Afghanistan's collapse: Did US intelligence get it wrong?

As the Taliban overtook Kabul Sunday, many Americans wondered how top Biden officials could have been so wrong in their assurances that Kabul would not easily fall.

As panicked Afghans watched Taliban fighters roll into the capital city of Kabul Sunday, sealing the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there, many Americans were left wondering how top Biden officials could have been so wrong in their recent proclamations that Kabul would not easily fall. Just days ago, a U.S. military analysis reported by ABC News predicted that Kabul could fall within 90 days -- not by the weekend. "This is a crisis of untold proportions," Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told NBC News Sunday as Taliban militants swept into Kabul. "This is an intelligence failure. We underestimated the Taliban and overestimated the resolve of the Afghan Army." But numerous U.S. officials tell ABC News that the opposite was true, insisting that key intelligence assessments had consistently informed policymakers that the Taliban could overwhelm the country and take the capital within weeks -- essentially repeating the 1975 fall of Saigon, when helicopters hastily evacuated diplomats from the U.S. embassy's rooftop as the North Vietnamese Army stormed into the South Vietnam capital.