[RT] The alleged bodyguard for former Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf 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... told the British media he has security camera footage to disprove the US-backed leader’s denials of taking bags of money with him when he fled the country in August.
"I have a recording which shows that an individual at the Afghan Bank brought a lot of money to Ghani before he left," the man which UK’s Daily Mail newspaper identified as Brigadier General Piraz Ata Sharifi told the outlet in an article published on Friday. "Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of dollars. There were many big bags, and they were heavy. It was not rice."
Ghani and his family fled the presidential palace and flew to the United Arab Emirates on August 15, as Talibs entered Kabul. When he finally made a public statement three days later, he denied reports that he had abandoned his post and taken stolen cash with him, saying he left the country with only the clothes on his back to "avoid bloodshed" that would result from a power struggle. He issued another denial in September, saying corruption accusations against him were "completely false."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2021 00:00 ||
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[AlAhram] The Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the United States to contain bully boy groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August.
Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives are to meet Saturday and Sunday in Doha, the capital of Qatar
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
10/10/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Joe Biden has resurrected ISIS. Just part of his "Build Back Better" pledge.
Posted by: Too Old To Work ||
10/10/2021 9:36 Comments ||
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[ToloNews] After the former government collapsed, girls across the country in grades 7-12 were banned from going to school, however, they are allowed to attend in the provinces of Balkh, Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... and Kunduz.
"Those girls in school above grade six who are not allowed to study--education is their right and they should study," said Hassina, a student.
Another student, Hadisa, said "I have this hope that girls in other provinces will be able to properly study their lessons."
Girls in Balkh province were happy to be allowed to go to school.
Sultan Razia is a female student in Balkh's capital Mazar-e-Sharif where there are over 4,600 students and 162 teachers.
"Initially, there were a few students but the number is getting larger and the lessons are good," said Fariba, an eighth grade student.
Another student at the school, Tabasom, said: "Education is our right, we want to improve our country and no one can or should take the right of education from us."
The head of Balkh's provincial department of education, Jalil Sayed Khili, said that all girl schools have remained opened in Balkh.
"We have segregated the girl students from the boys," he added.
According to the statistics of the Balkh educational department, over 600 schools are active in the province with around 50,000 students
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A three-week blockade of Sudan's main port by tribal protesters is causing shortages of wheat and fuel oil for power generation, endangering the country's already faulty electricity supply, a cabinet minister said on Saturday.Tensions between Sudan's military and civilian leaders have been running high in recent weeks, and some civilian figures have accused the military of playing a role in the Beja tribe's blockade of Port Sudan, surrounding roads and fuel pipelines.
Military leaders have denied any involvement, and Beja leaders say they are protesting to draw attention to economic and political issues affecting the eastern tribe.
In the capital, Khartoum, queues for bread have reappeared in recent days and there have been shortages of imported flour.
Minister of Cabinet Affairs Khalid Omer Yousif said in a statement the government would redistribute wheat stocks located in the country's Northern State to bolster supplies elsewhere.
Diesel supplies have also been affected by the blockade but petrol supplies remain stable, the statement added.
On Friday, the US, Britannia and Norway backed Sudan's civilian-led transitional government in urging political talks to resolve the protests.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2021 00:00 ||
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[LIBYAREVIEW] On Saturday, the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... welcomed the signing of a long-awaited Action Plan to withdraw mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, after years of fighting between warring factions across the oil-rich country.The so-called 5+5 Joint Military Commission (JMC) announced that it had signed a comprehensive Action Plan. This will be the cornerstone for the gradual, balanced, and sequenced process of the withdrawal of mercenaries, imported muscle and foreign forces from Libyan territory.
In press statements, an official source in the General Secretariat of the vaporous Arab League praised the tireless and continuous efforts of the JMC to establish the ceasefire agreement, since it was signed last October. It will implement all its provisions, as a main step for the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections as scheduled.
He also called on all international and regional partners to cooperate and provide support for the implementation of this plan. He stressed the importance of unifying the country’s military institution and ensuring the full disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of gangs deployed in the Libyan territory.
In addition, the Arab League stressed that the signing of the Action Plan would fully consolidate Libya’s illusory sovereignty, and guarantees its security and territorial integrity.
Notably, the United National Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) welcomed the step, saying it is cornerstone for the gradual, balanced, and sequenced process of the withdrawal of mercenaries.
It added that, "in alignment with the Ceasefire Agreement of the 23rd of October 2020, respective United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, 2570 and 2571 (2021) on Libya, and the outcomes of the Berlin Conference, the Action Plan is a nationally owned and led instrument, that is key to support the Libyans in regaining their illusory sovereignty and integrity, maintain the peace, stability, and security of their country."
Since the 2011 fall of former ruler Muammar Gadaffi, Libya has descended into crises on multiple fronts.
Until recently, the country had essentially been divided between the Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... -based Government of National Accord (GNA), and a rival administration, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly... , who commands the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).
Mercenaries and other fighters from outside Libya have reportedly been operating inside the country for years, including some previously involved in the Syria conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2021 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
#1
The fall of Qadaffy and the ensuing chaos; I ask you, who could have possibly had a hand in all of that ?
Some Afghan refugees among the 7,000 who were evacuated to the U.K. are now asking to be sent back due to the lack of free housing. They are currently being accommodated in hotels paid for by taxpayers. https://t.co/PLtiLhbFr6
#7
True refugee story:
I worked for a bunch of years with a Vietnamese guy, Le, who had been resettled with his family after Saigon. Le had been a ARVN helicopter pilot, so no staying.
Anyway, he said when they got to the processing center in the Phillipines, the guy at the desk said his was cleared through for resettlement, and where would he like to go. Le told me "Now I'm just a dumb Vietnamese kid, the only place in the US I've ever heard of is Hollywood. So I said Hollywood."
Dude at the desk flips through a big folder, makes some notes, and says "You got your choice of Hollywood California, Hollywood Florida, or Hollywood Minnesota." Le says "Which one would be easiest?" Guy says "Minnesota". Minnesota it was. Hoo Boy!
Le told me "I had only ever seen snow in a picture, and ice was something that came out of a big shot's refrigerator."
They got re-resettled after 3 months to the Gulf Coast, and that's where they've been ever since.
He said "The people in Minnesota were real nice, But..."
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/10/2021 14:01 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"The people in Minnesota were real nice, But..."
There's a joke about the Norwegians who settled in Minnesota - how the cold and rocky ground and mosquitoes reminded them so much of home that they forget why they left in the first place.
I'm not saying the place in uninhabitable, but my earliest childhood memories are riding my tricycle in the snow and stepping in an ice fishing hole.
#9
Paul Joseph watson has an excellent blog on how Afghan refugees trashed the Grand Hotel. TripAdvisor had to take down reviews from paying cutomers.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
10/10/2021 15:15 Comments ||
Top||
#10
#7 - I worked with some Viet (then children) refugees who became Engineers. Hardest working MFers and most smart as a whip. VN lost a lot, as I'm sure Cambodia, Laos, etc. did
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2021 17:03 Comments ||
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[Rudaw] A nationwide opinion poll conducted by the Baghdad-based al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue (RCD) predicts the Shiite Sadr Movement to win the Iraqi election, followed by the Fatah Alliance, its rival Shiite bloc headed by Hadi al-Amiri.
The survey, conducted across the 18 provinces in Iraq between Sept. 25 and Oct. 5, 2021 shows Sadr Movement is to win 47 seats. The opinion poll calculated the best, medium and worst-case scenarios for all the political parties. Sadr's Sairoon coalition is expected to win 53, 47 and 43 seats in each category, respectively.
Sairoon - then a coalition of the Sadr Movement, the Iraqi communist party and some smaller Iraqi entities - won the last Iraqi election with 54 secured seats.
The poll surveyed 5,700 people across the provinces with 300 questionnaire sheets except for Baghdad, which has 69 seats up for grabs and received 600 forms.
The RCD said that Saladin, Baghdad and Nineveh have the highest numbers of candidates per electoral district, with 64.3 candidates per district. Kurdistan Region's provinces have the least number of candidates per an electoral district, with Duhok numbering just eight candidates per district.
The center states that the high number of the candidates in the rest of Iraq might "shatter the votes," whereas the situation in the Kurdistan Region means that candidates might receive a higher share of the votes.
The poll results slate the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the largest Kurdish party in the Kurdistan Region, to win 32 seats in a best-case scenario or 24 in a worst-case scenario. The KDP has said that they will maintain or increase their votes in the upcoming election.
Of those surveyed, 37.2 percent indicated their intention to take part in the election, 50.5 responded they would not and 12.3 were undecided.
According to the survey, public trust in the transparency of the election is almost even, 41.6 percent responded the election will be transparent and clean, and 42.1 percent did not have any trust at all.
Of the respondents, 70 percent said they would not trust the candidates to follow up on promises they made during the election campaign. In Dhi Qar, a southern province where it witnessed one of the bloodiest protests that led to the resignation of the former Iraqi cabinet in late 2019, only 17 percent believed the candidates will meet their promises. Anbar and Erbil with 77.8 and 56 percent, respectively, scored the highest trust in their candidates.
[AnNahar] Leb ...the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity™, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade... 's national electricity grid totally collapsed on Saturday, after the al-Zahrani and Deir Amar power plants stopped operating due to a lack of diesel, LBCI television said.
The two power plants' separation from the grid lowered national power production to below 200 megawatts forcing the collapse.
Lebanon's state-run electricity firm, Electricite du Liban, was meanwhile "conducting maneuvers to rebuild the national grid manually, amid the absence of the national control center which was destroyed by the Beirut port blast," LBCI added.
#5
Yet, the Hezb lathes continue turning out rockets
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2021 17:07 Comments ||
Top||
#6
#3 Steve, I almost wish you hadn't put that idea into the atmosphere. AOC will probably demand that we spend a trillion shipping electrons to impoverished countries.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/10/2021 17:12 Comments ||
Top||
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.
...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...
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone...
Sultan Razia is a female student in Balkh's capital Mazar-e-Sharif where there are over 4,600 students and 162 teachers. 
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] A three-week blockade of Sudan's main port by tribal protesters is causing shortages of wheat and fuel oil for power generation, endangering the country's already faulty electricity supply, a cabinet minister said on Saturday.Tensions between Sudan's military and civilian leaders have been running high in recent weeks, and some civilian figures have accused the military of playing a role in the Beja tribe's blockade of Port Sudan, surrounding roads and fuel pipelines.
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
[JPost]
...the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity™, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade...
