Khalil al Rahman Haqqani was the uncle of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s minister of interior and one of the group’s two deputy emirs, and a brother of the late Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Haqqani Network. Khalil was a US Specially Designated Global Terrorist who had “acted on behalf of” Al Qaeda’s military. Read more →
The Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), led by former Afghan Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Yasin Zia, is increasing the scope and lethality of its attacks. While the AFF is still in its infancy, Zia’s battlefield experience bodes well for its future. Read more →
Three years after the fall of Afghanistan, American politicians, policymakers, generals, and foreign policy "experts" can’t admit we lost the war. If they did, they would have to own their role in that failure. Read more →
The Tehran regime and the Taliban administration have reaffirmed their growing ties and anti-Israel sentiment throughout the Gaza conflict. The two have also cooperated in the past to help the Taliban conquer Afghanistan. Read more →
A recent meeting between Turkish aid organization representatives and the Taliban’s deputy prime minister highlights renewed economic and investment interest by Turkish entities in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s growing ties with Turkey are a worrying development as Afghanistan remains a haven for terrorists and narco-state. Read more →
After meeting the ruler of the UAE, Sirajuddin Haqqani traveled to Saudi Arabia to attend the Hajj. His travel was approved by the international community. Official recognition is almost certainly to follow. Read more →
Hamza al Ghamdi is a legacy Al Qaeda leader who fought alongside Osama bin Laden against the Soviets, led bin Laden's bodyguard, organized terror attacks in Tajikistan in the 1990s, and fought at the battle of Tora Bora. He is currently a member of Al Qaeda's shura, or executive leadership council. Ghamdi is likely based in Afghanistan or Iran. Read more →
Leveraging its stronghold in Afghanistan and networks across Central and South Asia, ISKP is surging as a formidable transnational actor, posing a threat from Asia to Europe. The Taliban's self-portrayal as a counterforce to ISKP raises concerns about their true motives and the perpetuation of regional instability. Read more →
Sayf al-Adl, who is thought to be al Qaeda’s current leader, calls on supporters around the world to migrate to Afghanistan to gain training, experience, and knowledge before undertaking attacks against so-called “Zionist” and Western targets around the world. Read more →
The anti-Taliban resistance is gaining strength and conducting more attacks on the Taliban regime. However, these groups lack cohesion, outside support, and a safe haven. Until those requirements are met, they will lack the strength to be a formidable challenger to Taliban rule. Read more →
Afghanistan has grappled with a surge in terrorism, deepening ethnic rifts, protests, and the devastating impact of natural calamities in recent weeks. Two years into their control of Afghanistan, the Taliban is struggling to govern as a state actor. Read more →
Zalmay Khalilzad, the former Special Repressive for Afghanistan Reconciliation and the key architect of the Doha Agreement, continues to maintain that the Taliban "dismantled" Al Qaeda, despite evidence to the contrary from the UN and CENTCOM. Read more →
Whatever disputes the Pakistani state has with the Taliban, it is unlikely that its strategic depth with respect to India and strategic relations with the Taliban will be discarded for the lives of hundreds of Pakistani citizens. Read more →
Al Qaeda continues to build its network and infrastructure in Afghanistan after the fall of the Afghan government. Al Qaeda opened eight new training camps, five madrasas, a weapons depot and safe houses in Afghanistan that are used to facilitate the movement of its members to and from Iran. Read more →
Bill is joined by Stu Velasco and Zach Popp of The Boardwalk Podcast (also hosted by Kyle Reynolds who couldn't make it, shoutout Kyle Reynolds) to discuss the trials and tribulations of their time in service to the U.S. during the long war. Read more →
In a slight detour from our Israel coverage, Bill and Caleb are joined by counterterrorism expert Sara Harmouch to discuss her recent article that sounds like it was written for Long War Journal but was actually written for War on the Rocks, called "Al-Qaeda: A Defeated Threat? Think Again." They debunk the latest example of President Biden's insistence that al Qaeda no longer has a presence in Afghanistan and discuss how U.S. rejection of intelligence is neither new nor at odds with its dangerous habit of disconnecting dots pertaining not least of all to al Qaeda. Read more →
Bill Roggio testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, on the order to withdraw from Afghanistan and the impact on the Afghan government and security forces. Read more →
After nearly two decades of abysmal assessments from U.S. intelligence officials and policy makers on Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the latest claims that the terror group is "at its historical nadir" should be taken with more than a grain of salt. Read more →
The Afghan people continue to suffer as the Taliban consolidates its power. Meanwhile, the Taliban’s support for Al Qaeda, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and a number of regional terror groups grows. Read more →
The Afghan Taliban continues to claim that there are no foreign terror groups operating inside their country, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has an extensive footprint in Afghanistan. Read more →
"I said Al Qaeda would not be there," President Biden said about Afghanistan. "I said we’d get help from the Taliban... I was right." Except Al Qaeda is indeed in Afghanistan and is receiving support from the Taliban. Read more →
The Afghan Taliban has vehemently objected to the lest UN report, as it punches gaping holes into the Taliban's narrative that it does not shelter and support foreign terror groups. However, the presence of the TTP, Al Qaeda and a host of other terror groups in Afghanistan is undeniable. Read more →
Bill welcomes back to the show Generation Jihad regular Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown. Now a member of the Counter Extremism Project's advisory board, Edmund previously served as the UK's Ambassador to Yemen and later as the coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s Sanctions Monitoring Team. Edmund's former team at the U.N. just released its latest report on Afghanistan which details (among other troubling issues) just how embedded al Qaeda is in Afghanistan's Taliban government. Bill and Edmund dissect the report's findings. Read more →
Al Qaeda has established training camps in five Afghan provinces, as well as safe houses and a media center. The Taliban-Al Qaeda relationship is strong. Al Qaeda most certainly has not declined, nor has it been decimated or defeated. Read more →
Three prominent dual hatted Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders serve in key positions within the Taliban establishment, according to the United Nationals Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. The Taliban is providing Al Qaeda with key support, including "welfare payments" and passports. Read more →
The Taliban has made this false statement for decades, even prior to 9/11. After al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri was killed in Kabul, Taliban promises like this should be dismissed out of hand. Foreign terror groups continue to operate in Afghanistan to this day. Read more →
FDD's Long War Journal responds to the former ambassador's assertion that assessments of Afghanistan once again becoming a terrorist safe haven are false. Read more →
Host Bill Roggio and (now official) co-host Caleb Weiss are joined by former coordinator of the UN Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring team Edmund Fitton-Brown to discuss findings in the latest UN report on the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Read more →
The U.S. captured al Qaeda key commander Abu Ikhlas al Masri in 2010. He was freed from Bagram prison after the Taliban takeover in 2021, and is thought to have reformed an Al Qaeda unit. Read more →
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, claimed credit for the deadly attack. The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan denied involvement, while it and the Afghan Taliban cynically claimed it would never strike a mosque. Read more →
One of the co-leaders of the deadly Kabul Attack Network bragged about his role in deadly attacks in the Afghan capital. The Taliban commander, known as Taj Mir Jawad, is the Taliban's deputy minister of intelligence. Read more →
All four terrorists, including the emir of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the deputy emir of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, are based in Afghanistan. Read more →
In recent weeks, a Taliban delegation led by Zabihullah Mujahir visited Turkey to meet with various officials including senior Hamas members. Read more →
Mohammad Nabi Omari was one of the notorious “Gitmo Five” detainees who were freed in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl. His appointment highlights Sirajuddin's consolidation of power in Afghanistan's interior ministry. Read more →
The Taliban released Mark Frerichs, an American veteran who has been held hostage since early 2020, in exchange for Haji Bashir Noorzai, a convicted Taliban drug kingpin who was serving a life sentence for smuggling heroin into the United States. Read more →
Friend of the show LTG (Ret.) H.R. McMaster joins Bill once again to discuss America's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan one year ago. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — including an ongoing close relationship with al Qaeda, the United States designated the Taliban as "partners in peace" and handed the terrorist group keys to a state apparatus. Afghanistan fell and became the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. But it didn't have to. Read more →
One year after America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, resistance to the Taliban’s brutal regime has organized in northern Afghanistan and is beginning to challenge the Taliban’s primacy. FDD's Long War Journal is mapping the resistance activities. Read more →
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who at the time was the operational commander of the Haqqani Network, was joined by his brother Badruddin Haqqani, Qari Zakir, the Taliban's chief of suicide bombers, Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a dangerous Haqqani leader, and Ghani Muhammad, an Al Qaeda-linked military commander based in Pakistan, in the video. They give a send off to the suicide assault team that attacked Forward Operating Base Fenty on Nov. 12, 2010. Read more →
Zakir's appointment to lead the fight against the National Resistance Front (NRF) in Panjshir and the district of Andarab in the neighboring province of Baghlan is a clear indication that the NRF is challenging the Taliban's primacy in central and northern Afghanistan. Zakir is a capable military commander. Read more →
In this episode, Bill interviews John Batchelor, host of CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor. Bill has been a regular on John's radio show for more than a decade and considers him a mentor and friend. They discuss the Long War and how September 11, 2001 shaped both of their careers. Read more →
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leader Omar Khalid Khurasani, who is believed to have given sanctuary to Ayman al Zawahiri in the past, has called for global jihad, attacks on the US, and the establishment of the caliphate, and celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. He is reported to have been killed in a district in Afghansitan that has hosted an Al Qaeda training camp in the past. Read more →
Edmund Fitton-Brown — outgoing coordinator of the UN Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring team and longtime friend of the show — joins Bill to discuss the killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman Zawahiri, who died in a U.S. drone strike last Sunday. Read more →
Zawahiri's death is being hailed as a counterterrorism success, but that masks the fact Afghanistan has become a safe haven for top Al Qaeda leaders. Read more →
In this episode, Bill flies solo and expands upon his recent article in FDD's Long War Journal, "Ayman al Zawahiri is alive; Taliban and Al Qaeda 'remain close,' UN reports," noting that reports today (August 1, 2022) of Zawahiri's death inside of Afghanistan underscore the country's role as a safe-haven for Al Qaeda. Read more →
Zawahiri lives. The Taliban-Al Qaeda alliance remains strong. The leaders of Al Qaeda's branches in North and East Africa have assumed roles in Al Qaeda's line of succession. Read more →
This policy both limits the effectiveness of anti-Taliban resistance and reduces the U.S. military and intelligence communities' ability to monitor and strike Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other regional and global terror groups based in Afghanistan. Read more →
The Taliban has made this false statement for decades, even prior to 9/11. And yet foreign terror groups continue to operate in Afghanistan to this day. Read more →
The presence of Abdul Haq al Turkistani, a veteran Al Qaeda leader, in Afghanistan contradicts the Taliban's claims that there are no foreign fighters based in the country. Read more →
A Tajik commander in the Al Qaeda-linked Jamaat Ansarullah who was appointed to lead several districts in northern Afghanistan continues to celebrate the group's ties to the Taliban. Read more →
The U.S. military continues to recycle stale estimates of Al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan, and elevate the Islamic State as a greater threat. Read more →