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For our Tuesday Terror update we are going to look at three Podcasts with the Long War Journal’s Thomas Joscelyn & Bill Roggio. John Batchelor interviews them weekly for his show on Monday evening and the podcast drops in the morning. Typically, they are divided in two parts.
The first portion is about 12 minutes and can be found here: https://audioboom.com/posts/7561909-the-taliban-attacks-isis-recruits-central-asians-in-germany-thomasjoscelyn-billroggio-fdd
- They discuss a Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan and how it is okay that they still attack the Afghan Government Forces, about 22 total casualties. The peace agreement is between the U.S. and Taliban forces and not the Afghanistan government.
- Air strikes are still being conducted on the Taliban and there is a dispute on who is doing it, the U.S. or the Afghan Government’s Forces.
- They state that there is no credible deal with the Taliban and that the Taliban expects to take over the country after the U.S. leaves. There are still ‘hundreds’ of attacks on the Afghan Government forces.
- The Taliban has made a statement that if the corona-virus breaks out in area, they will not attack there. They are trying to act like a state player using clever messaging and care about the health and welfare of the Afghan people.
- Ultimately, Joscelyn and Roggio believe the Taliban wants complete control.
- They then discuss the recent arrests in Germany of ISIS fighters and how this is a global problem because of the interconnections (Tajikistan) of groups and countries. According to German authorities they were planning on attacking U.S. forces in Germany.
- The magnet of jihad is still strong despite loss of leaders. There is still a command and control component that is left. There are redundancies for decapitating the leadership but the infrastructure still exists.
After listening to this, and watching the FRONTLINE episode that we reported on last Friday, I cannot help but think of how untenable the Buchanan piece, The Case for Maintaining an Advisory Presence in Afghanistan, that we discussed yesterday is. I simply cannot envision a future where American advisors are left in place in Afghanistan with the current government. Simply put, the Taliban seeks to rule and I believe will not be satisfied until they achieve total control. So, unless we end up advising the Taliban, I do not see how it could happen.
Part two is about eight minutes:
https://audioboom.com/posts/7561916-the-killers-of-daniel-pearl-thomasjoscelyn-billroggio-fdd
In this episode they provide a short recap of the Podcast Tom and Bill released last week.
- They discuss the capture and execution of Daniel Pearl by Al Qaeda and the conviction of the perpetrators in Pakistan. How a Pakistani court reversed the conviction of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of numerous Pakistani relationships with Al Qaeda. Pearl was researching the origin and networks of Al Qaeda when he was captured and killed by Khaled Sheik Mohammed who is still being held in Guantanamo.
- They then go on to discuss the “Wheel of Jihad” (I think Tom and Bill have been watching a lot of Game of Thrones lately) and how interconnected all of the links are with Pakistan.
Also at the Long War Journal Thomas Joscelyn & Bill Roggio, drop their latest Podcast Generation Jihad: Ep. 6 – Hezbollah’s Main Man in Iraq. The podcast drops every Tuesday morning, it’s about an hour, but is well worth the listen. They describe the concept of the podcast as such:
“Take a look around the globe today and you’ll see jihadists fighting everywhere from West Africa to Southeast Asia. They aren’t the dominant force in all of those areas, or even most of them. But jihadism has mushroomed into a worldwide movement, with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and other groups waging guerrilla warfare and launching terrorist attacks on a regular basis.
Each week Generation Jihad brings you a new story focusing on jihadism around the globe. These stories will focus not only on Sunni jihadism, but also Shiite extremist groups. We will also host guests who can provide their own unique perspectives on current events.”
- They discuss a $10 million bounty for top level Hezbollah commander in Iraq. This reward is at the top tier of rewards, only one higher Zawahiri. This is on par with all the top bounties for senior level Al Qaeda. The Hezbollah commander is described as a senior leader of Hezbollah in Iraq and on par with Soleimani.
- Since U.S. invasion the Iranians have expanded their influence in the region primarily through Hezbollah, the Hezbollah Militias and others. They report these groups are directly responsible for U.S. deaths.
- Joscelyn and Roggio state that there are Iranian political objectives they are trying to achieve in Iraq with theses militias…trying to create the Iraqi version of the IRGC in Iraq with these groups. These groups have not integrated into the Iraqi military system.
- They discuss how large the recruiting base for the Shia militias are in Iraq, could be Hezbollah times 100. They then cover a little bit of the history with the Hezbollah Brigades and Mahdi Army. They state that the Iranians are using these groups as a force multiplier with many layers so they are not as vulnerable.
- Rat Line Maps indicated the two-prong problem in Iraq with Shia and Sunnis and how the surge addressed both problems. The Ramadan Core directed the militias then and now.
- Joscelyn and Roggio then discuss info graphics on Al Qaeda the websites that advertise their presence in Afghanistan. They highlight Al Qaeda’s global network and shows that they are not a ‘shadow of their former selves.’ They are claiming more than 340 operations in Afghanistan in the past few months. They claim that Al Qaeda is deeply embedded within the Taliban and are used as a force multiplier for the Taliban.
- No one really knows how many Al Qaeda fighters are really in Afghanistan because they leverage many layers of support to mask their numbers. They then cover a little history of how the assessment of the number of Al Qaeda members that actually exist.
- They then discuss the Pakistani Taliban Video highlights some of the problems that Joscelyn and Roggio have been highlighting for years that we discussed here. They cover the ‘Wheel of Jihad’ in more depth at this point, making the case for how all these groups are linked.
- Joscelyn and Roggio have maintained a database of jihadi names and groups and demonstrate how Al Qaeda has rebranded various groups and names for their benefit.
- Talk about their last episode ‘Banned in Pakistan’ and how it corroborated the Pakistani and Pakistani Taliban links to Al Qaeda and the cross-pollination of all of these groups.
- On the last portion of the Podcast they cover the ISIS connections in Germany more in depth. They highlight the Tajikistan and Uzbekistan connections and how what happens in Afghanistan does not stay in Afghanistan.
- They then cover some history of Jihad in Tajikistan going back at least 4 years and the current connection of Tajiks in Afghanistan. ISIS is competing with Al Qaeda in their recruiting in Central Asia and touch on Russian concerns in the area.
- They then discuss the capture of Aslam Farooqi, the emir or leader of ISIS in Afghanistan.
According to Pasbanan News Group, Information also shows that Aslam Farooqi has close ties with all terrorist networks such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Haqqani Network. Also, the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has arrested 19 other fighters, including Qari Zahid, known as the ISIL military chief in Afghanistan, and Saifullah, known as Abu Talha al-Pakistani, responsible for recruiting and engaging people for the group’s various inscription. These three key ISIL officials, along with several other fighters, were captured by Afghan National Security Forces in the Nangarhar province.
- ISIS is still engaged in heavy fighting in Syria and other places. Joscelyn and Roggio think this group will continue to be a problem and should continue to be monitored.
If you are at all interested in terrorism and you have the time, you should really give these a listen. Either of the these, or both really, should be listened to weekly.