In this special episode, we sat down with two guests: Casey Fleming, CEO of BlackOps Partners Corporation on cybersecurity, and former counterterrorism officer Drew Berquist, who also hosts his own show. They touch on the changing landscape of counterterrorism, from what we learned in the 20 years in Afghanistan to how that will affect adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party going forward.
Berquist said, “Afghanistan is more dangerous right now than it was pre 911. We’ve given the Taliban more power than they’ve ever had, more territory than they’ve ever had, more money than they’ve ever had, more equipment than they’ve ever had. And we’re also kind of recognizing them, whether the government’s going to outright say that or not, we’re essentially recognizing them as legitimate, giving them additional aid. There’s reports of additional $64 million in humanitarian aid, which will never go to its intended recipients, this week. So we’ve really created a very, very dangerous situation. And to think that there’s not a lot of people in that country. Now there’s 19 provinces that have all kinds of training camps already. ISIS-K, obviously their Haqqanis have been there, will continue to be there. To think that that’s not going to bite people in the West … and possibly us is foolhardy. It’s not a smart plan.”
And as to the Chinese Communist Party taking advantage of the 20 years the United States was focused on Afghanistan to catch up, Fleming said, “Just look at the history, okay. Look at when somebody says, ‘Hey, you know, don’t follow their words, follow their actions.’ Back in 2001 … a U.S. Navy plane was flying in international waters off of Hainan Island in China. And a Chinese fighter pilot forced them down to land on Hainan Island. So what they did was they forced the crew into jail for I think it was probably 10 days, but they basically blueprinted the aircraft.”
He added, “So there’s a tremendous thirst for technology. … It’s my opinion, you can bet that a lot of that technology that was left on the ground in Afghanistan is already on its way to China, with a nice payment to the Taliban, and whoever else, whether it’s ISIS, whoever else has control of some of those assets. And from our understanding, there was quite a list of assets that were left on the ground. And those assets are our intellectual property and our technology that the taxpayers paid for. So that’s something that’s very concerning.”
Watch the full episode on EpochTV.
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