Grenell: Abandoned Military Equipment “on its Way into Iran”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Sep. 2, 2021) — In his Twitter feed on Wednesday afternoon, former Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell wrote that he met with 45th President of the United States Donald Trump earlier that day and revealed what they discussed on his new locals.com account.

The announcement was behind a supporter-only paywall. However, appearing on “Hannity” Wednesday night, Grenell made the revelation that he and Trump had spoken about the billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment and munitions left in Afghanistan by the Biden regime during its departure from the country, which ended on Monday.

The interview begins at 15:24 here.

After Hannity voiced his outrage at Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan exit despite opposing advice from the intelligence community, Grenell responded that he has been “flooded” with communications from former and current intelligence officials, “career Foreign Service officers” and others “complaining about the chaos.”

He is investigating “quite a few claims” originating in Germany, he said, associated with “a lot of refugees trying to rush through the process.” He was unable to comment further, he said.

Grenell served under Trump as ambassador to Germany prior to becoming Acting DNI.

“Everybody outside of Washington, DC really understands what’s at stake here,” Grenell said. “We’ve got chaos going on. Joe Biden himself said 90% of the Americans were rescued…The rest of us see this is a failure that will continue to go on and on, and we are going to be less safe because of this. They have equipment, big equipment; you have rifles, you have guns, you have helicopters, all in the hands of the Taliban…”

The other guest on the segment, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, discussed a Reuters revelation that during an July 23 phone call with then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Biden premised the additional U.S. military aid Ghani requested on Ghani’s staging an event geared toward changing the “perception” that the Taliban was rapidly gaining ground.

Two excerpts of the call transcript published by Reuters read:

BIDEN: You know, I am a moment late. But I mean it sincerely. Hey look, I want to make it clear that I am not a military man any more than you are, but I have been meeting with our Pentagon folks, and our national security people, as you have with ours and yours, and as you know and I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban.

And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.

———————–

BIDEN: If you empower Bismillah [Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi] to execute a strategy focused on key parts of the population centers, and I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change in terms of how , um…[unclear].. our allies and folks here in the States and other places think you’re doing.

You clearly have the best military, you have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000 and they’re clearly capable of fighting well, we will continue to provide close air support, if we know what the plan is and what we are doing. And all the way through the end of August, and who knows what after that.

As the Taliban moved into Kabul over the weekend of August 14-15 and the Afghan Army disintegrated, Ghani, who was educated in the U.S., fled to the United Arab Emirates amidst allegations he absconded with “as much as $169 million in U.S. funds meant to support the Afghan government.”

Ghani has denied the claim.

The timing of the segment did not allow for Grenell to elaborate on the fate of the U.S. military equipment in question.

A majority-Shiite Islamic state, Iran and the Sunni Islamic Taliban were in conflict when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. According to i24news, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said his country “supports the peaceful transition of power to an inclusive government.”

According to The Tehran Times, Iran’s special envoy to Afghanistan has stated Iran’s advocacy of “a political solution to the Afghanistan conflict” as opposed to a military one.

Update, 11:43 a.m. EDT: WorldIsraelNews related evidence on Thursday from several sources allegedly showing “Humvees and other military vehicles spotted on the Semnan-Garmsar road in Iran.”