Excuses for biden then?

 

Once agai9 we see the difference between the Biden Administration and traitor Trump. Transparency and taking responsibility.

Centcom Gen Kenneth McKenzie Jr was just on TV admiring the second drone strike was a tragic mistake and they accidentally killed a US aide worker as well as civilians including at least 7 children.

And as someone who follows politics very closely and have for decades I am not sure I have ever seen anything quite this frank and candid when it comes to admitting a tragic military mistake. Gen McKenzie admitted they were desperate to prevent another ISIS attack and simply got the intelligence wrong.

 

WHEW!
So glad we have a transparent government for once that admits they killed innocent people and a (gasp) American!

Be nice if they didn't fuck up in the first place, attacking before they had it right, rather than make sure they got it right and THEN do the political thingy.

 

Afghanistan updates: 4th evacuation flight leaves Kabul for Qatar, Americans on board
Americans were among the 236 passengers onboard the evacuation flight.


With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort in past weeks.

But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden's Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind. The Biden administration is now focused on a "diplomatic mission" to help them leave but some hoping to evacuate are still stuck in the country. Meanwhile, the Taliban has announced its new "caretaker" government that includes men with U.S. bounties on their heads -- and no women.

4th evacuation flight leaves Kabul for Qatar, Americans on board
At least 236 passengers were on an evacuation flight from Kabul to Qatar this weekend, which officials said is the largest passenger evacuation since the Aug. 31 U.S. withdrawal deadline.

Evacuees included U.S., U.K., German, Irish, French nationals and more, according to a senior Qatari government official.

"The State of Qatar is pleased to announce that following extensive consultation with parties on the ground and international partners, just moments ago the fourth passenger flight departed Kabul International Airport to Doha’s Hamad International Airport (HIA)," the official said in a statement Sunday.

"The State of Qatar will continue its collaboration with international partners on efforts that ensure freedom of movement in Afghanistan, while working with various parties on the ground towards more general progress in the country moving forward," the official said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/live-updates/afghanistan-withdrawal-live-updates/?id=79482353

 

Let's hope they are right this time.

US Carries Out Strike in Syria, Killing Senior Al Qaeda Leaders
By Jackson RichmanSep 20th, 2021, 4:02 pm
89 comments



Photo by STAFF/AFP via Getty Images.

The United States killed three senior Al Qaeda leaders in a drone strike in northwest Syria on Monday.

“U.S. forces conducted a kinetic counterterrorism strike near Idlib, Syria, today, on a senior Al Qaeda leader. Initial indications are that we struck the individual we were aiming for, and there are no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike,” said U.S. Central Command in a statement. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby reiterated this statement during Monday’s press briefing.

Abu al-Bara al-Tunisi and Abu Hamza al-Yemeni, both from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Hurras Al-Din group, were reportedly killed in the strike. The former was a senior Al Qaeda commander in Syria. Until Monday, he had survived two previous assassination attempts in 2020, according to the Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister. The name of the third senior leader is publicly unknown.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/us-carries-out-strike-in-syria-killing-senior-al-qaeda-leaders/

 

Kabul AirStrike that supposedly killed the terrorist that killed 13 Americans at the Kabul Airport...WAS A FUCKING LIE...

That car was filled with kids and water jugs..., not the terrorist that killed the U.S. Military personnel.

 

It just makes me sick we never seem to learn.

Afghanistan: Ex-Bagram inmates recount stories of abuse, torture
Former prisoners return to the now abandoned US-run Bagram jail, which was notorious for enhanced interrogations.


Hamza recounts the torture he endured during his imprisonment at Bagram [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
By Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
22 Sep 2021
Bagram, Afghanistan – Hajimumin Hamza walks through a long, dark corridor and carefully inspects the area as if he has never seen it before. Today, the 36-year old bearded man in a black turban and a traditional two-piece garment is a guide to fellow Taliban fighters in the place whose name he would rather forget. His eyes stop at a solitary chair standing on the pathway.

“They used to tie us to this chair, our hands and feet, and then applied electric shocks. Sometimes they used it for beatings, too,” Hamza says, recounting the torture he underwent during his captivity in Bagram prison between 2017 and the onset of the fall of Kabul last month, when he managed to escape.

Keep reading
Taliban sacks Afghan Cricket Board CEO Hamid ShinwariUS officials fear al-Qaeda threat after fall of Kabul to TalibanUNGA: Qatar’s emir urges world to engage with the Taliban
The United States set up the Parwan Detention Facility, known as Bagram, or Afghanistan’s Guantanamo, in late 2001 to house armed fighters after the Taliban launched a rebellion following its removal from power in a military invasion.

The facility located within the Bagram airbase in the Parwan province was meant to be temporary. But it turned out otherwise. It housed more than 5,000 prisoners until its doors were forced open, days before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan on August 15.






Sultan, who was jailed at Bagram between 2014 and August 2021, says he lost his teeth during what came to be known as enhanced interrogation techniques that rights groups say amounted to torture and violated international law. The 42 year old, who does not share his surname, opens his mouth to demonstrate the damage.

The Geneva Convention
The group of Taliban members passes a large plaque located at the prison’s wall with the words of the Geneva Convention in English and Dari but nobody cares to read it.

“The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever (…). Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture,” it reads.

But they all know that in Bagram, none of these rules applied. As the former prisoners say, if you entered Bagram, there was no way out. And if you were not an enemy fighter before landing there, you would surely leave as one.

None of the thousands of inmates who passed through the site over the 20 years of the American war, received the status of prisoner of war.

Previous inmates and Taliban fighters inspect the chair which was used for torturing prisoners [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
In 2002, after the death of two Afghan prisoners in detention, the centre came under scrutiny and seven American soldiers faced charges. The abuses, however, continued and soon became part of the “Bagram handbook”.

Hamza remembers much more than the electric shocks. Hanging upside down for hours. Water and tear gas being poured on sleeping prisoners from the bars on a cell’s ceiling. Confinement in tiny, windowless, solitary cells for weeks or months with either no light or a bright bulb switched on 24/7.

‘Black jail’
According to the former inmates, none of those who experienced solitary confinement, the so-called “black jail”, whose existence the US has denied, left the cells psychologically healthy.

“There were a lot of different forms of torture, including sexual abuse. They used devices to make us less of a man,” Hamza says, without giving details. “It is psychologically hard for me to recall all that was happening. The torture was mostly done by Afghans, sometimes the Americans. But the orders came from the US.”

Hamza joined the Taliban at the age of 16 following the US invasion. In his eyes, the Americans were invaders occupying his land. He saw fighting against them as his duty as a Muslim and Afghan. He would be given training in bomb and IED-making after his classes at the agriculture department at the Kabul University.

Hamza’s former cell [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
He was detained in summer 2017 and first transferred to Safariad prison in Kabul. He then was sent to two other detention facilities before ending up in Bagram four months later. As he says, he was tortured in all the jails he passed through. In the end, he was sentenced to 25 years.

“Eighty-five per cent of people in Bagram were Taliban, the rest were Daesh [ISIL, or ISIS] members. When the American and Afghan forces conducted their operations and couldn’t find any Talibs, they would capture innocent people. Some of them were kept here for years before they were released due to lack of evidence,” Hamza says.

The former prisoners, along with a group of Talibs, walk through the cells in the prison’s barracks and take photos of what remains. Clothing, personal items and tea cups lie scattered on the floor. According to the prisoners, the cells had up to 34 inmates. The walls bear writings in Pashto and Dari.

“People were writing memories, like a diary. We did that because we wanted to leave a testimony in case the Americans kill us. So that people know that we were here,” Hamza says.

A typical orange prison uniform and a cup hang on a cell wall. There were up to 34 prisoners in one cell and not enough space, so many inmates used to hang their personal items on the walls [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
“In the beginning, we only had orange clothes but we protested against the colour and then were given white and black, more traditional garments. One piece of clothing per person. We had only one blanket each, even though it was cold in the winter months. Sometimes we had to share them with new prisoners. Some people waited months to get theirs.”

Prison rules
In front of a cell, a large plaque in Dari and English explains the prison rules.

Rule 1: NO THROWING. No throwing or assaulting guards with any object or liquids. You will not throw anything at my guards.

Rule 3: NO SPITTING. You will not spit on my guards or other detainees.

Rule 7: NO DISOBEDIENCE. You will follow all orders of the guard force. There are no exceptions.

But the rules were not always followed.

“I bought a phone from a guard for 1,000 Afghanis ($11.50), we found a hole in the wall and when we had a connection, we made phone calls,” Hamza says. “I had it for two years. It was found a few times, but I always managed to get another one.”

It was the phone that eventually helped the prisoners escape. As the US forces left the base on June 2 without informing the Afghan government and the Taliban intensified its military offensive, Bagram was left with little supervision.

“One of us felt sick and we were calling for help. But no one came. There was only silence,” Hamza says. “This was when we decided to run away. We broke the bars with the metal plates our food was served on.”

A Taliban fighter inspects solitary confinement booths in the ‘black jail’ [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
After getting out of their cells, the inmates took the weapons left behind by the US Army and captured the few Afghan guards who were still left. They eventually freed them, as well as other inmates.

“More than 5,000 prisoners escaped but I’m not sure how many. The corridors were full of people. I took my phone, found a place to charge it and made a phone call,” says Hamza.

Shortly afterwards, his brother came to pick him up. But the reality outside was unfamiliar.

“When we went out we couldn’t recognise anything, especially the kids. We spent a lot of time with adults only, we hadn’t seen our families. People, cars, everything seemed foreign,” Hamza says.

‘We are not like the Americans’
It is the first time that Hamza has returned to the prison after fleeing. A prison that he never thought he would leave. He walks through the grounds of the former US airbase, where personal items of soldiers and prisoners, food and elements of armour, lie in a disordered mess and he says he is happy that he is now free.

The prisoners scribbled messages on the walls [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
He does not specify what happened to the Daesh fighters who served time along with the Taliban.

About 65 kilometres south at Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi sits on a chair in a prison office. The Taliban leader has been recently appointed as the head of Afghanistan’s prison system, the same function he had under the previous Taliban government in the 1990s. He returned to Afghanistan after 20 years of exile in Pakistan, where many Taliban officials took refugee status following the US invasion.

“Our deeds will show that we are not like the Americans who say that they stand for human rights but committed terrible crimes. There will be no more torture and no more hunger,” Turabi says, as he explains that the new prison staff will include members of the old system and the Taliban mujahideen.

Three Taliban members walk around the Bagram airbase [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
“We have a constitution but we will introduce changes to it and, based on those changes, we will revise the civil and criminal codes and the rules for civilians. There will be much less prisoners because we will follow the rules of Islam, humane rules.”

Turabi does not comment on the killing of four people during the protest in Kabul on September 10, or mounting evidence of the torture against journalists and civilians still being carried out in prisons.

When asked whether the new justice system will mirror the previous Taliban order, he answers with little hesitation.

“People worry about some of our rules, for example cutting hands. But this is public demand. If you cut off a hand of a person, he will not commit the same crime again. People are now corrupt, extorting money from others, taking bribes,” he says.

“We will bring peace and stability. Once we introduce our rules, no one will dare to break them.”

A corridor of Bagram prison with a solitary chair that was used for torturing inmates [Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska/Al Jazeera]
Source: Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/22/life-in-bagram-through-the-eyes-of-former-prisoners

 

Stumbler copies and pastes a rage about terrorists alleged abuse while in prison over a story of 13 Americans killed by a biden/harris administration fuckup.

No, stumbler, we never seem to learn, and your priorities never change.

 

Lots of people are predicting civil war in Afghanistan and I think that's a real possibility. But I think chances are it will be between warring Taliban factions because its one thing to be able to take over a country but much harder to actually govern.

How deep are divisions among the Taliban?
Sources tell Al Jazeera the discord is very real and if disharmony grows, it will spell trouble for the people.


Families of former officials have told Al Jazeera that Taliban fighters have tried to seize their belongings, including homes they rented and their private cars [File Photo: Reuters]
By Ali M Latifi
23 Sep 2021


There have been reports of divisions among the Taliban leadership, raising questions about the unity within the group which took over the country last month.

The public’s doubts about the group’s unity only increased earlier this month, when Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy prime minister, seemed to have disappeared from public view.

Then came reports that he had been killed.

When he did reappear, it was with a pre-recorded statement. Baradar, clearly reading from some sort of a statement, said his fading from the public eye was the result of travel, and that the Taliban, “have compassion among ourselves, more than a family”.

In a final bid to ease suspicions about his death or injury, Baradar was photographed attending a meeting with United Nations officials on Monday. However, diplomatic and political sources have told Al Jazeera that the discord among the Taliban leadership is very real, adding that if the disharmony grows, it will spell further trouble for the Afghan people.

A writer and reporter who has spent several years covering the Taliban said the divisions are the result of a political-military divide. The hardliners, he said, “feel that they are owed things for 20 years of fighting”.

Awaiting the spoils of war
A political source who has had a decades-long relationship with the Taliban’s top brass agrees. He says the effects of that rift extend from the halls of power to the streets, where the Taliban fighters have been going through major cities and forcefully taking the belongings of former officials and their families.

“Right now, all they care about is taking people’s cars and houses.”

Families of former officials have told Al Jazeera that Taliban fighters have tried to seize their belongings, including homes they rented and their private cars.

This is despite the deputy minister of information and culture, Zabihullah Mujahid, saying two days after the Taliban took over the country that “we have instructed everyone not to enter anybody’s house, whether they’re civilians or military”. At that same August 17 media briefing, Mujahid went on to say, “There’s a huge difference between us and the previous government.”



Taliban officials arrange a Taliban flag, before a press conference by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, at the government media information centre in Kabul [Rahmat Gul/AP Photo]

However, to those familiar with the situation, the current Taliban leadership is facing many of the same issues with factions as the government of former President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country the day the Taliban took Kabul.

Sources speaking to Al Jazeera said as with other Afghan governments, the divisions among the Taliban fall along personality lines. But unlike previous administrations, the Taliban does not just suffer from overly ambitious members or opposing political views, its split is much more fundamental.

Currently, the Taliban, said the sources, is made up of fighters still awaiting the spoils of war versus politicians who want to assuage the fears of the Afghan people and the international community.

Diplomatic recognition
Several nations have already publicly stated their unwillingness to accept a Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, with the five permanent UN Security Council members on Wednesday asking the Taliban to be more inclusive.

Afghanistan has been facing a liquidity crunch as the country is cut off from international financial organisations, while the United States froze more than $9bn in funds after the Taliban took over the country.

The reporter, who wished to remain anonymous due to security reasons, said that leaders like Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, the current defence minister and son of the group’s founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is one of the figures representing the hardline, military-focused faction of the Taliban.


Mullah Baradar (centre) with a group of Taliban officials [File: Social Media via Reuters]

Others, like Baradar and Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanikzai, the deputy minister of foreign affairs, represent the more politically minded branches who wanted to create a more inclusive state.

Another point of contention for the two factions is the role of regional neighbours – Pakistan and Iran – which have long been accused of supporting the Taliban during its 20-year armed rebellion.

Hardline faction
Many leaders of the hardline faction, who were arrested by Pakistan, are suspicious of Islamabad. Several of those have instead leaned towards supporting Iran.

Suspicions of Pakistan rose when the chief of Pakistani’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), visited Kabul just before the announcement of the cabinet. The reporter said General Faiz Hameed called for a more inclusive government, which would make room for Shia Muslims and women, but that the hardliners, already suspicious of Islamabad, refused.

When Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also called for an inclusive government, a Taliban leader, Mohammad Mobeen, went on national television to criticise Khan, saying the group does not “give anyone” the right to call for an inclusive government, and that Afghanistan reserves “the right to have our own system”.

For weeks, the Taliban had been courting erstwhile officials like former President Hamid Karzai, former Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and Gul Agha Sherzai, who served as governor of Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces.

At the time, many Afghans assumed these figures would be included in the much-promised inclusive government. However, a former diplomat said that hardliners in the group had said from the start that anyone who spent “even a day” in previous administrations would not be given seats in a new Taliban-run government.

This left only the group’s own ranks as choices to head various ministries and directorates.

To the outside world, the current government, which the Taliban referred to as “temporary”, is anything but inclusive. However, to people familiar with the matter, even with all of the mullahs and other scholars named as acting ministers and directors, the current structure is actually very accommodating to the various subsets within the Taliban. During his television appearance, Mobeen also said that the current administration was very inclusive.

“This is the best it’s going to get. The government won’t become any more inclusive,” the reporter said of the lack of ethnic diversity or inclusion of any democrats or technocrats in the administration.


Taliban fighters patrol in Kandahar [File: Sidiqullah Khan/AP Photo]
The real power
On Tuesday, the group announced additional members of the cabinet, mostly deputy ministers, but went to great lengths to point out that the new appointments were meant to address questions of diversity and qualifications in their administration.

The selections included figures from Panjshir and Baghlan. Panjshir is home to the National Resistance Front, which launched a sole large-scale effort to try and keep the Taliban from taking over the entire country. Baghlan has also seen pockets of resistance in some districts over the last month.

The Taliban was careful to point out that three of the new posts would be given to residents of Panjshir, Baghlan and Sar-e Pol, provinces with considerable Tajik and Uzbek populations. Though the group has made room for Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen, there are still no Shias, Hazaras or any other minority group in their government.

The real power, said the sources, lies among a secretive shura (the advisory body) in Kandahar, where the group claims their current chief, Hibutallah Akhunzada, is based. This circle is seen as the real decision-makers in Afghanistan going forward.

“The government doesn’t have the power,” said the reporter.

Several Taliban leaders were apparently upset with their positions in the new administration.

Diplomatic and political sources said based on their current actions on the streets of Kabul, there are fears that regional and more personal feuds among the rank and file Taliban will lead to skirmishes or battles in the capital and other provinces.

“The battles for political seats are one thing, but when their soldiers start fighting based on their longstanding feuds, nowhere will be safe.”

Source: Al Jazeera

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/23/how-deep-are-divisions-among-the-taliban

 

Another point of agreement between Trump and the Taliban. A free and independent press is the enemy of the people.

And you can tell its the free press that is about to get stomped on just by the length of the article. But it actually is a good article worth reading if you want to know how a free press dues.

But one thing I wonder about is if the Taliban can actually muzzle at least a resistance free press. The last time they were in power it was 20 years ago. That's longer than I have been on this forum. And even in that amount of time the internet has changed the whole world. And I don't think they can put the Genie back in the bottle.

‘Death knell’: Afghan journalists fear new Taliban media rules
Journalists, rights workers, worried that 11 new directives issued by the Taliban may lead to censorship of the media.


To Afghan journalists, the new guidelines are the first direct sign of the Taliban trying to muzzle the nation’s media [File: EPA]
By Ali M Latifi
29 Sep 2021

In spite of Taliban promises of a “free and independent” media, journalists and media workers have faced detention, physical abuse and torture since the group took over Afghanistan six weeks ago.

Now a new set of media regulations issued earlier this week by the Taliban has journalists and rights workers worrying that the group is moving towards outright censorship of the media – reviving memories of its repressive rule in the 1990s.

rces
The 11 directives include a requirement that: “Media outlets will prepare detailed reports in coordination with the Government Media and Information Center (GMIC),” which is currently headed by Mohammad Yusuf Ahmadi, a former spokesman for the group during their 20-year rebellion against the US occupation.

The media did face challenges under previous Afghan administrations, including the government of former President Ashraf Ghani, which often came under criticism for its lack of transparency and hostile attitudes towards the media.

Despite these difficulties, though, Afghanistan had the distinction of having a higher press freedom rating than Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

But since the takeover, journalists are finding it increasingly difficult to operate under the Taliban’s so-called “Islamic Emirate”.

Taliban’s mouthpieces
Sami Mahdi, a well-known television journalist who recently published a report on the state of the media under Taliban rule, says the group has been sending very clear signs about its attitude towards the media since their August 15 takeover.

“From the day the Taliban took over Kabul, the media has been facing a lot of pressure and violence from the Taliban side … Just for doing their daily job,” Mahdi said, referring to recent reports of violence and intimidation against covering demonstrations and interviewing daily labourers.

Mahdi said this reliance on force and aggression, “sends a clear message to the media, that they should become the Taliban’s mouthpieces,” if they want to survive.



Afghan journalists Nematullah Naqdi (L) and Taqi Daryabi show their wounds in their office in Kabul after being released from Taliban custody [File: Wakil Kohsar/AFP]


More than 150 media outlets have already closed due to fear of increased intimidation from the Taliban and a lack of funding since international governments cut off assistance to Afghanistan in the wake of the fall of Kabul.

To Afghan journalists, the new guidelines are the first direct sign of the Taliban trying to muzzle the nation’s once-thriving media.

Sherin, a female journalist who fled to Europe after experiencing firsthand hostility from the Taliban, says, the rules are another example of the group’s leadership saying one thing and their forces on the ground acting another way.


“They make these beautiful, flowery pronouncements, but then their men act with physical violence and abuse,” said Sherin, who asked to be given a pseudonym for fear of retribution against her family still in Afghanistan.

On August 17, two days after taking power, the now-Deputy minister of information and culture, Zabihullah Mujahid, said, “Private media can continue to be free and independent, they can continue their activities.”

Eight days later, reports of a news team – a journalist and cameraman for TOLO TV, the nation’s largest private broadcaster – being beaten and had their phones and cameras confiscated by armed Taliban began to circulate.

Particularly concerning for media workers are the vague, cryptic wording of the 11 points.

Sherin and Mahdi both pointed to the first rule, which states, “stories contradictory to Islam” should not be published or broadcast. Though former Afghan governments had similar regulations in their media laws, the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islam leaves both journalists with questions and concerns.

“What is contrary to Islam and what is not is a big topic of debate,” says Mahdi.

‘No respect for ordinary citizens’
He fears that the Taliban’s lack of clarity in the 11 points will be used to cast a wide net when the group wants to come after the media. “This leaves a lot of space for personal interpretation. They will use it to limit freedom of expression,” Mahdi said.

Sherin, who works mainly as a video and photojournalist, is concerned about how these parameters will affect her ability to choose her sources, especially women. Even under the former government, women would often be criticised for something as simple as their attire, but now she wonders if the Taliban’s constant references to women’s clothing will affect who is heard and who is seen.



Afghan women shop for dresses at a local market in Kabul [Felipe Dana/AP Photo]

“If I take a photo or video of a woman who is not wearing what the Taliban considers to be proper and Islamic, is her entire opinion discounted, am I still allowed to publish her thoughts?”

Sherin was also disturbed by one of the regulations, which says journalists “should not insult national figures”.

As someone who has witnessed firsthand the Taliban’s abuse of people on the streets of Kabul, Sherin says this directive shows the “clear separations” the Taliban has created in Afghan society. “The people that they disrespect themselves by beating and abusing on the streets. What about them? Who are they?” she asked.

She said this rule, when paired with their actions towards the general populace, makes it clear that “they have no respect for ordinary citizens” and that they “can be abused and mocked” while high-profile figures, including the Taliban leadership, should be afforded an extra level of dignity and respect.

Sources speaking to Al Jazeera also pointed out the fact that the Taliban themselves have already engaged in what could be considered insulting behaviour.

Last month, a Taliban commander received widespread online condemnation after he went on live television and called the people of Panjshir, the province home to the nation’s sole armed resistance against Taliban rule, “nonbelievers.”

Likewise, the group has been accused of defacing roundabouts dedicated to former Mujahideen leaders Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Haq in Kabul. All of these instances have been seen as signs of disrespect by many people in Afghanistan, which seems to go against the Taliban’s own regulations.

Mahdi was also disturbed by the two final regulations, which refer to media outlets “preparing detailed reports” in coordination with the Government Media and Information Center and that the body has “designed a specific form to make it easier for media outlets and journalists to prepare their reports in accordance with the regulations”.

In the past, the GMIC was mainly used as a strategic centre where government spokespeople could come to hold press conferences and much less of a clearinghouse for the government’s interaction with the media.

“Why should the media prepare detailed reports in coordination with a government body?” said Mahdi, who was the host of some of the nation’s most-watched chat and debate shows.

He fears that all of this reliance on the GMIC will be used as a “very obvious and very clear way of censorship and influencing media content.”



Taliban officials are interviewed by journalists inside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. withdrawal [Kathy Gannon/AP Photo]

Another Afghan journalist, now in Turkey, agrees with Mahdi’s assessment, saying the new rules make it “quite obvious that Taliban want the media to only publish their propaganda”.

He said the regulations will likely keep any remaining journalists in the country from reporting on political issues in fear of angering the Taliban. Already, journalists have lamented that their travels across the country now have to receive approval from the Taliban, who often accompany the reporters in their reporting trips under the guise of security.

One former government official, now in Europe, said the new parameters reminded him of, “the kinds of restrictions they have in Iran. It’s clear now, that the Taliban want that kind of system in Afghanistan”.

Steven Butler, the Asia programme coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, says he too is most worried about the implications of journalists having to cooperate with the Taliban government as part of their work and that while the other provisions are unwelcome but could possibly be subject to more lenient interpretations, that seems “unlikely.”

The points about coordination with the Taliban-run government, including a form to assure compliance, “suggest that the government expects journalists to be producing news stories in concert with the Taliban”, Butler said.


“These regulations are so broad and sweeping that the media are unlikely to know what is allowed and will therefore say very little at all – which is the entire point,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch.


“These rules would effectively sound the death knell for Afghan media.”

For Sherin, the new constraints, along with stories from her colleagues still in the country, have solidified her decision to stay in Europe.

“It’s become clear that it is not realistic for me to return to work in that kind of situation.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...ts-skeptical-of-new-taliban-media-regulations

 

Interesting that stumbler would accuse trump of fighting a free press when it's the despicables and social media at war with "untruths" they define as ............. well, we don't know, but certainly, anything that doesn't line up with the official agenda.

 

Trump initially gave the order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, Joint Chiefs Chair Milley confirms

https://theweek.com/donald-trump/10...o-withdraw-all-troops-from-afghanistan-by-jan


Biden's defense secretary says Trump administration didn't hand over plans for Afghanistan withdrawal, despite it making deal with Taliban
John Haltiwanger
Wed, September 29, 2021, 11:25 AM·3 min read
In this article:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, left, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, right, pictured in Maryland. Alex Brandon - Pool/Getty Images

• 
  Defense Secretary Austin told lawmakers he didn't get Trump officials' Afghanistan-withdrawal plans.
  
  
• "There was no handoff to me of any plans for a withdrawal," Austin said.
  
  
• The Trump administration made a deal with the Taliban to pull out all US troops by May 1.
  
  
• See more stories on Insider's business page.
  

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday told House lawmakers that Trump officials did not hand over any plans to him for the Afghanistan withdrawal. The Trump administration set the stage for the pullout via a February 2020 deal with the Taliban, which included a pledge to withdraw US troops by May 1.

"There was no handoff to me of any plans for a withdrawal," Austin said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Austin added that he was "confident" Gen. Austin Miller, who stepped down as the top US commander in Afghanistan in July, was "making plans" for a pullout.

"But in terms of handoff from administration to administration, secretary to secretary, there was no handoff to me," Austin said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar point in a House hearing earlier this month.

"We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan," Blinken said.

Pulling off a withdrawal from the longest conflict in US history was always going to be a highly complex task and involve removing or destroying valuable military equipment and safely pulling out thousands of US forces - all while hoping the fledgling US-backed Afghan government would not collapse in the process.

Ultimately, the Afghan government fell in concert with the US departure and Taliban takeover, which prompted scenes of mass chaos at the Kabul airport. Austin said the evacuation of thousands of people in August amounted to the "largest airlift conducted in US history."

President Joe Biden came into office with the drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan already underway. A blueprint for the next steps in the withdrawal from the administration that initiated the pullout could've made the process smoother.

The Trump administration's February 2020 deal with the Taliban - known as the Doha Agreement - called for the US to pull out all troops by May. The agreement, meetings for which the US-backed Afghan government was excluded from, set up a 14-month timetable for the withdrawal of "all military forces of the US, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel."

Biden largely upheld the agreement, though he extended the deadline for the withdrawal.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told both Senate and House lawmakers this week that the Taliban failed to live up to nearly any of the commitments the militant group made under the deal. The Taliban did not attack US forces after the agreement, but Milley said the militant Islamists "never renounced al-Qaida or broke its affiliation with them."

Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, told lawmakers the Doha Agreement was detrimental to morale among Afghan forces.

The Biden administration has laid much of the blame on the Taliban's rapid conquest of Afghanistan on the Afghan military. Before marching into Kabul in mid-August, the Taliban took over major cities at a blistering pace - often without much of a fight. Just weeks before, Biden had expressed "trust" in the abilities of Afghan forces, who were trained and armed by the US.

The Biden administration has faced rampant criticism over its handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. But Republicans who've gone after the administration over the pullout have often ignored the fact that the Trump administration paved the way for the withdrawal by making a deal with the Taliban.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/bidens-defense-secretary-says-trump-172509981.html

 

US general says Afghanistan collapse rooted in Trump-Taliban deal
Head of US Central Command says collapse of the Afghan government can be traced to US troop withdrawal deal.


General Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said the unravelling of the Afghan government accelerated after US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/ AP]
30 Sep 2021


Senior military officials in the United States have linked the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August to former President Donald Trump’s deal with the Taliban in 2020 promising a complete withdrawal of US troops.

General Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that once the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of Washington’s bid to complete a total withdrawal by the end of August, the unravelling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated.

“The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military – psychological more than anything else, but we set a date – certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” McKenzie said.

He was referring to a February 29, 2020, agreement that the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in which the US promised to fully withdraw its troops by May 2021 and the Taliban committed to several conditions, including stopping attacks on US and coalition forces.

The stated objective was to promote a peace negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but that diplomatic effort had failed to gain traction before former US President Donald Trump was replaced by President Joe Biden in January.

The new US president pushed ahead with the plan for the troop withdrawal but extended the deadline to August 31.

McKenzie said he also had believed “for quite a while” that if the US reduced the number of its military advisers in Afghanistan below 2,500, the collapse of the government in Kabul would be inevitable “and that the military would follow”.

He said in addition to the morale-depleting effects of the Doha agreement, the troop reduction ordered by Biden in April was ”the other nail in the coffin” for the 20-year war effort because it blinded the US military to conditions inside the Afghan army, “because our advisers were no longer down there with those units”.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, testifying alongside McKenzie, said he agreed with McKenzie’s analysis.

He added that the Doha agreement also committed the US to ending air attacks against the Taliban, “so the Taliban got stronger, they increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, and the Afghans were losing a lot of people on a weekly basis”.

‘Strategic failure’
Wednesday’s House hearing is part of what is likely to be an extended congressional review of the US failures in Afghanistan, after years of limited congressional oversight of the war, which has cost billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said a day earlier in a similar hearing in the Senate that the war in Afghanistan was a “strategic failure,” and he repeated that at the House hearing.

Milley listed a number of factors responsible for the US defeat going back to a missed opportunity to capture or kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

He also cited the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, which shifted US troops away from Afghanistan, “not effectively dealing with Pakistan as a (Taliban) sanctuary,” and pulling advisers out of Afghanistan a few years ago.

Biden has faced the biggest crisis of his presidency over the war in Afghanistan, which he argued needed to be brought to a close after 20 years stalemated fighting that had cost American lives, drained resources and distracted from greater strategic priorities.

Republicans have accused Biden of lying about the military commanders’ recommendations to keep 2,500 troops in the country, playing down warnings of the risks of a Taliban victory, and exaggerating the US’s ability to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a safe haven for armed groups like al-Qaeda.

“I fear the president may be delusional,” said Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, calling the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster”.

“It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership,” Rogers said.

Shouting matches
Wednesday’s hearing was politically charged, descending repeatedly into shouting matches, as representatives argued over what Democrats characterised as partisan Republican attacks on Biden, particularly over an August television interview in which the president denied his commanders had recommended keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

He said then: “No. No one said that to me that I can recall.”

One committee member, Republican Representative Mike Johnson, used the time he had been allotted for questions to read the interview transcript out loud.

Republican Joe Wilson said Biden should resign.

Democrats faulted Republicans for blaming Biden – who has been president since late January – for everything that went wrong during the 20 years US troops have been in Afghanistan.

Representative Adam Smith, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said he agreed with Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“Our larger mission to help build a government in Afghanistan that could govern effectively and defeat the Taliban had failed,” Smith said.

“President Biden had the courage to finally make the decision to say no, we are not succeeding in this mission.”

Source: News Agencies

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...anistan-collapse-rooted-in-trump-taliban-deal

 

UAE allows blocked Afghanistan evacuation flight to depart for US
The plane carrying US citizens and permanent residents had been temporarily prevented from departing for the US.

30 Sep 2021
A group of United States citizens and Afghan evacuees have been permitted to travel to the US from the United Arab Emirates after being temporarily held up for vetting, according to the Gulf state’s foreign ministry.

The 117 passengers had been stuck at Abu Dhabi’s international airport after arriving from Kabul, a lawyer who had been working to relocate the passengers told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

In an email on Thursday to Reuters news agency, the UAE foreign ministry said the “processing of those passengers has been completed and they have already departed for the United States on a commercial aircraft (Etihad) this morning”.

Stan Bunner, a lawyer working with the passengers, told Al Jazeera that all the evacuees were US citizens, permanent legal residents, or special immigrant visa applicants. They included 59 children under the age of 18.


Bunner, who is part of an ad hoc group of US veterans called Project Dynamo that formed to help Afghans flee after the Taliban took control of the country on August 15, said US Customs and Border Patrol had repeatedly denied the plane permission to enter the US.

He said that the group’s organisers believed they had full US landing permissions when the Kam Air flight they had chartered took off from Kabul.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously told Al Jazeera all passenger manifests of US-bound flights “must be verified before departure to the US to ensure all passengers are screened appropriately”.

A State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that embassy staff in the UAE were vetting the passengers’ paperwork.

The US completely withdrew its troops from Afghanistan on August 30, stepping up a chaotic evacuation operation in the final weeks after the Taliban swept to power.

Defence officials have since acknowledged the US was surprised by the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Kabul, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Mark Milley, telling a Senate Committee on Tuesday the withdrawal was a “strategic failure”.

While the US and its allies airlifted about 120,000 people out of the country, officials have acknowledged that hundreds of US citizens and permanent residency holders likely remain in Afghanistan.

Rights groups, meanwhile, say tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for the US government, and are eligible for special visas to relocate to the US, have been left behind.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...fghanistan-evacuation-flight-to-depart-for-us

 

This story makes psaki a big fat liar, eh?

 

Deadly explosion targets memorial service near Kabul mosque
Four others wounded in Sunday’s attack that targeted a memorial service for Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid’s mother.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/3/several-killed-in-blast-outside-kabul-mosque

 

Taliban Kill ISIS Fighters in Revenge Raid for Deadly Kabul Funeral Bomb

A violent weekend in Kabul ended with a deadly Taliban raid inside an Islamic State affiliate’s hideout in the Afghan capital. On Sunday, a bomb blast killed five outside the Eid Gah mosque where Taliban officials had gathered for the funeral of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid’s mother. No claim of responsibility was made, but, according to the Associated Press, the Taliban blamed the Islamic State group and took revenge. In a statement Monday, Mujahid said Taliban fighters raided an Islamic State hideout in northern Kabul and killed an unspecified number of insurgents. Sunday’s attack was the worst in Kabul since Aug. 26, when a bomb killed more than 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military personnel outside Kabul’s airport while thousands of people were attempting to flee. The Islamic State affiliate did claim responsibility for that bombing.

Read it at AP


https://www.thedailybeast.com/talib...e-raid-for-deadly-kabul-funeral-bomb?ref=home

 

Trump freed 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison just in time for them to return to the battlefield and help overrun the country. But then the Taliban did Trump one better and just released all prisoners from all prisons as they marched through the country. And in a rare example of the Taliban telling the truth they have admitted Yeah we kind of fucked up there because they are paying the price now.

Bomber Behind Kabul Airport Attack Was Released From Prison 'Just Days' Beforehand: CNN Report

 

Afghanistan could go dark as power bills remain unpaid

Neighbouring nations supply some 78 percent of Afghanistan’s power, they have not been paid since the Taliban took over.

 

Welcome to Afghanistan Taliban.

Afghanistan: Dozens killed in suicide bombing at Kunduz mosque
ISIL affiliate claims responsibility for the blast at Shia mosque in Kunduz that has killed dozens.


A view of the mosque after the blast [Reuters]
8 Oct 2021
|
Updated:
8 hours ago
Dozens of people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s northeastern city of Kunduz during Friday prayers, the country’s worst attack since the Taliban took over control in August.

The Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the attack through its Telegram channels on Friday.

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In a statement released on Telegram, the group said an ISIS-K suicide bomber “detonated an explosive vest amid a crowd” of Shia worshippers who had gathered inside the mosque.

Video footage showed bodies surrounded by debris inside the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque that is used by people from the minority Shia Muslim community.

There have been conflicting reports about the number of casualties. The United Nations mission to Afghanistan said in a tweet the blast killed and wounded more than 100 people.

Dost Mohammad Obaida, the deputy police chief for Kunduz province, also said at least 100 people were killed or wounded in the attack, adding that the “majority of them have been killed”.

“I assure our Shia brothers that the Taliban are prepared to ensure their safety,” Obaida said, adding that an investigation was under way.

Meanwhile, the state-run Bakhtar News Agency said at least 46 people were killed, while more than 140 were wounded inside the mosque in the Khan Abad area of Kunduz city.

Shoes and bloodstains are seen inside the mosque after the bombing [Reuters]
A deputy director for the province’s health department said there were “around 50 dead and at least 50 wounded”, the DPA news agency reported.

Suicide attack
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra reporting from the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif said people in Kunduz have described “horrifying” scenes.

“They were struggling to deal with the human remains scattered throughout the back yard of the mosque,” Ahelbarra said.

“They expect the death toll to further climb in further hours because they say many people who were injured are in critical condition.”

Afghan men carry the body of a victim to an ambulance after a bomb attack at a mosque in Kunduz [AFP]
The blast blew out windows, charred the ceiling and scattered debris and twisted metal across the floor. Rescuers carried one body out on a stretcher and another in a blanket. Blood stains covered the front steps.

In its claim of responsibility, the region’s ISIL affiliate identified the bomber as a Uighur Muslim, saying the attack targeted both Shias and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uighurs to meet demands from China.

The statement was carried by the ISIL-linked Aamaq news agency.

The worshippers targeted in Friday’s attack were Hazaras, who have long suffered from double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as followers of Shia Islam in a majority Sunni country.

Groups affiliated to the ISIL (ISIS) group have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia Muslims.

There have been several attacks, including one at a mosque in Kabul, in recent weeks, some of which have been claimed by ISIS-K.

Ahelbarra said this explains why the Taliban has in the past few days “launched a major crackdown and said they arrested many ISIL operatives in Kabul and in Jalalabad”.

“This [attack] is going to put more pressure on the Taliban; people will now be angry. When the Taliban took power in August, they prided themselves on providing a safe environment for the Afghan people. Now, this isn’t the case any more because you’re seeing the pattern of those attacks.

“[Friday’s attack by ISIS-K] could be a clear indication that they are sending a message to the international community that they are far from defeated, that they are willing to further expand their footprint across Afghanistan and we are likely to see major confrontation in the future between [ISIS-K] and the Taliban,” Ahelbarra said.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021...-in-afghanistans-kunduz-during-friday-prayers