[RFERL] A top U.S. diplomat to Afghanistan has categorically ruled out Washington's support for a new war in the nation, saying Afghans "deserve some peace" after more than four decades of international conflict ended two years ago when American and international troops left as Talibs seized power.
In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, Karen Decker, the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. mission to Afghanistan, dismissed any support for anti-Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... armed factions such as the National Resistance® Front (NRF) and the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), saying Afghans themselves have been adamantly against the launch of any new conflict.
"No. Absolutely not! We do not support renewed conflict in Afghanistan. Full stop," she said in response to a question about whether Washington would support these groups.
"The one overwhelming message I hear from Afghans inside the country is no more war," she said, adding that Washington would "support" and "promote" a dialogue among Afghans.
Most of its neighbors have resisted supporting another round of war in Afghanistan after the hard-line Islamist Taliban swept to power in the wake of the final withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... troops two years ago.
After the pro-Western Afghan republic collapsed on August 15, 2021, some defunct Afghan security force members joined the NRF and other smaller groups to attack Taliban forces in the northern provinces of Panjshir and Baghlan. This raised the possibility that four decades of war in Afghanistan could enter a new phase.
Ahmad Massoud, the NRF’s leader in exile, recently visited Moscow in what was seen as an effort to win support for the NRF and pressure the Taliban, which has marked its two years in power so far by severely restricting rights and freedoms, especially for women.
Decker, however, questioned whether the Kremlin could support a new Afghanistan conflict.
"The Russians are kind of busy right now doing something else in Ukraine, so I don't know if that is a realistic scenario," she noted in a thinly veiled reference to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which continues to take a heavy toll on its military resources.
"Any proxy warfare? Absolutely not," she said. "The Afghan people have had more than 40 years of war. They deserve some peace."
Decker said that Washington supports a dialogue among Afghans to work out the future of their country, including forming an inclusive government.
After returning to power, the Taliban's internationally unrecognized government has refused to share power with other Afghan political groups and armed factions.
Instead, it has recreated its bully boy Islamic emirate. Exclusively led by senior Taliban leaders, the de facto government has banned women from education, work, and public life. The Taliban has also denied Afghans many fundamental rights and freedoms.
Taliban officials, however, point to a commission as evidence of their willingness to embrace reconciliation among citizens in the country.
The commission has invited former senior government members and state officials to come back to the country as long as they do not participate in politics.
[8am] In the first half of the current year, approximately 710,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their homeland from Iran, either voluntarily or under coercive circumstances, according to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
On Wednesday, September 13, the UNHCR released a report stating that among these individuals, 310,000 lacked official residency and travel documents for Iran. The organization highlighted that these figures represent a 16% increase compared to the same period in the previous year, 2022.
Simultaneously, the UNHCR recorded the voluntary return of 400,000 Afghan refugees from Iran. The report further reveals that the UN agency documented the expulsion of seven refugees with valid residency permits through the Islam Qala and Zaranj border crossings. These Afghan refugees were reportedly deported following detention on charges of violating immigration laws.
These developments come in the wake of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... ’s takeover of Afghanistan, which prompted a significant influx of Afghan citizens into Iran, using both legal and illegal routes. The primary drivers behind these migrations have been cited as unemployment, poverty, and security concerns.
Previously, Iranian police had faced allegations of mistreatment and expulsion of Afghan refugees.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/16/2023 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran evidently doesn't have a problem with 'return to sender'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/16/2023 19:20 Comments ||
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[Garowe] President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has backed Ottoman Turkish-trained Gorgor soldiers otherwise known as the Eagles to do "extremely well" in the ongoing crackdown against al-Shabaab ...... the personification of Somali state failure... holy warriors, adding that "I have no doubt that they are important for us".
Gorgor elite troops are trained by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... and have significantly grown in numbers in recent days, they have been taking part in various operations against al-Shabaab across the country, notably in central areas where the military is involved in special operations which have yielded fruits.
At Dhusamareb in Galmadug on Wednesday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud maintained that Gorgor commandos, just like other military contingents across the country, have been patriotic throughout the period he announced total war against al-Shabaab holy warriors.
Gorgor soldiers, he said, have been in the Frontline together with US-trained Danab Special Forces, in offering guidance in areas requiring special operations. The government, he added, will ensure HirShabelle and Galmadug states are fully liberated from al-Shabaab before embarking on the second phase of operations against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia.
He addressed the commanders, saying, "You are engaged in a war that aligns with Islamic law principles, and Allah will reward you. You are sacrificing your lives for our country to attain the honour and dignity other nations enjoy, and both the government and the Somali people stand by you."
By next year December, it is anticipated that the Somali National Army and other local forces will take full security responsibility from the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS]. The peacekeepers have started leaving gradually from Somalia, with already 2,000 exiting.
However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... a number of stakeholders want the soldiers to stay a little longer, citing increased al-Shabaab sporadic retaliatory attacks across many frontlines. For instance, the Somali National Army was forced to withdraw from a number of strategic towns after the military suffered casualties in Cawsweyne village.
Somalia has continued to train soldiers not only in Turkey and the US but also locally in neighboring countries. Æthiopia, Eritrea ...is run by the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), with about the amounts of democracy and justice you'd expect from a party with that name. National elections have been periodically scheduled and cancelled; none have ever been held in the country. The president, Isaias Afewerki, has been in office since independence in 1993 and will probably die there of old age... , and Uganda have been assisting and the newly recruited groups are expected to assume security responsibilities from ATMIS in the coming months, the government said.
[ZeroHedge] US weapons maker RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, scrubbed a multibillion deal with Saudi firm Scopa Defense earlier this year over "concerns" that the latter was pursuing business with sanctioned Russian and Chinese companies, according to people familiar with the deal that spoke with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
In 2022, RTX and Scopa signed a memorandum of understanding to build a factory in the kingdom for air defense systems to protect Riyadh from airstrikes. The plan reportedly called for installing radars and multiple air defense systems with an investment of $25 billion in the kingdom and $17 worth of sales.
The owner of Scopa, Mohamed Alajlan, told the WSJ that his company has no deals with sanctioned Russian companies and that any deals with Chinese firms “are limited to securing raw materials such as copper or rubber for use in producing ammunition and armored vehicles.”
“We don’t work with any companies that have international sanctions,” Alajlan told the WSJ, adding that the decision by RTX to scrub the deal was “rushed, illogical, and even irrational.”
Alajlan, who also chairs the Saudi-Chinese Business Council, is the heir of a prominent Saudi family that for decades has imported Chinese textiles to the kingdom.
According to the WSJ, the “unease” over Scopa's alleged ties to sanctioned Russian and Chinese companies “was a deciding factor for an advisory board of retired US military officers to resign from the Saudi company.” Furthermore, the daily claims Scopa fired its chief executive “who had raised the sanctions concerns with his company’s owner and US officials.”
Alajlan is also accused of hiring an executive from a Russian company sanctioned by the US to run a separate firm he had set up, known as Sepha. Moreover, he reportedly hired a Chinese executive to run yet another firm, Tal, “which had engaged in talks regarding deals with Chinese firms that are also sanctioned by Washington.” Tal and Sepha shared computer servers with employees at Scopa, which was allegedly a major concern for RTX.
A document reviewed by the WSJ showed that Sepha had looked at “marketing Russian ammunition, body armor and surveillance equipment in Saudi Arabia, assembling Russian attack helicopters there, and manufacturing armored vehicles with Russia’s Military Industrial Co.”
The US embassy in Riyadh knew about the talks Tal and Sepha were having with Chinese and Russian companies as early as August 2022, according to the WSJ. US officials told Scopa that this “could seriously hinder the ability of Scopa to enter into contractual agreements with US defense firms.”
The details of the failed “megadeal” come as Washington is looking to rekindle ties with its longtime Arab partner after more than a year of simmering tensions that pushed Riyadh closer to Russia and China.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ...Crown Prince and modernizer of Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... (MBS) had held regular secret meetings with Israeli officials, in light of US mediation of public normalization between the Kingdom and "Israel", The Wall Street Journal reported.
According to the Street Journal, Political normalization between Saudi Arabia and the Israeli occupation is an idea whose time has come. At least that’s the increasingly optimistic view of Saudi and Israeli officials working to make it happen with the Biden administration’s support.
There’s little doubt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 38, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 73, want to reach a deal. They’ve met at least twice in secret since November 2020, and both have serious reasons for doing so. Biden and Obama drones in State will try and scuttle that
Crown Prince Mohammed knows he can’t create a modern high-tech economy without close links to Israeli technology and business. MBS envisions himself as the leader of a strong, economically integrated Mideast that serves as a bridge between Asia and Europe
Posted by: Fred ||
09/16/2023 00:00 ||
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[ZERO] As migrants from Central America surge north in hopes of reaching the porous US border, businessmen and elected officials have turned the journey into a well-oiled, and profitable, machine - making "tens of millions" of dollars per year (or more, see below).
The Darién Gap, once a formidable natural barrier between North and South America, has essentially become a marketplace. Remote and beautiful, a constellation of small towns leading to the gap has been become a hub for mass migration, according to the NY Times.
The towns are riddled with poverty, and are housing a population that has long been victims of the country's internal conflicts. Their sewage, water, and electricity systems, already frail, were overwhelmed when thousands of Haitians began to show up in 2021, fleeing the chaos that spiraled after their President's assassination.
The Darién Gap has quickly morphed into one the Western Hemisphere’s most pressing political and humanitarian crises. A trickle only a few years ago has become a flood: More than 360,000 people have already crossed the jungle in 2023, according to the Panamanian government, surpassing last year’s almost unthinkable record of nearly 250,000.
In response, the United States, Colombia and Panama signed an agreement in April to "end the illicit movement of people" through the Darién Gap, a practice that "leads to death and exploitation of vulnerable people for significant profit."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] (53*8)/350=1.2 sq ft per person — SRO
Hundreds of migrants were found in Mexico 'crowded and dehydrated' in a truck I assume that the alternative to dehydration was people urinating as they stood, because clearly the truck was not stopping.
They were discovered at a toll booth in between Córdoba and Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state
The driver was taken into custody by the state attorney general's office
A gamma-ray device detected the presence of the 350 migrants inside the container with a vast majority from Guatemala, six were from Ecuador, three from Honduras and one was from El Salvador.
#1
Evidently couldn't get it across our border fast enough. They were supposed to be in the US when found, that way it would be our fault.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/16/2023 9:23 Comments ||
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#2
Obviously we need more rules and regulations to govern the illegal smuggling of illegal immigrants by illegal immigrant smugglers. Something, something, the Commerce Clause.
A gamma-ray device detected the presence of the 350 migrants inside the container
It it true those make your balls glow? Kinda cool they can detect where the immigrants are from.
Nearly 124,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy so far this year
Last June, Germany committed to helping overwhelmed states take in migrants
Germany will no longer accept refugees from Italy, backing out from a European solidarity initiative over perceptions Rome has failed to meet its obligations to take back migrants under an EU resettlement plan.
Berlin had voluntarily pledged to help overwhelmed EU states by taking in 3,500 migrants, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday. So far, it has accepted more than 1,700 under the scheme, launched last June.
But arguing that Italy had 'for some time' stopped receiving migrants returned from Germany under the Dublin Regulations, it announced it would 'postpone until further notice' its offer of support in a blow to European solidarity.
[AlAhram] The EU ombudsman demanded Friday that Brussels explain how it will ensure that its pact with Tunisia to curb migration will not breach human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... standards.
The Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, is an independent overseer employed to handle complaints about the work of EU institutions and agencies and to investigate alleged administrative failures.
"Where fundamental rights are not respected, there cannot be good administration," she said.
In July, the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... signed a deal to provide financial assistance and practical cooperation to Tunisia -- the main launchpad for undocumented migrants colonists making the dangerous sea crossing to Italia.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Italia's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Netherlands' Mark Rutte hailed the deal as a way to fight "networks of smugglers and traffickers".
But international human rights organizations and some MEPs have criticised Brussels for forming an anti-migration partnership with President Kais Saied's increasingly authoritarian regime.
In recent months hundreds of migrants colonists arrested in Tunisia have allegedly been dropped off in the desert near the Libya border and left to fend for themselves.
Against this backdrop, O'Reilly said von der Leyen's European Commission has some explaining to do.
"Did the Commission carry out a human rights impact assessment of the MoU before its conclusion and consider possible measures to mitigate risks of human rights violations," the ombudsman asked, in a letter to von der Leyen.
"If yes, could the Commission make this impact assessment public, along with the mitigating measures? If not, please set out the rationale for this."
O'Reilly noted that she had raised these concerns when Brussels signed a similar pact with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , and warned the EU regulations stipulate that any funding provided to partner countries must not be spent in ways that breach migrants colonists' human rights.
"How does the Commission plan to ensure that actions undertaken by Tunisia under the Migration and mobility pillar of the MoU and financed using EU funds will comply with the applicable human rights standards?" she asked.
Earlier this week, the European Commission was forced to defend the Tunisian migration pact in parliament, where it has come under fire from MEPs from the left and the Greens.
"This is an investment in our shared prosperity, stability, and in the future generations," commissioner Oliver Varhelyi told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
He said it reinforced cooperation that has already seen the Tunisian coasties intercept nearly 24,000 boats headed for Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... this year, compared with some 9,000 last year.
But the row flared up again on Thursday when Tunisia barred entry to a fact-finding delegation from the European Parliament, following a non-binding resolution condemning the government's "authoritarian drift".
"Since, lately, we've given up raiding,
And wince when we think of invading
Or trivial knavery
Like African slavery,
You've followed us home?"
"We're... blockading!"
Posted by: Glomoper Oppressor of the Brontosaurs8937 ||
09/16/2023 23:54 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] Israeli commitment not to enact its illusory sovereignty over settlements in exchange for normalization with Abu Dhabi only extends until 2024, Yusef al-Otaiba says.
United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the United States Yusef al-Otaiba said Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is engaged in a process of de facto annexation of the West Bank, and that it may be up to other countries weighing normalization with Israel to stop it.
Appearing on a panel during a Washington event marking the three-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords, Otaiba was asked for Abu Dhabi’s perspective of the hardline Israeli government and its policies in the West Bank, which critics have referred to as "de facto annexation."
Continued on Page 49
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.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...Arabic for 
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
...Crown Prince and modernizer of 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
