By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed accused former President Joe Biden of using the 2022 killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to improve his political standing, according to a previously published opinion article that has resurfaced days before the Nov. 3 election.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, made the remarks in an Aug. 5, 2022, article for The New Republic, four days after Biden announced that a CIA drone strike had killed al-Zawahiri in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“President Biden is using the strike to bolster his approval here at home,” El-Sayed wrote. “It is troubling to watch yet another American president flog ‘War on Terror’ themes to resurrect a laggard term.”
The comments received renewed attention in an Oct. 27 report by The Washington Free Beacon, which examined El-Sayed’s previous statements about American counterterrorism operations.
Al-Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida’s leader in 2011, was killed July 31, 2022, in a CIA drone strike authorized by Biden. He was a senior planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
Biden publicly defended the operation, describing al-Zawahiri’s involvement in the attacks and his subsequent leadership of the terrorist organization.
“He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that murdered 2,977 people on American soil,” Biden said.
El-Sayed acknowledged al-Zawahiri’s responsibility for terrorism but argued that the administration was using the successful operation to address criticism stemming from the chaotic American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
He described the strike as providing political cover for the administration’s difficulties following the Taliban’s return to power.
“This strike, then, offers the Biden administration a fig leaf, demonstrating that even in Taliban hands, Afghanistan is not off-limits for direct action against terrorist targets,” El-Sayed wrote.
He also argued that Biden was attempting to demonstrate strength as Democrats approached the November 2022 congressional elections.
The criticism was not an outright rejection of the military operation. In the same article, El-Sayed described targeted strikes against foreign terrorists as potentially justifiable but maintained that American foreign policy should address broader conditions contributing to extremism.
His central argument was that killing terrorist leaders was insufficient if Washington continued supporting authoritarian governments in the Middle East.
El-Sayed specifically criticized the Biden administration’s relationships with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He pointed to the detention of American attorney Asim Ghafoor in the UAE, arguing that the White House should have pressed for his release.
Ghafoor, who had worked with murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was detained in Dubai in July 2022 and faced money laundering and tax evasion charges.
El-Sayed questioned the legitimacy of those accusations and argued that the United States should defend Americans detained by foreign governments.
His article also criticized Washington’s relationships with Middle Eastern governments accused of suppressing political opposition and restricting civil liberties.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that El-Sayed had previously challenged other American counterterrorism operations, including the 2011 killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaida figure operating in Yemen.
El-Sayed characterized that operation as an “extrajudicial assassination,” reflecting his longstanding concerns about targeted killings conducted without judicial proceedings.
Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike ordered during President Barack Obama’s administration. His American citizenship became a central issue in debates over the government’s authority to target U.S. citizens suspected of participating in terrorist organizations abroad.
The resurfaced remarks come as El-Sayed competes against Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat.
The campaign has featured disputes over national security, Middle East policy and El-Sayed’s previous public statements.
El-Sayed has emphasized health care, economic affordability and opposition to foreign military interventions during his campaign.
Republicans have scrutinized his statements concerning American counterterrorism policies and organizations operating in the Middle East, while El-Sayed has rejected allegations that he maintains improper connections to extremist groups.
The 2022 article provides a documented account of his position on the al-Zawahiri strike, including his criticism of Biden’s political messaging and his broader argument about U.S. relationships with authoritarian governments.
His assertion that Biden used the operation to improve his approval ratings was a political interpretation; the article did not establish that domestic electoral considerations determined the president’s decision to authorize the strike.
The CIA operation eliminated the leader of the terrorist organization responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, while El-Sayed’s criticism focused on how the administration presented that achievement and whether American foreign policy adequately addressed other threats and human rights concerns.
With the Michigan Senate election approaching, the renewed attention to his remarks adds another foreign policy issue to the contest between El-Sayed and Rogers.
Original article
Comments