Press Releases

 Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement:

"If the strike against Taliban leader Mullah Mansur near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border proves to have been successful -- and we are still doing the assessment -- it would be a substantial blow to the Taliban, which has been reasserting itself across Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly during this fighting season.  Since it became public, two years after the fact, that Taliban leader Mullah Omar was dead, Mansur has worked to consolidate his rule over the Taliban and done so in part by increasing the scope and lethality of attacks on coalition forces and our Afghan partners. His death, if confirmed, would ignite new turmoil within the Taliban amidst another potential fight over succession.

"Throughout peace negotiations among the Taliban, Afghan government and others, Mansur has been a major roadblock to ending this bloody conflict, and while I am not sanguine that his elimination will pave the way for talks to continue, his continued leadership of the Taliban made prospects for a peaceful resolution exceedingly dim.  

"Mansur's death would not eliminate the ongoing threat from the Taliban to our troops and to Afghanistan's future, though it will be disruptive. That is why we must remain vigilant and well-resourced in the field, and must continue to help create the conditions for a political solution, ever mindful that the Taliban is playing the long game and the situation in Afghanistan remains dangerously volatile."