Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North complained on Sunday that the U.S. had allowed the Taliban to take control of military weapons that were left in Afghanistan.
September 12, 2021

Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North complained on Sunday that the U.S. had allowed the Taliban to take control of military weapons that were left in Afghanistan.

North is best known for his 1980s role in illegally selling weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran and diverting the proceeds to support Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua. The scandal was known as the Iran-Contra Affair. North was convicted of three felonies over his role in the plot, but the convictions were eventually reversed in 1991.

On Sunday, Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked the disgraced officer to opine on the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

North complained that Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan was "given to the Taliban."

"You saw some of the footage of the cache that was left there," he continued. "$84 billion worth of weapons, most of which was stored at Bagram. All of that left behind. None of it destroyed."

"When you look at that cache that we gave to the Taliban and it's not just the Taliban," North added. "It's ISIS, it's Al Qaeda, it's the Haqqani organization, they are all one."

Ed. Note: In fact, all the weapons left behind, including the helicopters, were disabled and made unusable, much to the Taliban’s chagrin.

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