Free Republic

The Taliban appears to have set the clock back in the country by at least 20 years with the insurgent group set to proclaim the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The people's government, meanwhile, collapsed on Sunday and President Ashraf Ghani is said to have left the country for Tajikistan. With Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar likely to be declared as the new president, here's a look at his political career so far.#BreakingNews Congratulatory message from Mullah Baradar Akhund, Political Deputy and head of the Political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after the recent victories...

U.S. intelligence officials are expressing growing concerns that Pakistan is holding back valuable intelligence data obtained from captured No. 2 Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. Mullah Baradar, who was captured in January, is the military deputy to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and he is considered the most important terrorist to be detained since Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was caught in 2003. Senior U.S. intelligence officials in the last week told The Washington Times that recent interrogation sessions with Mullah Baradar yielded very little actionable intelligence. Instead the sessions provided "atmospheric intelligence" that is of limited value, such as the history...

U.S. intelligence officials appear to have obtained access to what could turn out to be a significant trove of phone numbers, photographs and documents detailing the links between Al Qaeda's leaders in northwest Pakistan and the terror group's increasingly menacing affiliate in Yemen, two counter-terrorism sources tell Declassified. In late January, an Al Qaeda operative headed from Pakistan on his way to Yemen was arrested in the Persian Gulf country of Oman, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed. There has been no public announcement of the arrest. But in a possible indication of the operative's importance, just a few days later,...