Daily News Channel
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command has accused President Obama of supporting a Palestinian state that would do the bidding of Israel. “Obama wants a Palestinian state that works as a branch for the Israeli government,” Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a nearly 90-minute video called, “The Realities of Jihad and the Fallacies of Hypocrisy.” The latest in a series of such videos was posted Monday on radical Islamist Web sites by al Qaeda’s production company, As-Sahab Media.
NATO will stay in Afghanistan "for as long as it takes," the military alliance’s new leader said in Brussels, Belgium, Monday. “We will support the Afghan people for as long as it takes — let me repeat that, for as long as it takes,” said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who became secretary general on August 1
Every morning, Sangin Mohammed Rahmani says goodbye to his wife, gets on his bicycle, and sets out alone on a bumpy, unpaved Kabul road that he hopes will lead him to the presidency. “This is going to be my vehicle to success,” he says, patting his bicycle, as he pushes it down a rutted, garbage-strewn street. “With my bicycle and my mobile phone, I can solve all the problems of the people.” In a crowded field of 41 Afghan men and women running for president in upcoming August 20th elections, Rahmani stands out because of his one-man, bicycle-borne campaign to become commander-in-chief
In less than three weeks, Afghan voters — still reeling from one of the most violent months since the war on terror started — head to the polls for what some call the country’s first-ever truly contested election. Two candidates, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, have emerged as the top contenders among the dozens hoping to unseat President Hamid Karzai, who has led the country since shortly after the 2001 fall of the Taliban and is seeking re-election.
The British government on Saturday responded to a senior lawmaker’s call for an investigation into whether its intelligence agency, MI5, inadvertently recruited individuals involved with terrorist activity. A Home Office spokesman told CNN the department is not aware of MI5 recruiting extremists of any kind
The British government should refocus its objectives in Afghanistan and concentrate on one priority: security, a House of Commons committee said in a report released Sunday. The report also criticizes the NATO mission in Afghanistan, saying the lack of a unified vision and strategy is jeopardizing the military alliance’s reputation. Britain has moved away from its initial goals of counterterrorism in Afghanistan and has started working on areas it isn’t able to handle alone, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said in the report, which examines security in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Halfway through the first year of his historic administration, President Obama will give himself an early report card this weekend, assembling his Cabinet officials to review their performance and set new goals for the months ahead. All 22 Cabinet-rank officials will meet to discuss “priorities for the administration’s agenda moving forward,” a White House official said. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will kick off the two-day assessment with a dinner for the Cabinet on Friday evening at Blair House, the building across the street from the White House that hosts many foreign dignitaries when they visit Washington.
Civilian casualties resulting from Afghanistan’s war have spiked, jumping some 24 percent above figures from last year, the United Nations reported Friday.
An American who says he went to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan told interrogators that about the time he became an al Qaeda member he came across several Belgian and French militants.
When Bryant Neal Vinas spoke at length with Belgian prosecutors last March, he provided a fascinating and sometimes frightening insight into al Qaeda’s training — and its agenda. Vinas is a young American who was arrested in Pakistan late in 2008 after allegedly training with al Qaeda in the Afghan/Pakistan border area. He was repatriated to the United States and in January pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to murder U.S.