[Free Beacon] The Biden administration funneled nearly $1.3 million to the Taliban as part of reconstruction projects in Afghanistan that are being administered by the United States, according to a government oversight group.
Since 2021, when the Biden administration conducted its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has allocated millions to weapons removal projects. As part of these activities, the U.S. government and its partners inside Afghanistan "have paid Taliban entities nearly $1.3 million in taxes, including $138,000 this quarter," according to an audit by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which monitors America's $17 billion post-withdrawal investment in the country.
Another $5 million in U.S. funds remain available for future weapons removal projects, which will likely have to be conducted with the Taliban's blessing. The United States' payments to the Talibanβwhich seized power during the Biden administration's evacuationβcome amid warnings that Afghanistan "is once again becoming a terrorist haven," according to SIGAR. The oversight group has repeatedly warned that billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars are potentially being diverted to the Taliban and that this money cannot be properly tracked because the Biden administration is stonewalling investigations.
With billions in taxpayer dollars still flowing into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, terror attacks from inside the country are on the rise. The Taliban government "remain[s] tolerant of some terror groups, such as al Qaeda and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan," according to SIGAR. Other militant groups, including ISIS, are also expanding their operations in Afghanistan and maintain the ability to launch attacks on U.S. and Western interests abroad.
[HILL] The expected withdrawal of U.S. forces from Niger will endanger U.S. counter-terrorism operations and hand Russia more influence in Africa as American and western ties on the continent fracture.
Around 1,000 troops in Niger are expected to eventually withdraw from the country after the conclusion of ongoing high-level talks between Niamey and Washington following a military coup in the African country last year, the Pentagon has said.
A forced withdrawal from Niger is a major setback for U.S. military as it fights against Islamic extremist groups across the Sahel, a volatile region that stretches from Senegal in western Africa to the Red Sea.
At risk for the U.S. is not just keeping ISIS, Boko Haram and other insurgent groups in check, but also the growing influence of Russia, Iran and China, all of which are jockeying for power in Africa along with the West.
But Western powers like the U.S. and European Union seem to be losing the battle in the Sahel.
Iranβs complex, direct attack against Israel on April 13 is remarkably similar to Russian-perpetrated attacks on Ukraine, employing one-way attack drones as well as cruise and ballistic missiles.
Perhaps one could safely assume there are numerous Russian advisors and technicians in Iran. The rather timid IDF response to the recent rocket attack from Iran was rather telling.
[IRANPRESSTV] A high ranking 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... i official has warned the United States against any hostile action against the Arab country, saying it possess far greater strategic stockpiles of deterrent weapons that Washington could imagine.
[Jpost] Colombia President Gustavo Petro said on Wednesday he would break diplomatic relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza.
Feel better now that you've passed that gas? Not that anyone cares.
Petro has already heavily criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Anti-Israel protestors across US college campuses have shaken the nation over the last weeks, systemically setting up illegal encampments and sparking questions about the money behind the demonstrations.
Organized encampments have appeared across the country's most respected universities after first showing up at Columbia in New York City. Violent clashes between protesters and police have followed at various schools including UCLA and the University of Texas at Austin.
Many have pointed fingers at a company called Crowds on Demand, which provides paid protesters as a service, accusing it of hiring left-wing agitators to manufacture the movement.
But in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, CEO Adam Swart denied that his company has any involvement with the protests, and has actually denied requests from both sides.
'We've been inundated with requests by both sides. Not just in regards to the campuses, but just broadly in regards to this Israel-Palestine issue, we've been getting tons of requests over the past few months,' Swart said on Tuesday.
'We have heard from grown ups who want to do activity on college campuses... lots of requests, including from very high profile wealthy donors on on both sides to get involved.'
Crowds on Demand, however, is not accepting any requests related to the war in Gaza, Swart added, because it's not the kind of issue he likes to get involved in. Swart emphasized that his company only hires protesters who already believe in a cause but may not be able to afford spending their day at a protest.
While his company is not taking the jobs, Swart believes someone is, because as an expert on this type of operation, he recognizes the telltale signs pointing to big money behind a cause, like similar tents and expensive banners seen at Columbia University over the last week.
'I do, to be clear, think there is money behind the pro-Palestine protests - 100 percent. I'm just saying we're staying out of it,' he said.
Swart said it's possible for tax-exempt advocacy organizations to not disclose their donors, and thus anyone could be funding their causes, opening the door to enemy foreign powers like China or Russia to sow discord in the US.
'If this is coming from abroad, and I believe that it might be in some part, that is very troubling,' he added.
The People's Forum, a tax-exempt advocacy group who often hosts propaganda events for the regimes of countries like Venezuela and Cuba, has been accused of being behind the Columbia protests.
The Washington Free Beacon reports the group, which has received $12million from Goldman Sachs, may have provided materials for the so-called occupation of Hamilton Hall. Over 100 masked activists met at the group's Manhattan headquarters, a base for all kinds of leftist activism, to plan their moves on Monday, participating in breakout sessions that taught 'resistance' methods. There, Peopleβs Forum executive director Manolo De Los Santos told the group to 'give Joe Biden a hot summer' and 'make it untenable for the politics of usual to take place in this country.' He then claimed 'Zionist' Columbia administrators 'want to be more like their masters in Israel.'
Daniel DiMartino, a PhD student at Columbia and a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told DailyMail.com The People's Forum is a group that aims to lobby for enemies of the US.
'The People's Forum is one of several foreign-funded organizations whose goal is to create havoc in America and defend tyrannical regimes like China's, Russia's, Cuba's and Venezuela's,' the Venezuela native said.
'I saw it firsthand when they hosted employees and officials from the Venezuelan socialist regime in 2022 in New York City. They don't care about human rights, not of Palestinians or Jews and certainly not of Venezuelans.'
The New York Times reported last year that the Chinese Community Party was indirectly funding the People's Forum.
Meanwhile New York mayor Eric Adams has warned that outside agitators have been instructing students as they took over Hamilton hall in Columbia.
'What should have been a peaceful protest, it has basically been co-opted by professional outside agitators,' he said.
A video shown by the mayor shows Lisa Fithian, an infamous agitator at US protests for over half a century, showing protesters how to occupy a building. Adams called Fithian 'the nation's best-known protest consultant', noting she gets paid as much as $300 a day to run demonstrations and teach how to take over streets during protests.
CNN has reported that at least half of demonstrators at Columbia are not affiliated with the university.
The anti-Israel protest at the University of Texas at Auston also appears to include outside forces, according to Jamie Hammonds, a content creator who covers homelessness and current events and has attended all the protests at the campus. Hammonds told DailyMail.com he attended over 30 Gaza protests that remained peaceful, before agitators showed up last week.
βThey were throwing water on the police, hurling insults, throwing water bottles, they were definitely provoking the cops to a confrontation,' he said.
Hammonds said he encountered a group that held signs that read 'Veterans against genocide' and admitted they were not students or even from Austin. βThey were wearing camouflage, and they were holding signs. They were very much provoking the police,' Hammonds said.
'They were right in the middle of it. Yelling slurs at them, calling them some of the most vile names that you an imagine.'
Most of the protests across the US campuses have been partly organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a campus group with more than 250 chapters across the country.
SJP was founded by UC Berkeley lecturer Hatem Bazian, who has repeatedly justified terror attacks against Israel and Intifada (uprising) in the US.
Just days after the October 7 attacks, Bazian shared a video titled: 'Here's why Hamas says its attack on Israel wasn't unprovoked.'
Bazian also once apologized after sharing a cartoon of a stereotypical Orthodox Jewish man celebrating the murder and rape of Palestinians and another of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un wearing a kippah and demanding money from the U.S.
The group has received millions from several charities with alleged links to Hamas, per a report by the think tank Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP). The ISGAP report asserts that SJP has become an effective and well-funded network for organizing protests around the country, but that its failure to register as a charity or formal organization left its funding sources and operations murky and unregulated.
Hints of financial backing could be seen at the Columbia 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment', including students erecting several identical high-end tents costing hundreds of dollars each, and handing out free Dunkin' Donuts coffee, $12.50 sandwiches from Pret-a-Manger and $10 rotisserie chickens to participants.
The nonprofits funding SJP include the Westchester People's Action Coalition (WESPAC), Tides, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), its parent organization Americans for Justice in Palestine (AJP), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The ISGAP report said SJP had the closest financial links with WESPAC, which acts as a 'financial sponsor' for the organization, routing tax-free donations through its accounts to SJP chapters.
The report said SJP also gets extensive organizational aid from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a nonprofit under investigation by the Virginia attorney general and accused of being a reincarnation of a charity found liable for funding Hamas.
"As I walked down the stairs from the airplane in Estonia, I thought "Wouldn't it be great to be waving to a cheering crowd right about now?" I had the same thought as I returned home to the [United] States. Life can be very cold at times, and nothing makes people happier than having people cheer for them."
ββAdam Swart, founder and CEO of Crowds on Demand, 2013 interview with LAist[7]
People Cheering for.... or against. Same pricing, less travel, per diem, and green earth tone pop-up tentage.
#11
Pretty soon, a non-white person will be injured and the 2020 St. George riots will be reawakened and merge with the present confrontation.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/02/2024 8:55 Comments ||
Top||
#12
This story has a familiar ring to it. More neo-Marxist and Sharia supremacists at work. Soros money and left-wing NGOs at work. The front-line agitators are mostly professional agitators; the remaining few are useful idiots. The New York Post has said polls indicate 4 out of 5 people support Israel.
#13
I want to know who provided all the plywood, pallets, screws, and tools to build the barricade at UCLA and how all the stuff was transported there.
Not that it matters what American citizens think on the subject, but itβs still nice to know. And it shows how far out of the mainstream those college protesters actually are.
[IsraelTimes] An overwhelming majority of Americans believe Israel should go ahead with an offensive in Rafah in order to end the war against Hamas ...a regional Iranian catspaw,... , according to a new Harvard CAPS Harris poll.
The question posed to respondents is "should Israel move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties, or should it back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation. ?"
In response, 72% say Israel should move forward with the operation while 28% say it should back off and allow Hamas to keep ruling Gaza.
Continued on Page 49
#2
The woman yelling sounds like the unhinged Hillary supporter on election night in 2016. The Israel flag must be like the cross or light is to vampires--causes hysteria and freak-outs.
[GEO.TV] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ...former president of Pakistain, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in... has directed Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to launch a large-scale operation against street criminals in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , dacoits in the Katcha area, and narcos throughout the province in close coordination with other provinces.
President issued number of directives including taking action against the drug mafia, curbing stolen goods trade, completing much-delayed Karachi Safe City project and others to restore law and order in Sindh particularly bucolic provincial capital amid rising violent mostly peaceful street crimes.
The development came during a special meeting chaired by President Zardari to review the law and order situation in the province at the CM House on Wednesday which was attended by the high-ups of the federal and provincial governments, as well as representatives of the security institutions.
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, provincial ministers Sharjeel Memon, Nasir Hussain Shah, Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, chief secretary, inspector general police (IGP), Director General (DG) Rangers Sindh and other bigwigs were present in the meeting.
The meeting was held to review overall law and order situation in the province, specifically the longstanding issues of Karachi street crimes, katcha bandidos, menace of narcotics, land grabbing, security of foreign nationals, as well as acquirement of facilities and resources.
[GEO.TV] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... said on Wednesday he has still not seen a plan for Israel's planned offensive on the southern Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation. city of Rafah that would protect civilians, repeating that Washington could not support such an assault.
Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem for two-and-a-half hours, after which Israel repeated that the Rafah operation would go ahead despite the US position and a stark UN warning that it would lead to "tragedy".
"We cannot, will not support a major military operation in Rafah absent an effective plan to make sure that civilians are not harmed and no, we've not seen such a plan," Blinken told news hounds.
"There are other ways, and in our judgment better ways, of dealing with the ... ongoing challenge of Hamas ...the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... that does not require a major military operation in Rafah," he said, adding that it was the subject of ongoing talks with Israeli officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11140 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"There are other ways, and in our judgment better ways, of dealing with the ... ongoing challenge of Hamas that does not require a major military operation in Rafah,"
All of these ways have already been tried - in vain. No comment on "your judgment".
[IsraelTimes] Nearly all of the army’s posts along the border with the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamaswith about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip failed a routine inspection carried out just three days before Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",’s October 7 onslaught, Channel 12 news reports.
The report says the snap inspection was carried out at 6:30 a.m. on October 4, exactly 72 hours before the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, during which some 3,000 Paleostinian gunnies stormed the border and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 253.
Continued on Page 49
Pier-building beginsConstruction of the floating JLOTS pier in the Mediterranean is underway.The pier will support @USAID and humanitarian partners to receive and deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. @USTRANSCOM and @USEUCOM support the movement of... pic.twitter.com/tC9J12wz4Z
[NEWARAB] The leader of a main Christian political party in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... blasted the Shia krazed killer group Hezbollah for opening a front with Israel to back up its ally Hamas ...a regional Iranian catspaw,... , saying it has harmed Lebanon without making a dent in Israel’s crushing offensive in the Gazoo
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2024 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11139 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Long past time to stop pretending that Lebanon is a country.
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.
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...former president of Pakistain, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in...
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
