The Biden Administration announced that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had been taken out in a drone strike on Monday, and that was a good thing.

But some were also raising very good questions about what he was doing in Kabul, not to mention in a home owned by a senior Taliban official, Sirajuddin Haqqani. That raised the greater issue of how the debacle pull-out by Joe Biden from Afghanistan left it open for al-Qaeda to again be on the rise there.

Fox’s Peter Doocy grilled National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby about that issue. Doocy said they weren’t being consistent.

Peter Doocy takes John Kirby to task over President Biden saying Al Qaeda was "gone" from Afghanistan.

KIRBY: "We talked about the fact that Al Qaeda had a presence in Afghanistan but small…" pic.twitter.com/lYDlpZl8X1

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 2, 2022

“You’re saying that you’ve always known that there’s a small number of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. President Biden said, ‘what interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al-Qaeda gone?'” Doocy asked.

Kirby is claiming the administration said last summer that Al Qaeda was still in Afghanistan. President Biden did not say that. Biden said Al Qaeda was “gone.” pic.twitter.com/hnHF9Wn3TW

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 2, 2022

Al-Qaeda wasn’t gone, contrary to what Biden said; they were being harbored by the Taliban, to whom Biden gave the country. Kirby scramble to spin for Biden, saying he, Kirby, never denied that they had a small presence there. But Biden said they were gone, and they wouldn’t be able to use the country as a safe harbor again. But they are being harbored there by the Taliban.

Doocy then let loose on that point, “[T]he Taliban was harboring the world’s most wanted terrorist. You guys gave a whole country to a bunch of people that are on the FBI most wanted list. What did you think was going to happen?”

DOOCY: "You guys gave a whole country to a bunch of people who are on the FBI Most Wanted list. What did you think was going to happen?"

KIRBY: "I take issue with the premise we gave a whole country to a terrorist group…" pic.twitter.com/Tb6FW4FdL1

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 2, 2022

Kirby took issue with that. He can take issue with it all he wants, but it’s true. They knew they were pulling out and leaving it to the Taliban terrorists. As Doocy said, “What did they think was going to happen?” It stood to reason that al-Qaeda would then feel free to come back.

Now, yes, they got Zawahiri. But when you give a whole country over to the terrorists, with no one left on the ground anymore, you’re asking for trouble. Because there’s no one there anymore to prevent al-Qaeda from being harbored there–and it isn’t just Zawahiri.

As Townhall’s Katie Pavlich observed, Kirby himself said they were planning attacks from there.

Afghanistan is run and controlled by the Taliban. The Taliban was harboring Ayman al-Zawahiri. This morning, Kirby told CNN Al Qaeda is actively using Afghanistan as a safe harbor to plan attacks. https://t.co/qAJhLzmgv2

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) August 2, 2022

So, how is handing over the country to them any kind of guarantee against future attacks, as Biden claimed? It isn’t.

Doocy asked, now that they know that the Taliban isn’t living up to their part of the deal to not let al-Qaeda back, what are they going to do about it?

Doocy: “So, now that you know the Taliban is not living up to the part of the deal that they made with the U.S. to not let Afghanistan be a place that terrorists feel like they can be safe, what are you going to do about it?”

Kirby says the U.S. “won’t telegraph decisions.” pic.twitter.com/2hmetvAvIL

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 2, 2022

Kirby had no longer range answer, just relying on the fact that they killed Zawahiri. But the problem is they can’t guarantee anything, and they should have known they couldn’t trust the Taliban. When the whole country now is effectively a safe harbor to plot from, we have to be right every single time, without anyone there on the ground. That’s the situation we are now left in–and that’s not a good position in which to be.