Ahmed Rashid interviewed by NPR's Terry Gross

Who's Ahmed Rashid? Glad you asked.

Here's what Joe Conason has to say about him:

"Ahmed Rashid may well be the single most knowledgeable English-speaking journalist covering the world's Islamic movements. He has spent two decades reporting in the Middle East, Afghanistan and his native Pakistan (where he continues to reside in the city of Lahore). He is also the author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," and he is currently in the United States to promote the paperback release of his most recent book, "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia".

Having risked his safety on many occasions to investigate the Taliban, al-Qaida, Pakistani intelligence and other Islamist organizations -- whose extremism and terrorism he courageously opposes -- Rashid cannot be dismissed as any kind of apologist. (Years ago he was sentenced to death by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Islamist warlord and former CIA employee now fighting allied troops and the new government in Afghanistan.) His reporting appears regularly in some of the world's best publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the Far Eastern Economic Review, and is obviously considered highly credible by their editors. His analysis of the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan appeared Tuesday on the Journal's ultra-hawkish editorial page."

Link to Interview....it's very good.

Good info. about Ansar el-Islam.

Yeah, yeah, it's 44 minutes in length. But 44 well spent minutes.

Trust me. It's worth your time. No, really.