Bloomberg Trusting the Taliban to Fight Islamic StateThe Biden administration may be doing so. But it is far from the smartest policy to pursue and would put the lives of Afghans and Americans at even greater risk. By Bobby Ghosh Reports from Washington and Kabul show the extent to which the Biden administration has been counting on the Taliban to facilitate the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — and, apparently, to keep up the fight against IS-Khorasan, the local franchise of the Islamic State, after the Americans are gone. The White House and Pentagon believe that the new rulers in Kabul share their eagerness for a speedy evacuation: a “common purpose,” in the words of Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the United States Central Command. There is also an assumption that the Taliban have an implacable enmity toward IS-Khorasan.These postulates are the basis for information-sharing between U.S. officials and their Taliban...

Washington Examiner Al Qaeda And ISIS Members From Afghanistan Could Resurface On Southern Border, Experts Say by Anna Giaritelli, Homeland Security Reporter Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists sprung by the Taliban from an Afghan prison could enter the United States via the porous southern border, security experts said, lending grim legitimacy to concerns raised by Republicans.Feds patrolling the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border are increasingly on alert for foreigners on the terror watch list, given the situation in Afghanistan, a senior official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Washington Examiner. “I believe CBP and the Border Patrol are both taking it very seriously, but I can’t say the same as far as the administration,” the official wrote in an email. “If I was a bad person that wanted to do harm to the U.S., I know now is the time to illegally enter...

Reuters After Taliban Takeover, Concerns Mount Over U.S. Counterterrorism Ability By Idrees Ali and Humeyra Pamuk, Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - With no U.S. troops or reliable partners left, jails emptied of militants and the Taliban in control, doubts are mounting within President Joe Biden's administration over Washington's ability to stem a resurgence of al Qaeda and other extremists in Afghanistan, six current and former U.S. officials told Reuters.Afghan security forces whom the United States helped train crumbled as Taliban militants made their way through Afghanistan in less than two weeks, leaving the United States with few partners on the ground."We're not in a good place," said a U.S. defense official, who requested anonymity to discuss the issue.Weeks before the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda, the lack of visibility regarding potential extremist threats is a chilling prospect for...

Newsweek Germany Warns Of 'Increase' In Islamic State Suicide Bombers Entering Kabul By Mary Ellen Cagnassola Germany's top military commander told reporters Tuesday that the military is concerned about an apparent threat of attacks by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.General Eberhard Zorn said that "the threat has further increased," adding that American and German intelligence indicates an increase of ISIS suicide bombers sneaking into the city."That's increasing and leads to heightened precautions," Zorn added.Germany's defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, warned that the Taliban's August 31 deadline for foreign troops to fully withdraw should be taken "seriously."Newsweek Newsletter sign-up >"I think one needs to take very, very seriously the announcement that they won't agree to a further delay," she said, adding that the Taliban could be using the deadline as a bargaining chip in negotiations with foreign officials. Full story https://www.newsweek.com/germany-warns-increase-islamic-state-suicide-bombers-entering-kabul-1622568...

Fox News Experts Warn Of Al Qaeda Attacks On US Soil As Global Terror Threat Reaches 20-Year High Victor Davis Hanson: 'The next three and a half years, I think, will be our most dangerous since the 1950s of the Cold War' By Yael Halon The Biden-ordered Afghanistan withdrawal and subsequent Taliban takeover has increased the global terror threat to its highest point in two decades, and without U.S. intelligence operatives in the region, an al Qaeda 9-11 style attack may be imminent, experts warn. Dr. Tom Copeland, an expert in intelligence failures and mass casualty terrorist attacks and director of research at the Centennial Insititute told Fox News on Thursday that the fall of the Afghan government will likely coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack. Moreover, Copeland warned, the United States' complete withdrawal could presage another attack of that nature on U.S. soil."Having an...

The Guardian Biden’s ‘Over The Horizon’ Counter-Terrorism Strategy Comes With New Risks Taliban in power may find themselves fighting their own insurgentsAnalysis: new regime may face enemy composed not of fighters loyal to former US-backed government but those who see new rulers as sellouts by Jason Burke Joe Biden has said the US will maintain an “over the horizon” counter-terrorism capability to neutralise the threat posed by Islamist extremist groups in Afghanistan.With no troops on the ground, no intelligence-gathering operation in the country and no ally with shared borders, this kind of long-range effort to stop plots targeting the west will not be easy – and is made significantly harder by the range of the organisations based in territory now nominally under Taliban control. What any violent extremist group needs more than anything else is a secure location where it can plan, organise, recruit, strategise and gather resources. Without this,...

Washington Examiner Suspected Terrorists Crossing Border 'At A Level We Have Never Seen Before,' Outgoing Border Patrol Chief Says by Anna Giaritelli Unprecedented numbers of known or suspected terrorists have crossed the southern border in recent months, the outgoing Border Patrol chief said.The head of the Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, told his 19,000 agents before retiring on Aug. 14 that their national security mission is paramount right now despite the Biden administration's focus on migrant families and children who are coming across the United States-Mexico boundary at record rates. “Over and over again, I see other people talk about our mission, your mission, and the context of it being immigration or the current crisis today being an immigration crisis,” Scott said in a video message to agents, obtained by the Washington Examiner. “I firmly believe that it is a national security crisis. Immigration is just a subcomponent of it, and...

Footage shows Taliban fighters in Afghan presidential palaceby AHMAD SEIR, RAHIM FAIEZ, TAMEEM AKHGAR and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press KOMO News KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's embattled president left the country Sunday, joining thousands of his fellow citizens and foreigners in a stampede fleeing the advancing Taliban and signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking the country.The Taliban fanned out across the capital, and an official with the militant group said it would soon announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace in Kabul. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman and negotiator, told The Associated Press that the militants would hold talks in the coming days aimed at forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government."A Taliban official earlier said the group would announce the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the palace, but those plans appeared to be on hold. That...

Fox News House Republicans Urge DHS To Reveal How Many Migrants Are On Terror Watchlist By Adam Shaw EXCLUSIVE: Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee are calling on the Department of Homeland Security to reveal how many migrants apprehended at the border have been identified within a terror watch list -- arguing that Americans should be informed of the number."Although most of the information on this topic is rightfully classified, the number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to illegally cross into the United States is not kept secret in the interest of national security and the American people deserve to be informed of this number," the letter from Reps. John Katko, R-NY, August Pfluger, R-Texas and Clay Higgins, R-La., to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. The concern about who is trying to enter the U.S. has grown as an increasing number of migrants, including from countries across the...

  The Hill Hypersonic weapons could tilt war in favor of Russia, China By Seth Cropsey Hypersonic weapons could well transform the strategic balance. The United States’ adversaries recognize this fact — Russia and China have both tested hypersonics and appear to have prioritized integrating them into their combat forces. The U.S. must do the same — or accept a strategic balance in our adversaries’ favor.The Washington news cycle typically overlooks subtle yet consequential policy choices. Biden’s FY2022 defense budget request of $715 billion constitutes a functional decrease from the previous budget — its $11 billion “increase” does not keep pace with inflation. Although the Obama administration’s most robust technologists, former Undersecretary of Defense Robert Work foremost among them, are not serving in this administration, their imprint is clear. Biden cut $8 billion of procurement, and in turn boosted broader research and development by $5.5 billion.Thus, its envisioned military will...

Foreign Affairs Strait of Emergency? Debating Beijing’s Threat to Taiwan By Rachel Esplin Odell and Eric Heginbotham; Bonny Lin and David Sacks; Kharis Templeman; Oriana Skylar Mastro Don’t Fall for the Invasion PanicOriana Skylar Mastro’s article “The Taiwan Temptation” (July/August 2021) is one of many recent articles that warns of the growing risk of Chinese aggression in the Taiwan Strait. Such articles have become so common that they have created something of an invasion panic in Washington—one that is damaging to both the United States’ and Taiwan’s interests. Anxiety about impending Chinese aggression was part of what drove Washington in recent years to weaken its long-standing “one China” policy by lifting some restrictions on official interactions between it and Taiwan. It also undergirds recent calls for Washington to abandon its policy of “strategic ambiguity” about whether it would defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.Although Mastro does not explicitly endorse these...

  The National What The Boko Haram Leader's Death Means For The War Against Terror by Jean-Loup SamaanOn June 16, Boko Haram confirmed the death of its leader Abubakar Shekau. Shekau died during clashes with the competing Islamic State for the West African Province (Iswap) in the Sambisa Forest in north-eastern Nigeria, one of the last regions controlled by Boko Haram. At first sight, the death of Shekau, the mastermind behind many atrocities committed against African civilians, may come as a relief. But it also reveals a darker reality: the steady replacement of Boko Haram by ISIS in the Lake Chad Basin region – which includes Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon – and its new security implications.Shekau had led Boko Haram since 2009, the year the group’s founder Mohammed Yusuf died. The organisation caught international attention in 2014 with the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls that shocked the world and...

Voice Of America 7 Years After Islamic State Genocide, Yazidi Survivors Still Seeking Justice  By Dakhil Elias, Sirwan Kajjo WASHINGTON - When Lamiya Haji Bashar, 23, was trying to escape Islamic State (IS) captivity, she lost her sight in a landmine explosion that also scarred her face.Bashar was 16 when IS militants rampaged through the Iraqi town of Sinjar in 2014, killing thousands of Yazidi men and forcing young women into sex slavery. The United Nations has called the onslaught a campaign of genocide against the Kurdish religious minority.Currently living in Germany where she is undergoing rehabilitation, Bashar has become a vocal advocate for Yazidi women and girls.Yazidi women from Iraq, Nadia Murad Basee, left, and Lamiya Aji Bashar, 2nd left, pose with their award after receiving the…FILE - Yazidi women from Iraq, Nadia Murad Basee, left, and Lamiya Haji Bashar, pose with their award after receiving the European Union's...

Iranian terrorism cannot go unpunishedMerely condemning attacks that killed a British citizen is not a suitably strong response Telegraph ViewIran seems determined to test the resolve of the new Israeli government to respond to attacks against its assets. Drones carrying explosives have been used in the Arabian Sea to strike an oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company. The assault last Thursday killed two crew members, one of them a British national.Tehran has denied the atrocity but Israeli and American military intelligence are sure of the identity of the culprit. It was apparently conducted in retaliation for an Israeli air strike in Syria. This is not just state-sponsored murder on the high seas but also a patent threat to the safe passage of merchant shipping and therefore a direct challenge to the international community. Tehran cannot be allowed to undermine world trade by carrying out terrorist activity in supposedly open...

The Sacramento Bee FBI Says At Deportation Hearing That Iraqi Refugee Omar Ameen Has Ties To Terror Groups By Sam Stanton The federal government’s effort to deport Sacramento resident and Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen kicked into gear Wednesday, with a former FBI agent testifying that Ameen and his family members had been involved in terrorist activities with the group that evolved into the Islamic State.William Denton, who had served as the lead FBI agent on the Ameen investigation, said during an immigration hearing in Van Nuys that information from the U.S. Department of Defense and from Iraqi government officials tied Ameen and his family members to al Qaeda in Iraq, which ultimately became the Islamic State.“We were concerned, in particular, because the information from the Department of Defense indicated to us that his family members were actively engaged in terrorism, which was corroborated through our information that we obtained when...

  France 24 France, UK Sign New Security Deal To Protect Against Channel Terror Threat Britain and France on Tuesday signed a new security deal aimed at protecting the public in the event of a terror attack in the Channel against a large vessel such as a passenger ferry, the British government said.The UK-France Maritime Security Treaty was signed in Paris as the defence and foreign ministers from both sides met for talks on shared security interests.The British government said in a statement that the treaty is the foundation for "seamless joint and coordinated action to be taken by UK and French forces in response to an incident, such as a terrorist attack on board a ferry or other large vessel in the Channel."The treaty includes provisions which will enable Britain and France to share information concerning potential threats, mount swifter responses to serious incidents, and coordinate more efficient joint...

Washington Examiner US Investigates Qatar Over Claims That It Finances Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps by Benjamin Weinthal and Jonathan Spyer JERUSALEM — The State Department has opened an inquiry into an Israeli government report that Qatar’s monarchy funded Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.“We are looking into the allegations,” a State Department spokesman told the Washington Examiner earlier this month, adding that “Qatar and the United States have a robust strategic, security, and counterterrorism partnership. Qatar is one of the United States's closest military allies in the region. U.S.-Qatar military and security cooperation contributes to the safety and stability of the region.”The alleged terror finance activities of the Islamic regime in Doha surfaced during last month’s Oval Office meeting between President Joe Biden and outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin furnished the White House with intelligence regarding “recent funding that Qatar provided to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard...

Fox News Convicted Terrorists Lead Religious Services In Federal Prisons: IG by Fred Lucas Convicted terrorists – some associated with al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and Al-Shabaab – were allowed to lead religious services in federal prisons because of a shortage of chaplains, according to a recent inspector general report evaluating the Bureau of Prisons. Moreover, the bureau’s internal watchdog found prison officials had little oversight of what was being said or taught during some of the inmate-led religious services. The July inspector general report said that convicted terrorists led religious services in four of 12 federal prison facilities that were part of the evaluation. At one prison, terrorist inmates led religious services even though the BOP hired a contract faith provider, because the inmates had disagreements with the contractors, the report says. "At another one of these facilities we found that an al-Qaeda affiliated inmate, who was convicted on terrorism...

  Bill Bennett: 'We need to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorists like Al Qaeda' Bennett highlights drugs coming across the southern borderBy Joshua Q. Nelson | Fox News After a new government report revealed U.S. drug overdose deaths hit a new record in 2020, former National Drug Control Policy Director Bill Bennett said Thursday that the United States needs to designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorists."There is a poison that is coming across. We talked about the getaways. Do the people get away? How about the drugs that get away? " Bennett said on "America Reports." "You guys are very good at showing these huge caches of drugs that are caught and authorities seize. But there’s a lot that we don’t see, and it’s making its way in the country." Fox News reported that an angel mom argued that the current border policies under the Biden administration allowed China’s...

The Jerusalem Post US Court Rules 3 Iranian Banks Liable For Hamas Terror Attack This ruling is the first case in which US courts have found Banks Markazi, Melli or Saderat liable for a terror attack by a foreign terrorist organization against a US national. By TZVI JOFFRE In a landmark ruling, a US federal court ruled on Monday that Syria, Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and three Iranian banks were liable for the Hamas terror attack which killed Eitam and Naama Henkin in 2015. The District of Columbia court ruled on two suits: one filed by the parents and siblings of Eitam and one filed by the Henkins' children and the Henkins' estates. The suits made claims governed by the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, alongside other claims. The Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act, which amended the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, established a...