Throwback Video, Montana’s Henry Kriegel on With Bill Maher

Look at the young Henry Kriegel. Look at the young Bill Maher from back in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks.

A week or so ago, I was interviewing Henry Kriegel LIVE on the radio. He is the Deputy State Director for Americans for Prosperity-Montana. I think I had just played a soundbite from Bill Maher's show on HBO when Henry told me that he was actually a guest on Maher's program back in the day.

Oh man, you gotta send me that clip- I told him.

Here it is. The subject: Afghanistan and what would eventually become known as the war on terror in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. For those who don't know, Henry was a freedom fighter who was on the ground in Afghanistan under Reagan in the 1980s. In the screenshot above, he's sitting next to Hollywood actress Marlee Matlin. At the time, Henry was the Executive Director of the Committee for a Free Afghanistan.

Here's part of what he said back in 2001.

Henry Kriegel: "Bin Laden controls the Taliban, it's clear. And you know, if our intent of the United States is going to be shown in Afghanistan, I think the jury really is out as to whether or not President Bush has it in his intent and will to actually overthrow the Taliban and help the Afghans determine their own new government and help them rebuild that country. As you know, the Pakistani government- they funded the fundamentalist resistance during the entire Soviet war, and they funded and supported and trained and farmed along the Taliban and got them into power. Okay, it is not very clear to me that we're going to actually do the job correctly in Afghanistan. We abandoned them 12 years ago when the Soviets withdrew. President Bush's father abandoned the Kurds when he asked the Kurds from around the world to rise up and return to Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. When the day came, General Schwarzkopf was told, stand down and not go to Baghdad. We have a record of betraying the very people we urge to rise up and overthrow their tyrant leaders. Will we do that in Afghanistan? That's to be determined. If we don't do it in Afghanistan, we don't have a chance in Iraq or anywhere else."