[KhaamaPress] US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West in a Twitter post said that his country will add an extra amount of $474 million this year in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Thomas West said the United States has offered the people of Afghanistan one million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX.
According to the special representative, the new consignment of vaccines will bring the total number by the US to Afghanistan to 4.3 million doses.
[KhaamaPress] A spokesperson of the Taliban Ahmadullah Wasiq said that Turkmenistan provided Afghanistan’s people with $ one million and 200 thousand worth of humanitarian aids.
The humanitarian aid arrived through Tor Ghondi port to the Western Herat province on Wednesday, December 15.
Ahmadullah Wasiq said that the shipment includes petrol, Diesel, Gas, Wheat, and clothes.
[ToloNews] Former president Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ...One of the more egregious mistakes of the post 9-11 era... in an interview with the News Agency that Dare Not be Named published on Wednesday said ex-president Ashraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, ex-president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. When Biden abandoned the country left with a helicopter, four cars, and part of the national treasury... ’s fleeing from the country ruined a last-minute deal that was meant to transfer the power from Ghani to a power-sharing government.
A day before the Kabul collapse, Karzai said, he and Abdullah Abdullah ...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president... , the former chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, had met with Ghani and agreed to leave Kabul for Doha the next day with 15 other politicians to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with the Taliban ...Arabic for students... leaders in the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i capital.
Karzai said that on August 15 rumors had spread in the city that the Taliban was entering the city. The Taliban had already arrived at the gates of Kabul. He communicated with Doha, and the Taliban leaders said that no forces will enter the city before an agreement is reached, adding that security forces should remain in their positions.
"The government should stay in its positions and should not move, that they have no intention to enter the city and, I and others spoke to various officials and assurances were given to us that, yes, that was the case, that the Americans and the government forces were holding firm to the places (and) that Kabul would not fall," Karzai said.
According to Karzai, in the afternoon when Ghani left Kabul, all the security forces, including the Kabul police chief, had gone. "There was no official present at all in the capital, no police chief, no corps commander, no other units. They had all left," Karzai said.
Ghani’s fleeing from the country, according to Karzai, ruined the last-minute deal that would have led to a peaceful power transition. "Absolutely. Absolutely. That is what we were preparing for, what we were hoping (along) with the chairman of the peace council to go to Doha that evening, or the next morning, and to finalize the agreement. And I believe the Taliban leaders were also waiting for us in Doha for the same ... objective, for the same purpose," Karzai said.
Karzai said that as the power vacuum was created in Kabul, he invited the Taliban to enter the city to prevent chaos and the possible looting of people’s property by some elements.
"It was a request to come in and protect the population, so that the country, the city doesn't fall into chaos and the unwanted elements who would probably loot the country, loot shops, so it was an automatic process subsequent to that and an inevitability."
Much more from the interview here:
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he invited the #Taliban into #Kabul “to protect the population” after Ashraf Ghani fled the country. https://t.co/XvBqQ7VEVe
[Rudaw] Iraq has granted 420 laissez-passers to migrants colonists stranded on the Belarus-Polish border who wish to return, the country’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday as efforts continue to repatriate migrants colonists stranded across European borders.
"The ministry has granted 420 passports to Iraqis who wish to return voluntarily from those stranded at the Belarusian border," Iraqi state media quoted the foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf as saying, adding that the process had arisen from the efforts of Iraq's embassies in Moscow and Warsaw, as well as consular teams in Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish people have traveled to Eastern Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... in recent months, where they hoped to cross over and make their way to Germany and, from there, the rest of Europe.
In response, Poland has tightened its border security. Some migrants colonists on the Belarus-Poland border have sustained injuries, and several others have bit the dust.
On Tuesday, Sahaf said that Iraq’s embassy in Poland will offer Iraqi migrants colonists stuck on the Polish-German border laissez-passers to voluntarily return home.
Iraq began offering repatriation flights last month, returning over 3,000 Iraqi and Kurdish migrants colonists from Minsk.
Erbil and Baghdad have accused Minsk of exploiting the migrants colonists for political gain against the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... . Iraq suspended the work of both the honorary embassy of Belarus in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil in an effort to prevent its citizens from traveling to Minsk.
The exodus of Kurds is part of a migrant crisis that has compelled European nations to fortify their borders. Tensions are high between Belarus and Europe. Poland has refused to take in any migrants colonists, instead calling on them to return home.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani received a phone call from the British Home Secretary Priti Patel on Thursday. They discussed the migration of people to Europe and crises related to the issue, with Barzani telling Patel that the Region will "cooperate with the Iraqi federal government and European countries to encourage the voluntary return of migrants colonists," according to a statement from his office.
It has not yet been revealed whether either official raised the issue of the 27 migrants colonists who drowned in the English Channel last month. The Gay Paree prosecutor’s office on Tuesday announced that they had identified all but one of the migrants colonists, with 17 Kurds among the dead.
23 men on trial in Belgium accused of being part of gang that smuggled 39 Vietnamese migrants to the UK in 2019, all of whom suffocated to death in the back of a refrigerated lorry
Vo Vang Hong, 45, accused of being ringleader who ran safehouse in Belgium which victims passed through
Ten of the accused - three Belgians, six Moroccans and an Armenian - were taxi drivers in the Anderlecht district of Brussels who allegedly helped ferry migrants to the safe house
12 are Vietnamese or Vietnamese-Belgians and accused of acting as grocery shoppers or safehouse guards
Prosecutors say the smugglers had connections in France, the Netherlands and Germany, and that it was believed some of the defendants continued their illegal activities after the October 2019 tragedy.
They said the 'very well organised' gang specialised in clandestinely transporting people into Europe then Britain for a total fee of £20,000 each.
They said the gang used an Irish trucking company that regularly imported Vietnamese biscuits to get the migrants across the Channel, and that Vietnamese gang members took charge of them once they got to Britain.
Others of the gang have already been convicted. Their story, including convictions and sentences, is told at the link.
[SPUTNIKNEWS] White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Armenian National Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan that the Biden administration welcomes the announcement that Ankara and Yerevan will appoint representatives to discuss normalizing the relationship, the White House said in a statement.
"Mr. Sullivan welcomed the announcement yesterday that Turkey and Armenia will appoint special envoys to discuss the normalization process," White House National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said Wednesday after the two officials met.
Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey and Armenia would appoint special envoys to normalize relations. He added that charter flights with Yerevan would also be opened.
Sullivan, in the same meeting, also raised concerns over ongoing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan and "emphasized that military movements near un-demarcated borders are irresponsible and provocative."
In addition, President Joe Biden's top security adviser emphasized the US commitment to confidence-building measures both bilaterally and as a Minsk Group Co-Chair.
Earlier, European Council President Charles Michel, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a trilateral meeting in Brussels. Michel in a statement said the EU will provide expert assistance in the demarcation and delimitation of the borders between the two countries. Aliyev has said his country wants to open borders with Armenia.
The negotiations took place just days after a skirmish between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops on the border on December 10.
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12/16/2021 00:00 ||
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#7
..well thank goodness that some nerd got them to finally ratify the 27th Amendment ....
"Delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives."
#1
When the Brandon administration first suspended the deal at the start of the year it stated it was in reaction to the war in Yemen. Now it's the second day in a row where there's some modified limited hangout in the European press or Zero Hedge about China, that didn't mention the Brandon Administration's suspension...
[IsraelTimes] An Ohio chapter of the nation’s largest Moslem civil liberties and advocacy organization fires its leader for ethical and professional breaches that it says include a years-long secret association with an anti-Moslem group.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations ... the Moslem Brüderbund's American arm ... -Ohio says executive and legal director Romin Iqbal was informed of his termination yesterday, following the conclusion of an investigation by an independent forensic expert ordered by its national headquarters. Iqbal had been suspended since last week.
The probe found "conclusive evidence that Iqbal had spent years recording CAIR network meetings and passing information regarding CAIR’s national advocacy work to a known anti-Moslem hate group," a release says.
During a briefing, spokesperson Whitney Siddiqi identifies the group as the Investigative Project on Terrorism, led by Steve Emerson.
CAIR-Ohio says that "after being confronted with clear evidence of misconduct," Iqbal admitted to secretly working for the group. Iqbal declines comment through his attorney, Dave Thomas.
[Rudaw] The Iraqi minister of migration and displacement on Wednesday said they will close down the last internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Nineveh province this month, in coordination with the Kurdistan Region despite ongoing difficulties.
"The ministry has closed all camps for the displaced in all governorates, except for the camps of the Kurdistan Region," Minister of Migration and Displacement Evan Jabro told Iraqi state media (INA) on Wednesday. "This month will witness the closure of al-Jada camp, which is the last displacement camp in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ," she said.
Last year, the Iraqi government began a push to close camps around the country, three years after the defeat of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS), including camps in the Kurdistan Region. The government has been criticised for this policy with rights monitors calling instead for voluntary returns.
More than half of the IDPs in the Kurdistan Region’s camps are Sunni Arabs and Yazidis from Nineveh province that fled Iraq in 2014 when ISIS took vast swathes of territories.
Many IDPs are reluctant to return home because of continuing violence in their original areas, a lack of reconstruction following the destruction of their homes, and little in the way of basic services. Some who voluntarily left the camps to salvage their homes and livelihoods have been forced to return to the camps, unable to piece together the basics.
Baghdad has asked the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to close camps under its control, but Kurdish officials say they will not force IDPs to return home. The Kurdistan Region is currently host to over 664,000 displaced Iraqis, according to the KRG’s Joint Crisis Coordination (JCC) September data.
"The displacement in Iraq will not continue forever... and there is only one camp left in Iraq outside the Kurdistan Region and 26 camps in the Region," Jabro said. "There is coordination with Kurdistan to close the camps," but with "difficulties" because there is "no will" from the Region to close its camps, she added.
Al-Jada, in Nineveh province in an area under federal Iraqi control, mainly houses families with suspected links to ISIS, and received ISIS-affiliated families from al-Hol camp in Syria late in May.
"After these families’ years in limbo, it is positive that the government is trying to find durable solutions for families displaced by fighting," Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch said in June. "But this strategy will only succeed if it builds on lessons learned from previous camp closures and forced returns in which aid was cut off and people were left completely on their own," she added.
Iraq’s camp closure left "at least 34,801 displaced people without assurances that they can return home safely, get other safe shelter, or have access to affordable services. Only two camps remain open in Baghdad-controlled territory, one in Nineveh and another in Anbar, and they are also set to close." HRW said in June.
[IsraelTimes] But the US Embassy’s Palestinian Affairs Unit is now reporting directly to DC, as the shuttered Jerusalem mission did until 2019, in a partial revival of the pre-Trump status quo
It’s been seven months since US Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem, but Washington has yet to even produce a timeline for when it plans to see the move through.
A US diplomat, a former senior US official and another source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this week that the Biden administration has effectively shelved its effort to resurrect the de facto mission to the Palestinians shuttered by former president Donald Trump in 2019.
Continued on Page 49
[IsraelTimes] Responding to talk of IDF strike on nuclear sites, state-affiliated Tehran Times publishes piece saying Israelis need reminder that Iranian forces can hit anywhere they want
Maps are easy. Getting through the Iron Dome, etc. defenses is a bit harder.
Iran’s state-affiliated Tehran Times issued a threat to Israel on Wednesday, publishing a map of the country riddled with markers as a reminder that Iranian forces can ostensibly strike anywhere they want.
Map at link — it looks like a map with lots of drop pins.
Alongside a front-page opinion piece headlined "Just one wrong move!" the map showed scores of markers along the length and breadth of the country.
Though the paper didn’t specify what the markers represented, the article opened by declaring, "An intensification of the Israeli military threats against Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... seems to suggest that the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere."
Border Police officers who fatally shot terrorist expected to be cleared
It went on to cite Hebrew media reports about a visit last week by Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Mossad chief David Barnea to Washington, where they reportedly stressed concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile threat.
The paper also noted that the Israel Defense Forces earlier this month said it will conduct a major air force exercise in the spring simulating a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The piece quoted Major General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, as saying Tuesday that "at the strategic level we do not intend to strike anyone, but at the operational and tactical level we are ready for a decisive response and a quick and tough offensive against the enemy."
"The Tehran Times doesn’t need to remind the illegitimate regime of Israel of Iran’s defense capabilities," the article said. "Yet they need to remember something."
The paper then recalled Lord High Potentate and Supreme Leader of All He Surveys Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini... ’s remarks in 2013 that "they are threatening to strike militarily, but I think they know it, and if they do not know it, they must know that if they make a mistake the Islamic Theocratic Republic will destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa."
"Keep your hands off!" concluded the newspaper.
The Tehran Times piece came as talks are being held in Vienna to save a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that has been unraveling after the US pulled out of the pact.
The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action lifted sanctions from Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program that were aimed at preventing the Islamic Theocratic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/16/2021 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Karaj was the target of a sabotage attack in June that Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... blames on Israel.
Iran will allow the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... ’ nuclear watchdog to reinstall cameras damaged at a site where it has centrifuge parts and manufacturing material, semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported Wednesday.
The decision will see cameras put back at Karaj, which came under what Iran describes as a sabotage attack in June.
Iran had since refused the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency access to replace cameras damaged in the incident.
The Vienna-based IAEA did not immediately respond to queries from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named regarding the reports by the semiofficial ISNA and Tasnim news agencies. The reports said Iran would keep all recordings from the cameras, however, part of another ongoing dispute between the agency and Tehran.
The reports came after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian reportedly said earlier Wednesday that Iran had "reached a good agreement" with the IAEA.
Tehran blamed the Karaj assault on Israel amid a widening regional shadow war since former US president Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... unilaterally withdrew America from Iran’s landmark nuclear accord with world powers.
In an interview Tuesday with the AP, IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi warned limited access to Karaj hurt international efforts to monitor Iran’s program.
"If the international community through us, through the IAEA, is not seeing clearly how many centrifuges or what is the capacity that they may have ... what you have is a very blurred image," Grossi said. "It will give you the illusion of the real image. But not the real image. This is why this is so important."
Grossi also dismissed as "simply absurd" an Iranian allegation that saboteurs used the IAEA’s cameras in the attack on the Karaj centrifuge site. Tehran has offered no evidence to support the claim, though it’s another sign of the friction between inspectors and Iran.
Negotiations continue in Vienna over trying to restore the nuclear deal. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Iran under hardline President Ebrahim Raisi has taken a maximalist position in negotiations.
Anxiety is growing among European nations at the negotiating table.
"Without swift progress, in light of Iran’s fast-forwarding of its nuclear program, the (deal) will very soon become an empty shell," they recently warned.
The US has remained outside of direct talks since abandoning the accord.
[An Nahar] A Gulf Cooperation Council summit has called for prohibiting Lebanon Hezbollahstan ...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ... ’s Iran-backed Hizbullah ...Party of God, a Leb militia inspired, founded, funded and directed by Iran. Hizbullah refers to itself as The Resistance and purports to defend Leb against Israel, with whom it has started and lost one disastrous war to date, though it did claim victory... "from carrying out its terrorist activities and supporting terrorist militias that threaten the stability of Arab countries."Lebanon's ties with Gulf states have grown increasingly strained in recent years because of Hizbullah’s growing influence and its interference in regional conflicts.
A Lebanese minister's recent remarks on the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... 's war sparked a row with Gulf countries that has exacerbated Lebanon's multiple crises.
Yemen's Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s have repeatedly targeted Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... in cross-border attacks, using drones and missiles. Riyadh has meanwhile staged a deadly military campaign in support of the internationally-recognized Yemeni government.
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12/16/2021 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The lawyers of ex-minister Ali Hassan Khalil intend to file a new recusal lawsuit in the coming hours against Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, informed sources said.
The sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Wednesday that the lawsuit will be filed before the Civil Court of Cassation that is chaired by Judge Naji Eid.
Khalil’s lawyers "are racing against time and are the ones in the most hurry to recuse Bitar in this period, especially after the latter returned the in-absentia arrest warrant issued against their client to the public prosecution and asked that it be enforced as soon as possible," the sources added.
Bitar’s move "embarrassed the public prosecution, which found itself obliged to refer it to security agencies," the sources went on to say.
Separately, a judicial source told the daily that Bitar "looked into the content of the Russian satellite images of the Port of Beirut, which were taken by a Russian satellite before and during the (August 4, 2020) explosion."
Describing the images as "good," the sources revealed that Bitar "took the information he wants and will make use of it in his investigations."
Asked whether the images reveal the cause of the earth-shattering kaboom or whether it was the result of an aerial strike, the source said such information "are part of the confidentiality of the investigation and cannot be revealed except in the indictment that will be issued by Bitar after the completion of all aspects of the probe."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2021 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against both Karzai and Ghani. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun. He also held the meaningless salaried sop position as CEO of Afghanistan, while Ghani was president...
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
...a formerly French, now an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. ...
