White House: Josh Earnest says Taliban not terrorists

While the United States waged a lengthy war in Afhganistan to disrupt the power of the Taliban, the message from the Obama administration is that members of this group are not terrorists.

“They do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. They do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained Thursday, but “they have a different classification.”

Taliban attacking NATO troops in cartoon by Carlos Latuff

The Taliban is suspected in multiple attacks over just the last 48 hours which have killed more than 30 people, including a suicide bombing attack on a funeral in Afghanistan today that killed 16 and wounded 39.

In fact, Al Jazeera’s Thursday headline states: “Afghan policemen killed in Taliban attack.”

Of course, the article doesn’t call them terrorists either, labeling them “attackers” and “fighters” in the article.

Jon Karl of ABC News’ hammered returning press secretary Josh Earnest on what his deputy said about the Taliban at yesterday’s briefing. Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz, filling in for Earnest, would not call the Taliban a “terrorist group,” but instead an “armed insurgency.”

At today’s briefing Josh Earnest seemed to double down on the rhetoric by tip-toeing around the term ‘terrorist group.” Earnest used phrases like “this description that you have put forward” and “designating them in a way that you have described.”

Earnest did finally say the Taliban “has resorted to terror tactics,” but qualified that they have “principally been focused on Afghanistan.”

“It is important to draw a distinction between the Taliban and al Qaeda,” Earnest told Karl. “The Taliban has resorted to terror tactics, but those terror tactics have principally been focused on Afghanistan.”

Earnest also called the Taliban a “dangerous organization.”

The Obama administration has been criticized that they will not use terms like “terrorist” or “Islamic extremist” to describe these attackers.

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