The Latest - Afghanistan
Obama’s Way of War
Is Barack Obama a warrior president? Not in the British tradition, of course, which gave us Winston Churchill, with his crazy cavalry charge against Sudanese spears, or the more cerebral Harold Macmillan, shot to pieces in World War I. more...
Mullah Dadullah Front Claims Assassination of Afghan High Peace Council Member
The Mullah Dadullah Front, a Taliban group closely linked to al Qaeda, claimed credit for yesterday's assassination of a senior member of the Afghan High Peace Council. more...
Bin Laden Docs Hint at Large al Qaeda Presence in Pakistan
Two of the 17 documents released by the US government from the large cache seized during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound indicate that al Qaeda has a much larger footprint in Pakistan than US officials have claimed. more...
Bin Laden Advised Relocation of Some Leaders to Afghan Provinces Due to Drone Strikes in Waziristan
Seven months before his death in a US special operations raid at his hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan, al Qaeda emir Osama bin Laden instructed some of al Qaeda's leaders to relocate to provinces in eastern Afghanistan. more...
Taliban Announce Start of Al Farooq Spring Offensive
Today the Taliban announced the beginning of their yearly spring offensive, in an official statement released on their propaganda website, Voice of Jihad. more...
ISAF Captures IMU Facilitator in Wardak Province
Coalition and Afghan special operations teams captured an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan facilitator in the same district where 38 US and Afghan troops, including SEALs, were killed when their helicopter was shot down in August 2011. more...
A Desperate ‘Longshot’
Some in the Obama administration are desperate to jumpstart peace negotiations with the Taliban in advance of NATO’s summit in Chicago next month. more...
Government was Right Not to Rush Omar Khadr Home
This week, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced that Toronto-born terrorist Omar Khadr could be brought back to Canada. The government has been criticized for not moving faster to repatriate Khadr. more...
Selective Reporting on Guantanamo Transfers
The Department of Defense announced on Thursday that two Guantanamo detainees had been transferred to El Salvador. The DoD did not name them in its press release, but the New York Times identified the men as two Uighurs (Muslims from western China). more...
Taliban Release Photos, Videos of Kabul Suicide Teams
The Afghan Taliban have released photos and videos of members of the suicide assault teams that attacked Kabul and the provincial capitals of Paktia, Logar, and Nangarhar earlier this week. more...
Pakistan’s Message to the West
On Sunday, insurgents launched a series of coordinated attacks on Western embassies in Kabul, as well as other targets throughout Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s interior minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, said that at least two detained terrorists. more...
Taliban Launch Coordinated Attacks in Kabul and 3 Provinces
The Taliban launched coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital and three other provinces today. In Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, US and Afghan forces repelled a suicide assault on a military base. more...
Pakistan’s ISI Supports Taliban, al Qaeda in Nuristan, Says Afghan Parliament
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate continues to support the Taliban and al Qaeda in the northeastern province of Nuristan, according to the Afghan parliament's Security Commission, while US forces have withdrawn from the area. more...
Special Operations Forces Kill Newly Appointed IMU Leader for Afghanistan
Coalition and Afghan special operations forces killed the newly appointed leader for the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan's forces in Afghanistan during a raid in the northwest several days ago. more...
The Last US Field Commander in Afghanistan
In late August 2011, General John R. Allen visited a base built atop the ruins of a 19th-century British fort here. Allen, an avid historian, grasped the irony of the setting. Over the previous 150 years, two British armies and one Russian army had left Afghanistan in frustration. more...
Suicide Bomber Kills 12, Including 3 ISAF Troops, in Afghan Northwest
A suicide bomber killed 12 people, including three Coalition troops, in an attack at a park in the capital of the northwestern Afghan province of Faryab. more...
Afghan Forces, Families are Prime Target for Taliban, Says Commander
A Taliban commander in northeastern Afghanistan who has been hunted by US forces for years and has voiced his support for al Qaeda said recently that the Afghan security forces have now become the number target for his forces. more...
Ambassador Crocker Objects to Strategic Retreat
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the State Department’s man in Kabul, is clearly concerned about a premature drawdown of American and Western forces from Afghanistan. more...
ISAF, Afghan Forces Kill Top IMU Commander in North
During a raid in northern Afghanistan yesterday, a combined Coalition and Afghan special operations force killed the most senior leader of the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. more...
Problematic ‘Peace Talks’ with the Taliban
The Obama administration’s attempt at peace talks with the Taliban has been fraught with problems. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on another: Qatar. more...
Experts
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Senior Fellow
Director, Center for the Study of Terrorist Radicalization
Senior Fellow and Editor of The Long War Journal
Senior Fellow and Executive Director, Center for Law & Counterterrorism