Storm develops through the morning will will thank you Rachel, as reality of the Taliban rule rapidly turns to Afghanistan, Joe Biden said there was no warning that the terror group retain control so quickly. But what did the president really know? My next guest says this crisis was not an intelligence failure, but something much worse. Former CIA counterterrorism chief for Southeast Asia Douglas London is with me right now, thanks for being with me, I want to talk about the situation we led to where we are now was incompetence or political calculation. I read your op ed plainly. You say this was a political calculation. Here is my question. To start, when Joe Biden says he thinks chaos was inevitable when he told George Stephanopoulos that do you think he was telling the truth. It depends on how you want to interpret the president. Of course, the complete american withdrawal

did make chaos inevitable of intelligence failures. What occurs either the community does not foresee how developments play out or fails to notify those who can make decisions. In this case, the intelligence community did both they did with presidents Administration today and President Trump. In the case of both presidents, they were pretty deliberate in therapy decision to move forward Withdrawl of forces even with the intelligence projecting a likely out come. Will. I read the piece. I think it is fascinating. You say absolutely intelligence warned this would happen. Im trying to parse whether or not Joe Biden was incompetent in his decision making made a calculated decision. If youre, saying intelligence told him, it would happen im assuming he is telling the truth that he told George Stephanopoulos it was inevitable. Was he also telling the truth we priced this in

in both are true United States intelligence community plan for many scenarios, even unlikely one, that is part of what we do as a routine. I think in the case of the president, he put a bit too much president. He put a bit too much faith in some of in senior advisers that had greater confidence that the agreement negotiated under the Trump administration would hold that the Taliban would be a constructive partner and, I think hope is not really an answer and shouldnt necessarily be an option, but that sort of faith- and maybe in some case as bit of naivete, no doubt validated some of the presidents preferences in prefer how he would prefer to see events on the ground as to how they happened. Will your contention he was warned by the intelligence community. He knew this could happen. He may have been a little surprised. He was hoping it wouldnt happen this fast,

some of the chaos priced in. If it goes bad politically, he can blame it on his predecessor. You know at the outset of the administration, I had a sense. The president president maintained the commitment to the February two thousand and twenty agreement negotiated with the Taliban by Trump White House and retaining khalilzad. Our special envoy was perhaps just that to allow them to sort of take the rap for how things, because it was an agreement. They had negotiated, but in his own mind the President thought he would have more time, despite what the intelligence suggested and that even with perhaps the potential of were seeing now the Taliban might be a partner with all of this help get Americans out unharmed, see where we go from there in terms of counterterrorism. Will, in my estimation, reading what youre saying here today and in your op Ed Joe Biden, banked on very slim

probabilities that did not come true, therefore Douglas London. Thank you so much for your insight. This.