CEP Advisory Board Member Ambassador Nathan Sales quoted: "'I think Zawahri’s presence in a Taliban safehouse has to be the nail in the coffin of any plan to release funds directly to the Taliban,' said Nathan Sales, who served as ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism from 2017 to 2021. 'They simply can’t be trusted and the risk is substantial that money released to them would find their way inevitably and directly into al Qaeda’s pockets.'"

CEP Advisory Board Member Nathan Sales quoted: "'Zawahiri’s presence in post-withdrawal Afghanistan suggests that, as feared, the Taliban is once more granting safe haven to the leaders of al-Qaeda — a group with which it has never broken,' said Nathan Sales, a former ambassador at large and counterterrorism coordinator for the State Department during the Trump administration.

While the CIA was able to track and kill Zawahiri in Kabul using remote surveillance, it’s not clear that the U.S. success 'can be replicated against other terrorist targets,' Sales added."

CEP Advisory Board Member Nathan Sales quoted: "'Zawahri’s presence in post-withdrawal Afghanistan suggests that, as feared, the Taliban is once more granting safe haven to the leaders of al-Qaida – a group with which it has never broken,' said Nathan Sales, ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism during the Trump administration who is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler radio interview: "Eine Drohne der CIA hat Bin-Laden-Nachfolger Al-Sawahiri in Afghanistan getötet. Nach Ansicht des Terrorismus-Experten Hans-Jakob Schindler bedeutet das aber noch lange nicht das Ende von al-Kaida."

CEP Advisory Board Member Ambassador Nathan Sales: "'Nathan Sales, who previously served as ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism, called the strike 'a great counterterrorism success' in an interview with the Washington Examiner, though he added, 'It's too soon to claim this successful strike as a vindication of the Biden administration's so-called over-the-horizon approach to counterterrorism. All due credit for pulling off this decapitation strike. But in order to really dismantle a terrorist organization, it takes more than one strike on the group's leader. It takes a systematic campaign of pressure against the entire organization.'"

"At the time of the drone strike, Zawahiri was sitting on the balcony of the house where he was hiding with his family in the center of the Afghan capital of Kabul. The home was owned by Sirajuddin Haqqani, “who is not only the leader of the Haqqani, but he is also the interior minister of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project and former coordinator of the ISIL, al-Qaida and Taliban Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council."

"On this week’s edition of 'The Hunt with WTOP National Security Correspondent J.J. Green,' Dr. Hans Jakob-Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, said Ayman Al- Zawahiri left clues to his whereabouts."