CIA Director Meets Taliban Leader As Deadline For U.S. Evacuation Looms

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CIA Director William J. Burns in his office in Langley, Va.





Ian Morton/NPR



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Ian Morton/NPR



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With The U.S. Military Gone, The CIA Faces Tough Challenges In Afghanistan

The president says that’s still the goal, but has left open the possibility of extending it. The Taliban say the continued U.S. presence would cross a «red line, and there would be unspecified consequences.

While news of the Burns-Baradar meeting came as a surprise, the U.S. and the Taliban are in regular contact and have a number of issues to work out.

The Pentagon says it is in daily contact with the Taliban at the Kabul airport, where armed Taliban members are effectively performing crowd control at the airport.

The U.S. and Baradar have a history.

A joint CIA-Pakistan operation led to Baradar’s capture in Pakistan in 2010. He was released from prison in Pakistan in 2018 and then took part in the U.S.-Taliban negotiations in Doha, Qatar.

In February 2020, the Trump administration and the Taliban signed an agreement that called for all U.S. troops to be out of Afghanistan by May of this year.