The US has pledged an additional $55 million in aid to Afghanistan. Over the past fiscal year, this totals to over $1 billion to humanitarian, economic, and military assistance aid to Afghanistan. Foreign aid always comes with criticism, but especially so when the recipient is an enemy of the US and a corrupt, extremist and repressive regime. In Afghanistan, the case against foreign aid has always been corruption. After the Soviet invasion, U.S. funding was used by rival Mujahideen to wage a civil war. Then, the U.S. government and military was manipulated into draining their own pockets after 9/11. Rival tribes and warlords used American ignorance to gain access to an endless flow of money. With this they were able to fight each another for power over the war torn country even long after the fall of the Taliban. Now, humanitarian aid to the Afghan people is lining the pockets of the Taliban at the expense of innocent Afghans and American taxpayers alike.
The others are the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Tunisia, Burma, and South Sudan.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
08/05/2022 00:00 ||
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#1
The old Taliban CEO of financial operations has recently left his post. We're looking for good things to follow in regard to US Foreign Aid matters.
[Garowe] A fortnight after a series of al-Shabaab ...... the personification of Somali state failure... unprecedented attacks within the territory of Æthiopia, Addis Ababa has dispatched a high-level military delegation to Somalia, paying a visit to border states, including HirShabelle, Jubaland, Somaliland, and Southwest states.
The delegation is led by Major General Tesfaye Ayalew, the Chief of Defense Forces of Æthiopia National Defense Forces [ENDF] arrived at Baidoa, the regional administrative capital of Southwest. Also present was the Somali region's Temporary Security Command Post commander.
At Baidoa, the team was received by Sector III Commander within African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS] Brigadier General Zewdu Setargie. The delegation briefed the Chief Commander about the current peace and security situation in the region and the general activities of al-Shabaab bad boys.
Further, the army chiefs discussed a number of issues regarding cooperation on security and peace, with the defeat of al-Shabaab forces of Evil being on the major agenda. al-Shabaab has been making inroads within Æthiopia, with major attacks taking place two weeks ago.
At Jubaland, the delegation met with Vice President Mohamud Sayid Aden, where they condemned al-Shabaab continued destruction of the economic and social progress of the country. The teams also discussed special cooperation between Jubaland and Æthiopia.
Brigadier General Lucas Kuto, on his part, said that decisive actions must be taken to prevent the terrorist al-Shabaab from seizing and using various explosives and detonators, as well as from the chaos it was spreading using social media, Addis Ababa Standard reports.
Lieutenant colonel Sintayehu Leta commented that the bad boy group was deceiving the fathers, mothers, and community elders in the region and "taking their children and training them for their nefarious purposes".
He emphasized that the bad boy group must be prevented from using especially the border areas of Dolo and Moyale to make incursions into Æthiopia.
Æthiopia said last week it had killed over 100 al-Shabaab bad boys, but some reports indicated that over 200 forces of Evil may have crossed over the border. This was the first time the forces of Evil were raiding the Horn of Africa nation, which is struggling with instability.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... despite their trip to Somalia, it's not clear whether Addis Ababa consulted Mogadishu before deploying the military delegation to Somalia. Æthiopia has been a major security stakeholder in Somalia, having contributed over 3,500 soldiers to the country.
Æthiopia had previously tried to use the breakaway region of Somaliland to create a buffer zone in the fight against al-Shabaab forces of Evil in the country. Last week, the Æthiopian troops crossed into Somalia where they created a buffer zone last week.
[Garowe] To boost its obligations to degrade al-Shabaab ...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... and to protect civilians and critical infrastructure, the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) has taken delivery of 24 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), donated by the United States government.
The specialized vehicles will be used by the Djiboutian contingent in joint military operations with the Somali National Army (SNA) in and around Beletweyne and other areas in the Hiraan region.
Handing over the APCs at ATMIS Headquarters on Wednesday in Mogadishu, Larry Andre, the US ambassador to Somalia, reiterated his government’s support for efforts aimed at bringing peace and stability in Somalia and the greater Horn of Africa region.
"The expression of our support, amongst other ways, is the donation of these vehicles to help protect African Union forces—in this case, Djibouti’s military contingent—as they travel the roads of Somalia which too often will be trapped by dangerous bombs put there to harm those who only seek to help Somalia," said Andre.
"The delivery of the 24 APC’s will see Somalia enhance the fight against violent mostly peaceful bully boys. We know that this equipment will make a difference by increasing pressure on al-Shabaab. This is in line with the plans of His Excellency President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud and is in keeping with the Somalia Transition Plan, which will see a steady increase in handover responsibilities to Somalia’s security forces," he added.
Receiving the vehicles on behalf of the mission was the Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (DSRCC), Ms. Fiona Lortan, who noted that the military hardware had arrived at an opportune time as ATMIS was reconfiguring its troops and equipment.
"On behalf of the African Union, its membership, and all the ATMIS Troop Contributing Countries (TCC’s), including Djibouti and all the others since ATMIS is a collective effort of solidarity and support to the Somalia people, I would like to thank the government and the people of the United States for the generosity and steadfastness in supporting our presence in Somalia," said Lortan.
Over the years, Al-Shabaab has engaged AU troops and SNA soldiers in asymmetric warfare, especially through the laying of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on main supply routes and built-up locations.
The donated vehicles are going to enhance ATMIS’ counter IED capability and aid the troops in protecting civilians, critical infrastructure, and sensitive sites, facilitating the provision of humanitarian supplies, and supporting stabilization activities.
[Summit] Swedish Migration Minister Anders Ygeman has suggested that Sweden should follow the example of Denmark in seeking to place a limit on the population of non-Nordic migrants living in troubled areas.
In an interview with Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper, Ygeman acknowledged that ghettos where migrants have congregated with seemingly little desire to integrate
...this mostly means Moslem colonists, plus a few of the rowdier Eastern Europeans...
have caused huge problems.
His solution is to implement a similar policy to Denmark, which has started demolishing parts of migrant ghettos and moving people elsewhere in a bid to put a stop to ’parallel societies’ that breed crime and social dislocation.
Under the proposed new policy, a minimum of 50 per cent of residents of any area would have to be Swedish or from Denmark, Iceland, Finland, or Norway.
"I think it is bad to have areas where the majority are of non-Nordic descent," Ygeman told DN.
"If you want to learn Swedish, you have to practice. If you live in an area where you can get by with the language of your native country, it becomes enormously more difficult to learn and develop the language," he added.
"If, in addition, you have a job where you can get by in the language of your native country, where will you practice Swedish? In that context, I think having that kind of goal can say something important," explained Ygeman.
The government in Denmark is currently implementing a policy that mandates areas have a population that is comprised of no more than 30 per cent of people of non-western origin.
Sweden has notoriously faced massive problems with integrating the huge number of migrants it has allowed to enter the country over the past three decades.
As we previously reported, having been one of the safest countries in Europe 20 years ago before mass uncontrolled immigration, Sweden is now the continent’s second most dangerous in terms of gun crime behind only Croatia.
#7
NoMoreBS - enjoying the rain? I'm at Round Hill on the Lake, loving it.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/05/2022 13:09 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Wife was at the stables in Sheridan where she keeps her horse yesterday. They got 2.5 inches of rain in an hour, she took a video of the inside of barn as they all waited over 4 hours for it to pass, it looked and sounded like a hurricane. Douglas County got a new August rainfall record in one afternoon, 2.75 inches. Markleeville CA had a flood! Amazing
[IsraelTimes] Committee says Gay Paree guilty of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... violation after woman refused entry to education course because of her traditional Islamic headgarb
La Belle France violated an international rights treaty when it banned a woman from wearing a headscarf while she studied at a school, a UN committee has ruled.
The move broke the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee said.
Its decision follows a complaint filed in 2016 by a French national born in 1977, whose lawyer does not wish her name to be published.
The woman was on a professional training course for adults in 2010, and had passed an interview and entrance test.
But the headmaster of Langevin Wallon high school in the southeastern suburbs of Gay Paree refused to let her enter because of a ban on wearing religious symbols in public educational establishments.
The UN committee said "prohibiting her from participating in her education course while wearing a headscarf constitutes a restriction on her freedom of religion in violation of the treaty."
The committee’s decision was adopted in March but sent to the woman’s lawyer on Wednesday.
"This is an important decision which shows that La Belle France has work to do in terms of human rights and in particular on the issue of respect for religious minorities, and more particularly the Moslem community," her lawyer Sefen Guez Guez told AFP.
#5
SANITY JUST KICKED IN
When you bend over backwards and still have major issues, it is time to quit kissing your A$$ and address the root of the real problem.
[IsraelTimes] Service member facing slew of criminal charges for blast that injured 4; Pentagon says explosives were placed in airbase’s ammunition area and shower facility
The US Air Force has filed criminal charges against an airman in connection with an April explosion that injured US troops at a base in eastern Syria.
Tech. Sgt. David D. Dezwaan Jr. is facing several charges, including dereliction of duty, destroying military property, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault, in the blast that injured four service members. He has been held in confinement by the Air Force since June.
The US military initially reported that the injuries were caused by artillery or another form of indirect fire. But the Pentagon later said the April 7 attack was carried out by the "deliberate placement of explosive charges" by one or more individuals at an ammunition holding area and shower facility on the base, known as Green Village.
The Air Force, in a statement Thursday, said a preliminary hearing date has been set for August 23 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Dezwaan, an explosive ordnance disposal specialist, also was charged with accessing a government computer with an unauthorized purpose and obtaining classified information.
The blasts hit two support buildings. Four service members were evaluated for minor injuries and possible traumatic brain injuries.
Officials have provided no insight into any motivation for the attack.
The April 7 bombing that took place at the base known as Green Village, which is east of the Euphrates River in Syria and adjacent to major oil fields.
Several hundred U.S. and coalition forces are stationed at Green Village as they train local forces to fight remnants of the Islamic State terrorist group, according to the Pentagon.
Operation Inherent Resolve is a U.S.-led international coalition under U.S. Central Command that targets ISIS, primarily in Iraq and Syria.
Dezwaan joined the Air Force in October 2007 and is attached to the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron at Hill AFB. He has been awarded the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal and the Army Commendation Medal, according to Stefanek.
#1
"Does he have a Good Conduct Medal?" My sister was on jury duty and wanted to know that about a shoplifter after the defense lauded his former service. To get a GCM you need to avoid 'crapping in your own nest', as it were, during your enlistment. The medals mentioned sound like your usual participation trophies...
#2
I have never heard of a technical sergeant in the Air Force getting a Navy Achievement Medal. They are low level medals but that one sounds like he did something unusual other than traying to blow up an occupied shower.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/05/2022 13:02 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Aren't awards that name an entire branch of the military just participation trophies?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/05/2022 17:20 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Oh, and as for motive... what's the origin of the name "Dezwaan"?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/05/2022 17:21 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Senior commanders of Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... barely got away during shootout with Israeli troops that killed 2 Paleostinians in Nablus on July 24, report says
Senior commanders of the Hamas and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad terror groups narrowly escaped an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus late last month, according to a Wednesday report.
Continued on Page 49
[BenarNews] Negotiators for the main rebel group in Thailand’s Deep South are asking for diplomatic immunity so they can consult the public in the border region about the grinding of the peace processor without being arrested, they told news hounds Wednesday.
Barisan Revolusi Nasional chief peace negotiator Anas Abdulrahman said his side made the request to Thailand’s government during two days of meetings with their Thai counterparts in Malaysia this week, and that BRN was considering the main proposal from the other side — a second pause in violence, but one that would last at least three months.
"We discussed about the mechanism ... for the public consultations on the ground ... that our representatives involved in the peace talks and the public consultations be given diplomatic immunity," Anas said during a post-meetings presser at a hotel in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur.
He said the two sides also discussed the Ramadan Peace Initiative, a successful 40-day truce that they had observed in April and May after agreeing to a pause in hostilities following their previous round of in-person talks brokered by Malaysia.
Technical teams from both sides will meet soon to discuss these matters in detail before the next round of official talks — the fourth this year — that will likely take place in October, Anas told BenarNews.
When BenarNews asked him about it on Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Thira Daehwa, the secretary for the Thai peace talks panel, said the Thai side was open to discussing the immunity issue more with BRN.
In response to questions about the Thai side’s new proposal for a 108-day truce — which would go from Aug. 15 to Nov. 30 and cover much of the Buddhist Lent — Anas, who is also known as Hipni Mareh, said BRN needed time to consider the matter.
BRN is the largest of armed separatist groups in Thailand’s far south. Many of its leaders, members and officials are believed to be living across the border in neighboring Malaysia, and are the targets of arrest warrants in the heavily militarized Deep South.
Such immunity for wanted BRN members was necessary to let its representatives participate in bilateral monitoring of peace-related measures in the conflict zone and to enable them to consult with communities in the Deep South without fear of being stopped or arrested, a retired former member of Thai delegations in past peace talks with southern rebel groups had explained to BenarNews.
Under past agreements, the government waived all criminal charges against wanted BRN officials to let them take part in consultations with the public, and even allowed them to stay at Thai military premises for the duration, Thai Army Maj. Gen. Nakrob Boonbuathong had said.
BRN and other separatist groups have been waging a decades-long insurgency against Buddhist-majority Thailand in the Deep South, a predominantly Moslem and Malay-speaking region that encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala provinces, and four districts of Songkhla province.
Since the insurgency flared up again in January 2004, more than 7,000 people have been killed and 13,500 others injured in violence across the region, according to Deep South Watch, a local think-tank.
[IsraelTimes] ’Headless general’ Abdollah Eskandari, known for his capture and beheading by Syrian rebels in 2014, among bodies of five fighters recently recovered from Syria
Mourners poured out onto the streets of Tehran on Thursday to pay their respects to several Iranian officers killed in Syria, a testament to the human cost of Iran’s involvement in the civil war and a public display of nationalist fervor as nuclear talks resume in Vienna.
The remains of the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard members were recently recovered in Khan Tuman, a village 9 miles (about 15 kilometers) south of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city that was for years the war’s most important front line.
The Guard identified the five deceased fighters, providing few details about their deaths with the exception of General Abdollah Eskandari — a decorated commander who became known as the "headless general" after his capture and beheading by Syrian rebels in May 2014. Their bodies were repatriated after a lengthy process of recovery and DNA analysis.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... has increasingly admitted casualties since it intervened to rescue Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... ’s government, a ground presence that coincided with Russia’s air campaign and helped Assad recover control over most of the country.
Although Iran has only acknowledged its forces as having an advisory role, dozens of Iranian soldiers have been killed fighting the 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.... group and other gunnies in Syria.
Funeral marches snaked through cities across the country this week, beginning Monday in the northeastern city of Mashhad before moving south, returning each officer’s body to his birthplace for burial.
The thousands that gathered in Tehran’s streets on Thursday evening waved red flags to mark Ashura, a commemoration of the 7th-century death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, a revered figure in Shiite Islam. Chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" rang out from the crowds.
In a speech, Guard commander General Hossein Salami hailed the return of the fighters’ remains and the survival of Assad’s government.
"We wanted the [Assad] system to remain but the US, Europe, and the Arab world did not want it. Now see who remains in the country," Salami declared.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/05/2022 01:57 ||
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#1
Iran should institute a holiday like Halloween just so kids can dress up as the "Headless general."
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/05/2022 13:05 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites.... completes the installation of three advanced IR-6 centrifuge cascades at its Natanz fuel enrichment plant, Rooters reports citing an ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency report to member states.
The report comes as Iran is set to resume indirect talks with the US on returning to the nuclear deal.
According to the IAEA report, Iran informed the agency it also plans to install an additional six IR-2m cascades at Natanz.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/05/2022 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
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#1
Iran ramping up enrichment for a nuke? Obama, Kerry, Biden, m*&%!#$f%&×@rs.
[ANNAHAR] President Michel Aoun ...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... marked the second anniversary of the Beirut port blast on Thursday by saying that he shares "the grief of the victims’ families and the suffering of the detainees’ families."
"I stress to them my commitment to fulfilling justice that is based on full truth, which should be unveiled by an honest judicial course that would go until the end, away from any falsification, selectivity or injustice, in order to hold accountable anyone whose involvement is verified," Aoun said in a tweet.
"No one is above the law," the President added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/05/2022 00:00 ||
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[11 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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 personification of Somali state failure...
...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites....
...president of Leb, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah...
