Free Republic

[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]After Biden’s withdrawal, the fighting ended in Afghanistan and moved into Europe.Even before the Taliban takeover, a massive traffic in migrants and drugs flowed over the ‘Balkan Route’ that took Afghans into Iran, Turkey and then Eastern Europe. One of the biggest holes in Europe’s armor was the former Yugoslavia, illegally invaded and partitioned by the Clinton administration, with a large Muslim population in Bosnia and heavy criminal organizations across the former republic that tie together the Russian mob, local gangs,...

An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years has been released in exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the United States, the White House said Monday, announcing a rare success in U.S.-Taliban talks since the militant group took power a little more than a year ago Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who had spent more than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was abducted in January 2020 and is believed to have been held since then by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network. He was traded for Bashir Noorzai, a Taliban associate convicted...

Daniel Greenfield August 15, 2022 In June, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s office (SIGAR), dispatched letters to Secretary of State Blinken and Samantha Power complaining that the State Department and USAID were stonewalling its investigation of waste, corruption and terror cash. "Two SIGAR audits are also being hindered by a lack of cooperation from State and USAID. The first evaluates your agencies’ compliance with the laws and regulations prohibiting transfers of funds to members of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network," the letter to Power complained. The Haqqani Network, which is allied with Al Qaeda, gained control of...

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times. The jihadist, one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, was taken out by a CIA drone strike Sunday morning at a Kabul home belonging to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to initial reporting by the Gray Lady herself. The publication infamously published an op-ed penned by Haqqani — the leader of the insurgent Haqqani Network in Afghanistan linked to brutal and deadly attacks — to ask for a peace agreement between...

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed at the home of an FBI-wanted Taliban lackey who was once given a platform by the New York Times. The jihadist, one of the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks, was taken out by a CIA drone strike Sunday morning at a Kabul home belonging to senior Taliban official Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to initial reporting by the Gray Lady herself. The publication infamously published an op-ed penned by Haqqani — the leader of the insurgent Haqqani Network in Afghanistan linked to brutal and deadly attacks — to ask for a peace agreement between...

Iran is hosting a meeting of... the foreign ministers of Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Russia holding talks in the Iranian capital Tehran on Afghanistan's political future and the formation of a new government...Iran's population is majority Shiite but Sunni minorities live predominantly in the areas near the border with Afghanistan. The Sunnis have long complained about discrimination by Iranian authorities.Due to dilapidated infrastructure and a lack of health and educational facilities, the areas near the Afghan border are the poorest and least developed in Iran...But Fatemeh Aman, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI),...

Islamabad apparently bought peace with the TLP. As in its frequent mobilisations over the last few years, the TLP has once again forced the Pakistani state onto the backfoot and enhanced its own political clout. A relatively new phenomenon, the TLP, was founded in 2015 by Khadim Hussain Rizvi, a firebrand cleric who died in November 2020. It now has a strong following among Pakistan’s Barelvi sect. At the heart of TLP’s ideology is the protection of the Prophet’s honour and a vigorous defence of Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. In Pakistan, anyone deemed to have insulted Islam or the Prophet...

The Biden State Department made the astounding claim Friday that the Taliban and its brother organization, the Haqqani Network, are “separate entities.” In truth, the two are tightly linked, and many of the top Haqqani leaders – including self-described “Kabul chief of security” Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani – are also high-ranking Taliban officials. Terrorism experts were thunderstruck by the State Department’s blatantly false assertion, which it appears to have made to deflect public outrage over the Biden administration entrusting the safety of Americans still trapped in Afghanistan to a U.S.- and U.N.-designated terrorist organization. The Taliban’s Kabul security chief Khalil Ur-Rahman...

U.S. intelligence agencies reported Monday that the Iranian regime paid bounties to a Taliban-backed Haqqani terrorist network to execute at least six attacks on U.S. military installations in Afghanistan, according to CNN. The intelligence community identified the link between Iran and the terrorist group in December after an attack on the Bagram Air Force Base killed two civilians and injured more than 70 others, CNN reported. Two Trump administration officials speaking to CNN said the bounties were the catalyst for the White House decision to take out Iranian Quds Force General Qasem Soleimani by drone in January ,who Trump suggested...

Former Congressman Steve Stockman, whom leftwing Salon called a “Tea Party darling,” has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal from a 10-year criminal sentence on multiple counts involving raising money from just two GOP donors. You may have heard the term “criminalization of politics.” Steve Stockman’s 2018 conviction is very literally an example. Stockman’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn that politicized conviction should be watched by conservatives who know that a Biden/Harris administration would be a reboot of the lawless and lawbreaking Obama Deep State, but probably even more vindictive towards conservatives. Representative Steve Stockman 2014...

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has secured the release of 17 prisoners foreign governments had detained. “We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming,” Trump said Saturday evening as he welcomed home Joshua Holt, an American citizen who had been detained in Venezuela for two years without trial. Unlike his predecessor, the president has managed to bring these prisoners home without freeing terrorists or paying millions of dollars in suspected ransom payments. 1. Sabrina De Sousa: Portuguese-American Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA agent, was arrested and...

Democrats are gloating over the sentencing of former Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) last week. He was ordered to serve 10 years in prison for the vague charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Whenever prosecutors want to get someone who hasn’t actually committed a crime, they use those vague but scary sounding charges. He was also ordered to pay $1,014,718.51 in restitution, to be divided between him and two other co-defendants.What did Stockman actually do to warrant this? He facilitated four donations from two donors totaling $915,000 to two nonprofits he was associated with. One of the nonprofits...

President Trump blasted Pakistan in his first tweet of 2018, saying its leaders have given the U.S. “nothing by lies & deceit.” “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” he said Monday morning. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he added. The New York Times reported late last week that the Trump administration might withhold $225 million in aid over frustration with...

It's past time the United States did some soul-searching and accept responsibility for exacerbating an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. This will require a rethink of Washington's current handling of Afghanistan and indeed its entire view of the region. Steve Coll recently made a cogent argument in the New York Times that the U.S. should seriously engage with China and other regional powers. However, this is impossible so long as Washington remains convinced that Pakistan alone is the primary impediment to peace rather than its own mistakes... Both Islamabad and Washington compete to wear the cloak of victimhood. Pakistan remains in...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would suspend nearly all security aid to Pakistan, an across-the-board freeze that is the most tangible sign yet of Washington’s frustration with the country’s refusal to crack down on terrorist networks operating there.The decision, which could affect as much as $1.3 billion in annual aid, came three days after President Trump complained on Twitter that Pakistan had “given us nothing but lies & deceit” and accused it of providing “safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan.”The move underlines how swiftly relations with Pakistan have deteriorated since Mr. Trump...

At a revolutionary school in Pakistan, Durkhanay Banuri dreams of becoming military chief, once a mission impossible for girls in a patriarchal country where the powerful army has a severe problem with gender equity. Thirteen-year-old Durkhanay, a student at Pakistan's first ever Girls' Cadet College, established earlier this year in the deeply conservative northwest, brims with enthusiasm and confidence as she sketches out her life plan. "I want to be the army chief," she tells AFP. "Why not? When a woman can be prime minister, foreign minister and governor of the State Bank, she can also be chief of the...

Full Title: Trump withholding $255M in aid to Pakistan, as he accuses country of giving 'safe haven' to terroristsThe Trump administration has decided to withhold millions in military aid to Pakistan as the president accuses the Muslim-majority nation of harboring terrorists and telling “lies” to the United States. “The United States does not plan to spend the $255 million in [Fiscal Year] 2016 Foreign Military Financing for Pakistan at this time,” a National Security Council official told Fox News on Monday. The official added, “The president has made clear that the United States expects Pakistan to take decisive action against...

Not sure exactly who WION is, Google showing me a radio news station , I presume in India since they interview some India officials.

The U.S. killed an Afghan Taliban leader in a drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal agency of Kurram today, according to reports from the region. The commander, Jamiuddin, was a “trusted man” within the Haqqani Network, a subgroup of the Afghan Taliban, who helped fighters move from Pakistan to Afghanistan. An unmanned aerial vehicle, likely a Reaper operated by the CIA, fired two missiles at a vehicle as it stopped in the Mata Sanghar area of Kurram, sources told Reuters. A Pakistani official also said an unnamed “associate” was also killed in the attack. A Haqqani Network leader told Reuters that...

The Pentagon is withholding hundreds of millions of dollars meant to reimburse Pakistan for its fight against terrorist groups, citing Islamabad’s failure to take “sufficient action” against the Haqqani Network, an offshoot of the Taliban based in Pakistan. The announcement on Friday comes as Defense Secretary James Mattis and the White House debate a long-delayed strategy for the war in Afghanistan that could adopt a tougher line toward over Pakistan’s role in the conflict. Defense officials and congressional aides have for months said that the new strategy won’t focus solely on Afghanistan, but take a more regional approach. This includes...