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Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#26: Jul 14th 2021 at 5:38:44 AM

George Bush doesn't get to be the moral authority on anything.

He and his entire Administration should be in jail for war crimes.

Edited by Forenperser on Jul 14th 2021 at 2:38:58 PM

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CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#27: Jul 14th 2021 at 5:55:18 AM

A murderer who says a rapist is wrong is still right.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#28: Jul 14th 2021 at 6:42:38 AM

UNHCR warns of imminent humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

    Article 
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning of a looming humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the escalating conflict brings increased human suffering and civilian displacement.

An estimated 270,000 Afghans have been newly displaced inside the country since January 2021 – primarily due to insecurity and violence – bringing the total uprooted population to over 3.5 million.

Families forced to flee their homes in recent weeks cite the worsening security situation as the predominant reason for their flight.

In addition to ongoing fighting, displaced civilians have told UNHCR and partners of incidents of extortion by non-state armed groups and the presence of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on major roads. Many have reported interruptions to social services and a loss of income due to rising insecurity.

The number of civilian casualties has risen 29 per cent during the first quarter of this year compared to 2020, according to UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. An increasing proportion of women and children were among those targeted.

The needs of those who have had to flee suddenly are acute. UNHCR and partners, as part of a coordinated response, are assisting newly displaced Afghans with emergency shelter, food, health, water and sanitation support and cash assistance, despite challenges in accessing vulnerable groups.

The resilience of the Afghan people has been pushed to the limit by prolonged conflict, high levels of displacement, the impact of COVID-19, recurrent natural disasters, including drought, and deepening poverty. Some 65 per cent of the Afghan population – in and outside of Afghanistan – are children and young people.

A failure to reach a peace agreement in Afghanistan and stem the current violence will lead to further displacement within the country, as well as to neighbouring countries and beyond.

Iran and Pakistan host nearly 90 per cent of displaced Afghans - more than two million registered Afghan refugees in total. Both countries have granted access to territory and protection to Afghan refugees, along with health and educational services through national systems. Their hospitality and inclusive policies, spanning decades and generations, must not be taken for granted.

UNHCR welcomes the respective governments’ commitment to provide access to asylum amidst the global health and socio-economic challenges of COVID-19. We stand ready to bolster humanitarian support to all host countries in the case of additional arrivals.

We urge the international community to step up support to the Government and people of Afghanistan and its neighbours at this critical moment, in a spirit of solidarity and burden-sharing.

Humanitarian resources are currently falling dramatically short. UNHCR’s financial appeal for the Afghanistan situation (including operations for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran) remains acutely underfunded, at only 43 per cent of a total US$ 337 million required.


SBS: Hazara Australians fear their people in Afghanistan could soon be massacred.

    Article 
Hazara man Namatullah Kadrie was only five years old when his family fled Afghanistan.

Twenty years have since passed, but he’s now more worried than ever about those they left behind given western forces are about to fully withdraw from the country.

“We can’t do anything, but we're worried sick about what will happen to them,” he told SBS News at his home in Melbourne.

“I'm very worried about what will happen to the Hazaras when the foreign forces completely leave Afghanistan. I think what we'll see is a full-scale war against the Hazaras.”

The Hazaras are a minority group persecuted in Sunni Muslim-majority Afghanistan due to their Shia Muslim faith.

Mr Kadrie said the Taliban has already staged attacks on his home village in recent weeks and he is expecting more to come.

“The Taliban has been going around, obtaining taxes - illegal taxes - from the locals for lands that they don't even live on,” he said.

“Everyone I know of is feeling scared and worried about the prospect of the Taliban taking over the country.”

Taliban control growing

Dozens of Afghanistan’s districts have fallen to the Taliban this year amid the withdrawals of the US and its allies, including Australia.

On Friday, the Taliban claimed it was now in control of 85 per cent of Afghanistan.

“We have seen a massive onslaught by the Taliban to take control of territories and districts across Afghanistan,” La Trobe University international relations expert Niamatullah Ibrahimi said.

“The thing that will be really a game changer is if the Taliban establishes its control over entire provinces in any part of Afghanistan.”

At the same time, attacks on Afghanistan’s Hazaras are said to have been increasing.

In May, three explosions in quick succession killed nearly 100 Hazaras at a Kabul school. Most of them were schoolgirls.

That prompted calls from Afghan human rights groups and the Hazara community for a United Nations investigation into attacks on Hazaras as genocide.

Then, in June, a string of mini-van bombings in Hazara-majority neighbourhoods claimed more lives.

While many of these attacks have gone unclaimed, analysts say the western forces’ withdrawal has emboldened the Taliban and others who seek to harm Hazaras.

Dr Ibrahimi, who is also Hazara, said he has been frustrated by the international community’s “indifference” to the situation.

“There is a human tragedy unfolding in front of our eyes, a human tragedy of massive proportions, and this is happening at a time when the international community - the United States, Australia, and NATO forces - are walking away from Afghanistan,” he said

“What I am quite worried about is there will be mass atrocity crimes perpetrated in Afghanistan on a much larger scale than we've seen before, and this will happen at a time when the international community loses its interest and political will to stay engaged and focused on Afghanistan.”

'Already signs of ethnic cleansing'

Australia is now home to some 50,000 Hazaras, many of whom fled Afghanistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the Taliban first took power.

Shukufa Tahiri’s family was one of the thousands that left. They eventually settled in Sydney.

“It was impossible to live under such a fundamentalist extremist group, because we were Hazara, we were distinct in our ethnicity and faith group, so we were a sworn enemy of the Taliban,” she said.

“The last two weeks have been the bloodiest in the last 20 years, and that means there is even more fear of the Taliban's return and the repeat of the nightmare that happened in the 1990s.”

While the late 1990s saw heightened violence, Hazaras have faced centuries of persecution in Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of Hazaras are estimated to have been killed, enslaved, or expelled during the 19th century.

And now, following two decades of western intervention in Afghanistan, many fear the violence and killings will escalate.

“People are actually feeling like there are already signs of ethnic cleansing and genocidal campaigns by the Taliban,” Ms Tahiri said.

Ms Tahiri said she is in regular contact with her relatives in Afghanistan, who fear the Taliban's control will all-but-certainly grow.

“We're very concerned, because it seems like the infiltration of the Taliban is actually reaching our own towns and our villages that we once fled,” she said.

“They’re just at a loss in terms of what to do. There are people who are trying to escape the country, and there are people who have no plans but are just waiting for the Taliban takeover around the corner.”

'A very grim picture'

The recent onslaught of violence has many warning a mass exodus of Afghan asylum seekers could be just around the corner.

Calls for a global moratorium on returning Hazaras to Afghanistan are now growing louder.

Australian National University emeritus professor William Maley, who specialises in refugees and Afghan politics, is one of the people leading those calls.

“The situation is so fluid and heading in such a worrying direction at the moment that any suggestion it might be safe to return asylum seekers to Afghanistan at the moment is preposterous and should be seen as such,” he said.

“It would be much more sensible simply to recognise that in public policy, rather than go through the delusion of pretending there are safe areas in Afghanistan to which people might be returned.”

SBS News asked the Department of Home Affairs if it would make such a commitment.

A department spokesperson said: “Individuals who arrive lawfully in Australia, seek asylum, and are found to engage Australia’s non-refoulment obligations may be granted permanent protection, subject to fulfilling relevant visa criteria.”

But many, including Professor Maley, are pushing for a firmer guarantee.

“Already, evidence coming out of Afghanistan from areas into which the Taliban have moved presents a very, very grim picture of what life under the Taliban would be like,” he said.

“One wouldn't want to see a replication of the kind of situation the German Jews faced in the 1930s, when no one really wanted to welcome them to their country, and people literally were sent back who'd been inside the United States and who ended up being gassed in the Holocaust.”


Sydney Morning Herald: The untouchables: Top detectives to investigate ‘disgraceful’ kill squad.

    Article 
A series of alleged murders by special forces soldiers which a military inquiry dubbed “the most disgraceful episode in Australia’s military history” will be investigated by an elite team of homicide detectives recruited from police forces across the country.

Until now, it has been unclear what the final report of the heavily redacted Brereton inquiry was referring to in November when it described the “disgraceful episode”, but multiple official sources have since confirmed that it involves an alleged rogue special forces patrol team accused of executing multiple defenceless prisoners and civilians during a months-long deployment to Afghanistan.

A defence source confidentially briefed on the patrol team’s activities told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this group had been described to him as a “kill squad”.

The team of detectives being assembled to investigate the allegations is being recruited by a former Queensland Police homicide investigator, Commander Matt Stock, who is also a former policy adviser to Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

Applicants include some of the most experienced detectives from murder investigation squads across the nation, according to sources aware of the process but who are not authorised to comment publicly.

The team, dubbed the “untouchables” by one former detective, will work under the auspices of the Australian Federal Police and the Office of the Special Investigator, where Mr Stock was recently in a senior role.

The Office of the Special Investigator is a $75 million agency created by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Mr Dutton in response to the damning findings of the Brereton war crimes inquiry last November. Justice Paul Brereton uncovered credible allegations that special forces soldiers committed 39 murders in Afghanistan and covered them up by maintaining a mafia-like code of silence.

The Office of the Special Investigator is expected to face intense legal, political and media scrutiny as its teams work with the AFP to bring accused former SAS and Commandos operatives to trial. The AFP has never conducted a successful war crimes investigation and its ability to investigate the Brereton inquiry allegations looms as a test for AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw.

Mr Stock is one of two senior managers at the Office of the Special Investigator who will report to the investigatory body’s chiefs, former Queensland Police deputy commissioner Ross Barnett and senior Victorian Court of Appeal judge Mark Weinberg, QC.

Mr Stock is a highly experienced criminal investigator who previously served as a senior policy adviser to Mr Dutton when he was home affairs minister, and as a senior officer in the Australian Border Force. Former senior Queensland detective and one of Australia’s leading corporate investigators, Graham Newton, previously worked with Mr Stock and said he was highly regarded in policing circles.

“He’s a quintessential detective who is made for this role. He loves the chase and he doesn’t let go,” Mr Newton said.

Another former police colleague of Mr Stock said even experienced state homicide detectives were missing the cut as the Office of the Special Investigator seeks elite officers prepared to take on unpopular, gruelling investigations that may take years to wind through the courts.

The Office of the Special Investigator confirmed the agency had recruited investigators with “significant experience in managing complex investigations, including historical and overseas crimes” from the NSW, Queensland, South Australian, West Australian and Victorian police services as well as the AFP.

The final Brererton inquiry report provides no clues as to the identity of the alleged “kill squad” patrol, when it served in Afghanistan or if it involved SAS or Commando soldiers. But Justice Brereton’s inquiry found unnamed officers up the chain of command bore “moral command responsibility” for the conduct of soldiers engaged in what the senior judge described as “possibly the most disgraceful episode” in defence force history.

Converting the exhaustive Brereton inquiry, which included classified interviews with hundreds of soldiers and officers, into criminal charges is a monumental task for the Office of the Special Investigator and the AFP. Not only did many of the alleged murders occur years ago, experts are warning of a rapidly deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan that could interfere with evidence gathering.

Australian National University Professor William Maley, who specialises in Afghan politics, warned this week that the Taliban were “on a roll” and were placing Afghan towns they were capturing under totalitarian control.

However, the joint taskforce is not coming off a standing start. Several SAS insiders who served in Afghanistan, as well as local Afghan villagers, have already provided detailed sworn statements to the AFP. They include SAS soldiers who allege they observed or participated in unlawful executions.

Those statements have been gathered by a small AFP team of investigators which, since June 2018, has been probing some SAS members over allegations they directed the murder of Afghan prisoners. The AFP investigations were triggered by what the final Brereton inquiry report described as an “exceptional” referral by Justice Brereton to the defence force and onto federal police in late May 2018.

That referral and the subsequent investigations have produced two briefs of evidence, which have sat with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Sarah McNaughton, SC, for more than a year. The interplay of war crimes investigation and prosecution officials, powers and jurisdiction are a potential bureaucratic quagmire that no agency or politician envisaged when the Brereton inquiry began its four-year investigation in 2016.

In addition to the Office of the Special Investigator staff and state and federal homicide investigators, the personnel now involved in the sprawling investigations include a special counsel, Tim Begbie, SC, who is advising on what evidence from the Brereton inquiry is admissible. Ms McNaughton has appointed David McLure, SC, a former special forces officer turned Sydney silk, to advise the Commonwealth prosecutions agency on whether the evidence gathered by police is strong enough to charge suspects. And AFP commander Anthony McClement has also been appointed to oversee the AFP’s war crimes work with the Office of the Special Investigator.

AFP Commissioner Kershaw has assigned overall oversight of war crimes and related inquiries to two of the AFP’s highest-ranking officers, Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney and Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee.

Officials dealing with aspects of the investigation and prosecution structure, but who are not authorised to speak publicly, told The Age and Herald that critical decisions were at risk of being stalled. They include deciding which ex-special forces soldiers should receive immunity from prosecution and how to safeguard witness safety in Afghanistan and Australia.

The Brereton inquiry in November recommended several soldiers receive immunity because they had confessed to crimes that otherwise would have remained hidden and in doing so implicated more senior personnel.

”While it is ultimately a matter for the CDPP, the inquiry considers that the interests of justice and public policy in holding to account those in positions of authority in the defence force, who have caused their subordinates to commit crimes, makes these cases appropriate ones for such immunities,” Justice Brereton wrote in his final report.

“The evidence of such individuals is likely to be crucial in the prosecution of their superiors which should take priority, both because of the greater criminal responsibility of the superiors, and because of the greater national importance in holding the superiors to account, and showing that they are held to account.”

The Office of the Special Investigator, AFP and Commonwealth DPP will also be keen to avoid the fate of the most-recent Afghanistan-linked case in Australia, a failed military court martial of commandos accused of negligently causing the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan in 2009. Mr McLure was representing the accused in this case and his advocacy led to the case being thrown out by a military judge in 2011. In 2020, Mr McLure was appointed to prosecute Australian soldiers in a civilian court if the Commonwealth DPP authorises charges relating to alleged prisoner executions.

The AFP and Commonwealth DPP declined to comment.

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Zarastro Since: Sep, 2010
#29: Jul 14th 2021 at 7:03:00 AM

If I remember correctly, Bush Jr. was not even interested in nation building in Afghanistan, he had his eyes already on Iraq and Iran.

eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#30: Jul 14th 2021 at 7:22:04 AM

Well, him and the 70-80% of the American electorate who supported him going into Iraq, at least half of whom re-elected him in 2004. The US in 2001-2003 was a country buoyed by its status as the victor of history and its righteous fury towards whichever foreign regime felt complicit in 9/11. The state of the political and media environment at the time was... something else, let's just say.

That's not to say that the Bush admin didn't put in its share of lip service towards the idea of rebuilding at the time of the invasion. But looking back, it's hard not to feel like that sentiment didn't have nearly as much actual strategy backing it up as it did good old American can-do.

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#31: Jul 14th 2021 at 7:26:08 AM

I'm still checking on this tidbit, but CNN (at least) got video of Taliban fighters executing Afghan commandos who surrendered.

Edited by Ominae on Jul 14th 2021 at 11:50:20 AM

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
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#32: Jul 16th 2021 at 8:17:53 PM

Afghan military was mobilized to retake the Spin Boldak checkpoint, but the Pakistani military warned them that there will be trouble if they attempt to do so.

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Beware the Crazy Man.
#33: Jul 16th 2021 at 10:21:57 PM

A shame the US couldn't rip apart the Pakistan Army on its way out....

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#35: Jul 16th 2021 at 10:49:22 PM

Would probably appreciate a link for that one; but Pakistan's attitude towards Afghanistan makes a little more sense if you go back a century. Afghanistan's national borders were essentially forced onto it by the two world powers that you'd trust the most to draw sensible maps: the British and the Russians. That included demarcations like the Wakhan Corridor (which was there just so that British India wouldn't have any border incidents with Russian Central Asia) and the Durand Line, which split the Pashtun-majority regions into one half belonging to British India and another belonging to Afghanistan.

Ever since the Partition, Pakistan has perpetually worried about the possibility of Afghanistan (then a kingdom) flashing its ethnic Pashtun leadership to persuade the Pashtun population in Pakistan into seceding. In fact, this was precisely what Afghan PM Mohammed Daoud Khan (the king's cousin) tried to do in the early '60s: trying to gain the support of bored Army officers, he ordered multiple incursions into Pakistan's tribal areas, first by local tribal auxiliaries and later by regular Army troops. When Daoud Khan staged a coup in 1973, turning Afghanistan into a republic, it spurred Pakistani intelligence into backing a group of Afghan Islamic scholars in building insurgent movements that would become the nuclei of the major mujahideen factions in the country's east. And much later, in the '90s, it was one of the reasons that the Pakistanis ended up supporting the Taliban — a centralising movement motivated by Islamic nationalism, rather than ethnic nationalism, that it trusted to keep the country sorta-stable without messing with its own Pashtun population.

There are many other reasons for Pakistan to want a pliable Afghanistan. It wants strategic depth for its geopolitical rivalry with India. It wants a clear route for trade and gas pipelines into the Central Asian republics — which ironically backed the Northern Alliance against the Pakistani-backed Taliban in the '90s. But most of all, Pakistan considers a unified, nationalistic Afghanistan to be a threat to its own territorial integrity. Which is why the idea of Afghan Air Force planes bombing insurgents close to the Pakistani border bothers the Pakistanis more than any amount of insurgent infestation ever could.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jul 16th 2021 at 10:49:59 AM

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#36: Jul 16th 2021 at 10:58:59 PM

Just saw that in the First VP's Twitter. A think tank on Linkedin posted screencaps.

Let me know. I can go hunt for it.

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eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#37: Jul 16th 2021 at 11:19:12 PM

Yeah, you'd want to take Afghan government releases with a grain of salt until they offer proof for them. For all of Pakistan's shady history with the Taliban, a lot of what's happening now is down to Kabul's own corruption and infighting. And pointing fingers at a foreign boogeyman is a time-honoured way to distract an angry and scared domestic populace.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jul 16th 2021 at 11:59:17 AM

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#38: Jul 16th 2021 at 11:43:50 PM

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/16/pakistan-air-support-afghanistan-taliban

Found it. So at least some media outlets are looking into the claims VP Saleh made.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#39: Jul 17th 2021 at 10:41:10 AM

Do Afghan Allies and their family get citizenship once they come to the US or "just" a permident residence card?

Edited by Forenperser on Jul 17th 2021 at 8:15:54 PM

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eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#40: Jul 17th 2021 at 11:02:32 AM

It's a really messy, ad-hoc thing. Some had their American colleagues sponsor their visa and naturalisation process as US citizens. Some made their applications while still in Afghanistan, others made it from a third country. Some travelled to the US for some other reason, applied for asylum, and faced deportation if their application was rejected.

Right now, the Biden admin is looking to house the eligible Afghan interpreters in third countries, or possibly US facilities outside of CONUS, while their immigration statuses are being processed. You'll notice that this isn't the same as guaranteeing them a US permanent residence or citizenship — so theoretically, if some of them were found to be ineligible for one reason or another, then, well, back to Afghanistan it is.

(Meanwhile, Australia just dumps asylum seekers into extraterritorial camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea and lets them languish for years while their asylum requests are being """processed""")

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#41: Jul 17th 2021 at 6:00:09 PM

The Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan’s daughter was taken by armed kidnappers. She’s safe now.

Comes at a time when Kabul is criticizing Islamabad for allowing the Taliban to use their soil as a base of operations.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#42: Jul 17th 2021 at 6:12:11 PM

It seems the Taliban want to make a big push after Biden's claim he wants out.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#43: Jul 17th 2021 at 8:58:58 PM

Pakistani LEOs are mobilized to investigate the case in Islamabad.

There’s already talk in the diplomatic community that it seemed too easy for the ambassador’s daughter to be kidnapped in daylight.

Edited by Ominae on Jul 17th 2021 at 9:01:47 AM

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
SgtRicko Since: Jul, 2009
#44: Jul 18th 2021 at 7:28:02 AM

Regarding housing the refugees from Afghanistan: it seems like Guam is going to be a prime candidate, with possibly up to 2000 refugees being housed here in the upcoming months. The hospitality industry seems to be interested in this development, since barely any tourists are visiting and the hotels are hemorrhaging money; they're hoping to ask the federal government to cover the costs for housing them until more permanent housing can be found.

Problem is, the local populace isn't thrilled with the idea. Some of the arguments are the typical dumb racist stuff (They're Muslims, they'll cause all sorts of trouble!) or born out of paranoia (Some might be deep-cover terrorists!), but the biggest complaints are mostly some NIMBY-stuff about why are the refugees being allowed to settle here and likely being given priority for housing over local residents.

eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Keep Calm and Parry On
#45: Jul 18th 2021 at 8:29:23 AM

Yeah, it's mentioned on the CNN article linked above. Does Guam have a big issue with overseas investors buying up vacant property? I can see how something like that would make housint hard for the locals.

Taliban units in the north are currently besieging Taloqan, the capital city of the Takhar Province and a historical stronghold of the Jamiat-e Islami mujahideen (later one of the main groups in the Northern Alliance). The militia forces defending the region are led by local Uzbek dynasties with ties to the Massoud clan. One of the ethnic Uzbek leaders in the area, Mutalib Bek, was killed by a Taliban bomb years ago; his son Abdullah Bek is now leading local militia forces as they try to repel the besieging Taliban.

As always, warlord rule is one of the main problems in the region. The Afghan Local Police (ALP) units raised in the area have long acted as enforcers for rival warlord factions as they ran drugs and fought over turf. This contributed to a breakdown in law and order that led many locals to turn to (or at least tolerate) the rising Taliban.

And while the Taliban's constituency once laid in the rural Pashtun belt in the south (plus refugee madrasas in Pakistan), they've learned from the failure of their previous regime by cultivating a following among ethnic minorities in the north. That long-term strategy seems to be paying off now, with many northern districts falling under their rule at an alarming pace.

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#46: Jul 18th 2021 at 8:43:30 PM

Heard news of a localized ceasefire in Herat and an offer by the Taliban for a permanent one while talks are going on in Qatar if they can get their comrades back.

Last time Kabul did the latter, most of them went back to fighting.

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eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#47: Jul 19th 2021 at 10:46:17 AM

Non-war-related Afghanistan news, for once: Amid turmoil, Afghan female students win award at International Astronomy Competition. Only fitting, considering that Herat was one of the medieval world's great centres of astronomy; one of its most famous natives, Sultan Ulugh Beg of the Timurid Empire, was really big on star charts and built a monumental observatory up north in Samarkand.

    Article 
A group of Afghan female students from Herat won an award at the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition, which was hosted by Poland and held online in the first week of July.

The event is an international science competition that enables students from all countries to prove their skills and to unleash their creativity in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. Participants receive certificates, awards, cash prizes, and global recognition.

The competition honors the best participants from each participating nation with a special national award certificate.

Participants from five countries, including India and Bangladesh, got prizes in the competition. According to the Afghan team, 225 participants and groups from 54 countries attended the competition.

Members of the astronomy group—all of whom are girls— said the achievement provided them the opportunity to make further efforts toward their goals.

“There were 225 astronomy groups from 54 countries. Our prize was a telescope and a package of other relevant equipment,” said Amina Karimiyan, head of the group.

“Despite limitations that exist in our dear country, we are thinking beyond this and we want to record Afghanistan’s name in the astronomy science,” said Behnaz Azizi, a member of the group.

“We want to show to everyone that Afghan girls can also make improvements and achievements in all sectors,” said Yasamin Zafari, a member of the group.

Some girls have been studying astronomy for the last two years.

“I have a special interest in astronomy. I want to think about the sky before thinking about the earth planet, to see what is there,” said Sahar, a student and member of the group.

Other members of the group said they need advanced equipment for their research.

“We could advance further if we had the equipment,” said Mursal Habibi, a member of the group.

“We need the government’s help to purchase telescopes and to establish places for astronomy lessons,” said Elenaz Osmani, a member of the group.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jul 20th 2021 at 12:57:41 PM

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Ominae Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent Since: Jul, 2010
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
#48: Jul 20th 2021 at 3:49:54 AM

Several rockets landed near the Arg while Eid prayers were being conducted.

PS - Arg is the official office of the Afghan president and his immediate staff members.

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eagleoftheninth Keep Calm and Parry On from Cauldron Epsilon Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
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#49: Jul 20th 2021 at 2:37:50 PM

IS has claimed responsibility for the Kabul rocket attack. Footage broadcast locally by TOLOnews showed a burnt-out Toyota Corolla near the scene of the attack with an improvised rocket launcher sticking out of its trunk.

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CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#50: Jul 20th 2021 at 2:53:58 PM

I wonder what those young women are thinking with the very real prospect returning home will mean the end of their lives.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

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