[CNBC] U.S. and international companies helped finance a "Taliban-led terrorist insurgency" in Afghanistan that killed or hurt American service members and civilians, according to a new lawsuit filed Friday.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the lawsuit.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleges that the "large Western companies" made protection payments to the Taliban because they had "lucrative businesses in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and they all paid the Taliban to refrain from attacking their business interests."
"Those protection payments aided and abetted terrorism by directly funding an al-Qaeda-backed Taliban insurgency that killed and injured thousands of Americans," the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiffs are the families of more than 100 people who were killed and wounded in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2017.
The suit alleges that the companies often opted to pay the Taliban rather than seek assistance from the U.S. military in order to maximize profits.
They "rationalized their payments to the Taliban by framing them as a necessary cost of business," according to the suit.
Centerra Group, DAI Global, Louis Berger Group and Janus Global Operations, which are among the companies named in the suit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"The Anti-Terrorism Act complaint alleges that eight large multinational corporations, most of which are American, regularly paid ’protection payments’ to the Taliban (including the Haqqani Network), which were designed to boost the companies’ profits by redirecting violence away from their own business interests," said Ryan Sparacino, managing partner of one of the firms that filed the suit, in a statement to CNBC.
"We believe plaintiffs bore the consequences," Sparacino said.
Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick, another firm representing the plaintiffs in the suit, provided a copy of the legal complaint to CNBC did not immediately give a comment.
#1
During the Karzai regime, many of the US Forward Operating Bases guard towers were manned by indigenous, contract personnel. This was done at Karzai's insistence with the contracts usually held by his close, personal friends. A worrisome looking lot I can assure you. Perhaps this will be looked into as well.
#2
While we're on the topic of misdirected funding and "protection money", anyone wish to venture a guess as to why it took so long to ID the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization ?
The US Government in 2012 designated the Haqqani Network as a Foreign Terrorist Organization because of its involvement in the Afghan insurgency, attacks on US military and civilian personnel and Western interests in Afghanistan, and because of its ties to the Taliban and al-Qa‘ida. In addition to designating the group, key members have also been individually designated. Haqqani leaders Saidullah Jan, Yahya Haqqani, and Muhammad Omar Zadran, as well as suicide operations chief Qari Abdul Ra‘uf (also known as Qari Zakir), and Ibrahim Haqqani, remain either designated for financial sanctions or are on US most-wanted lists.
[AnNahar] More than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, the United Nations reported Thursday, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
The announcement comes as the Taliban and U.S. continue to hold talks aimed at drawing a close to America's longest war, after the negotiations were called off in September by President Donald Trump due to insurgent attacks.
However fighting continues to rage across the country, with ordinary Afghans frequently bearing the brunt of the violence.
"I recognize with extreme sadness that civilian casualties recently surpassed 100,000 in the past 10 years alone, from the time the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) began systematic documentation of civilian casualties," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
"The United Nations urges those participating in all peace efforts to consider the millions of ordinary Afghans, especially the victims of the conflict, who want a chance to live in peace so they can rebuild their lives."
The grim milestone also comes days after officials announced preliminary results in Afghanistan's latest presidential elections that put President Ashraf Ghani on track to secure a second term.
The Taliban have long viewed Ghani as an American stooge and have refused to negotiate with him, leading many to fear that fighting will continue even if the U.S. secures an eventual deal with the militants.
Earlier this year, the U.N. reported that an "unprecedented" number of civilians had been killed or wounded in Afghanistan from July 1 to September 30 this year, saying there had been 1,174 deaths and 3,139 injuries in that period.
A U.N. tally found that last year was the deadliest on record, with at least 3,804 civilian deaths caused by the war -- including 927 children.
[ToloNews] “When there is money, but there is no feeling for the country—and weak leadership—it’s natural, it will never be complete.”
The Ministry of Defense on Friday said that the number of soldiers in the ranks of the Afghan National Army (ANA) is supposed to be around 234,000 officers, however, currently there are about 200,000 soldiers serving in the force.
Afghanistan started reshaping its security institutions after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, a move that is considered one of the major achievements of state-building programs in the country in the post-Taliban democracy.
“The size of the army should be about 234,000, but currently there are around 200,000 soldiers serving,” confirmed Rohullah Ahmadzai, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, but he downplayed the significance of the difference: “But the recruitment process is normal for a national army.”
Toofan Mahdavi, a former officer of the Afghan National Army who served in the force for three years and was wounded during one of the battles, said that a lack of troops has serious consequences. He left the military because he was personally threatened by armed groups because he served in the ANDSF, but another reason he gave for leaving was “challenges on the battlefield.” Mahdavi cites a lack of troops as one of the challenges:
“When we asked ‘why didn’t you send us reinforcements?’ they said that they didn’t hear our voice on the line. We did not have sufficient personnel. When the checkpoints are taken by the Taliban and you come tomorrow, what is the benefit of that?” said Mahdavi.
The high number of casualties among Afghan forces is also one of the factors that has been hindering the ability to meet target numbers of enlistment.
“When there is money, but there is no feeling for the country—and weak leadership—it’s natural, it will never be complete,” said military expert Atiqullah Amarkhel.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior has said they are trying to build up the force to its target numbers.
“We have a two percent shortage. But the recruitment process is underway in the center and in the provinces,” said Nusrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
In July 2019, John Sopko, the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), in a report said that the size of Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces reported the lowest numbers since the Resolute Support mission began in January 2015.
According to the report, there were 180,869 Afghan National Army (ANA) and 91,596 Afghan National Police (ANP) personnel enrolled and accounted for as of May 25, 2019, which is roughly 10,000 ANA fewer and 25,000 ANP fewer than the numbers reported to SIGAR in the previous quarter.
Part of the drop was attributed to different standards of counting, in this case counting only biometrically-validated soldiers.
[KhaamaPress] United States has given a ‘written’ assurance to India that will help facilitate global banks to fund the purchase of equipment worth $85 million to be erected at Chabahar port which India is developing in Iran, the Hindu BusinessLine reported. W.T.F.?
Chabahar is of great strategic importance for the development of regional maritime transit traffic to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
In November 2018, the United States granted a waiver to the port from the sanctions it has imposed on the Persian Gulf nation.
“We have to procure equipment for running the port, but because of the US sanctions, we are not able to procure,” a government official briefed on the issue said.
“We have placed the orders for equipment, some as long as two years ago, but we are not able to open a letter of credit (LCs). Banks are not coming forward. The US had earlier given verbal assurances (on the waiver fine print) but were very reluctant to give anything in writing, and the banks insist on the document. Now, after the recent visit of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, they have given us something in writing, and we are trying to go ahead,” the official stated.
“The payments are in dollars. We need some banks which deal in dollars or euros, so we have to hit the international banking system and there if the word Iran comes, no bank is prepared to stick its neck out,” he stated.
India Ports Global (a 60:40 joint venture between Jawaharlal Port Trust and Deendayal Port Trust) and Aria Banader Iranian Port signed a deal in May 2016 to equip and operate the container and multi-purpose terminals at Shahid Beheshti – Chabahar Port Phase-I with capital investment of $85.21 million and annual revenue expenditure of $ 22.95 million on a 10-year lease. Cargo revenues collected will be shared by India and Iran as per an agreed formula.
Located in the Sistan-Baluchistan Province on Iran’s South-eastern coast (outside the Persian Gulf), Chabahar port is of great strategic importance for the development of regional maritime transit traffic to Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Chabahar Port (Persian: بندر چابهار) is a seaport in Chabahar located in southeastern Iran, on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran's only oceanic port, and consists of two separate ports named Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti, each of which has five berths.[1]
The India–Iran–Afghanistan three-way memorandum of understanding (MoU) plans have committed at least $21bn to Chabahar–Hajigak corridor,[2] including $85m for Chabahar port development by India,[3] $150m line of credit by India to Iran,[3] $8bn India-Iran MoU for Indian industrial investment in Chabahar Special Economic Zone,[4] $11-billion Hajigak iron and steel mining project awarded to seven Indian companies in central Afghanistan,[4][5] and India's $2bn commitment to Afghanistan for developing supporting infrastructure including the Chabahar-Hajigaj railway,[5] with potential for several times more trade via connectivity to 7,200-km-long multi-mode North–South Transport Corridor (INSTC) connecting to Europe and Turkey, R297 Amur highway and Trans-Siberian Highway across Russia,[6] and planned Herat to Mazar-i-Sharif railway providing access to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.[6] Chabahar Port also provides direct access to India's Farkhor Air Base in Tajikistan.[7] Chabahar route will result in 60% reduction in shipment costs and 50% reduction in shipment time from India to Central Asia.[8]
Development of the port was first proposed in 1973 by the last Shah of Iran, though development was delayed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[9] The first phase of the port was opened in 1983 during the Iran–Iraq War as Iran began shifting seaborne trade east towards the Pakistani border in order to decrease dependency on ports in the Persian Gulf which were vulnerable to attack by the Iraqi Air Force.[10]
India and Iran first agreed to plans to further develop Shahid Beheshti port in 2003, but did not do so on account of sanctions against Iran.[11] As of 2016, the port has ten berths.[1] In May 2016, India and Iran signed a bilateral agreement in which India would refurbish one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti port, and reconstruct a 600 meter long container handling facility at the port.[12] The port is intended to provide an alternative for trade between India and Afghanistan. This port is 800 kilometers closer to Afghanistan than Pakistan's Karachi port.[13] The port handled 2.1 million tons of cargo in 2015,[14] which is planned to be upgraded to handle 8.5 million tons by 2016, and to 86 million tons in the future.[15][16]
In July 2016, India began shipping US$150 million worth of rail tracks to Chabahar to develop the port container tracks and build US$1.6 billion Chabahar–Zahedan railway built by India's Ircon International for which India pledged additional US$400 million and Iran allocated US$125 million in December 2016, thus taking the total allocation to US$575 million (out of US$1.6 billion needed for the rail route) till the end of 2016.[17][18] In October 2017, India's first shipment of wheat to Afghanistan was sent through the Chabahar Port.[19] In December 2018, India took over the port's operations.[20]
#4
If Afghanistan is to have trade independent of taliban control, infusing money into the legitimate govt, this is most necessary. It reduces the aid burden, cuts out Pakistain, gets India there before the taliban 'Emirate' can lease it to China, and allows us to police the Arabian sea citing naval-terrorism. Certain parties have already begun the roads network that will be necessary to run any future trade or even wars around and through the hitherto undeveloped desert region. Contracts to run the transport and routes were already concluded in 2015, and the US approved.
India will be building the 900-km Chabahar-Zaranj-Delaram-Hajigak railway line to mine the vast deposits of ore in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan. We won't rob them, India always pays. Naturally, India will protect its interest against the taliban and their ISI benefactors. It's good for us to get in the ring for once. Also, India could be a great bridge builder and voice of reason, in case good sense doesn't prevail and the US wishes to remain there.
Trump knew China had been presented a plan by the Pakis to integrate Chabahar with Gwadar, allowing Iran to escape sanctions as well as locking out the subcontinent from its use. He probably thought, better India than them. In any case, Pakistain is not long for this world now. Sometime in the new 20s, China shall have to renegotiate Gwadar too with India.
Be still, my heart. It was one of those experiments — but will it be a bang or a whimper?
The rest of the explanation is very helpful. Thank you, Dron66046. I’m going to sound positively brilliant at the next dinner party, when I modestly defer to your reasoning. ;-)
[KhaamaPress] A Taliban delegation who had travelled to Pakistan to consult peace terms and conditions with their elders have just returned back to Doha, Qatar, close sources to Taliban said.
An informed source has said that ‘most members’ of the Taliban councils in Pakistan have agreed to a temporary ‘ceasefire’ in Afghanistan.
Taliban have not yet officially announced anything, but Jalaluddin Shinwari, a former member of Taliban regime, believes that eventually the views of the political group and military sections will be coordinated.
“Every decision taken by the leadership is obeyed, based on Sharia. But since a discussion is an Islamic principle, there must be some talks between the political leaders and military commanders of the Taliban,” Shinwari said.
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah who was speaking in ‘death anniversary’ of Abdul Mutalib Big, a prominent Jihadi leader who was killed in a suicide attack 8 years ago, emphasized that every Afghan citizen wants peace and we should use every opportunity that can lead us to ‘peace’.
Abdullah believes that the direct talks between Taliban and different group will help to find a solution in reaching peace.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Simply dreadful, I agree. It would be more dreadful were all of those “children” actually the age they claim instead of as many as half being well into adulthood (and taking advantage of the undefended real children penned in with them), and a good deal less dreadful if the older and more educated ones exerted themselves to clean up the squalor and organize some sort of education for the younger and more ignorant, but there it is.
[BBC] A US Navy Seal who was tried for war crimes was described by members of his unit as "evil", "toxic", and "perfectly OK with killing anybody", according to footage obtained by the New York Times.
The case of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher gained national attention when President Trump championed him.
Gallagher was demoted by the Navy after his trial earlier this year but Mr Trump reversed the decision.
In doing so, the president contradicted the Navy's most senior leaders.
Mr Trump recently hosted Gallagher and his wife at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and described the soldier at a rally as one of the country's "great fighters".
Gallagher denied any wrongdoing, claiming the case against him was concocted by disgruntled members of his unit who wanted to force him out.
#7
Considering that unit was known for discipline problems and Gallagher cracked down on their shenanigans, little wonder some vaginal turds cried to their mommies.
#8
The Navy really ought to let go of this. Trump is the CINC, period. Feeding BS like this to the NYT is not helping anybody least of all the institution.
Besides, shouldn't he be 'ok with killing anybody at any time'? while no Navy guy, I, it would seem to be the job description.
#10
Fuck the pc shit, I would think you want a killer with you in a war zone.
Posted by: Chris ||
12/28/2019 11:35 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Killing is the sine non qua of war...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/28/2019 11:39 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Given that the medic in the group admitted on the stand that he was the one who killed the captured Talib in question, to prevent him, as he saw it, from being tortured for information by the Afghan authorities, it seems clear that Chief Gallagher was absolutely not ok with killing anybody. That medic, on the other hand...
[Rudaw] Senior Iraqi military officials are slated to visit the Kurdistan Region next week to discuss disputed territories under Iraqi control. Iraqi and Kurdish officials will also discuss administrative matters in areas controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“There is very good cooperation [between Kurdistan Region and Iraq for fighting against ISIS], and it is planned for a high level delegation, headed by Deputy Commander of Joint Operations Command, Abdulameer Yarallah, next week,” Abdulkareem Khalaf, military spokesperson for outgoing Iraqi PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi, told Rudaw on Thursday.
The visit is to “hold discussions concerning the areas under the control of the Kurdistan Region and areas under the control of the Iraqi Army from Khanaqin to Zumar,” added Khalaf.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
12/28/2019 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[IsraelTimes] Rights group says Fariba Adelkhah, Kylie Moore-Gilbert starting protest ‘in the name of academic freedom’; letter alleges they were subject to psychological torture.
A French-Iranian researcher locked up in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison has gone on a hunger strike along with an academic and co-prisoner from Australia, a rights group said.
The hunger strikes by Iranian-born French researcher Fariba Adelkhah and Kylie Moore-Gilbert were revealed by the Center for Human Rights in Iran. They were confirmed by Sciences Po’s research center CERI, where Adelkhah works.
French researchers expressed their concern in tweets and press commentaries.
An open letter was sent to the US-based Center for Human Rights in Iran signed with the names of the two women after it was received “by a source with contacts inside the prison,” the center said in a Christmas Eve statement.
The center quoted the letter as saying that the women were starting “their joint hunger strike in the name of academic freedom” on behalf of researchers like themselves “unjustly imprisoned on trumped up charges.” The letter said they had been subjected to psychological torture and human rights violations. It said they are being held in Ward 2-A, allegedly run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iranian officials disclosed in July the arrest of Adelkhah, a prominent anthropologist who often traveled to Iran for her research on post-revolutionary Iranian society. They said she was arrested on espionage charges. Her friend and fellow researcher Roland Marchal was arrested as he tried to visit her, France revealed in October. He is being held in a men’s ward.
Moore-Gilbert, a University of Melbourne scholar on the Middle East, has been jailed since October 2018. On Thursday, the Center for Human Rights in Iran published a letter she addressed in June to Australia’s prime minister, pleading for help, and an update this month in which she begs him “to take immediate action.”
Two Australians were freed from Iran in October while Australia freed an Iranian in what appeared to be a prisoner swap. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said at the time that Moore-Gilbert’s situation was “more complex.” Meanwhile, Iran indicated a willingness to make prisoner exchanges with the United States after freeing a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton held for three years in a prisoner swap.
A fellow scholar and friend of Adelkhah, Jean-Francois Bayart, and researcher Beatrice Hibou wrote in Thursday’s Le Monde newspaper that the women’s determination should not be doubted. They noted that Adelkhah had earlier created a discussion group for women on Telegram, an encripted social network, calling it the Lionesses.
“Having known her for a long time, we know she is ready to die like a lion to defend her freedom, that of her job and her dignity,” they wrote.
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.
[CNBC] U.S. and international companies helped finance a "Taliban-led terrorist insurgency" in Afghanistan that killed or hurt American service members and civilians, according to a new lawsuit filed Friday.
During the Karzai regime, many of the US Forward Operating Bases guard towers were manned by indigenous, contract personnel. This was done at Karzai's insistence with the contracts usually held by his close, personal friends. A worrisome looking lot I can assure you. Perhaps this will be looked into as well. 
[AnNahar] More than 100,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured over the past decade, the United Nations reported Thursday, as it renewed calls to end the bloody 18-year conflict.
[ToloNews] “When there is money, but there is no feeling for the country—and weak leadership—it’s natural, it will never be complete.”
India will be building the 900-km Chabahar-Zaranj-Delaram-Hajigak railway line to mine the vast deposits of ore in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan. We won't rob them, India always pays. Naturally, India will protect its interest against the taliban and their ISI benefactors. It's good for us to get in the ring for once. Also, India could be a great bridge builder and voice of reason, in case good sense doesn't prevail and the US wishes to remain there.
[IsraelTimes] Rights group says Fariba Adelkhah, Kylie Moore-Gilbert starting protest ‘in the name of academic freedom’; letter alleges they were subject to psychological torture.
