Federal immigration officials arrested a man allegedly linked to the terrorist group that killed 13 American soldiers during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/12/03/miles-nations-capital-ice-arrests-isis-k-afghan-terrorist-who-was-released-us-under">arrested</a> Jaan Shah Safi in Waynesboro, Virginia, located about 100 miles from Washington D.C. Safi is a terrorist linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“The Biden administration brought this terrorist into the U.S. under the disastrous Operation Allies Welcome program. This terrorist was arrested miles from our nation’s capital where our brave National Guard heroes, Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe, were shot just days ago by another unvetted Afghan terrorist brought into our country,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a statement.
Noem blamed the Biden administration for creating “one of the worst national security crises in American history” with its botched handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the tens of thousands of Afghans that immigrated to the United States as a result.
“Biden let into our country nearly 190,000 unvetted Afghan aliens–only determining who they were and their intentions when they were already on American soil. President Trump has been working every day since January 20 to clean up this unmitigated national security crisis,” said Noem.
50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at <a href="http://dailywire.com/cyberweek">DailyWire.com/cyberweek</a>.
In the final week of the Afghanistan withdrawal, a suicide bomber blew up a bomb outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. The airport at the time was serving as the headquarters for U.S. operations extracting service members and others from the country, including thousands of Afghans.
On August 26, ISIS-K <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-arrests-isis-k-attack-planner-role-killing-us-military-service-members-abbey">conducted</a> a terror attack in which a bomb was detonated outside the airport’s Abbey Gate, killing 13 U.S. service members along with dozens of Afghans.
Safi is the third Afghan that entered the United States during the Afghanistan withdrawal arrested in the past week. On November 26, law enforcement arrested Rahmanullah Lakanwal after officers said he shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. One of the guardsmen, Sarah Beckstrom, died from her injuries while the other, Andrew Wolfe, is still fighting for his life.
A day prior to the attack, law enforcement in Texas arrested Mohammad Dawood Alokozay on charges of making terroristic threats after he allegedly posted a video to social media threatening to carry out a suicide bombing attack against Americans.

Kristi Noem

Noem Says ICE Has Arrested Another Afghan Terrorist In U.S.

Department of Homeland Security

ISIS-K

Virginia

The Biden administration on Monday confirmed the identity of an ISIS-K suicide bomber who killed several U.S. service members and scores of Afghans in 2021.
The Department of Defense (DOD) <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3741245/kabul-airport-attack-review-reaffirms-initial-findings-identifies-attacker/">identified</a> the terrorist as Abdul Rahman al-Logari. Al-Logari detonated a bomb outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in the final days of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, killing 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
“With access to analysis from across the intelligence community, we were able to identify the Abbey Gate person-borne IED bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an [ISIS-K] member since 2016,” an Army official from the joint supplemental review team said, according to the DOD.  
The DOD identified al-Logari for the first time in a supplemental review of an investigation into the terror attack on Abbey Gate. U.S. Army Central Command (CENTCOM) completed and released the results of the review on Monday, confirming al-Logari’s identity. 
Al-Logari was one of thousands of prisoners and detainees released from Bagram Air Base by the Taliban after U.S. personnel evacuated the base in July 2021 ahead of the full military withdrawal. The Taliban set al-Logari free in mid-August 2021. The ISIS-K terrorist carried out his deadly attack at Abbey Gate on August 26.
As the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Hamid Karzai International Airport, the U.S. military <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-its-last-days-in-kabul-u-s-turns-to-taliban-as-a-partner-11630105650">turned over</a> security for Kabul to the Taliban.
The U.S. evacuated Afghanistan in a rush to hit a deadline at the end of August. U.S. officials were concerned about volatility in the region and what the Taliban may do if the U.S. did not meet the deadline. In its haste, the U.S. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/27/politics/afghan-weapons-left-behind/index.html">abandoned</a> billions of dollars worth of equipment in Afghanistan.
The DOD said the review did not change the original finding of the report that the attack on Abbey Gate was not preventable. ISIS-K had multiple suicide bombers available and would have been able to carry out the attack with or without al-Logari.
“This supports the conclusion that the attack at Abbey Gate was not preventable at the tactical level,” an official said, according to the DOD.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) is chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has led the House investigation into the Abbey Gate terror attack. The Biden administration opened the supplemental review into Abbey Gate in response to testimony given to McCaul’s committee.
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“This report confirmed what witnesses have told this committee: the Taliban was executing civilians outside the airport. The executions caused mass chaos around the airport as large and desperate crowds of civilians sought to flee, creating a deadly operating environment for U.S. servicemembers at the gates amid significant ISIS-K threats,” McCaul said in a <a href="https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/mccaul-on-dods-updated-abbey-gate-investigation/">statement</a>. “The report also finally reveals the identity of the Abbey Gate bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an ISIS-K terrorist who was freed from the Bagram prison by the Taliban.”
“With this report revealing the Biden administration has been sitting on critical information about what happened during the emergency evacuation from Afghanistan, it is clear there are many more questions to be answered. I am absolutely determined to see this investigation through to completion and will leave no stone unturned,” McCaul stated.

Hamid Karzai International Airport

Biden Admin Confirms ID Of Abbey Gate Bomber, Terrorist Set Free During Afghanistan Withdrawal

Afghanistan

Department of Defense

Kabul

Terrorism

World

Federal law enforcement officials are concerned that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terrorists</a> could launch a coordinated attack in the U.S. that is similar to the ISIS-K terrorist attack that was carried out in Russia last month.
Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fbi-concerned-about-possible-coordinated-attack-us-after-russia-massacre-2024-04-11/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that FBI Director Christopher Wray was set to relay this warning to the House of Representatives during a hearing on Thursday.
“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once,” Christopher Wray says in prepared remarks. “But that is the case as I sit here today.”
Several ISIS-K terrorists stormed a concert hall in Moscow late last month and opened fire with automatic while simultaneously setting the sold out venue on fire, killing more than 140 people.
Wray will say that an increasing threat in the U.S. &#8220;is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago.&#8221;
He is expected to push House lawmakers to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is a critical U.S. surveillance program that is used to monitor foreign threats to the U.S.
The program, which is set to expire next month unless it is renewed, has faced scrutiny in recent years after it was abused by some federal law enforcement officials.
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However, officials have tightened up the way that the system can be accessed to cut down on instances of abuse, including forcing agents to &#8220;type a specific justification for every search, receive annual training and get approval from an attorney before any &#8216;batch job&#8217; that will run more than 100 names against the system,&#8221; The Washington Post&#8217;s Editorial Board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/09/fisa-section-702-warrant-congress/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzEyODA4MDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzE0MTkwMzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3MTI4MDgwMDAsImp0aSI6IjdhZjY4NDM4LWZiZjctNDVkOC1iZDFiLTk5NTEyNzViYTE5MyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDI0LzA0LzA5L2Zpc2Etc2VjdGlvbi03MDItd2FycmFudC1jb25ncmVzcy8ifQ.VBU0wozcHc1XpBUewwa4jHzyJhie-sVCzLEC19GzzTg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> this week.
&#8220;The Justice Department says these changes led to a 98 percent drop in the number of U.S. person queries of the 702 database, from 2.9 million in 2021 to 119,383 in 2022 and 57,094 in 2023,&#8221; the article added. &#8220;Audits have shown virtually all of them complied with the rules. The FBI has also established escalating consequences for misusing the system, from taking away access to criminal referrals.&#8221;

Colombian Police Capture 52 Allegedly Involved In Drug Trafficking Financing

FBI Concerned About Coordinated Terror Attack In U.S. Similar To Moscow Concert Hall Attack

Border Crisis

Christopher Wray

U.S.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged this week that Islamic terrorists were behind the massacre at a concert hall that killed well over a hundred people.
Four terrorists armed with fully automatic weapons and explosives stormed the Crocus City concert hall in Moscow on Friday and opened fire on a sold out concert while simultaneously setting the building on fire.
At least 139 people have died from the attack and dozens more injured, according to figures released by the Russian government.
&#8220;We know that the crime was perpetrated by radical Islamists,&#8221; Putin said in an address on Monday.
The 71-year-old then suggested that Ukraine was somehow linked to the attack and that ISIS-K could not have carried out the attack alone because the &#8220;organization banned in Russia.&#8221;
Officials have warned that Putin will try to blame Ukraine for the attack to justify escalating his war against Ukraine.
The Russian government claimed that the terrorists tried to escape to Ukraine and suggested that there was an escape route opened for them by people inside the country — claims that have not been corroborated.
&#8220;It is also necessary to answer the question why the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine after committing a crime, who was waiting for them there?&#8221; Putin asked. &#8220;It is clear that those who support the Kyiv regime do not want to be accomplices of terror and sponsors of terrorism, but there are really a lot of questions.&#8221;
“We know by whose hands this atrocity was committed against Russia and its people, and we are interested in who the instigator is,” Putin added.
The intelligence services for the U.S. and France have both pointed to ISIS-K as the sole entity responsible for the attacks. ISIS-K took credit for the attack just a few hours after it happened.
The U.S. issued a public warning more than two weeks ago urging Americans in Moscow to avoid large crowds, especially concerts.
The U.S. government also reached out to the Russian government and warned them that ISIS-K was planning the attack.
“We gave them that private warning consistent with our duty to warn &#8230; when we see or when we gather intelligence of terrorist attacks or potential terrorist attacks,” a U.S. official said on Monday.
Russia failed to stop the attack.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-secretly-warned-iran-that-isis-was-plotting-terror-attack-iran-didnt-listen-and-dozens-were-murdered-report">U.S. Secretly Warned Iran That ISIS Was Plotting Terror Attack; Iran Didn’t Listen And Dozens Were Murdered</a>

RUSSIA-MOSCOW-CONCERT VENUE-SHOOTING

Putin Acknowledges Islamic Terrorists Carried Out Attack In Moscow

Russia

Vladimir Putin

Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/marco-rubio" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marco Rubio</a> (R-FL) said over the weekend that FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed to him that a trafficking network exists that smuggles illegal aliens into the U.S. who have ties to ISIS.
Rubio made the remarks during a Sunday interview on ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; while discussing ISIS-K&#8217;s devastating terrorist attack in Moscow late last week, which killed well over a hundred people.
&#8220;ISIS-K, ISIS-Khorasan, is largely the Afghan-wing of ISIS,&#8221; Rubio said. &#8220;It&#8217;s reconstituted itself as we warned would happen when we had this disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. One of the reasons why we didn&#8217;t want to withdraw precipitously is because you gave them operating space to reorganize themselves and plan externally. And since that time, they&#8217;ve attacked inside of Afghanistan.&#8221;
Rubio noted that ISIS-K was responsible for the deadly suicide blast that left 13 American service members dead at Kabul International Airport back in 2021 during President Joe Biden&#8217;s disastrous withdraw from the country.
They also recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-secretly-warned-iran-that-isis-was-plotting-terror-attack-iran-didnt-listen-and-dozens-were-murdered-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted</a> a major attack in Iran that resulted in more than 80 deaths.
&#8220;And they&#8217;ll do it here in the homeland,&#8221; Rubio said. &#8220;I think we should be very concerned as the FBI director confirmed to me that there is a wing – there is a trafficking network out there that specializes in moving people. They do it for profit, moving people and migrants around the world, including across our southern border, who have links to ISIS.&#8221;
&#8220;I think common sense tells you, if they run a trafficking network of people, they would most certainly use it to move operatives into the United States,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So, I&#8217;m not claiming there’s an imminent threat to the U.S., but I am saying that border situation and that existence of that network is a threat to the United States. If they could do what they did in Moscow in the United States, they would do it in a heartbeat. They want to do it.&#8221;
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Rubio noted that under former President Donald Trump, &#8220;ISIS was basically out of business,&#8221; but now, under a weak Biden administration, &#8220;they&#8217;ve reconstituted themselves.&#8221;
&#8220;And part of it is, once we leave Afghanistan and we&#8217;re no longer there to conduct regular strikes, they can now operate openly. No matter how much the Taliban wants to take them on, they can&#8217;t. They don&#8217;t have the capability to do it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And these guys have found a place to operate from. They need real estate. They need land and places where they can organize and do external plotting.&#8221;
&#8220;Now, it’s a lot easier for them to get into Iran. It’s a lot easier for them to get into Russia and do these things,&#8221; he added. &#8220;But their aspirations go beyond Russia and Iran. They would love to do what they did in Moscow here inside the United States. And it&#8217;s something we have to be very vigilant about when we have a border in which 9 million people have come across in the last three years.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
After ISIS-K claims responsibility for terror attack in Russia, Sen. Marco Rubio tells <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JonKarl</a> that the U.S. needs to remain &quot;very vigilant&quot; about border security.
“They would love to do what they did in Moscow here inside the United States.” <a href="https://t.co/kVytjz9qLw">https://t.co/kVytjz9qLw</a> <a href="https://t.co/fMvGLKR4yY">pic.twitter.com/fMvGLKR4yY</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1771894991377363238?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Senate Lacks Votes to Advance Border Deal, Ukraine Aid Package

Rubio: FBI Director ‘Confirmed To Me’ A Trafficking Network Exists That Smuggles ISIS-Linked People Into U.S.

Marco Rubio

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said over the weekend that the threat of terrorist attacks from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/isis-k" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ISIS-K</a> is growing after the Islamic terrorist group carried out a large attack late last week in Russia.
The remarks from McCaul, which he made on CBS News&#8217; &#8220;Face The Nation,&#8221; come as Russian officials continued to search for bodies in a concert hall outside Moscow where four heavily armed gunmen opened fire before setting the building on fire.
&#8220;This attack in Moscow was carried out by ISIS-K, a group that typically emanates out of Afghanistan,&#8221; said host Margaret Brennan. &#8220;We know the U.S. had advanced warning. From what you know, is there an ongoing threat in Eurasia, and are U.S. interests a target?&#8221;
&#8220;Yes, I believe so,&#8221; McCaul responded. &#8220;I think that the CENTCOM Commander, General Kurilla, just testified this week before Congress that, within six months, that ISIS-K would have the capability to operate outside of Afghanistan, to do external operations. And it only took six days before they hit Moscow, or outside of Moscow.&#8221;
&#8220;And I think Europe is of concern,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And it&#8217;s sort of like we&#8217;re going back to that old playbook where history repeats itself. And that&#8217;s why the fall of Afghanistan, the way it was done, and the way we left it with no ISR capability, that intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, puts us in danger, where this is a new battleground training ground for ISIS.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Rep. Michael McCaul says Speaker Mike Johnson is in a &quot;difficult spot&quot; regarding Ukraine aid bill" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yN2BHoTb5Z0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

China Task Force Presser

Michael McCaul: ISIS-K Terror Threat Growing After Moscow Attack

Michael McCaul

It&#8217;s been more than two years since the United States abandoned its allies in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/afghanistan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Afghanistan</a>.
While America seems to have moved on from this dark page of history, many of our veterans have not. Veteran volunteer groups like <a href="https://www.moralcompassfederation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Moral Compass Federation</a> continue to sound the alarm, because the terror warning dashboard light on Afghanistan is now blinking red.
As we enter this turbulent election year, a serious national security threat of global terrorism has been eclipsed by sensational <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-delays-verdict-in-trumps-ny-civil-business-fraud-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">civil trials</a> and unprecedented partisan mudslinging. In order to bring the terror threat into sharp focus this election year, here are three things that might surprise you about Afghanistan:
<h4>An Estimated <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/afghanistan-reemerging-as-a-terrorism-incubator-/7230546.html">20 Terror Groups</a> Are Operating In Afghanistan</h4>
The son of Osama bin Laden, Abdallah bin Laden, has been spotted as recently as 2023 in Ghazni and Kandahar Provinces. Is he enjoying the tourist season in Afghanistan? Doubtful. A new report from the UN Security Council paints a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/experts-terrorist-threat-high-africa-conflict-zones-afghanistan-106885842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grim picture</a> of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2024/02/01/al-qaida-islamic-state-terrorist-threats-africa-afghanistan/adce324a-c16e-11ee-a4c6-8f5c350e9316_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">terror threats</a> in Afghanistan. <a href="https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-enduring-duel-islamic-state-khorasans-survival-under-afghanistans-new-rulers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ISIS-K </a>currently presents the greatest threat. They are assessed by the UN intelligence community as capable of projecting effective terror threats on a global level. Al-Qaeda is also re-generating rapidly from a strategic messaging entity to an operational force. While they only possess a regional capacity at the moment, they have aspirations (and the potential) to strike on a global scale. This is evidenced by the fact that Al-Qaeda has reportedly opened eight new <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-taliban-al-qaeda-growing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">training camps</a> in Afghanistan. There are also five Al-Qaeda sponsored <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/02/01/al-qaeda-opens-8-new-training-camps-5-madrasas-and-a-facilitation-network-to-iran-in-afghanistan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">madrasas</a> inside Afghanistan&#8217;s borders where thousands of future terrorists are radicalized for future strikes, regionally and globally.
<h4>The State Department Sends $80 Million To The Taliban Every 10-14 Days</h4>
<a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/taliban-controlled-afghanistan-gets-80-million-cash-infusion-every-two-weeks-watchdog-says/">According</a> to the UN, there&#8217;s been more than $2 billion sent to the Taliban since the collapse. While the Biden administration contends that these funds are used for humanitarian aid, veterans&#8217; groups and intelligence insiders assert that much of this money gets funneled into other nefarious uses, including into madrassas. More than two million students have graduated from these institutions of radicalization since the collapse in Afghanistan. There is little to no external oversight inside Afghanistan to ensure this foreign aid is applied responsibly, and not for terrorist activities. In fact, John Sopkos, Director of the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3959603-afghanistan-watchdog-cant-guarantee-us-tax-dollars-not-currently-funding-the-taliban/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a recent 2023 Congressional Testimony that he &#8220;cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer [that] we are not currently funding the Taliban.&#8221; 
<h4>A Small Group Of Afghans Are Actively Resisting The Taliban</h4>
The NRF is led by <a href="https://www.mccaininstitute.org/the-sedona-forum/speaker/ahmad-massoud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ahmad Massoud</a>, the son of the slain Northern Alliance Leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud, killed by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers just before the attacks on September 11, 2001. As Afghanistan collapsed, resistance fighters consolidated in the Panjshir Valley of Northeast Afghanistan to make their stand against the oppressive Taliban rule. It hasn&#8217;t been easy. The NRF has almost no external support. The State Department refuses to officially engage the political wing of the NRF, opting instead to push for engagement with the Taliban — a group who practices a neanderthal version of “gender apartheid” on a grand scale. Yet the NRF conducts <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/no-current-talks-with-taliban-afghanistans-massoud-says-promising-guerrilla-2023-09-29/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">determined attacks</a> against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda Allies. The resistance is the only force attempting to disrupt otherwise unfettered terror activity in this safe haven we created by our irresponsible exit. Many veterans, concerned with the growing terror threat in Afghanistan have voiced their support for the NRF in an organization called <a href="https://www.vets4nrf.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vets4NRF</a>.
The abandonment of our Afghan Allies of 20 years heaped a moral injury on an entire generation of American Veterans who voluntarily fought the longest war in American History. This violation of a strict veteran code of never abandoning our allies by our political, diplomatic, and senior military leaders has resulted in increased mental health issues across the veteran community. It has also contributed to recruiting and retention issues in the military.
We shouldn’t turn the page on Afghanistan. If we do, our enemies have a vote in the outcome, and they&#8217;ll make us pay for it. Veterans serve as our moral compass when institutional leadership fails. They should get loud this election year. They should continue to demand support for our at-risk and highly vetted allies. Helping our Afghan Allies, helps our veterans.
We also need Americans to bring the growing threat in Afghanistan back onto the main stage this election year. The NRF isn&#8217;t looking for American boots on the ground. Perhaps instead of cutting those 40-million-dollar-a-week checks to the Taliban, we should send them to the only outfit that&#8217;s directly standing up to terrorism, the NRF.
Because if we stay on this current path of directly financing terror groups and pretending the Taliban will behave in our best interest, there will be American boots on the ground, only they&#8217;ll be worn by our children.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a></h4>
* * *
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Scott Mann is a former U.S. Army Green Beret with tours all over the world including Colombia, Iraq, and multiple tours in Afghanistan. He is a warrior storyteller and the founder of <a href="https://rooftopleadership.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rooftop Leadership</a> and the author of the instant New York Times Best-Seller, <a href="https://operationpineappleexpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Operation Pineapple Express</a>. He has since founded <a href="https://operelief.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Operation Pineapple Express Relief</a>, a 501c3 to help support the emergency needs of our Afghan allies such as safe passage out of Afghanistan, plus unforeseen resettlement needs.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

AFGHANISTAN-CONFLICT

Three Surprising Facts About Today’s Afghanistan

Three Surprising Facts About Today's Afghanistan

Al Qaeda

Biden Administration

Readers Pass

State Department

Terrorists

U.S. Military

The U.S. secretly warned the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/iran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Islamic Republic of Iran</a> earlier this month that ISIS was planning to carry out a terrorist attack inside of the country, a plan that Iran failed to stop, which resulted in the deaths of 84 Iranians with hundreds more being injured.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-secretly-alerted-iran-ahead-of-islamic-state-terrorist-attack-af77a19a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that U.S. intelligence discovered the plot from one of ISIS&#8217; affiliates, ISIS-K, to conduct suicide bombings in the southeastern town of Kerman.
The information that was relayed to Iran was specific enough that Iran could have stopped the attack or at least significantly reduced its effectiveness.
“Prior to ISIS’s terrorist attack on January 3, 2024, in Kerman, Iran, the U.S. government provided Iran with a private warning that there was a terrorist threat within Iranian borders,” a U.S. official said. “The U.S. government followed a longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy that has been implemented across administrations to warn governments against potential lethal threats. We provide these warnings in part because we do not want to see innocent lives lost in terror attacks.”
The suicide bombings targeted a large crowd that was commemorating the anniversary of the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) Qassem Soleiman, who U.S. forces killed in January 2020.
Iran appears to have ignored the warning from the U.S., the report said, as it failed to stop the attack and instead falsely suggested that the U.S. and Israel were linked to the ISIS terrorists. In an attempt to save face and avoid the wrath of the Iranian people, the top IRGC commander, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, claimed at a funeral for the victims that ISIS “has disappeared nowadays” and that Islamic terrorists “only act as mercenaries” for the U.S. and Israeli, the report said.
ISIS-K has grown significantly stronger in the region thanks to President Joe Biden&#8217;s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan in 2021 and is now stronger than Al-Qaeda, the report said.
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The report said that America&#8217;s longstanding policy is to notify everyone, including adversaries, if they are being targeted by a terrorist group. The exceptions to that rule include &#8220;if the intended victims are themselves terrorists or criminals, or if issuing a warning would endanger U.S. or allied government personnel, or intelligence or military operations.&#8221;
Iran is the world&#8217;s leading state sponsor of terrorism as it funds Islamic terrorist groups throughout the region that have launched hundreds of attacks against U.S. forces since mid-October.

Iranian Leader Vows ‘Harsh Response’ After Scores Killed In Bomb Blasts

U.S. Secretly Warned Iran That ISIS Was Plotting Terror Attack; Iran Didn’t Listen And Dozens Were Murdered: Report

U.S. Secretly Warned Iran That ISIS Was Plotting Terror Attack; Iran Didn't Listen And Dozens Were Murdered: Report

Iran

United States

Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that not only can the rejuvenated ISIS-K network in Afghanistan launch an attack against U.S. or Western interests abroad in under six months “with little or no warning,” but also hundreds of thousands of Americans abroad could be at risk.
Kurilla’s assessment came 19 months after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan implemented by President Biden which left the Taliban in charge of running the country.
Asked how long it takes ISIS-K to generate the capability to conduct external operations, Kurilla responded, “It is my commander&#8217;s estimate that they can do an external operation against U.S. or Western interests abroad in under six months with little to no warning.”
“I think it is a higher probability overseas than it is in the homeland,” Kurilla stated.
“If you assess six months against Europe or Asia what would you assess would be the timeline against the homeland?” Arkansas GOP Senator Tom Cotton asked.
“I think it&#8217;s hard to put a timeline on that but I asses that they could in as little as six months with little to no warning,” Kurilla replied.
“When you add up all the troops you have in your area of responsibility and Americans who are there for business or tourism or pilgrimages on any given day, what are we talking about? Probably hundreds of thousands, right?” Cotton asked.
“At least,” Kurilla said bluntly.
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“So hundreds of thousands within range of a terrorist attack, in your assessment in a mere six months from Afghanistan,” Cotton stated.
Kurilla simply nodded.
Kurilla also <a href="https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2023-03-16/centcom-kurilla-isis-afghanistan-attacks-9514063.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> that the quality of U.S. intelligence has plummeted since Biden’s withdrawal, as the “broad counters” of an attack can be ascertained but the U.S. no longer has the “granularity to see the full picture.”
“In Afghanistan, the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops nearly two years ago left a security vacuum that Taliban, al Qaeda, and ISIS have filled,” Mississippi GOP Senator Roger Wicker stated. “The Biden administration assured us that the Department of Defense would conduct counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan even without a limited number of U.S. troops on the ground, but the United States has only conducted one strike in more than a year. The withdrawal from Afghanistan emboldened both ISIS and al Qaeda affiliates
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U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command in Review of The Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2024 and The Future Years Defense Program

Hundred Of Thousands Of Americans At Risk From Resurgent ISIS-K In Afghanistan, Top General Warns

Hundred Of Thousands Of Americans At Risk From Resurgent ISIS In Afghanistan, Top General Warns

Central Command

Tom Cotton

New reports from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/afghanistan">Afghanistan</a> indicate that at least 21 people have been killed and 33 have been injured in a bombing in the capital city of Kabul.
The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/death-toll-kabul-mosque-bombing-rises-taliban-says">attack</a> took place on Wednesday evening, roughly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-is-the-day-of-conquest-taliban-celebrates-1-year-anniversary-of-u-s-withdrawal">one year after the Biden administration’s haphazard withdrawal</a> and the rapid collapse of the American-backed government. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but as recently as <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bombing-kabul-mosque-kills-10-including-prominent-cleric-88505346">last week</a>, ISIS killed a prominent Taliban cleric in the capital.
“It was evening prayer time, and I was attending the prayer with others, when the explosion happened,” a witness named Qyaamuddin <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bombing-kabul-mosque-kills-10-including-prominent-cleric-88505346">told</a> the Associated Press. Qyaamuddin estimated that as many as 25 people may have been killed in the explosion. Another eyewitness reported that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
The Italian Emergency Hospital in Kabul said that at least 27 civilians, including 5 children, were brought there from the blast zone for treatment.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attacks, promising that &#8220;perpetrators of such crimes will soon be brought to justice and will be punished.&#8221; Nevertheless, the attack shows that the persistent violent conflict that has plagued the country for decades may be far from over.
Since taking power, the Taliban has faced serious economic problems as much of the international community does not recognize them as a legitimate government and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/15/politics/biden-administration-taliban-assets/index.html">billions of dollars of Afghan assets</a> have been frozen by the U.S. and other nations. Conflict with a local affiliate of ISIS and defectors from the regime pose further problems, although <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/death-toll-in-afghan-capital-mosque-bombing-rises-to-21-police-say">on Wednesday</a>, the Taliban reportedly killed one such defector, Mehdi Mujahid, a former commander of theirs from the predominantly Shiite Hazara ethnic group, who had reportedly been trying to cross into Iran.
The Taliban reportedly remains close with the terrorist group Al Qaeda, and a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/al-qaeda-now-has-safe-haven-in-afghanistan-under-taliban-operating-with-freedom-of-action-u-n-report">UN report</a> raised concerns that Afghanistan has become a “safe haven” for them. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-u-s-intel-kills-leader-of-al-qaeda-who-took-over-after-bin-laden-reports-say">Earlier this month</a> the United States killed Al Qaeda’s leader and Osama Bin Laden’s mentor/successor Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul; Al-Zawahiri had been staying in the home of a high-ranking Taliban official.
The renaissance of Islamic terrorist groups the Afghanistan follows a decades-spanning mission to eliminate those organizations and deny them a safe haven to launch further attacks. While removing the U.S. military presence in the country was broadly popular, President Biden’s handling of the evacuation has been widely pilloried, as over <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/17/thousands-of-afghan-allies-still-trapped-year-after-biden-exodus/">1,000 Americans</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-hasty-withdrawal-u-s-left-behind-7b-of-military-gear-including-78-aircraft-and-12000-humvees-in-afghanistan-report">$7 billion</a> worth of military equipment were left behind, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-hero-u-s-military-members-killed-in-kabul-airport-attack-most-too-young-to-remember-9-11">13 service members</a> were killed in the process.

AFGHANISTAN-BLAST-PEOPLE

At Least 21 Killed In Kabul Mosque Bombing

Taliban

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) took some time on Wednesday to honor his Deputy National Security Advisor, Lieutenant Kristen Trindle, for her service in Afghanistan during last year&#8217;s evacuation.
&#8220;America’s retreat from Afghanistan was a dark chapter for our country,&#8221; Cotton <a href="https://swark.today/sen-tom-cotton-honoring-navy-reservist-and-my-deputy-national-security-advisor-kristen-trindle-for-kabul-deployment/">began</a>. &#8220;We all remember the terrible scenes of desperate people clinging to the undersides of planes, of Taliban thugs beating innocent people, and, most tragically of all, 13 flag-draped caskets containing the remains of brave American servicemen and women, killed by an ISIS suicide bomb. We will never forget those tragic events. They’re grim reminders about the wages of weakness in Washington.&#8221;
&#8220;For every act of cowardice in Washington, for every act of evil by our enemies, there is an act of even greater bravery by our troops,&#8221; <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/american-lives-are-at-risk-sen-cotton-blasts-report-on-biden-afghan-evacuee-screening-failures/">Cotton</a> continued. &#8220;As they always do, Americans redeem even the most forlorn missions through extraordinary action.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Sen. Cotton honors his Deputy National Security Adviser Kristen Trindle on the floor: &quot;I know that Lt. Trindle would be too humble to sit beside me today if she had any idea about what I&#39;m going to stay. Last year she took a leave of absence from her Senate duties to deploy&#8230;&quot; <a href="https://t.co/LQVBWCcGQl">pic.twitter.com/LQVBWCcGQl</a>
&mdash; Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspanJeremy/status/1519406418604052481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 27, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I&#8217;d like to recognize one of our nation&#8217;s heroes today,&#8221; he continued, turning to the woman seated just off to the side. &#8220;Navy Lieutenant Kristen Trindle is a member of my team in the Senate, where she does excellent work as my Deputy National Security Advisor after starting six years ago as my intern.&#8221;
&#8220;I know that Lt. Trindle would be too humble to sit beside me today if she had any idea about what I&#8217;m going to say,&#8221; Cotton continued. &#8220;Last year she took a leave of absence from her Senate duties to deploy with the Navy Reserves. That deployment took her to Kabul, the eye of the storm. Lt. Trindle served as aide de camp to the general in charge of the evacuation. Their mission? To save as many Americans and Afghan allies as possible from the advancing Taliban.&#8221;
Cotton went on to say that Trindle had been instrumental in assisting with developing <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/military-reserves-officer-allegedly-falsified-recommendation-letters-for-afghans-seeking-special-visas/">screening processes</a> for potential evacuees and coordinating the evacuation with other involved nations.
&#8220;Those actions alone would have been worthy of commendation, but Lt. Trindle went above and beyond the call of duty. She volunteered to leave the relative safety of headquarters to lead a clandestine extraction team charged with finding and recovering Americans and Afghan allies,&#8221; he added.
Cotton noted that Trindle did not flinch when those rescue missions required her to move sometimes within yards of the enemy, adding, &#8220;She executed these missions in the dead of night, despite confirmed threats, within sight of the enemy. Armed Taliban fighters were regularly within 100 yards of her position, beating and whipping civilians—and menacing Americans. Lt. Trindle was unphased by this danger.&#8221;
&#8220;The nation has awarded Lt. Trindle the Bronze Star for her actions during the evacuation. I had the great honor of presenting that medal to her earlier today,&#8221; Cotton concluded, noting that Trindle and her team had assisted in the rescue of 961 Americans and Afghan allies. &#8220;As the official account of Lt. Trindle’s action notes, she &#8216;achieved 100% mission success in the face of unparalleled chaos.&#8217; I would add that Lt. Trindle met “unparalleled chaos” with unparalleled courage. She deserves every bit of this high honor—and she deserves her country’s sincere gratitude.&#8221;

Senate Judiciary Committee Examines Texas’s Abortion Law

‘The Eye Of The Storm’: Tom Cotton Honors Staffer Who Earned Bronze Star During Afghan Evacuation

Joe Biden

U.S. Navy

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week that ISIS terror attacks are expected to start increasing as the summer nears and the Taliban is failing to shut them down.
&#8220;The Taliban is attempting to maintain pressure on ISIS. They&#8217;re finding it difficult to do so,&#8221; McKenzie <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/centcom-commander-isis-attacks-summer-taliban">said</a> on Tuesday. &#8220;We’re coming out of the winter; traditionally this would now begin the fighting season. It is my expectation that ISIS attacks will ramp up in Afghanistan as we go into the summer.&#8221;
McKenzie <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/general-on-bidens-afghanistan-disaster-u-s-lost-98-99-of-its-capability-to-track-terrorists-in-area">said</a> during an interview back in December that the U.S. had lost virtually all of its capability to track Islamic terrorists in al-Qaeda and other organizations inside Afghanistan after Democrat President Joe Biden’s chaotic and disastrous pullout from the country at the end of last summer.
The Associated Press <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-commander-al-qaeda-numbers-afghanistan-up">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Speaking at the Pentagon, McKenzie said it’s clear that al-Qaeda is attempting to rebuild its presence inside Afghanistan, which was the base from which it planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against the United States. He said some militants are coming into the country through its porous borders, but it is hard for the U.S. to track numbers. …
McKenzie and other senior U.S. military and national security officials had said before the U.S. withdrawal that it would complicate efforts to keep a lid on the al-Qaeda threat, in part because of the loss of on-the-ground intelligence information and the absence of a U.S.-friendly government in Kabul. The U.S. says it will rely on airstrikes from drones and other aircraft based beyond Afghanistan’s borders to respond to any extremist threats against the U.S. homeland.</blockquote>
“We’re probably at about 1 or 2% of the capabilities we once had to look into Afghanistan,” he said. The AP said that McKenzie warned that this meant that it was “very hard” to make sure that major terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS cannot use Afghanistan to launch attacks against the U.S.
McKenzie said during the interview late last year that ISIS was “reinvigorated” after the Taliban released numerous ISIS terrorists from Afghan prisons that were abandoned under Biden’s leadership. The ISIS terrorist who murdered 13 U.S. service members during a suicide attack at the airport in Kabul was reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/isis-suicide-bomber-who-murdered-13-u-s-troops-was-freed-from-bagram-prison-after-biden-withdrawal-indian-media-claims">released</a> from prison.
“Senior Indian intelligence sources familiar with the case have told Firstpost that he was handed over to the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency by the Research and Analysis Wing in September 2017,” Firstpost <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/kabul-airport-suicide-attacker-was-freed-by-taliban-after-four-years-in-cia-custody-for-new-delhi-terror-plot-9976961.html">reported</a>. “However, the jihadist walked free on 15 August along with thousands of other dangerous terrorists held in the high-security prison, taking advantage of the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of the United State’s hurried exit and the Taliban’s swift takeover of the entire country.”
“So certainly we should expect a resurgent ISIS. It would be very surprising if that weren’t the case,” McKenzie said, adding, “It remains to be seen that the Taliban are going to be able to take effective action against them.”
McKenzie said during a different interview last week that the U.S. Military was still trying to “look in Afghanistan for particularly ISIS-K targets and al-Qaida targets,” but that it was “difficult” to see the targets because of the loss of intelligence capabilities that Biden’s disaster caused.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie

CENTCOM Commander: ISIS Terror Attacks Will ‘Ramp Up’ In Near Future

ISIS

Military

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