The Taliban continue to defend Osama bin Laden, refusing to acknowledge his role in the horrific attack that claimed the lives of over 3,000 helpless people on September 11, 2001.
When NBC News' Richard Engel pointed out that the Afghan "war started when Osama bin Laden, as a guest of the Taliban, organized 9/11," the group's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, answered with a huge eye roll.
“There is no proof. We have no proof he was involved, even after 20 years of war,” Mujahid insisted of bin Laden, who boasted about orchestrating the plane attacks.
When pressed for assurances that Afghanistan will "never again be a base for terrorism," he responded nonchalantly, "When Osama bin Laden became an issue for the Americans, he was in Afghanistan."
“Although there was no proof he was involved, now we have given promises that Afghan soil will not be used against anyone,” Mujahid said as he delivered one of his first-ever on-camera interviews with Western media, flanked by enforcers holding assault rifles.
Engel questioned him further, observing that “it sounds like, even now, after all of this,” the Taliban were “accepting no responsibility” for housing the al Qaeda killer.
“There was no reason for this war to exist. The main spokesperson for the Islamic extremist group declared that it was an excuse for war.
Bin Laden's name surfaced almost soon after the Twin Towers were destroyed in the 2001 terror attacks, and the 9/11 commission investigation verified that he was the "architect" of the "9/11 attack."
In a 2004 video rant, Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks, warning that the US was not secure from "another Manhattan." In 2011, he was murdered in an operation by US Navy SEALs.
“God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers,” bin Laden stated, “but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I considered it.”
“As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust in the same way [and] to destroy towers in America so that it could taste what we are tasting and stop killing our children and women.”
President George W. Bush launched the invasion of Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand up bin Laden and dismantle terrorist training centers.
However, following President Biden's decision to withdraw remaining US forces, the evicted militants quickly restored control of the troubled country this month.
Mujahid told Engel, "The withdrawal is almost complete." “These are the happiest times of our lives.”
Leaders around the world are concerned that the Taliban may once again host terrorists, including al Qaeda. The two Islamic groups "remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties," according to the UN.
