Islamic Emirate: ‘Terrorists’ Placed in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

According to this information, these forces have been recruited from several Asian and European countries.

The Islamic Emirate’s Security & Clearance Commission of the Ministry of Defence has stated that, based on credible information, newly recruited forces are being transferred via Karachi and Islamabad airports to centers in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s tribal areas. Their objective is to carry out attacks in regional and global countries, particularly Afghanistan.

According to this information, these forces have been recruited from several Asian and European countries.

The commission, in its annual achievements report, also stated that the attacks carried out in Afghanistan over the past year were planned abroad and executed by foreign nationals, especially citizens of Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the commission’s spokesperson, Sediqullah Nusrat, has called on the UN Security Council and the international community to obtain information about Afghanistan’s security situation from the relevant institutions of the caretaker government.

Nusrat said: “The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly clarified that it will not allow Afghanistan’s territory to be used against other countries and calls on other nations not to provide shelter to malicious elements.”

He further said: “The Islamic Emirate, based on its religious responsibility, has sincerely fought against drug trafficking, and the international community and regional countries should obtain information in this regard by contacting the relevant institutions of the Islamic Emirate.”

The Security & Clearance Commission of the Ministry of Defence has also highlighted the reduction of criminal activities, strengthening border security, professionalization of security forces, and combating drug trafficking as its key achievements.

The commission has urged neighboring countries to prevent drug smuggling into Afghanistan and make greater efforts in combating drugs.

“Unless Pakistan decides not to be a troublesome neighbor for us, our policies will not progress. This is not the first Afghan government that Pakistan has had issues with,” Obaidullah Baheer, a political analyst, told TOLOnews.

Earlier, the Counter-Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Interior Affairs had also urged neighboring countries to prevent drug trafficking into Afghanistan.

Islamic Emirate: ‘Terrorists’ Placed in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
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Trump’s shadow looms over Dollar surge; one Dollar hits 75 Afghanis

On the first day of Donald Trump’s presidency, the exchange rate for one US dollar in the markets of Kabul was 75 Afghanis.

Currency exchangers stated today (Tuesday, January 21) that the buying rate for one US dollar is 75 Afghanis, while the selling rate is 75.10 Afghanis in the capital’s markets.

The value of the US dollar has increased, while the Central Bank of Afghanistan, in an effort to stabilize the Afghan currency, auctioned 18 million US dollars on Sunday to maintain the value of the Afghani.

It is noteworthy that as the dollar rate increases in the country, the prices of food items also rise. However, some citizens are urging the authorities to pay more attention to controlling these prices.

This comes at a time when newly elected US President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order to temporarily suspend all US foreign aid programs for 90 days. It is said that this suspension is to review how these programs align with his political objectives.

Meanwhile, after the establishment of the Taliban administration, the US has frozen about seven billion dollars of Afghanistan’s Central Bank assets. The US transferred 3.5 billion dollars to an escrow account in Switzerland and has kept the remaining 3.5 billion dollars frozen.

The spokesperson for the Taliban regime has repeatedly stated that the continued freezing of Afghanistan’s assets is “against all principles and an unjust action.”

The fluctuations in the dollar’s value against the Afghani have always been a challenge for the people, affecting their daily lives and the cost of living.

In light of these financial issues, many are calling for urgent measures to stabilize the currency and address the economic challenges facing the country. The international community’s role in supporting Afghanistan’s economic stability will likely continue to be a significant topic of discussion in the coming months.

Trump’s shadow looms over Dollar surge; one Dollar hits 75 Afghanis
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Trump’s Suspension of Refugee Admissions Puts Afghans at Risk, Advocate Says

The order “risks abandoning thousands of Afghan wartime allies” who worked with Americans before the Taliban takeover, the head of a resettlement group said.

An executive order signed by President Trump on Monday that suspends refugee admissions to the United States puts at risk thousands of citizens of Afghanistan who helped the American mission during the war there, the president of a California-based resettlement group said.

The order would affect not only scores of Afghans who are now in hiding from the Taliban’s repressive rule, but also family members of active-duty U.S. troops, said Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, a coalition of more than 250 organizations helping to resettle Afghans who worked with the Americans before the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

The order amounts to “another broken promise” by the United States, Mr. VanDiver said by email. It “risks abandoning thousands of Afghan wartime allies who stood alongside U.S. service members during two decades of conflict,” he added.

Mr. Trump’s order, titled “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program,” is set to take effect next Monday. It does not specify when the suspension will end, saying that it will continue “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”

Refugee programs have historically been a point of pride in the United States, reflecting its ambition to be seen as a leader on human rights. The president has usually made an annual determination about how many refugees to let into the country in any given year.

After the U.S. military’s chaotic retreat from Afghanistan as the Taliban took power, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome, allowing 76,000 evacuated Afghans to enter the United States for humanitarian reasons, according to the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

As of 2023, more than 90,000 Afghans had settled in the United States, according to statistics cited by Mustafa Babak, an Emerson Collective fellow who is an advocacy and resettlement expert. But U.S. refugee agencies had been bracing for the admissions program to be gutted since Mr. Trump won the November election.

During his first term as president, Mr. Trump signed an executive order barring people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the country. He slashed the annual U.S. refugee cap; in 2020, the final full year of his term, the United States admitted a record low number of refugees, about 11,000. The move left thousands of refugees stranded in camps in Kenya, Tanzania and Jordan.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. revived the program after becoming president in 2021. In the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2024, about 100,000 refugees arrived in the United States, the most in nearly three decades, records show.

The suspension of refugee admissions was one of a blizzard of executive orders signed by Mr. Trump within hours of his swearing-in on Monday. Other orders cracked down on illegal immigration and ended the U.S. program that allowed migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua to enter the United States for up to two years if they had a financial sponsor and passed security checks.

The refugee order states, “Over the last four years, the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Cities and small towns alike, from Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Ohio, to Whitewater, Wisconsin, have seen significant influxes of migrants. Even major urban centers such as New York City, Chicago, and Denver have sought federal aid to manage the burden of new arrivals.”

But Mr. VanDiver said surveys had shown strong support among the American public for the continued relocation and resettlement of Afghan allies.

He noted that people vetted under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program entered the country “only after receiving a government or U.S. run nonprofit referral and after undergoing extensive service verification, background checks, medical screening and rigorous security vetting.”

Now, he said, Mr. Trump’s executive action will plunge thousands of Afghan refugees into limbo by freezing all cases where they stand and preventing Afghans from boarding flights to the United States. He said another executive order by Mr. Trump — about protecting the country from “foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats” — had provisions that could further affect Afghan nationals seeking refuge in the United States.

Mr. VanDiver said his coalition, which works to secure special visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. mission, had sent a letter signed by more than 700 people, including veterans and civilians who worked in Afghanistan, “urging the administration to exempt Afghan allies from this pause.”

Among those who could be shut out are “family members of active duty DoD service members and partner forces who trained, fought and died alongside U.S. troops,” Mr. VanDiver said, referring to the Department of Defense.

“Failing to protect our Afghan allies sends a dangerous message to the world: that U.S. commitments are conditional and temporary,” he said. “This decision undermines global trust in our leadership and jeopardizes future alliances.”

Yonette Joseph is a senior editor based in Mexico City.

Trump’s Suspension of Refugee Admissions Puts Afghans at Risk, Advocate Says
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White House cheers release of two Americans freed in a swap with Taliban brokered by Biden, Qatar

By ZEKE MILLERJON GAMBRELL and AAMER MADHANI\

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.

The deal to release two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, was brokered by Joe Biden ‘s administration before he left office Monday, according to a Trump administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul said the two U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008.

Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, on Monday handed power to President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

That is likely a tall order, as most countries still don’t recognize the Taliban’s rule and two other Americans are believed held. The Trump White House cheered the release and thanked Qatar for its assistance with the deal while pressing the Taliban to free other Americans.

“The Trump Administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.

U.S., Taliban and Qatar involved in the swap

Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family when the U.S.-backed government collapsed in 2021, was detained by the Taliban in August 2022 on a business trip.

“Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family’s statement said. They thanked both Trump and Biden.

Corbett’s family also praised Qatari officials “for their vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.” Qatar has hosted negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban over the years.

A Qatar Foreign Ministry statement said those who were traded passed through Doha and that it hopes the deal “would pave the way for achieving further understandings” to resolve disputes peacefully.

It was unclear what McKenty was doing in Afghanistan.

Biden administration’s effort to get a deal

Before Biden left office, his administration had been trying to work out a deal to free Corbett, McKenty as well as George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi, in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Taliban had rejected multiple proposals that also would have included Glezmann and Habibi before accepting the deal to release Corbett and McKenty late last week following negotiations in Qatar, according to a former senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that Biden officials found in past negotiations for American detainees in Russia that “one deal can make it easier to get future ones” and that the Trump administration should continue to push the Taliban for Glezmann and Habibi.

Russia had rejected proposals to include American Paul Whelan in separate prisoner swaps that freed Americans Trevor Reed and Britney Griner before ultimately including Whelan in a 24-person deal that included Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich and others.

Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country. Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, also went missing in 2022. The Taliban have denied they have Habibi.

Habibi’s family welcomed the exchange and said they were confident the Trump administration would make a “greater effort” to free him, expressing their frustration with the Biden team.

“We know they have evidence my brother is alive and in Taliban hands and it could have been influential in encouraging the Taliban to admit they have him,” Habibi’s brother Ahmed said in a statement shared by the nonprofit Global Reach.

Biden officials “refused to use” the evidence, he claimed. “We know Trump is about results and we have faith he will use every tool available to get Mahmood home.”

The trade for Corbett and McKenty was originally supposed to take place Sunday night but had to be delayed until Tuesday because of logistical delays, including bad weather, the former Biden administration official said.

Taliban prisoner first convicted of narco-terrorism

Mohammed, 55, was a prisoner in California after his 2008 conviction. The Bureau of Prisons early Tuesday listed Mohammed as not being in their custody.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, a Taliban Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson, said Mohammed had arrived in Afghanistan and was with his family. Photos released by the Taliban showed him being welcomed back in his home province of Nangarhar, in the country’s east, with multicolored garlands.

Mohammed told Taliban-controlled media he had spent time behind bars in Bagram and in Washington.

“It’s a joy seeing your family and coming to your homeland. The greatest joy is to come and join your Muslim brothers,” he said.

He was detained on the battlefield in Nangarhar and later taken to the U.S. A federal jury convicted him on charges of securing heroin and opium that he knew were bound for the United States and, in doing so, assisting terrorism activity.

The Justice Department at the time referred to Mohammed as “a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” who “sought to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets.” He was the first person to be convicted on U.S. narco-terrorism laws.

Ahmed Rashid, the author of several books about Afghanistan and the Taliban, described Mohammed as the “biggest drugs smuggler the U.S. had to deal with and key funder of the Taliban.”

Taliban try to gain international recognition

The Taliban called the exchange the result of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the U.S. and said it was a good example of solving problems through dialogue.

“The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” it said.

The Taliban have been trying to make inroads in being recognized, in part to escape the economic tailspin caused by their takeover. Billions in international funds were frozen, and tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans fled the country and took their money with them.

However, some nations have welcomed Taliban officials, like the United Arab Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. On Tuesday, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan again welcomed Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also heads the Haqqani network, a powerful force within the group blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government.

Haqqani is still wanted by the U.S. on a bounty of up to $10 million over his involvement in an attack that killed an American citizen and other assaults. The meeting came even as the UAE maintains a close relationship with the U.S.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Najib Jobain in Doha, Qatar, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

 

White House cheers release of two Americans freed in a swap with Taliban brokered by Biden, Qatar
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Taliban announces release of US citizens in prisoner swap deal

Al Jazeera

The Taliban government in Afghanistan has announced the release of two detained Americans in a prisoner swap deal with the United States.

The Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul did not name the US citizens but said they were exchanged for Khan Mohammad, who was arrested in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar two decades ago and has been serving a life sentence in a California prison.

“Following extensive and productive negotiations between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the United States of America, an agreement was reached facilitating the release of an Afghan Mujahid, Khan Mohammad, from a US prison in exchange for the release of American nationals,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday in a post on X.

The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, who was detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed he was released and thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Qatar.

“Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their website.

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The Afghan Foreign Ministry said the prisoner exchange, brokered by Qatar, was the result of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the US.

Qatar’s lead negotiator, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, confirmed the Gulf state’s mediation in the exchange, with all the released people going through Doha.

The announcement comes the day after the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who, during his first term in office, presided over a deal with the Taliban that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

After Trump’s election win in November, the Taliban government had said it hoped for a “new chapter” in relations with the US.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
Taliban announces release of US citizens in prisoner swap deal
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Iran Seeks Direct Intelligence Ties with Kabul

The Islamic Emirate delegation, which traveled to Iran and met with officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice of that country.

Iranian media outlets have reported that Iran has requested the establishment of a direct communication channel between the intelligence agencies of Kabul and Tehran.

The Islamic Emirate delegation, which traveled to Iran and met with officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Justice of that country, considered direct communication between the specialized sectors of both countries the most effective way to resolve common issues.

According to these reports, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Interior, in a meeting with the delegation from the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate, emphasized that the release of criminals, border issues, counterterrorism, drug trafficking, and human trafficking are key priorities in relations between the two countries.

IRNA reported: “Pourjamshidian considered the establishment of a direct communication channel between the intelligence, security, and law enforcement agencies of both sides effective in strengthening bilateral relations.”

“The only communication channel should be mutual respect for the laws and regulations of the concerned countries. I hope the Iranians will accept a politically stable Afghanistan next to them. The delegation from the Supreme Court should ensure that we no longer witness the execution of Afghans,” said Zalmay Afghan Yar, a military affairs expert.

The Supreme Court also stated in a press release that the Islamic Emirate delegation, in a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Minister of Justice, discussed the transfer of Afghan prisoners to their home country and cooperation between the Interpol police of both countries.

“We have problems with Iran regarding Afghan migrants and prisoners, which can only be resolved through dialogue,” said Saleem Paigir, a political affairs expert.

This comes after the Islamic Emirate delegation, in a meeting with the Deputy for International Affairs of the Iranian Judiciary, had requested a list of Afghan citizens sentenced to execution and sought alternative solutions to prevent their execution.

Iran Seeks Direct Intelligence Ties with Kabul
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Trump to Pull Nearly 1,660 Afghan Refugees from Flights: Sources

The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending US refugee programs, a US official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

According to Reuters, this group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the US, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” said VanDiver. “I’ve had to recharge my phone four times already today because so many are calling me.”

The US decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighboring Pakistan.

“We warned them that this was going to happen, but they did it anyway. We hope they will reconsider,” he said of contacts with Trump’s transition team.

The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been brought to the US by former President Joe Biden’s administration since the chaotic US troop withdrawal from Kabul.

One of the dozens of executive orders Trump was expected to sign after being sworn in suspended US refugee programs for at least four months.

Trump to Pull Nearly 1,660 Afghan Refugees from Flights: Sources
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Acting Justice Minister: Our Mission is Islamic Law, Not Global Approval

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, reiterated Sharaee’s statement, saying, “Our duty is not to convince the world, but to enforce Islamic law.”

Abdul Hakim Sharaee, the acting minister of justice, has stated that the Islamic Emirate’s mission is not to convince the world but to enforce Islamic law.

He further emphasized that maintaining the system and managing administrative affairs require laws and other legislative documents, and he urged government institutions to take this matter seriously in accordance with the directives of the Islamic Emirate’s leader.

Barakatullah Rasooli, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, reiterated Sharaee’s statement, saying, “Our duty is not to convince the world, but to enforce Islamic law.”

International relations expert Wais Naseri said, “Afghanistan is not isolated from the rest of the world; it must be part of the global community. Afghan governments should remain committed and accountable to both the world and the Afghan people.”

Political analyst Jannat Faheem Chakari said, “In administrative affairs, professional individuals and specialists handle technical matters, while in ideological aspects, people are obliged to adhere to Sharia and should not submit to the orders of any individual.”

According to a statement from the Ministry of Justice, the Director-General of Legislative Affairs emphasized that since the return of the Islamic Emirate to power, the legislative process in the country has undergone significant and positive changes. It was further stated that all laws are now drafted by scholars and experts based on Islamic jurisprudential sources.

Acting Justice Minister: Our Mission is Islamic Law, Not Global Approval
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Afghanistan Must Not Be Forgotten: Sergey Lavrov

Lavrov noted the United States’ continued interest in Afghanistan, adding that the US seeks to reclaim military equipment left behind in the country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed that Afghanistan should not be overlooked.

He further claimed that the US seeks to maintain its influence in Afghanistan by leveraging neighboring countries to achieve its strategic objectives.

“Let us not forget Afghanistan, where the Americans are also trying to restore their presence to some extent, using neighboring countries for this and thinking about returning their military infrastructure there,” Lavrov said.

Obaidullah Bahir, a university professor, emphasized the importance of maintaining balance in two key areas: “One is the balance of power, which is crucial for success in competitions, and the other is balancing domestic and foreign policies, which must be preserved.”

Meanwhile, some political analysts argue that the Islamic Emirate should align its foreign relations with other countries based on national interests.

Political analyst Moeen Gul Samkani said, “Afghanistan is in a position where both the East and the West need it. In such circumstances, we must maintain our balance and avoid leaning too much towards either side.”

Najib Rahman Shamal, another political analyst, said: “Establishing and expanding relations with other countries has been one of the interim government’s priorities over the past three to four years. However, since the government remains unrecognized internationally, these interactions and relationships continue to be unofficial.”

Over the past three years, the Islamic Emirate has expanded its ties with several countries, including Russia, China, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Turkey. However, no country has yet officially recognized the Islamic Emirate.

Afghanistan Must Not Be Forgotten: Sergey Lavrov
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For Trump’s national security adviser, Afghanistan still looms large

The Washington Post
January 19, 2025

In February 2020, Rep. Michael Waltz, then a first-term GOP lawmaker, received a coveted invitation to fly to his home state of Florida aboard Air Force One. During the flight, he seized the opportunity to lobby President Donald Trump about an issue to which he had devoted most of his career: the war in Afghanistan.

Trump had just approved a conditional peace agreement with the Taliban that called for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops within 14 months. Waltz, a Green Beret who had served two combat tours in Afghanistan, pleaded with the president to reconsider, arguing that the Taliban couldn’t be trusted and that the U.S. military needed to stay indefinitely. Yet Trump, who had campaigned on a promise to end the war, was unmoved. “We’ve been there so long,” he told Waltz, according to the congressman’s recently published memoirs. “It’s time.”

Despite their fundamental disagreement over the longest war in American history, Trump has tapped Waltz to return with him to the White House as national security adviser. The job does not require Senate confirmation but is one of the most powerful posts in Washington. In an administration that Trump is stacking with figures who share his isolationist leanings, Waltz stands out as the opposite: a post 9/11 veteran who still favors long-term commitments of U.S. troops to fight al-Qaeda, Islamic State and other terrorist groups overseas.

Waltz’s views are a reminder that sharp differences exist within Trump’s inner circle about how his “America first” campaign rhetoric should apply to myriad national-security challenges that his administration will inherit when it takes power next week.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Waltz, 50, downplayed his differences with Trump over Afghanistan and pledged to faithfully execute the boss’s wishes, pointedly drawing a contrast with aides who tried to obstruct Trump’s foreign policy decisions during his first term. “He welcomes disagreement. He welcomes the vigorous debate. But when he makes the decision, he expects you to implement it, and I will do that,” Waltz said.

At the same time, Waltz has made clear that his National Security Council staff at the White House — including career government employees — must be loyal to Trump. Last week, he told Breitbart News that he would ensure all staffers “are 100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.”

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Trump’s transition team, described Waltz’s difference of opinion with Trump over the 2020 deal with the Taliban as “not a disagreement but a discussion. Rep. Waltz clearly agreed with President Trump that there had to be a political solution in Afghanistan.”

In an email, Hughes noted that Trump decided at the end of his first term to leave a small military presence at Bagram air base in Afghanistan “to ensure the Taliban would honor their agreement.” Hughes blamed the Biden administration for bungling the final withdrawal.

When he moves into his West Wing office on Monday, Waltz will be responsible for coordinating U.S. policy on the world’s most pressing flash points, including relations with China, Russia, Ukraine and Iran. But he — and Trump — will also have to confront lingering fallout from Afghanistan and who should be held responsible for the war’s many failures.

After Trump’s term ended, President Joe Biden upheld his accord with the Taliban and ordered the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan to leave by September 2021. That culminated in the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, the emergency evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the frenzied exodus of thousands of Afghans who helped the United States during the war. Thirteen U.S. troops were killed in an attack during the final week of the withdrawal.

During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump promised to fire generals and diplomats who oversaw the 2021 pullout, excoriating them — and Biden — for the disastrous retreat. “We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day,” he told a National Guard conference in August.

Waltz also has criticized the Biden administration for botching the U.S. exit from Afghanistan. But unlike Trump, he has said it was a mistake for U.S. troops to leave and that they should have stayed for decades, if necessary, to deter jihadists and to maintain control over Bagram, a strategic air base near China’s western border.

In interviews, televised appearances and his writings, Waltz has repeatedly warned that terrorists are regrouping in Afghanistan and will try to attack America again as they did on 9/11. He has suggested the Pentagon may have to send forces back to Afghanistan eventually, just as it did to Iraq to fight the Islamic State three years after pulling out of that country in 2011.

“If we don’t fight the war on terrorism in places like Kandahar, that war will come to places like Kansas City,” Waltz wrote in “Hard Truths: Think and Lead Like a Green Beret,” a memoir that he published in October. “That’s not hyperbole — it is historical fact.”

In his interview with The Post, Waltz declined to specify how U.S. policy toward Afghanistan might change under Trump or to elaborate on scenarios under which U.S. forces could return there. But he emphasized that the United States needed to improve its ability to collect intelligence from inside the country.

Ever since Waltz rejoined the U.S. Army in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the war in Afghanistan has shaped his entire career in the military, politics, media and business. His extensive experience in the field left him more hawkish on Afghanistan than Trump, who soured on the war more than a decade ago and once called the prolonged conflict “a complete waste.”

Colleagues and friends say the lessons Waltz drew from Afghanistan have influenced his worldview and given him credibility with Trump, even if he and the president-elect have disagreed on the war.

“If you look at the breadth and depth of his experience, this guy has done it all, from the street level to the pinnacle of national security and his time in Congress,” said Ryan McCarthy, who served as Secretary of the Army during Trump’s presidency and has known Waltz since the 1990s, when they attended Virginia Military Institute, or VMI. “National security runs through his veins. It’s his passion, his life.”

Michael Vickers, a former senior U.S. intelligence official and Green Beret who worked with Waltz during the Bush and Obama administrations, said his main challenge as national security adviser would be to serve as “an honest broker” in the decision-making process at the White House and as a conduit between Trump and senior members of his Cabinet. He said Waltz was well-qualified for the role.

“The key thing is really the relationship with the president,” said Vickers, who also served as an independent director for a defense-contracting firm that Waltz co-founded. “It’s a pretty high-level political job as well as a national security job.”

From Florida to Afghanistan

Waltz as a Green Beret in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2006. (Michael Waltz)

A native Floridian, Waltz grew up in Jacksonville, raised by a single mother. In 1992, he moved to Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to attend VMI, a state-supported military college known for its exacting academic, physical and disciplinary standards.

Of the 430 “rats” — VMI’s term for new cadets — who enrolled with him, fewer than half made it to graduation four years later, he said in an oral-history interview for the Library of Congress. “You get your head shaved every Monday. You get the crap beat out of you by the upperclassmen. And eventually, at the end, you’re recognized as a human being,” he added.

Waltz received an Army ROTC scholarship and majored in international relations. He studied abroad at the University of Valencia and became fluent in Spanish. He also boxed for the VMI club team.

One of his roommates, Jon Sherrod, said Waltz thrived on the challenges that the school threw at them. “Mike chose VMI because of its rigorous standards. At 18, he was more clear-eyed about that than I ever was,” Sherrod recalled.

Upon graduation, Waltz was commissioned into the Army and assigned to an armored cavalry unit. He graduated from the Army’s Ranger school, a notoriously grueling course, and was selected to join the Special Forces and become a Green Beret.

In October 2000, Waltz left the Army to take a job as a management trainee with a diamond company. But a year later, after the 9/11 attacks, he rejoined the military as a part-time soldier in the Army National Guard, he said in his interview with The Post.

His introduction to Afghanistan came when he deployed with a Special Forces unit to Central Asia in 2003. From a base in neighboring Uzbekistan, he made brief trips into Afghanistan that didn’t involve combat, he told The Post.

When his call-up with the National Guard ended the following year, he landed a civilian staff job at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, focusing on counternarcotics policy. Because Afghanistan produced most of the world’s opium, he wrote in his memoir, the country demanded much of his time.

In September 2005, his National Guard unit returned to Afghanistan for a year-long deployment. As a captain with the 20th Special Forces Group, Waltz led a team of Green Berets that served as a liaison to NATO forces and other allies in southern Afghanistan.

Conditions had deteriorated since his last call-up. In remote areas, U.S. troops began to find themselves outnumbered by the resurgent Taliban.

‘You’re in the buzz saw’

In May 2006, Waltz and five other U.S. Special Forces personnel were guiding about three dozen allied troops from the United Arab Emirates on a mission to Musa Qala, in northern Helmand Province, to scout a location for a new firebase, according to an account provided by Waltz in “Warrior Diplomat,” another book that he published in 2014.

An operations officer at command headquarters had warned Waltz not to go, saying the route was too risky because of an influx of Taliban fighters. But Waltz and the UAE forces, which were part of the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan, resolved to press ahead anyway, he wrote.

After a few hours, their convoy of about eight vehicles ran into an ambush in the town of Sangin, where Taliban armed with mortars and rocket launchers pinned them down in a crossfire. The convoy became separated and struggled to fight its way out, Waltz wrote.

As Waltz’s armored Humvee hurtled along a dirt track, a Taliban sniper took aim at Gordon Cook, a Special Forces medic riding in the exposed rear of the vehicle. Cook was hit in the chest, right arm and left thigh, opening his femoral artery. In an interview with The Post, Cook said he remained conscious, but began to bleed out.

Gordon Cook waits for a medevac flight after he was wounded by a Taliban sniper. Waltz is credited with saving Cook’s life. “His bravery was unquestionable,” Cook said. (Gordon Cook)

Under fire, Waltz crawled into the back of the Humvee and applied a tourniquet to Cook’s leg just below the crotch, tying it so tightly that it tore muscle, ligaments and tendons, according to Cook. The wounded medic said he was drenched in blood and in the “worst pain of my life.” But the tourniquet worked and the bleeding slowed.

Yet they weren’t out of danger. Moments later, Cook recalled, he saw Waltz briefly knocked cold by a Taliban rocket that landed nearby. “I looked over and he had dirt and black s— all over his face and eyelids,” Cook said. “But then he got up, kind of shook it off and started returning fire.”

Miraculously, the convoy escaped without suffering any fatalities. Cook and two UAE soldiers were evacuated by helicopter to a field hospital.

Despite the ambush, Waltz and the UAE commander wanted to continue with their original mission, Waltz wrote in his book. The convoy regrouped and prepared to drive onward to Musa Qala, 30 miles to the north.

When Waltz radioed their plan to headquarters, however, the staff warned him that the firefight in Sangin was just a taste of what lay ahead. Surveillance aircraft showed a larger Taliban force massing nearby, according to Scott Mann, an Army lieutenant colonel who was on the headquarters staff.

“Of course, like a good Special Forces captain, he wanted to push on,” Mann, now retired, recalled in an interview. “I said, ‘Hey man, you’re going into a buzz saw. In fact, you’re in the buzz saw.’”

This time, Waltz listened and the convoy turned around. Over the following 12 hours, his team narrowly eluded Taliban fighters in close pursuit, thanks in part to a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship that arrived in time to wipe out two groups of insurgents. “His guys were really pinched,” Mann said in an interview. “I still get chills thinking about it because it was very, very bad.”

For his actions, Waltz was awarded a Bronze Star with a “V” device, denoting valor in combat. Cook, the medic, said he thought Waltz deserved additional recognition.

Years later, he offered to help nominate Waltz for a Silver Star, the U.S. military’s third-highest war decoration, for gallantry in action. But Waltz demurred. “He just said something to the effect of, ‘I’m not a medal chaser. Don’t do that,’” Cook recalled.

Cook said he remains a fervent admirer of Waltz — even though he’s not a fan of Trump.

“I’m not at all on the same political wavelength as Mike Waltz, but he saved my life that day and his bravery was unquestionable,” he said.

‘I knew they were full of it’

Waltz returned to his civilian job at the Pentagon in late 2006 and grew frustrated by a disconnect between how senior officials in Washington viewed the war and what he had observed in the field.

In his first book, Waltz wrote that the war had become “rudderless” because the Bush administration was preoccupied with the war in Iraq and had “basically outsourced” Afghanistan to NATO allies. Waltz strongly felt NATO was not up to the task. He had dealt with French, Dutch and other NATO troops in Afghanistan and found them risk-averse, difficult to coordinate and badly equipped.

In his interview with The Post, Waltz said his experiences with NATO forces left a lasting impression — one that echoes Trump’s harsh criticism of the military alliance.

“NATO was a phenomenal alliance in deterring the Cold War,” Waltz said. “But to see what a sad state their equipment has become and how politicized their chain of command was operationally in the field has certainly impacted my views now.”

At the Pentagon, Waltz took a new policy job as a country director for Afghanistan, then was detailed to the White House to work on counterterrorism issues for Vice President Dick Cheney.

As a junior White House staffer, however, he often bit his tongue in briefings when generals gave rosy assessments about how the war was unfolding, he said in his oral history interview. He became especially irked when they exaggerated their progress in training the Afghan security forces, a keystone of the U.S. war strategy.

Waltz said he witnessed “general after general saying, ‘Mr. President, I can turn this military, this Afghan army, around on my watch.’ And I knew they were full of it.”

At the outset of the Obama administration, Waltz briefly returned to his civilian job at the Pentagon. In March 2009, however, his National Guard unit mobilized again and he deployed for a third time to Afghanistan, this time as a major.

Obama had campaigned on a promise to fix the war and eventually boosted the number of U.S. troops to 100,000. In his books, Waltz wrote that the wave of reinforcements created a new set of problems, including a top-heavy and unresponsive chain of command. As a company commander, he sometimes needed to obtain authorizations from 12 different offices before his Special Forces teams could conduct raids against Taliban targets.

He also disagreed with Obama’s strategy for exiting Afghanistan, according to his memoirs. The president said the troop surge would be temporary, to buy time for the Afghan government to build up its forces and pressure the Taliban into peace talks. Waltz felt the United States needed to make an open-ended military commitment and not let up in Afghanistan. Unlike many in Washington, he still believed the Taliban could be defeated outright.

“The underlying theme of everything we were discussing seemed to be how to end the war rather than how to win it,” he wrote in “Warrior Diplomat,” his 2014 book.

Federal contracts and TV interviews

Disenchanted with Obama’s policies, Waltz resigned from his civilian government job in 2011. While he remained a reservist in the Army, he co-founded two private-sector companies in the field of national security.

One was Askari Associates LLC, a small geopolitical consulting firm. The other was Metis Solutions LLC, a Virginia-based defense contractor that ultimately earned him millions of dollars, documents show.

According to federal contracting records, Metis operated primarily at first as a services provider for the U.S. Special Operations Command, which is headquartered in Tampa. In 2016, a Northern Virginia venture capital firm, Blue Delta Capital Partners, invested in Metis, fueling an expansion.

With Waltz as CEO, the company grew from a handful of staff to 400 employees, with operations in 20 states and nine countries, according to a podcast interview that Waltz gave last year.

Kevin Robbins, a general partner at Blue Delta, said the firm invested in Metis because it was impressed with Waltz’s management skills, calling him “a very tough Green Beret.”

“We were writing a check to back Mike and the team and take the company to the next level,” Robbins said. “It was a phenomenal run.”

Metis obtained other federal contracts, including from the Treasury Department. Much of its work focused on analyzing how terrorist networks raise money. The Defense Department also paid Metis to send advisers to Kabul to work alongside Afghan ministries, records show.

Waltz sold his stake in the company when he ran for Congress in 2018, ultimately netting him between $5 million and $26 million, according to a financial disclosure form he submitted in 2020.

Meanwhile, Waltz’s credentials as a Green Beret and Afghanistan veteran opened doors for him in the media world.

The impetus was a 2014 deal negotiated by the Obama administration for the release of Bowe Bergdahl, an Army private whom the Taliban had held prisoner for five years. When Bergdahl was freed, Obama met with his parents in the White House Rose Garden and praised the soldier as a hero.

The description angered Waltz, who went public in interviews with his concerns. Waltz had led Special Forces teams that carried out an intensive — and risky — search for Bergdahl in 2009 when he went missing from a tiny outpost in eastern Afghanistan.

Though the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s disappearance were murky at the time, Waltz and others viewed him as a deserter who had endangered hundreds of U.S. personnel by forcing them to conduct a search in hostile territory. Bergdahl later admitted that he abandoned his post because he was unhappy with conditions in the Army. He was captured by the Taliban shortly afterward.

A telegenic Green Beret, Waltz soon found a regular home on Fox News, where he expanded his repertoire beyond the Bergdahl case to become a national security commentator and a critic of Obama’s foreign policy.

In January 2018, he used his perch on Fox to declare his candidacy for Congress. Brian Kilmeade, a host on Fox & Friends, was effusive. “If you want a guy that’s good on business, good on camera, who served in the military with distinction, you’re looking at him,” Kilmeade said.

Waltz defeated Democrat Nancy Soderbergh in November 2018, making him the first Green Beret to win a seat in Congress. Though Waltz did not deploy again to Afghanistan, he remained in the Army National Guard until 2023, when he retired as a colonel. Over his 26-year military career, he received four Bronze Stars, including two with the “V” device for valor, according to his Army service records.

During his first term in Congress, Waltz bonded with Trump on a May 2020 trip to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to observe the launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and two astronauts to the International Space Station. Their relationship strengthened during last year’s presidential campaign.

In August, Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery to mark the three-year anniversary of a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans at the Kabul airport.

Federal law prohibits election-related activities at the hallowed site. A Trump campaign staffer got into an altercation with an Army official who tried to block the operative from recording video of Trump amid the gravestones.

The dustup kindled a national debate over whether Trump was politicizing the deaths of U.S. military personnel — or, in his supporters’ view, trying to hold the Biden administration accountable for botching the conclusion of the war.

One of the loudest voices defending Trump belonged to Waltz, who joined him at Arlington for the commemoration. Despite their past differences over Afghanistan, the retired Army colonel had built a rapport with Trump and introduced him to relatives of some of the fallen troops being honored that day. (While several of the Gold Star families supported Trump’s role at the ceremony, others declined to take part).

“Those families wanted him there,” Waltz said in an Aug. 30 interview on Fox News with Pete Hegseth, a talk-show host and fellow Afghanistan war veteran whom Trump has since nominated to serve as defense secretary. “And damn it, they deserve to have whatever they want.”

Alex Horton and Nate Jones contributed to this report.

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