[AsiaNews] It is the longest waterway in Afghanistan, from the capital to the marshy areas across the border in south-eastern Iran. A 1973 treaty regulates the sharing of resources, but the Kamal Khan dam has revived the dispute. In recent days, a meeting at the level of foreign ministers took place in Uzbekistan.
Between Tehran and the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... in Kabul there is a renewed clash for control of the water resources linked to the Helmand
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/21/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[ToloNews] The United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Development Programme (UNDP) said that 17,000 female staff members are not leaving the work force and they are working from home, and they will continue to be UN staff.
The UNDP released a report on Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023.
The report reads that when coupled with a population increase of more than 2 percent, average real per capita income of ordinary Afghans by the end of 2022 was estimated to have declined by 28 percent from the 2020 level. Does that count the reduction in "Ghost" employees in the Afghan Military?
The report said that there have been several improvements recently including security conditions, and "corruption has reportedly fallen."
The head of the UNDP in Afghanistan, Abdullah Dardari, held a presser late Tuesday to brief the media about the organization’s activities in Afghanistan.
"17,000 staff -- female staff ... they are not leaving the work force. For now they are working from home and they will continue to be UN staff and they will continue to be paid and they will continue to be very active," he said.
The study, "Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023," released today in Kabul by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said Afghanistan’s economic output collapsed by 20.7 percent following the Taliban ...Arabic for students... takeover in 2021.
This unparalleled shock has kept Afghanistan among the poorest countries in the world.
"We believe it is also time to focus on more sustainable projects especially banking, private sector, unemployment to help the Afghan people recover from this type of situation," said the deputy ambassador to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... in Kabul, who attended the UNDP event.
The report said that despite tentative signs of recovery, such as a relatively stable exchange rate, an increase in exports, growing demand for labor, and muted inflation, GDP is estimated to have further declined by 3.6 percent in 2022.
[BBC] This piece of history in the fight against international drug trafficking is now a trophy in the car park of the Spanish police academy in Ávila.
However, it's not a rotting relic of a bygone battle: it's a symbol of a secretly growing phenomenon.
Just last month, another sub was discovered off the Spanish coast - again in the Galicia region.
"For more than 20 years traffickers have been using submarines to reach Africa and Europe, but these two are the first we've seized," explains Antonio Martinez Duarte, Chief Commissioner of the Narco Brigade in the Spanish National Police.
[NBCnews] The U.S. has provided more than $8 billion in aid to Afghanistan since the chaotic withdrawal of American troops in August 2021.
The head of the U.S. government watchdog for the war in Afghanistan said Wednesday that the U.S. may have provided billions in taxpayer dollars to the Taliban ...Arabic for students... and Afghan terror groups since the withdrawal of American troops, but even he doesn’t know the full extent of the problem.
"Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure you we are not now funding the Taliban," special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, John Sopko, said at a House Oversight Committee hearing. "Nor can I assure you the Taliban are not diverting it from the intended recipients, which are the Afghan people."
The special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, known as SIGAR, was formed in 2008 to monitor the billions of dollars the U.S. was spending in the war against the Taliban.
Sopko told the politicians that the State Department’s and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s refusal to provide information to SIGAR — despite what he says is their legal obligation to do so — is making it difficult for the agency to carry out its congressionally mandated oversight role over the aid money still going to Afghanistan.
Sopko said the U.S. has provided or made available to the Afghan people more than $8 billion since the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021. He asked the politicians to help SIGAR get information from the State Department and USAID, which administers civilian foreign aid and receives guidance from the secretary of state.
"We need your support to end their obfuscation and delay," Sopko said. "And I’m sure my fellow inspectors general would agree we cannot abide by a situation in which agencies are allowed to pick and choose what information an IG may receive, who an IG may interview, or what an IG may report on."
A spokesperson said the State Department "stopped providing assistance for the purpose of the reconstruction of Afghanistan" after the Taliban takeover in 2021.
"We have raised questions related to SIGAR’s jurisdiction with respect to activities after August 2021. Those questions remain unresolved," the spokesperson said.
The State Department spokesperson added that the State Department continues to cooperate with oversight bodies, including congressional committees and agency inspectors general, that have jurisdiction over aid that the U.S. is providing to Afghanistan.
A spokesperson said USAID continually assesses "our activities to ensure both that our assistance is reaching those for which it is intended and that our partners have effective mitigation measures in place to help safeguard against diversion."
"We do not provide funding to the Taliban," the spokesperson added.
Sopko warned that if the Biden administration continues to deny information it will impact oversight of future administrations. "If permitted to continue, it will end SIGAR’s work in Afghanistan but also Congress’ access to independent and credible oversight of any administration."
Sopko has been running SIGAR since 2012, when he was appointed by President Barack Obama That’s just how white folks will do you.... , serving under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
In June, Sopko wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and USAID Administrator Samantha Power that their agencies are "unreasonably refusing to provide information and assistance requested by SIGAR" and that no other administration has ever questioned SIGAR's jurisdiction.
"Inexplicably, this long track record of cooperation seems to have abruptly ended," Sopko said in the letter. "Agency officials now appear to have adopted a premeditated position of obstruction."
Biden administration officials argued that the U.S. is no longer involved in reconstruction in Afghanistan, so SIGAR is outside the inspector general’s jurisdiction, officials familiar with the process said at the time.
[AlAhram] The US military said Thursday that it had released an Algerian held at the Guantanamo prison for two decades, leaving 30 men still held extrajudicially at the US navy base in Cuba.
The Pentagon said Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush was transferred to Algeria after an official decision on his release was made earlier this year.
Detaining Bakush, 52, was deemed "no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Bakush was apprehended in 2002 in Faislalabad, Pakistain as the US swept up hundreds of suspected al-Qaeda operatives and fighters in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States by the group.
Although never seen as more than a low-level al-Qaeda fighter not directly connected to the 9/11 plot, he was nevertheless held since then at the prison on the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Like fellow prisoners, he was deemed an enemy combatant without recourse to the US justice system.
With Bakush's release, 30 detainees remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800.
Of them 16 are eligible for transfer and the Pentagon and State Department are seeking countries to accept them.
Another three are eligible for a Periodic Review Board assessment, while nine are facing charges under military commissions and two have been convicted in such commissions.
[IsraelTimes] Organizations claim formula could be abused to impact freedom of speech, prevent criticism of Israel, and block advocacy for Paleostinian rights.
Over 100 human and civil rights organizations have signed a letter urging the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, warning it could impact freedom of speech and curtail criticism of Israel, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
Adoption of the IHRA definition has been a key demand by mainstream Jewish groups of governments and organizations around the world.
The letter was first sent to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on April 3 with 60 signatures and since then dozens more have added their names to it, HRW said in a statement, putting the current total at 104.
"We strongly urge the UN not to endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism," the letter read. "We look forward to assisting the UN’s efforts to combat antisemitism in a way that respects, protects and promotes human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... It claims that the IHRA definition "has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and thus chill and sometimes suppress non-violent mostly peaceful protest, activism and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism, including in the US and Europe."
While the letter urges governments and world leaders to combat antisemitism, it warns against action that may "inadvertently embolden or endorse policies and laws that undermine fundamental human rights, including the right to speak and organize in favor of Paleostinian rights and to criticize Israeli government policies."
It highlighted two examples of contemporary antisemitism that are attached to the IHRA definition as being problematic.
The first is "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination; e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour" and the second is "applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation."
The first example "opens the door to labeling as antisemitic criticisms that Israeli government policies and practices violate the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination" and findings by human rights organizations "that Israeli authorities are committing the crime against humanity of apartheid against Paleostinians," the letter warned.
The second, it claimed, "opens the door to labeling as antisemitic anyone who focuses on Israeli abuses as long as worse abuses are deemed to be occurring elsewhere."
Among the original signatories were the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Paleostinian human rights group Al Haq, and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). More recently, Amnesia Amnesty International, Americans for Peace Now, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, and Israeli rights group Breaking the Silence joined the petition.
The letter noted that since 2021 there have been two alternative definitions available, namely the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism compiled by hundreds of scholars of antisemitism, Holocaust studies, Jewish studies and Middle East studies, and the Nexus Document formed by a group affiliated with Bard College and the University of Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,According to the IHRA, 39 UN members states have adopted or endorsed its definition of antisemitism, including La Belle France, Germany, Israel, the UK, and, the US. It has also been endorsed by the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... Last year, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan raised expectations that Guterres would announce adoption of the IHRA definition at a UN event marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. However, you can observe a lot just by watching... Guterres made no such declaration, though he did quote the IHRA definition without mentioning it by name.
[IsraelTimes] Top official says drop in handling fee Israel charges PA for fuel transfers and boost in Ramallah’s portion of Allenby crossing fees will be applied for month of April.
[IsraelTimes] In briefing with news hounds, defense minister says Iran ’driving force in convergence of arenas,’ proxies becoming more brazen in attacks
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Thursday that Israel would likely no longer see limited conflicts on single fronts, but rather would have to face a multi-front escalation in the near future.
"This is the end of the era of limited conflicts," Gallant told news hounds in a briefing. "We are facing a new security era in which there may be a real threat to all arenas at the same time.
Continued on Page 49
[AlAhram] Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines, and other Sunni Muslim countries announced Thursday the holiday of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the Ramadan fast will begin on Friday.
[IsraelTimes] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... says Thursday it "forced" a US submarine to surface as it was crossing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, a claim the Americans promptly deny.
Admiral Shahram Irani, the commander of Iran’s navy, tells state TV the USS Florida nuclear submarine was "approaching and passing in complete silence" when it partly entered Iranian waters.
An Iranian submarine then forced it to "surface and cross the strait," he says, adding that Tehran would raise the matter with "international authorities."
In a Twitter statement, the US Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet says the claim is "absolutely false" and "represents more Iranian disinformation."
The "US 5th Fleet continues to operate wherever international law allows," it adds.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/21/2023 03:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iranians lie about everything. Given that, the wisdom of sending the USS Florida into the Persian Gulf seems like the wrong choice of a naval asset. Amazing ship, utterly impressive, but does it belong in such relatively shallow and narrow waters? About 650 ft deep and at the Gulf of Hormuz horseshoe about 20 miles wide of navigable channel at most, it seems a poor fit for a submerged transit? Maybe a bubblehead has a better observation?
[Rudaw] The United States on Wednesday slapped new sanctions on Iran’s drone program, targeting suppliers in China and elsewhere.
"The network sanctioned today has procured goods and technology for the Iranian government and its defense industry and UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] program," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.
The managing director of Pardazan System Namad Arman (PASNA), Mehdi Khoshghadam, was sanctioned. PASNA is an Iranian import company that was sanctioned by the US in 2018. Khoshghadam "is responsible for the company’s sanctions evasion efforts," said the US Treasury, accusing him of using front companies to secure electronic components from mainly China-based suppliers.
Six entities based in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China were also sanctioned for supplying PASNA.
"Iran’s proliferation of UAVs and other weapons continues to destabilize the Middle East region and beyond," the US Treasury stated.
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is accused of supplying drones that have been used by Russia to target critical infrastructure in its war against Ukraine.
Combat drones were on display at a military parade in Tehran on Tuesday marking the country’s annual Army Day, attended by President Ebrahim Raisi.
"The army of the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran is a well-equipped and up-to-date army. The use of advanced equipment in the army is one of the clear manifestations of the 'We Can' slogan, which has made opportunities for ourselves and the country out of threats and sanctions," he said at the ceremony.
Claiming the ceremony celebrating the army was a message "of peace and friendship for the countries of the region," Raisi said outside forces "especially American forces, should leave the region as soon as possible because they threaten the security of the region."
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.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...Arabic for 
...Arabic for 
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
