The Latest - Afghanistan
Did Obama Improve Our Position in Afghanistan?
I asked Cliff May of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies his take on whether the Taliban was growing stronger. He answered via e-mail: “They have an ideology/theology they believe in. more...
Year After bin Laden’s Death: Al-Qaeda ‘Far From Defeated’
"He created an organization and developed it," said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA official and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "I don't think his death fundamentally affects the future of jihadist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan,"... more...
Taliban Website Under Repeat Attack By Hackers
Unknown hackers brought down the main Taliban website earlier this month, when El Emara's English-language page was replaced temporarily with images of Taliban atrocities and photographs of roadside bombs. more...
Al-Qaeda is Down, but Far From Out
The numbers tell the story: America’s counter-terrorism campaign is gradually shifting from Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia and other parts of Africa. more...
Keeping on Offense
In the past few years the organization has also suffered steady losses from U.S. drone strikes. The drone campaign began under President George W. Bush and increased in intensity near the end of Bush’s time in office. more...
US Forces Make Gains After Trading Static Afghan Outposts for Mobility
“The belief was our presence there was radicalizing and driving the insurgents,” said Bill Roggio, who directs the Long War Journal for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. more...
Withdrawal Symptoms
US Marines were disarmed before being addressed by US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who had flown in to Afghanistan after the Bales incident. The Americans, led by their president, were still in full apology mode... more...
Afghan Troops Ramp Up Attacks on Western Trainers, Threatening Allied War Effort
“It’s sort of a catch-22,” said Bill Roggio, the editor of Long War Journal, a Web site that closely tracks the Afghan war. “Our plan is to turn the country over to the Afghans, which means training them to take over. But they’re killing the guys we have doing the training.” more...
Soldiers Just Back From Iraq Get New Orders: Afghanistan
"I don't think we are going to turn around guys who spent time in Iraq and put them on planes to Afghanistan ... without there being a clear indication that the Obama administration wants to continue the acceleration of the withdrawal more...
Taliban Talk: No Longer Our Enemy?
This new White House line might be designed to help in peace negotiations with the Taliban. We hope that is the case. more...
Official: Pakistan Sees Lull in US Drone Strikes
There hasn't been a missile strike against militants since the Nov. 26 NATO raid at the Pakistani army border outpost that killed 24 soldiers. That's according to The Long War Journal, a website that tracks the strikes. more...
Pakistan Says It Returned Fire in Deadly NATO Border Attack
The U.S. has sought to repair relations with Pakistan. One possible byproduct of that effort is the absence of CIA drone strikes since mid-November, an unusually long pause, said Bill Roggio, who tracks the strikes for the website Long War Journal. more...
Haji Maki Khan Added to U.S. Terror List
Haji Mali Khan is the most recent top Haqqani operatives to be captured and on the official terror list. According to the State Department, Mali Khan “is a Haqqani Network commander who has overseen hundreds of fighters, and has instructed his subordinates to conduct terrorist acts.” more...
Afghan Minister Targeted, Unhurt
The Long War Journal, quoting the spokesman, said the suicide bomber had tried to attack an advance party of troops as it stopped for prayers in the province. But the bomber was shot and killed before he could detonate his vest. more...
As Clinton Pushes Pakistan for Haqqani Offensive, It Fights Lashkar Group
“Enemy number one is Haqqani,” said Major General Daniel Allyn, the top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, in an August interview with the Long War Journal, a U.S.-based monitoring group on the war. more...
Afghans Say Taliban’s Top Pakistan-Based Leaders Sent Peace Envoy’s Killer
About 30 of the Taliban’s most prominent leaders have served on the shura in recent years, and many of the group’s members may have dispersed to Karachi or other cities to escape possible U.S. attack, according to the Long War Journal, a U.S.- based monitoring group on the Afghan war. more...
Who’s Really Behind the Kabul Attacks?
“These are really joint attacks by all these groups. What [the US-led coalition] ISAF has suddenly done is they’ve pivoted due to negotiations, or talks of negotiations, and they are sort of trying to leave the Haqqani Network as the outlier,” says Bill Roggio, editor of the online Long War Journal. more...
9/11: 10 Years After
Terrorism analyst Bill Roggio says, "Al-Qaida hasn't so much as become a diffused entity as it has embedded itself into local groups, for instance with the Pakistani Taliban and the Haqqani network in the Afghan-Pakistan border area, and has expanded its reach by establishing regional affiliates such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and Shabaab (in Somalia). more...
C.I.A. Is Disputed on Civilian Toll in Drone Strikes
Others who question the C.I.A. claim include strong supporters of the drone program like Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal, who closely tracks the strikes. more...
General Petraeus leaves a still deadly Afghanistan to head CIA
“He’s handing off Afghanistan better than what it was when he took control, but he didn’t get everything he needed and he got outmanoeuvred politically,” said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. more...
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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