Tag: Taliban

Reflections on Events in Afghanistan – 5

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21 August 2021 — Indian Punchline

The interior of a US Air Force C-27 Globemaster III transport aircraft carrying Afghans from Kabul to Qatar (File photo)

5. Putin: Taliban is the reality

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Moscow visits invariably draw great attention as she has performed a unique role as intermediary between the West and Russia during her 16 years in power. Even in the most trying times in Europe’s ties with Russia, Merkel could get through to Putin, and the western capitals looked up to her for moderating tensions from reaching flashpoint.

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America and its allies helped the Taliban on the road to victory

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16 August  2021 — Middle East Monitor

Taliban fighters stand guard at an entrance of the green zone area in Kabul on August 16, 2021 [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images]
Taliban fighters stand guard at an entrance of the green zone area in Kabul on August 16, 2021 [WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images]
Most Western media outlets are carrying headlines and hype about the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan after the fighting force swept through the country at a blistering pace which has left military strategists gasping. Within 24 hours of making his “I am staying” speech, President Ashraf Ghani fled from Kabul when the Taliban entered the city. Apparently, he has gone to Tajikstan while an interim government headed by Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar takes over.

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Britain Wants A Rerun Of The War On Afghanistan

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20 August 2021 — Moon of Alabama

Immediately after the Taliban victory an enormous dis-information campaign was launched to again badmouth them.

There are now suddenly all kinds of allegations that the Taliban are doing this or that bad. These are mostly based on hearsay and no or very little evidence is presented. Don’t believe them without direct confirmation from original sources.

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Afghanistan’s “Color Revolution”: Who Is Ali Ahmad Jalali?

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18 August 2021 — Global Research

Jalali is one of the foremost personalities to emerge from the country

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

What is abundantly clear is that the U.S. has not been thrown out of Afghanistan. Quite the opposite. 

A so-called interim Afghan government is to be headed by Prof. Ali Ahmad Jalali, who just so happens to be a US citizen.

“Regime Change” in Afghanistan?  Troop withdrawals coupled with a US sponsored color revolution?

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How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban

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18 August 2021 — The Saker

By Pepe Escobar: The Saker Blog and cross-posted at the Unz Review.

The first Taliban press conference after this weekend’s Saigon moment geopolitical earthquake, conducted by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, was in itself a game-changer.

The contrast could not be starker with those rambling pressers at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad after 9/11 and before the start of the American bombing – proving this is an entirely new political animal.

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Don’t waste the opportunity at UN SC

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9 August 2021 — Indian Punchline

United Nations Security Council in session, New York (File photo)

India’s thirty-day tenure through August as the president of the UN Security Council has got mired in needless controversy. The issue is about the “emergency meeting” regarding Afghanistan that India convened on Friday. According to Pakistan, it had made a “a formal request” for participation in the meeting but India turned it down.

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Post-American Afghanistan through the looking glass

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29 April 2021 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Debris of Afghan civil war: A boy runs past a destroyed Soviet-made armoured tank on a Kabul street, Afghanistan. (File photo)

Ex-CIA officer Bruce Riedel at Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, whose familiarity with Afghanistan is never in doubt, has held a looking glass to figure out the future course of events even as the US troop withdrawal commences.

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A “win-win” for US, Turkey in Hindu Kush

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11 April 2021 — Indian Punchline

Turkey is a pillar of NATO mission to Afghanistan (File photo)

The zeal with which Washington is soliciting Turkey’s services to plot the pathway leading to the mainstreaming of Taliban in Afghanistan raises some troubling questions. Acting on Washington’s request, Turkey will be hosting high-level talks on the Afghanistan peace process (likely April 16) to bring together the Afghan government and the Taliban. Turkey has appointed a special envoy to assume the mediation role.

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Trump admin insider reveals how US military sabotaged peace agreement to prolong Afghanistan war

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16 March 2021 — The Grayzone

Appointed in the final days of Trump’s presidency to remove all US troops from Afghanistan, Douglas Macgregor tells The Grayzone how military leadership undermined the withdrawal and pressured Trump to capitulate.

Douglas Macgregor Trump military afghanistan war

Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor (Photo credit: US Army / public domain)

March 16, 2021

Russia, Bountiful Hoaxes And The New York Times

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24 July 2020 — Oriental Review

Binoy Kampmark

There is a delicious irony in the Russia Bounty scandal. The Russians, funding the very entity that was financed, at least in a previous incarnation, by the Central Intelligence Agency, to supposedly kill the warriors of a country that had funded them. The karmic wheel of boggled minds finds its turn, and US forces, it is said, became the target of a Russian bounty program funded via the Taliban. Cue some bewildered head scratching.

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In ‘Russian Bounty’ Story, Evidence-Free Claims From Nameless Spies Became Fact Overnight

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4 July 2020 — FAIR

NYT: Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says

The New York Times (6/26/20) front-paged what “intelligence says”—while offering very little explanation of why they say they believe it, or why we should believe them.

Based upon a bombshell New York Times report (6/26/20), virtually the entire media landscape has been engulfed in the allegations that Russia is paying Taliban fighters bounties to kill US soldiers.

The Washington Post (6/27/20) and the Wall Street Journal (6/27/20) soon published similar stories, based on the same intelligence officials who refused to give their names, and did not appear to share any data or documents with the news organizations. “The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have confirmed our reporting,” tweeted the Times article’s lead author, Charlie Savage. The Post’s John Hudson seemed to back him up: “We have confirmed the New York Times scoop: A Russian military spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan,” he responded.

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LEE CAMP: Connecting the Dates – US Media Used To Stop The ‘Threat’ of Peace

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1 July 2020 —Consortium News

Peace seems to have exceedingly, ridiculously, laughably bad timing, this latest time in Afghanistan, says Lee Camp. 

By Lee Camp
Special to Consortium News

This is not a column defending Donald Trump.

Across my career I have said more positive words about the scolex family of intestinal tapeworms than I have said about Donald Trump. (Scolex have been shown to read more.)

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Operation Cyclone and Timber Sycamore – America’s Bounties for Killing Russian Troops

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1 July 2020 — American Herald Tribune

Brzezinski visits Osama bin Laden c3210

Brzezinski visits Osama bin Laden and other Mujahideen fighters during training

Following last Friday’s allegations by the New York Times that Russian intelligence officers had offered financial incentives to Taliban insurgents who had targeted US and coalition forces in Afghanistan, the ensuing outrage by the mainstream media went as predictably as expected.

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RAY McGOVERN: Russiagate’s Last Gasp

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29 June 2020 — Consortium News

One can read this most recent flurry of Russia, Russia, Russia paid the Taliban to kill GIs as an attempt to pre-empt the findings into Russiagate’s origins.

 

U.S. Army helicopter pilots fly near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, April 5, 2017. (U.S. Army, Brian Harris, Wikimedia Commons)

By Ray McGovern Special to Consortium News

On Friday The New York Times featured a report based on anonymous intelligence officials that the Russians were paying bounties to have U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan with President Donald Trump refusing to do anything about it.  The flurry of Establishment media reporting that ensued provides further proof, if such were needed, that the erstwhile “paper of record” has earned a new moniker — Gray Lady of easy virtue.

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India’s move on Article 370 came six months late

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8 August 2019 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

The site where a Taliban car bomb detonated in Kabul on Aug 7, 2019, killing 14 people and wounding 145.

The statement issued by the Taliban on Thursday regarding the situation surrounding the state of Jammu & Kashmir merits serious attention.

The statement recalls media reports on the abrogation of the special status of J&K by the Modi government, the deployment of additional troops in the state, and the lockdown in the valley that have created “difficulties and hardships for the Muslim population.”

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Continued American Occupation of the Middle East Does Not Suppress Terrorism, It Causes It By Craig Murray

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21 December 2018 — Craig Murray

Even the neo-con warmongers’ house journal The Guardian, furious at Trump’s attempts to pull US troops out of Syria, in producing a map to illustrate its point, could only produce one single, uncertain, very short pen stroke to describe the minute strip of territory it claims ISIS still controls on the Iraqi border.

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Afghanistan Takes Center Stage in the New Great Game By Pepe Escobar

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17 November 2018 — Asia Times

Moscow hosted talks last week to promote peace in Afghanistan as neighbors and regional heavyweights eye the rewards of stability in the long-troubled land

In the “graveyard of empires,” Afghanistan never ceases to deliver geopolitical and historical twists. Last week in Moscow, another crucial chapter in this epic story was written when Russia pledged to use its diplomatic muscle to spur peace efforts in the war-torn country.

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Media: At Reuters, ‘Not Refuting’ Is the Same as ‘Seeing’

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26 April 2017 — FAIR

Top U.S. general in Afghanistan sees Russia sending weapons to TalibanTop US general in Afghanistan does not say what Reuters‘ headline says he said.

“Top US General in Afghanistan Sees Russia Sending Weapons to Taliban” was Reuters’ headline over a April 25 story.

Well, that sounds like news! Tell me more, Reuters’ Idrees Ali:

The head of US and international forces in Afghanistan said on Monday he was “not refuting” reports that Russia was providing support, including weapons, to the Taliban….

Asked about reports that Russia was providing a range of help, including weapons, to the Taliban, who control large areas of Afghanistan, [Gen. John] Nicholson replied: “Oh no, I am not refuting that.”

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