KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ‐ Afghanistan may not be ready for peace unless it finds a way to reintegrate Taliban fighters into society, combat corruption and rein in the country’s runaway narcotics problem, a U.S. watchdog said Wednesday.
The warning by Washington’s Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, which monitors billions of dollars in U.S. aid to the country, came in the group’s new quarterly report that also discusses Afghan needs for the "day after" ‐ once there is a peace deal with the Taliban.
Over the past months, the U.S. has stepped up efforts to find a peaceful resolution to Afghanistan’s 17-year war and has been holding talks with a resurgent Taliban. The insurgents, however, refuse to negotiate with the Kabul government, which they consider a U.S. puppet. The Taliban also continue to stage near-daily attacks, inflicting staggering casualties, and now control about half the country.
"No matter how welcome peace would be, it can carry with it the seeds of unintended and unforeseen consequences," John F. Sopko, head of SIGAR, said in the report.
The war has already cost America $737 billion, according to the Pentagon. On reconstruction alone, the U.S. has spent $132 billion since 2002, much of that to train and equip Afghan security forces, as well as strengthen government institutions, provide education and better health care, said Sopko.
But the gains are fragile, Sopko said, and solutions are needed to the country’s increasing insecurity, "endemic corruption, weak Afghan institutions, the insidious impact of the narcotics trade, and inadequate coordination and oversight by donors."
Sopko said that failure to reintegrate the estimated 60,000 Taliban fighters and their families into Afghan society would undermine peace.
#2
i don't care if they are. we need too pull our men/women out of this shithole of a money pit. i don't carecif the chinese do go in and set up mines an shit.
Posted by: chris ||
05/01/2019 9:23 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Someone tell me what's the prize when we win?
There isn't one. Just permanent occupation. Just like Europe.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
05/01/2019 10:53 Comments ||
Top||
#4
They won't be ready until they've been rendered to the mindset of Berlin, Nagasaki, Dresden, Yokohama etc. The problem is that physical condition is about where they STARTED...
[KhaamaPress] The ISIS faceless myrmidons are heading to Afghanistan from Iraq and Syria after the collapse of the self-proclaimed caliphate in the Middle East, it has been reported.
A U.S. official has told AFP that ISIS faceless myrmidons are heading to Afghanistan to continue their jihad and plot ’spectacular’ attacks against the United States.
A senior U.S. intelligence official in Kabul has told AFP "We know some have already made their way back here and are trying to transfer the knowledge, skills and experience they learned over there."
The official speaking on the condition of anonymity has further added that "If we don’t continue counterterrorism pressure against (IS in Afghanistan), there will be an attack in our homeland ‐ and a spectacular attack ‐ probably within the year."
This comes as both Afghan and U.S. forces are busy conduct regular operations and Arclight airstrikes against the terror group in Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. , Kunar, and other restive provinces in which the group has a presence.
The latest UN report suggest that the terror group has between 2,500 and 4,000 fighters in Afghanistan, according to AFP.
The group grabbed credit for a coordinated attack on Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology in Kabul city which left at least ten people dead and several others maimed.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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And now he and his comrades can look forward to sitting in prison for years, while mandatory appeals wind their way through the system.
[AlAhram] A Cairo High State Security Emergency Criminal Court sentenced Hassan Malek, a businessman affiliated with the banned Moslem Brüderbund group, to 25 years in prison on Tuesday.
Malek, his son Hamza, and 22 others were accused of joining a terrorist group and plotting to harm the national economy by hoarding hard currency and smuggling it abroad. They were also charged with planning to assault police and army personnel.
Malik, Hamza, and five others were sentenced to 25 years, three defendants were sentenced to 10 years, and 14 were acquitted.
Malek’s assets have been frozen since September 2014, when a Cairo criminal court upheld a decision by the prosecutor-general to freeze the assets of prominent Moslem Brüderbund leaders.
Since the 1990s, Malek has been considered one of the most prominent Moslem Brüderbund businessmen along with his business partner, the now-tossed in the clink Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! deputy chairman of the Brotherhood in Egypt, Khairat El-Shater.
Malek’s commercial and industrial ventures included textile manufacturing, electrical supplies, and furniture.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
It seemed like the MB was on the run in the U.S. until BHO came along. If Trump has the MB declared a terrorist organization in the U.S., it wouldn't be off the mark IMHO.
[IsraelTimes] Zaki Mubarak’s relatives accuses The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund.... of covering up his liquidation, call for international investigation and autopsy.
The family of a Paleostinian found dead in a Ottoman Turkish prison after being accused of spying for the United Arab Emirates demanded an investigation Tuesday.
Members of Zaki Mubarak’s
...yesterday’s report named him as Zaki Y.M. Hassan...
family said they had been officially informed of the 55-year-old’s death in a Ottoman Turkish prison, with authorities saying he had did away with himself.
"We want an international investigation and an autopsy to reveal the facts, but the Ottoman Turkish authorities want to hide the truth," his brother Zain al-Dain said.
Relatives would not begin the mourning period until they knew, he said.
"I spoke to him a week ago and he was in high spirits insisting he would be released because he didn’t accept any of the false charges against him," his sister Sanaa Mubarak abu Sbitan said.
"I know my brother Zaki and he would never commit suicide. This is a plot created by Turkey to cover up the liquidation."
Zaki, a former member of the Paleostinian intelligence services, left the Gazoo Strip in 2007 after Islamists Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, seized control of the enclave, Zain al-Dain said.
He had since been based in Bulgaria and Turkey.
Ottoman Turkish state news agency Anadolu said the man, who it did not name, was found dead in Silivri prison, on the outskirts of Istanbul, with prosecutors later saying he was found hanged.
He had been taken into custody with another alleged spy and later formally charged with "military and political" and "international espionage," according to Anadolu.
The circumstances of the incident were unclear but media had speculated he was allied to Mohammed Dahlan, a former ally and now rival to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... based in the UAE.
"Zaki has no relationship with the Dahlan movement," Zain al-Dain said. "He is with Fatah under the leadership of president Abu Mazen [Abbas]."
Turkey has been investigating claims the two men were linked to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi,
...the Washington Post carefully did not notice that their beloved columnist was a long time propagandist for the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda — most recently on Qatar’s payroll, previously for Saudi Arabian intel chief Prince Turki al-Faisal...
a Soddy 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. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n journalist killed in the country’s embassy in Istanbul last year.
Turkey has delicate relations with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the Arab states that imposed a blockade on 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... , one of Ankara’s close allies.
On Monday, the Paleostinian embassy in Ankara announced that it is following the case as well as the arrest of another Paleostinian by Ottoman Turkish police, reported Paleostinian news agency WAFA.
The embassy said in a statement that Mubarak and Samer Shaaban
Ah hah! The unnamed second arrestee is now named!
went missing in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... ally.... on 3 April, and were found "in Ottoman Turkish custody facing charges and were to be put on trial."
A Paleostinian father of nine, Zaki Hassan fled the Gazoo Strip after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, took power in 2007. His wife Sameeh Shaaban told CNN that he left when Hamas accused him of being involved in an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... , which he denied.
Hassan obtained political asylum in Bulgaria and last March he received authorization to live in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire.... The Ottoman Turkish prosecutors explained that he was tossed in the slammer Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! as they were investigating possible connections between Hassan and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.
"My brother was a father, had a Phd in political science, and was a retired intelligence general. Why would he kill himself?" Hassan’s brother Zacharia asked CNN.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] China on Tuesday hinted at ’progress’ on designation of Jaish-e-Mohammad ...literally Army of Mohammad, a Pak-based Deobandi terror group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in 2000, after he split with the Harkat-ul-Mujaheddin. In 2002 the government of Pervez Musharraf banned the group, which changed its name to Khaddam ul-Islam and continued doing what it had been doing before without missing a beat... (JeM) chief Masood Azhar by the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... ’ 1267 Sanctions Committee, as the United States called for resolving the contentious matter.
Senior Pak officials disclosed to Dawn that China could lift its technical hold leading to Azhar’s designation, while developments in this regard are likely to be shared by the Foreign Office with the media at a special briefing scheduled for Wednesday (today).
Chinese foreign ministry front man Geng Shuang, speaking at a media briefing in Beijing, said: "We support the listing issue being settled within the 1267 committee through dialogue and consultation and I believe this is the consensus of most members. Second, the relevant consultations are going on within the committee and have achieved some progress. Third, I believe, with the joint efforts of all parties, this issue can be properly resolved."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2019 00:26 ||
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[Rudaw] An estimated 45,000 children in Iraq who were born under the rule of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group are being excluded from society because the government denies them documentation and ID papers, an international charity said Tuesday.
Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, is warning that these children ‐ most of whom are in camps for the displaced today ‐ are a "possible human time-bomb."
"Undocumented children risk remaining left on the margins of society if this issue is not addressed immediately. This seriously undermines future prospects of reconciliation efforts," said Egeland.
"We urge the government to ensure that undocumented children have the right to exist like any other Iraqi citizen," he added, citing the organization’s 38-page report "Barriers from Birth."
The children were born during IS’s 2013-2017 rule, when the bully boy group controlled nearly a third of Iraq. The Iraqi government today considers their birth certificates invalid because they were issued by IS.
After U.S.-backed forces defeated the IS and the murderous Moslems lost their self-styled "caliphate," many IS families and those of civilians who lived under the group’s rule were put in camps for the displaced.
The Norway-based group said its legal teams receive on average 170 requests for help each month in cases of unregistered children, children whose fathers are undocumented, are on one of the government’s security databases or are perceived to be affiliated with IS.
Egeland said the chance of obtaining ID documents for children from families accused of IS affiliation is nearly impossible, resulting in collective punishment of thousands of innocent children.
"Children are not responsible for crimes committed by their relatives, yet many are denied their basic rights as Iraqi citizens," he said.
Without ID papers, these children have no access to education or health care, they are not allowed to enroll in schools and their mothers cannot get badly needed aid ‐ they are denied "simply the right to exist," Egeland said.
Providing these children with such basic rights to education and health care is "key to ensuring a sustainable future for them and for the country," he said. "A society cannot be at peace if it allows a generation of stateless children in its midst."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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#4
Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, is warning that these children ‐ most of whom are in camps for the displaced today ‐ are a "possible human time-bomb."
Look at that: I agree with a Norwegian NGO organization. Man, today is shaping up to be weird!
Among economic & other incentives, the Saudi offer apparently also includes the founding of a Palestinian embassy in town of Abu Dis, located on Jerusalem’s eastern outskirts. Abbas rejected the offer, saying it would “mean the end of my political life.”http://t.co/HBTRNhHA3w
[Rudaw] If European allies of the international anti-ISIS coalition do not repatriate suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) members, US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... warned nearly 2,000 of these "dangerous prisoners" could be let loose.
"We have 1,800 ISIS prisoners taken hostage in our final battles to destroy 100 percent of the Caliphate in Syria. Decisions are now being made as to what to do with these dangerous prisoners..." Trump tweeted on Tuesday
Most of the prisoners are held in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) facilities in Syria. The SDF repeatedly has said it lacks the resources to hold trials. French newspaper Le Monde has reported 800 Western men, 700 women, and some 1,500 of their children are estimated to be held in SDF camps.
President Trump is transactional, guys. He laid out the maximal position. Now you need to make a counteroffer.
"...European countries are not helping at all, even though this was very much done for their benefit. They are refusing to take back prisoners from their specific countries. Not good!" Trump added.
The SDF, the partnered ground force of the US-led international coalition, continue to detain suspected faceless myrmidons in once-liberated areas.
"Special units" from the SDF tossed in the slammer ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... members of a "terrorist cell" east of Raqqa, its Press Office head, Mustafa Bali, announced on Monday.
Bali added two of the arrested were suspected of planting improvised bombs (IEDs) in Raqqa city.
There is no established Western policy for dealing with the suspects. The United Kingdom has said it won't risk diplomats' lives by travelling to Syria.
The United States has repatriated the few US nationals who joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Other European countries are torn because they lack capital punishment and believe their nationals have the right to a trial.
Additionally, the Europeans are concerned authorities in Syria lack the tools to conduct fair trials which would also reveal key details about the way the group operates and the fate of groups they like the Yezidis.
Most European nationals joining ISIS in Iraq and Syria came from La Belle France, followed by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation found in a study released in July 2018.
Human rights activist lawyer Amal Clooney argued on April 23 before the UN Security Council that several options are available for the West to get justice for victims of sexual violence committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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[Rudaw] Husham al-Hashmi, an Iraqi expert in terrorist and bad boy groups, believes that Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) leader Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts are likely narrowed to just four places following his first appearance disseminated in nearly five years.
"Iraq since September 2018 through a special cell formed with US Special Operations Command has been monitoring, looking for al-Baghdadi. They have up to now succeeded in eliminating 13 out of 17 possible locations," Hashmi told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
The possible locations could be the deserts of Iraq’s western Anbar, Iraq’s Wadi Houran ‐ a riverbed in Anbar ‐ or in Syria’s east central Homs desert. Additionally, Baghdadi could be heading elsewhere ‐ toward the so-called "Mohammed Peninsula", a term that can be found in Islamic discourse on the Saudi peninsula.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/01/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Less likely in Iran territory as Iran backed Assad. I'd suspect the old enemy of my enemy position. The enemy of the Turks are the Kurds. The Kurds would kill him in sight. So, I'd place my bets on someplace the Turks have some control.
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.
...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...
...became Prime Minister after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
[DAWN] China on Tuesday hinted at ’progress’ on designation of 
