When the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, senior National Security Council official Zalmay Khalilzad was attending a meeting in the White House situation room. Khalilzad was the most senior Afghan American in the U.S. government.
For most Bush administration alumni and those from the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks will be a solemn time for remembrance. Many senior officials, whether Republican or Democrat, lost friends and acquaintances. Those in the State Department, Pentagon, and CIA lost colleagues. Many other Americans lost loved ones. Over the course of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, Taliban violence killed almost 2,500 American troops.
It’s against such a backdrop that the Sept. 7, 2026, announcement from the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum is so galling.
Not only does the extremist, misogynistic, and terrorism-sympathizing group announce a $200 million contract to develop an oil block, but sitting in the middle of the ceremony in Kabul’s government information center is Khalilzad, an apparent facilitator of the deal. The article quotes Khalilzad discussing the importance of the deal. “Delta is a well-known international company with strong experience in investment, and the presence of companies of this kind in Afghanistan can help create conditions for attracting more foreign investment,” he reportedly said, adding, “Afghanistan is a resource-rich country in terms of its underground reserves, and proper use of this national wealth can create opportunities for the development and well-being of its people.”
Prior to 9/11, Khalilzad not only worked as a consultant and risk analyst for Unocal, but he also hosted Taliban representatives during their 1997 visit to the United States and wrote publicly to defend the group, even arguing they were neither anti-American nor fundamentalists.
George W. Bush appointed Khalilzad ambassador to Afghanistan in November 2003, a position he held for nearly two years, before serving out Bush’s term in a series of other high profile diplomatic assignments. While Khalilzad returned to the private sector during Barack Obama’s administration, President Donald Trump brought Khalilzad back in 2018 to be his special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, a position in which he continued under Joe Biden. It was in this last position that Khalilzad took the lead on negotiations to bring the Taliban back into governance.
Khalilzad wielded his power without compromise, marginalizing any Afghans who questioned his trust in the Taliban. While Khalilzad dined with Taliban officials in Qatar, he declared the elected Afghanistan government’s national security adviser to be persona non grata for raising questions about Khalilzad’s agenda and strategy directly to Congress. Rumors persisted throughout these years in both Kabul and Washington that, at a minimum, Khalilzad’s commercial dealings — often channeled through family members — represented a conflict of interest.
In effect, as Americans mourn, Khalilzad has come full circle.
Before 9/11 he advocated doing business with the Taliban. In power, he sought Taliban empowerment and shut down dissent. Now, as the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil looms, he apparently does business with the Taliban.
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The 9/11 Commission has long since finished its work and, after 17 years, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction filed his last report. Khalilzad’s tone-deaf ceremony in the Taliban’s capital as Americans mourn and the appearance of impropriety, however, demand congressional hearings if not greater investigation.
Many of Khalilzad’s Bush, Trump, and Biden administration peers have long grumbled about his antics. The $200 million oil deal with the Taliban could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum, a distinguished fellow at India’s Usanas Foundation, and a contributor to Beltway Confidential.