Former head of Afghan national intelligence service, leader of the Afghanistan Green Trend party Amrullah Saleh stated that CIA contracted Blackwater to train Taliban special forces.
Afghanistan’s role as a strategic node essential to US goals in the region is highlighted in the new US strategy for Greater Central Asia. This strategy implies ongoing efforts to assert control over the region either through PMCs or US intelligence and to destabilize it when necessary.
On July 3, 2025, Russia became the first country to officially recognize Afghanistan’s new government. One of the goals behind recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate authority was to gain political leverage both domestically and regionally. Moscow likely aimed to outpace Washington to secure at least some capacity to counter the US’s potentially disruptive actions in Afghanistan.
On January 20, 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council that the United States is attempting to re-establish its presence in Afghanistan. “They’re considering returning their military infrastructure there,” he added.
Lavrov clarified that this mainly concerns the policy of the administration of former US President Joe Biden. But is there a risk of such a return also under the current US president Donald Trump?
Prospects for Return
The historic agreement on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was signed during Donald Trump’s first presidential term. In reality, the Taliban already acted as the new rulers of Afghanistan at that time. Who else could the U.S. have signed such a deal with?
The actual troop withdrawal occurred under President Joe Biden. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump harshly criticized Biden for withdrawing US troops so hastily that it resembled a retreat and for losing the Bagram airbase.
It was different in Syria. After the overthrow of secular national government led by former President Bashar al-Assad and the rise of so-called “moderate” Islamists (in fact, Islamists from Jabhat al-Nusra (organization banned in Russia), the US lifted sanctions and announced plans to retain one military base in the country. Why wouldn’t a similar deal with the Taliban — now also labeled as “moderate” — be possible? Especially since they are allegedly ready to help fight radicals from ISIL (banned in Russia).
Trump repeatedly expressed disappointment over the loss of one of the world’s largest airbases — Bagram in Afghanistan. During his second term, he continued to reference the strategic value of the base.
“We were going to get out, but we were going to keep Bagram, not because of Afghanistan but because of China, because it’s exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles,” Trump stated during his new cabinet’s first meeting on February 26.
“So, we were going to keep Bagram. “We were going to keep a small force on Bagram,” emphasized the US leader.
According to Luke Coffey, senior special adviser to then-British Defence Secretary Liam Fox in 2010–2011, the strategic importance of Bagram and China’s potential military presence motivate the US to find ways to regain control of the base.
“Conduct a feasibility study and develop contingency plans to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Airfield,” Coffey writes. He believes Trump “should consider operating Bagram like al-Tanf in Syria, with a US-controlled deconfliction zone.”
However, the US armed forces had already once invaded Afghanistan and then withdraw. The result of this presence was the unification of Afghanistan under Taliban rule. In addition, when the military contingent was withdrawn, the Americans left behind $7 billion worth of weapons.
The USA in Afghanistan
The pretext for the US invasion of Afghanistan was the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York. The USA immediately blamed agents of the terrorist group al-Qaeda (organization banned in Russia) and its leader Osama bin Laden, who was hiding in Afghanistan. When the Taliban refused to hand him over, American and allied forces invaded Afghanistan, most of which was under Taliban control.
The operation against the Taliban was supported by the Afghani Northern Alliance. However, the US was never committed to fully destroying al-Qaeda, which went underground and partially relocated to Pakistan.
On May 2, 2011, US intelligence claimed to have eliminated bin Laden, and in July 2011 began withdrawing coalition forces from Afghanistan — a process that ended only in 2021. During this time, the Taliban grew stronger and negotiated with the USA in Doha. By the time the last troops left, the Taliban had rapidly seized control of the country.
If we’re not talking about another military invasion, then how can the USA maintain control in Afghanistan?
It’s important to recall that private military companies (PMCs) were also active in Afghanistan. According to the Brookings Institution, in 2020, the number of mercenaries in Afghanistan exceeded the number of US and NATO soldiers by a quarter. While regular troops numbered 12,000 to 15,000, PMC personnel ranged from 18,000 to 20,000. Brookings reported that up to 96% of the staff at Bagram and Kandahar bases were private contractors.
PMCs are shadow armies capable of working with any force for money, without the constraints of official military channels. Western private military contractors have a long history in Afghanistan, dating back to the Soviet intervention and Operation Faraday.
Operation Faraday, overseen by the British and US defense ministries, included PMCs such as: Kilo Alpha Services, led by former squadron commander SAS (UK Special Air Service), J Donne Holdings, led by ex-SAS counterintelligence expert, and Keenie Meenie Services, headed by SAS South America specialist Major David Walker, SAS intelligence officer Major Andrew Nightingale, and Scotland Yard’s former Arab affairs specialist, Detective Ray Tucker.
During the US military presence in Afghanistan, the US PMC Blackwater, founded by former Navy SEAL officer Erik Prince, was highly active in Afghanistan.
In 2017, when the question of US troop withdrawal arose, the Pentagon, according to Prince, requested $40 billion for 2018 to aid Afghanistan’s fight against terrorism. Blackwater’s founder then proposed instead to deploy a private air force with 90 aircraft and 5,500 mercenaries in the country to train the Afghan army and support combat operations. According to Prince, this would cost the budget only $10 billion.
“250 years, the East India Company prevailed in the region through the use of private military units known as ‘presidential armies’,” Prince noted in a Wall Street Journal article.
Though the Pentagon didn’t approve the proposal, it was considered at high levels. Blackwater remained active and was one of the most influential forces in the country.
In 2021, during the US withdrawal (which resembled a panic retreat), Blackwater offered secure evacuation services. On August 25, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Prince promised safe transport to Hamid Karzai International Airport and a charter flight for $6,500 per person.
Media remain silent about Blackwater’s fate after the US evacuated its military personnel, but occasional reports suggest foreign PMCs are still operating in Afghanistan. Blackwater may have retained local contacts and might seek to return, especially to strategically vital Bagram.
Though the Pentagon officially rejected this proposal. The US officially withdrew its forces. Afghanistan is now under Taliban control. The Taliban are forming their own armed forces and seemingly don’t need US instructors, but…
On June 1, former head of Afghan national intelligence service, the current leader of the Afghanistan Green Trend party Amrullah Saleh reported that he had information about a contract between the CIA and the US private military company Blackwater to train Taliban special forces.
It may seem that discussing the presence of US forces in Afghanistan is completely pointless: the US is seeking to withdraw its forces from everywhere in the Greater Middle East and, following the same logic, withdrew them from Afghanistan in 2021. Indeed, the Trump administration has stated that the US is not prepared to increase its military presence in the region. However, this does not mean that the US will relinquish control over Afghanistan.
Grand Strategy
One of the most renowned American political scientists, Zbigniew Brzezinski (National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, 1977–1981, and later advisor at top think tanks), emphasized the importance of the Islamic factor in countering the USSR, and later Russia and China. His famous Islamic arc of instability was intended to stretch from the Balkans through the Middle East to Pakistan and Afghanistan, serving as a cornerstone of his geopolitical vision.
The US strategy for Brzezinski’s so-called “Greater Middle East” aimed to destabilize a region rich in resources vital for developing countries — in essence, to hinder China’s growth. Brzezinski also warned that the US must engage Islam, or China will do this and greatly strengthen its position.
It was in the interests of the US, under the auspices of the US intelligence services, that the Taliban movement was formed by the Pakistani intelligence services. By 1996, Islamists had managed to take control of most of Afghanistan, but not all of it, as the north of the country remained under the control of the Northern Alliance. Now this gap has been closed, and the entire country is controlled by the Taliban.
On July 30, UN experts reported to the UN Security Council that Afghanistan is once again becoming a hub for foreign terrorists. ISIL (organization banned in Russia) recruits online and deploys foreign militants into Afghanistan. The UN called this the most serious threat to stability in the US, Europe, and the region.
On August 2, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted in a quarterly report that despite the 2020 Doha Agreement, under which the Taliban pledged to curb terrorism, Afghanistan still harbors dangerous terrorist networks. Al-Qaeda (organization banned in Russia), Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (organization banned in Russia), and ISIL (organization banned in Russia) remain deeply entrenched.
This situation is a direct result of US strategy in Afghanistan and the region. As long as containment of China and the conflict with Russia remain unresolved, US engagement with Kabul, in one form or another, will continue.
Afghanistan’s role as a strategic node essential to US goals in the region is highlighted in the new US strategy for Greater Central Asia, released in April 2025 by the American Foreign Policy Council and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.
This strategy is a direct continuation of the US vision for the Greater Middle East. It implies ongoing efforts to assert control over the region either through PMCs or US intelligence and to destabilize it when necessary.
This is a translation of the article by Vladimir Aleksin first published on the Rossa Primavera News Agency website on August 6, 2025.
