CENTCOM Finds Abby Gate Bombing “Not Preventable”
Review says Abbey Gate bombing wasn’t preventable
By Lolita C. Baldor and Farnoush Amiri
WASHINGTON (AP) — The suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed U.S. troops and Afghans in August 2021 was not preventable, and the “bald man in black” spotted by U.S. service members the morning of the attack was not the bomber, according to a new review by U.S. Central Command.
The findings. released Monday, refute assertions by some service members who believed they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but did not get approval. And, for the first time, the U.S. military is confirming that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.
The Abbey Gate bombing during the final chaotic days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, and wounded scores more. It triggered widespread debate and congressional criticism, fueled by emotional testimony from a Marine injured in the blast, who said snipers believe they saw the possible bomber but couldn’t get approval to take him out.
I am filled with confidence in CENTCOM’s review absolving itself of any responsibility in the Abby Gate suicide bombing by refuting eye-witness testimony. Some may even postulate the entire abandonment of Afghanistan was unpreventable. This would go far in holding exactly no one accountable for this shameful episode and the resulting Middle East conflagrations.
Category: Afghanistan, Big Pentagon, Disposable Warriors
We investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong…..
No surprise
And I approved my own award at the same time….
How about a planned, measured and supported withdrawal through Bagram AFB????
Too sensible.
Abby…normal?
Was this particular incident, occurring when and where it happened absolutely unpreventable? If CENTCOM says no, it must be so!
Only, it was absolutely preventable had our leaders better planned things. We had a withdrawal agreement that was scrapped, then hastily began getting the hell out of dodge, albeit a few months behind schedule. We abandoned Bagram, a much more secure base, by sneaking out and turning off the lights as we went, and for some reason chose the madness of Kabul as our Afghan swansong. To refresh my memory, I just checked Google Maps. Bagram AB = big base, little town. Kabul AB = little base, large capital city. Bagram would have allowed an outer perimeter to be established, with a much more secure inner perimeter. We’d have also had far fewer people trying to swarm those perimeters.
My experience at Saddam International Airport (SIA) supports this. Granted, we were on the opposite end of a war, having just started as opposed to being in the dying throes of conflict, but upon clearing the terminal, my company set up an Access Control Point on the outer perimeter. Clear fields of fire, restricted avenues of approach, and a buffer zone just in case some rogue Republican Guard elements rallied together to retake the airport. The inner ACPs (which we briefly moved to shortly afterward) were more consolidated and also well-protected. The terminal area and runways were entirely secure and essentially a large FOB within a couple of weeks of us taking the place.
When I was on Bagram in 2013, I never worried about a direct attack. I worked in the RC-East JOC, ate in the General’s Mess, and never even saw the perimeter besides flying in and out. I was very much like those Support types who rested well at SIA in late-April 2003 knowing that they were out of harm’s way.
I never worried about a direct attack on Bagram in 2002.
I can imagine. That’s a big base; I tried refusing my deployment ARCOM when I was told the awards ceremony would be at the ALOC at 1500 on a certain day. I worked in the JOC 2000-0800 daily, and the ALOC was something like a 30-minute bus ride across the base. Fortunately, the brigade commander had to cancel the ceremony; we know how it works, and as an E-6, I’d have been reporting to report at 1200, rehearsing by 1300, in formation by 1430, and getting back to the JOC compound at maybe 1700. Whether I wanted it or not, I’d have been present and proud of that award, much like I was the full color 3ID patches we were forced to wear on both sleeves coming home.
Long story short: I got uninterrupted sleep, feeling safe and secure in the little CONEX I shared with a day shift LNO from another unit, the CPT and I got our “out of sight, out of mind” ARCOMs later, after most of the other staff on Shank got their BSMs, and I now get to armchair quarterback the absolute failure of FJB’s Afghanistan withdrawal.
I never really understood why we stayed in Afghanistan after Bin Laden assumed room temperature. Seems to me that would’ve been the perfect time to exit. Above my paygrade, I guess.
We should have taken a lesson from Russia etal.
In defense of the military industrial complex, it
was a great proving ground for Stingers.
Nothing like going over to the Afghan Women Shop there and being told to get out because you asked if they had any blondes…
There was a ground attack when I was there around 2010. About 3 or 4 sappers tried to get through the wire in the Cherry Beasley area on the north end of Disney. They were dead set on getting in but just ended up dead
I think our biggest threat in 2002 was all the ‘splodey shit left behind by the Russians. Sort of an internal threat, an excellent way to keep Soldiers off the grass.
But if they didn’t do it in Kabul how was the state department supposed to flee?
Clinging to the landing gear of a C-17?
Jingle trucks?
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
THAT takes me back!🤣🤣🍺
For historical context, this finding would be akin to absolving Admiral Kimmel and General Short of any lapses of judgement prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
ADM James O. Richardson then commander of the Pacific Fleet warned Pres FDR in late 1940 & early 1941 not to move the PACFLT from home port San Diego to Pearl Harbor. War exercises conducted in the 1930s proved beyond reasonable doubt that PH was highly vulnerable from air attack. He was well aware of the Japanese Imperial Navy’s long range air capabilities w/ their carriers. ADM Richardson’s recommendations were unwelcome by the POTUS & SECNAV. He was sacked & replaced w/ ADM Husband Kimmel.
Well, I guess it pays to be a bootlicking “yes man”, until Karma shows up.
yup
I am filled with something by this report, but it ain’t confidence.
The report itself is filled with something…and it ain’t confidence either.
Of course the whole fiasco coulda been prevented…by not getting involved in that useless war to begin with. Dubya didn’t want to be involved in The Viet of The Nam, but he damn shorely got us involved in another “Viet of The Nam”. A pure waste of American Blood and Treasure. Coulda put a $100 million price on OBL’s head and waited a little while.
“Fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” News flash…we’re gonna have to fight them over here because they are now “over here”.
Indeed the fuckers are here….
https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/1438187
Don’t worry, with the Demon-cats running the country, we can all sleep sound, knowing how well they are keeping the country safe from the splodey-dopes.
I’m almost hoping for some silliness to jump off. I’ll drop motherfuckers and not think twice about it.
Two words.
“Bull” and “shit”.
We don’t have time for these distractions. At this point, what difference does it make?
Fuck this guy^
You need to put at least a double -digit number after that power sign.
Didn’t he also recently check his watch while meeting with the president of Iraq? Was he going to miss his ride to the beach?
That’s not a watch, it’s a heart monitor and he is holding his chest to stave off the impending cardiac arrest.
The other half of the photo looks like the guy behind Jill is
grabbing her tit.
Kameltoe’s husband?
Waitin’ for the ice cream truck to make its rounds
If not preventable; diminished or negated culpability, no mistake made, no lesson to be learned, to be repeated often, with an attitude of guiltlessness and gutlessness amongst the perfumed princes and princesses of our ‘leadership’-class.
Have I missed anything other than we cannot afford impeachable incompetence such as this?
I disagree that the bombing was unpreventable, particularly since the bomber was a prisoner the taliban released. I do not hold the military responsible for the situation. I hold the dementia in chief responsible for failure to listen to his advisors and being determined to hold to an arbitrary date on the calendar instead of securing the nation we bled to free. The blood is all on biden and his handlers.
Unfortunately, nothing is going to happen to the guilty on this plane of existence. I’d gladly spend an eternity in Hell to be able to make their eternity as miserable as possible.
Also, let us not forget that a sniper had eyes on the bomber, but was denied clearance to shoot him.
Anyone who believes this review’s conclusion needs to put some extracted teeth under their pillows tonight.
Word.
COI?
Mea non culpa, mea maxima non culpa.
“wasn’t preventable”
I was not an ossifer, but I managed somehow to pick up a few odds and ends of military strategery in my time. One of the things I remember about “retrograde operations” (retreat/withdrawals) is that you must at least attempt to break contact with hostile forces, lest your orderly withdrawal turn into a clusterfuck. Instead, our senior strategerists chose to move the operation smack dab into walking distance of four million (4,000,000) potential suicide bombers. We are lucky there was only one.
A number of years ago the subject of withdrawal from A’stan came up here and on another site. I still believe my comments then were superior strategy to that actually used. Except for my recommendation that copies of Xenophon’s “Anabasis” be issued to all officers.
Yes, teh stoopid was strong in those that came up with this plan. Especially, the idea that it was best to leave security to the Taliban.
Kinda like the Rolling Stones using Hell’s Angel’s for security.
[…] recent review as mentioned here found the Abby Gate attack was not preventable; now Big Pentagon is standing by its initial finding […]