Terror in Afghanistan with Colin Smith, Graham Aikin - The Afghanistan Project Podcast Ep. 139

I'm thrilled to bring on two incredible experts on the expansion of terrorism in the Taliban's Afghanistan, Colin Smith, and Graham Aikin.

We discuss how terror groups have found safe haven in the Taliban's Afghanistan, including al Qaeda and Daesh, as well as groups like ETIM/TIP and TTP.

About Colin and Graham:

Colin Smith is the UK Threat Assessment Expert and Coordinator, overseeing the work of the United Nations’ Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which supports implementations of sanctions against the Taliban. The monitoring team also provides biannual assessments of the global threat that Al Qaeda and ISIL and its affiliates pose. Colin was a British diplomat in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office for twenty years, focusing on national security and counter-terrorism.
Find the latest UN Monitoring Team assessment here:
https://docs.un.org/en/S/2026/44

Graham Aikin is a part-time PhD student within King's Centre for the Study of Intelligence, where he is researching the resurgence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan since the withdrawal in 2021, with a particular focus on the challenges of intelligence collection. He holds a joint law degree from the University of Central Lancashire and Central Connecticut State University, from where he graduated in 2003. He spent several years as a senior private banker with Coutts & Co, where he developed an extensive knowledge of tax havens, terrorism financing and sanctions, before establishing his own training consultancy in 2012. He has studied extensively the events of 9/11, its antecedents and the subsequent ‘Global War on Terror’. Graham undertook a Master’s degree in Covert Action, HUMINT and the Psychology of Intelligence Elicitation and his Master’s dissertation focused on the Investigatory Power’s Commissioner’s role in overseeing the UK intelligence agencies treatment of detainees and the sharing of intelligence with their liaison partners. Find Graham’s latest article here: https://kcsi.uk/kcsi-insights/not-your-fathers-afghanistan-is-the-west-taking-its-eye-off-the-al-qaeda-ball

About the host: Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

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