Free Republic

The U.S. Department of State’s Reward for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its branches, including the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). The IRGC has financed numerous terrorist attacks and activities globally. The IRGC-QF leads Iran’s terrorist operations outside Iran via its proxies, such as Hizballah and Hamas. (excerpt) (Read specifics on info State Dept is looking for at the link above) The IRGC was founded in 1979 after the Iranian Revolution. It is a branch of the Iranian...

A draft U.S. peace deal with the Taliban could result in “another Saigon” in which the Afghan government is toppled from power and its leaders executed after U.S. troops withdraw, warns a former top FBI counterterrorism agent and international security consultant. “If we continue the negotiations only between us and between the Taliban, that is not a withdrawal — that is another Saigon,” said Ali Soufan, one of the FBI’s lead agents targeting al-Qaida before the 2001 terror attack, when the group was headquartered in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. “Because, you know, we’re telling the Afghan government,...

DURING HIS STABBING SPREE IN FRANCE A 33-yrs old asylum seeker from Afganistan Afghanistan was arrested near Lyon, France on Saturday after killing 1 person and injuring 9 others in a stabbing spree.. Watch terrorist Sultan Marmed Niazi, the Afghan asylum seeker, who went on a stabbing rampage in France very closely During Niazi's stabbing rampage he HIGH-FIVES a man & says: Allah, insh’Allah! Allah! Allah! Were Niazi victims only Kufirs? During the stabbing spree the Afghan Islamist, Sultan Marmed Niazi, paused to talk to a fellow Muslim and give him a high five. From the video: (translated) Hallucinating:...

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic race, has been hit by a new wave of gaffes and errors over just a few days – something that President Trump and his reelection campaign are increasingly pointing to as a problem for the potential White House rival. Biden was hit by a Washington Post report this week that found that a moving military story – which the former senator called “God’s truth” – was not true. The story was an emotional account of Biden's decision to travel to Afghanistan, despite concerns about visiting a war-torn area,...

Three civilians were killed and over 70 others were wounded in a large-scale attack by the Taliban on Kunduz, Afghanistan, government officials said Saturday. .....

An pro-government commander in Afghanistan has been killed in a battle against a group of Taliban fighters that included his own son. The battle also involved two Afghan brothers who fought on opposite sides – a pro-government militia fighter who was killed and his brother, a Taliban militant, who was wounded and escaped from the battlefield. The overnight battle in Afghanistan's northern province of Jowzjan took place just hours after the slain commander, Baz Muhammad, spoke to RFE/RL about the need to end a war which pits "sons against fathers and brothers and against brothers." Baz Muhammad's involvement in the...

The initial goal of invading Afghanistan in the immediate weeks after 9/11 could not have been more clear: Get Osama bin Laden and oust the Taliban regime that gave his fanatical pack of beards safe haven to plan and practice the deadly attacks.It was the first and so far only time NATO allies invoked the Article 5 mutual defense pact. That familiar mission creep, however, seeped in and with the best of naive intentions, the foreigners stuck around to attempt nation-building to protect the power vacuum they created.It’s had some good days (a new Constitution now gives equal rights...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command on Thursday released the names of the two Green Berets who were killed a day earlier during combat operations in Afghanistan. Master Sgt. Luis F. Deleon-Figueroa, 31, and Master Sgt. Jose J. Gonzalez, 35, died as a result of small arms fire in northern Faryab Province. Both were members of 7th Special Forces Group, which is based at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. “It was an honor having them serve within the ranks,” said Col. John W. Sannes, commander of 7th Group. “They were a part of our Family, and...

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a law last year declaring Israel “the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious, and historical right to self-determination.” One might suppose that this “Basic Law” (akin to a constitutional amendment) would be as contentious as the Vatican proclaiming itself Catholic. To the contrary. Although the “nation-state law” changed no policies and affirmed a relationship between Jews and Israel that had been manifest since the country’s founding in 1948, the legislation was exceptionally controversial. One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political opponents, opposition leader Tzipi Livni, charged...

Speaking at the White House, Trump lamented that US involvement in the country for 18 years, which he described as more of a "police force," is "ridiculous," and repeated a claim that the US "could win that war in a week if we wanted to" but that he does not "want to kill 10 million people, 10 million Afghans ... because that's what would have to happen and I'm not looking to do that." Trump said the US is "bringing some of our troops back but we have to have a presence." The area "does seem to be the Harvard...

President Trump knows a bad deal when he sees one. He extricated the United States from President Barack Obama’s disastrous nuclear accord with Iran. He pulled us out of an arms-control agreement with Russia that Vladimir Putin repeatedly violated. But if news reports are accurate, the State Department is about to capitulate to the Taliban, al-Qaeda’s longtime ally, as U.S. forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan. The president should reject this deal.

Friday, President Donald Trump met in New Jersey with his national security advisers and envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who is negotiating with the Taliban to bring about peace, and a U.S. withdrawal from America's longest war. U.S. troops have been fighting in Afghanistan since 2001, in a war that has cost 2,400 American lives. Following the meeting, Trump tweeted, "Many on the opposite sides of this 19 year war, and us, are looking to make a deal -- if possible!" Some, however, want no deal; they are fighting for absolute power. Saturday, a wedding in Kabul with a thousand guests was...

Despite being one of the poorest nations in the world, Afghanistan may be sitting on one of the richest troves of minerals in the world, valued at nearly $1 trillion, scientists say. Afghanistan, a country nearly the size of Texas, is loaded with minerals deposited by the violent collision of the Indian subcontinent with Asia. The U.S. Geological Survey began inspecting what mineral resources Afghanistan had after U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power in the country in 2004.

The brother of Afghan Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada has been killed in a powerful bomb blast at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan, Taliban sources have confirmed. A senior Taliban source said that Hafiz Ahmadullah was the imam of the Khair Ul Madarais mosque in the town of Kuchlak, on the outskirts of Quetta, that came under attack during Friday prayers. At least four people were killed in the bomb explosion, according to police. "It is true that the brother of Akhunzada, Hafiz Ahmadullah, has been killed in the explosion," the source told Al Jazeera, adding that two of Haibatullah's nephews...

Afghanistan: Bomb rips through wedding in Kabul An explosion has ripped through a wedding hall in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and many casualties are feared. Eye witnesses told the BBC a suicide bomber detonated explosives during a wedding ceremony. Witnesses said they had seen bodies. The explosion happened at around 22:40 local time (18.10 GMT) in an area mostly populated by Shia residents. No group said it carried out the attack, which happened in the west of the city. Sunni Muslim militants, including the Taliban and the Islamic State group, have repeatedly targeted Shia Hazara minorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan....

Boys With Brides: Afghanistan's Untold Dilemma Of Underage Marriages August 12, 2019 14:33 GMT By Ron Synovitz Freshta Jalalzai KABUL -- Mohammad Wali was just 12 years old when his widowed mother began arranging his marriage to a 24-year-old woman from their village in Ghazni Province. "I don't want to be married," the young Afghan boy is said to have pleaded with his mother. "I just want to play soccer and cricket. I want to go to school." But his mother insisted on the marriage to ensure that she and Mohammad Wali's two teenage sisters would not become street beggars...

At Least 14 Killed, 145 Wounded In Taliban Car Bombing In Kabul August 07, 2019 06:15 GMT UPDATED August 07, 2019 18:18 GMT https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-kabul-car-bomb-oolice-station-dozens-injured/30097712.html KABUL -- At least 14 people have been killed and 145 wounded after a Taliban suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside a police station in Kabul, according to the Afghan Public Health Ministry. Women and children were among the victims of the attack that occurred at around 9 a.m. local time on August 7, Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said. Deputy Interior Minister Khoshal Sadat told reporters that 92 of the wounded were civilians. Four...

Afghanistan's Fate 'Can't Be Decided Outside,' President Says By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan August 11, 2019 KABUL -- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has rejected foreign interference and called for the presidential election to be held next month as planned, amid talks between the United States and the Taliban aimed at bringing the nearly 18-year war in Afghanistan to an end. "Without a legitimate and strong government that comes through an election, Afghans won't be able to achieve a dignified peace," Ghani said in a televised speech on August 11 marking the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Ghani insisted that peace...

The United States and the Taliban have resolved differences in peace talks over the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and guarantees from the insurgents that they will cut ties with other extremist groups, a Taliban official said Tuesday. The U.S. side did not immediately provide details about the latest round of talks held in Qatar, where the Taliban maintain a political office. But Zalmay Khalilzad, the American envoy who has been leading the talks since they began late last year, tweeted that they had made "excellent progress." The two sides have been meeting for the last two days, and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told me yesterday that he’d advised President Trump it would be a huge mistake, substantively and politically, to withdraw all U.S. military members from Afghanistan by the 2020 election. What he's saying: "When it comes to the election of 2020. I think it would be very easy for the president to defend leaving a counterterrorism force that was recommended by our military and intelligence community, to protect the homeland after the debacle in Iraq." "It would be hard, in my view, and a high-risk strategy, to reject such advice for political reasons," Graham added. "As to...