Senators to Roll Out Bill That Would Force Biden Admin to Designate Taliban as a Terrorist Group
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio plans to introduce legislation to designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization and Afghanistan’s government as a state sponsor of terror.
According to a Fox News report Wednesday, Rubio’s bill would forbid federal departments and agencies under President Joe Biden from “taking any action that states or implies recognition of the Taliban’s claim of sovereignty over Afghanistan.”
It would also force the Biden administration to take action against foreign governments or individuals that help the group.
“Rubio is also proposing an assessment and annual report from the State Department on which countries have ‘diplomatic relations’ with the Taliban, and whether any foreign persons ‘knowingly’ provide assistance to the Taliban. The legislation would require the U.S. Treasury Department to then impose sanctions on individuals who provide assistance to the Taliban,” Fox reported.
Rubio is not alone in the effort. The legislation is also supported by Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, according to Fox.
The senator also participated in Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing where Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified about the U.S. handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Given all the factors in place by early summer, if in fact the people in charge of our foreign policy & military didn’t see the rapid collapse of the Afghan government coming, we have the wrong people in charge,” Rubio wrote in a Twitter post with a clip of the hearing.
He expounded on the point at the hearing itself, implicitly including Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as being among the “wrong people in charge.”
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“Mr. Secretary, in your statement I think the most troubling thing is the following quote from you: ‘Even the most pessimistic assessment did not predict the government forces in Kabul would collapse, while U.S. forces remained.’ And I back that up by saying you also cited General Milley. who said ‘there was no indication there would be a rapid collapse of the Afghan army and government,’” Rubio said.
“We have the wrong people analyzing this. Someone didn’t see this. Either someone didn’t see it or didn’t want to see it.
“We wanted to be out by September 11th so we could have some ceremony arguing we pulled out of Afghanistan on the anniversary of 9/11,” Rubio added.
During an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Tuesday night, Rubio said the left’s “spin” did not work on him.
“They can spin that to a lot of different people. They can’t spin that to me, because I spent hours every week as the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee reviewing the exact same intelligence that the State Department had, that the White House had,” Rubio said.
“They can’t lie to me about it. What he said today, what they continue to say, is categorically false. They either knew, or they should have known, and either one is bad. They are either incompetent or they are lying about it now,” Rubio added.
“[Biden’s] artificial timeline and the reality of the real world did not match up, and what we have now is this catastrophe which humiliated our country,” Rubio also said during the interview.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
