s something that I’m thinking about.”
The primary results, especially her loss by more than 35 points, highlighted the swift rightward movement within the Republican Party. Trump’s populist appeal and, more than anything else, his rejection of loss in 2020 have transformed the Republican Party, which was once dominated by national security-focused, business-friendly conservatives like her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The claims have been rejected by federal and state election officials as well as Trump’s own attorney general and judges he selected, turning Cheney from an occasional critic of the former president into the strongest voice within the GOP warning that he constitutes a threat to democratic principles. She alluded to her political future by mentioning that she is the ranking Republican on the House panel looking into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
“I have said since Jan. 6 that I will do whatever it takes to ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office — and I mean it,” she said during her concession speech on Tuesday.
Cheney addressed a small group of supporters, including her father, on the edge of a large field framed by mountains and bales of hay on Wednesday morning, and she described her primary loss from Tuesday night as the beginning of a new chapter in her political career.
“Our work is far from over,” she said, evoking Abraham Lincoln, who also lost congressional elections before ascending to the presidency and preserving the union.
Celebratory Hageman supporters, many of whom were dressed in cowboy boots, hats, and blue jeans, congregated for a massive outdoor rodeo and Western cultural celebration in Cheyenne, some 400 miles (645 kilometers) to the east of Cheney’s concession address.
Hageman, an attorney for the ranching business who came in third in a previous run for governor, expressed his gratitude to President Trump for recognizing the importance of Wyoming’s lone congressional representative.
She courted Trump’s supporters by echoing his conspiracy theories and saying the 2020 election was “rigged,” which is demonstrably wrong.
As Trump’s largest political triumph of the primary season, Cheney’s defeat was cause for celebration among Trump and his staff. The former president has described the findings as “a complete condemnation” of the January 6 committee.
He said of Cheney, “Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others,” he wrote on his social media platform. “Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!”
Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, another major Republican critic of Trump, advanced from her primary in Alaska, which also took place on Tuesday. In the contest for Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat, Sarah Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential contender and a fervent admirer of Trump, was also headed for the general election in November.
The focus, though, was on Cheney, whose defeat just two years ago seemed impossible. She comes from a prestigious political family in Wyoming, as her father was the state’s vice president. Moreover, she was the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, making her a powerful figure in party politics and policy and ensuring that she had a solidly conservative voting record.
Now that Cheney has reached the end of her third and final term in Congress, she will be compelled to leave office in January. No one will be expecting her to exit Capitol Hill quietly.
She will remain in charge of the congressional group until its dissolution at the end of the year, when the probe into the attack on January 6 will have concluded. She has sworn to do all in her power to combat Trump’s influence in her party, and she is seriously considering a run for the White House in 2024, either as a Republican or as an independent.
On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he personally approved the search warrant that was used to raid Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Garland also disclosed that the Department of Justice has submitted a motion to unseal an FBI property receipt and a search warrant.
“Federal law, long-standing department rules, and our ethical obligations prevent me from providing further details as to the basis of the search at this time. There are, however, certain points I want you to know,” Garland said.
“First, I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. Second, the department does not take such decisions lightly.”
Given Trump’s “public confirmation of the search,” the circumstances surrounding the search, and the considerable public interest in this subject, Garland said they decided to move to unseal the materials.
The warrant and the FBI’s receipt were “given to the former president’s attorney who was on-site during the search,” Garland added.
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