An extremist group such as al-Qaida may be able to regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the U.S. homeland within two years of the American military’s withdrawal from the country, the Pentagon’s top leaders said Thursday.
It was the most specific public forecast of the prospects for a renewed international terrorist threat from Afghanistan since President Joe Biden announced in April that all U.S. troops would withdraw by Sept. 11.
At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley whether they rated the likelihood of a regeneration of al-Qaida or the Islamic State group in Afghanistan as small, medium or large.
“I would assess it as medium,” Austin said. “I would also say, senator, that it would take possibly two years for them to develop that capability.”
Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he agreed.
“I think that if certain other things happen — if there was a collapse of the government or the dissolution of the Afghan security forces — that risk would obviously increase, but right now I would say ‘medium’ and about two years or so,” Milley said.
Editors of Hong Kong newspaper arrested under security law
Hong Kong police used a sweeping national security law Thursday to arrest five editors and executives of a pro-democracy newspaper on charges of colluding with foreign powers — yet another sign of an intensifying crackdown by Chinese authorities in the city long known for its freedoms.
Police said they had evidence that more than 30 articles published by Apple Daily played a “crucial part” in what they called a conspiracy with foreign countries to impose sanctions against China and Hong Kong.
The newspaper vowed to continue its reporting and even invited other media outlets to watch the Friday editions roll off the presses, a show of its commitment to continue its work.
Apple Daily has often criticized the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for walking back promises that the territory could retain its freedoms for 50 years after the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.
Defense: Man lost consciousness before driving into students
A man on trial for murder for driving into an Oklahoma high school cross-country team, killing three, had lost consciousness after choking on an energy drink before the crash, his attorney said during opening statements.
Max Townsend, 58, is charged with three counts of second-degree murder and with leaving the scene of an accident in the February 2020 crash that killed three cross-country runners in suburban Oklahoma City.
Defense attorney Kevin Butler said Townsend choked on the drink as he drove to the home of his 29-year-old son, who had died in an auto accident the day before, to plan his son’s funeral.
Prosecutors say Townsend accelerated his pickup truck to 77 mph before crashing into the group.
Officers resign from protest response unit after colleague indicted
Officers serving on a specialized crowd control unit in Portland, Oregon, who have responded to the city’s ongoing, often-violent protests have resigned en masse after criminal charges were filed against a team member.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported the officers on the Rapid Response Team voted to resign from the team during a meeting Wednesday night.
The move by officers and sergeants to disband their own team came a day after a team member, Officer Cody Budworth, was indicted, accused of fourth-degree assault stemming from a baton strike against a protester last summer.
A year ago, about 70 members were on the team.
As astronauts dock, China begins long-term residence in orbit
Three Chinese astronauts docked with the country’s still-under-construction space station Thursday, beginning what their government expects will be a decade or more of continuous presence by Chinese astronauts in Earth’s orbit.
Six hours and 32 minutes after the astronauts blasted off from a base in the Gobi Desert on a clear, sunny morning, their spacecraft, Shenzhou-12, docked with the station’s core module.
“It was a perfect rendezvous and docking process,” Sun Jun, deputy director of the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center, told CCTV, the state broadcaster, adding that the mission so far “fully achieved our original goal.”
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