Is Afghanistan harboring terrorists — again?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world’s most wanted terrorist, leaves al-Qaeda in a leadership crisis. But the drone strike ordered by President Biden also highlights new tensions with the Taliban one year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Read more:
Ayman al-Zawahiri’s safe house in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, was targeted by a drone strike Saturday after months of planning, officials said Monday. And Zawahiri had been a U.S. target for more than two decades: He oversaw the 9/11 attacks alongside al-Qaeda’s founder, Osama bin Laden.
“This is a victory for the president, no doubt,” national security reporter Shane Harris says on today’s episode of Post Reports. “But beneath that victory is the fact that the world's most wanted terrorist moved right into the capital city of the country that [Biden] ordered troops to leave last year.”
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | So a little after 615 in the morning, |
| 0:05.0 | Cobble time on July 31st, |
| 0:07.8 | I'm in Alswahari who was the head of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, |
| 0:13.0 | stepped out onto the balcony of a house that he was living in with members of his family |
| 0:18.2 | and a neighborhood populated by senior Taliban officials. |
| 0:21.8 | We don't know what may have been going through his head, |
| 0:24.0 | but I think it's safe to say the last sound he may have actually heard |
| 0:27.8 | would be from two hellfire missiles that were fired from a drone in the sky |
| 0:32.1 | patrolling that house. |
| 0:33.7 | And according to US officials landed precisely on the spot |
| 0:37.2 | where he was standing on that balcony killing him. |
| 0:45.0 | That's Jane Harris, National Security reporter for the post. |
| 0:49.1 | And he has been reporting on the killing of this terrorist |
| 0:52.0 | who was a senior advisor to Assamabin Laden, |
| 0:55.1 | who helped plan 9-11 and who has evaded US capture for more than two decades. |
| 1:01.3 | After relentlessly seeking Zawahiri for years under President Bush, Obama, and Trump, |
| 1:07.6 | our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year. |
| 1:11.1 | On Monday night, President Biden addressed the nation from the balcony of the White House, |
| 1:15.6 | saying that Zawahiri had been found in a safe house in Cobble, |
| 1:19.2 | the capital of Afghanistan. |
| 1:20.8 | Our intelligence community located Zawahiri earlier this year, |
| 1:24.6 | and moved to downtown Cobble to reunite with members of his immediate family. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.