#Afghanistan Reconstruction
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Wednesday that would require the Pentagon to return a portion of its enormous and ever-growing budget to the Treasury Department if it fails another audit in the coming fiscal year.
The Audit the Pentagon Act, an updated version of legislation first introduced in 2021, comes amid mounting concerns over rampant price gouging by military contractors and other forms of waste and abuse at an agency that's set to receive at least $842 billion for fiscal year 2024.
"The Pentagon and the military-industrial complex have been plagued by a massive amount of waste, fraud, and financial mismanagement for decades. That is absolutely unacceptable," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement as he unveiled the bill alongside Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
"If we are serious about spending taxpayer dollars wisely and effectively," said Sanders, "we have got to end the absurdity of the Pentagon being the only agency in the federal government that has never passed an independent audit."
In December, the Pentagon flunked its fifth consecutive audit, unable to account for more than 60% of its $3.5 trillion in total assets.
But congressional appropriators appear largely unphased as they prepare to raise the agency's budget to record levels, with some working to increase it beyond the topline set by the recently approved debt ceiling agreement. Watchdogs have warned that the deal includes a loophole that hawkish lawmakers could use to further inflate the Pentagon budget under the guise of aiding Ukraine.
Late Wednesday, following a lengthy markup session, the House Armed Services Committee passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which proposes a total military budget of $886 billion. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was the only committee member to vote no.
A huge chunk of the Pentagon's budget for next year is likely to go to profitable private contractors, which make a killing charging the federal government exorbitant sums for weapons and miscellaneous items, from toilet seats to ashtrays to coffee makers.
"Defense contractors are lining their pockets with taxpayer money while the Pentagon fails time and time again to pass an independent audit. It's a broken system," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a co-sponsor of the new bill. "We need to compel the Department of Defense to take fraud and mismanagement seriously—and we need Congress to stop inflating our nation's near-trillion-dollar defense budget."
"Putting the wants of contractors over the needs of our communities," he added, "isn't going to make our country any safer."
If passed, the Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023 would force every component of the Defense Department that fails an audit in fiscal year 2024 to return 1% of its budget to the Treasury Department.
A fact sheet released by Sanders' office argues that "the need for this audit is clear," pointing to a Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq report estimating that "$31-60 billion had been lost to fraud and waste."
"Separately, the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction reported that the Pentagon could not account for $45 billion in funding for reconstruction projects," the fact sheet notes. "A recent Ernst & Young audit of the Defense Logistics Agency found that it could not properly account for some $800 million in construction projects. CBS News recently reported that defense contractors were routinely overcharging the Pentagon—and the American taxpayer—by nearly 40-50%, and sometimes as high as 4,451%."
Further examples of the Pentagon's waste and accounting failures abound.
Last month, the Government Accountability Office released a report concluding that the Pentagon can't account for F-35 parts worth millions of dollars.
Earlier this week, as The Washington Post reported, the Pentagon said it "uncovered a significant accounting error that led it to overvalue the amount of military equipment it sent to Ukraine since Russia's invasion last year—by $6.2 billion."
"The 'valuation errors,' as a Pentagon spokeswoman put it, will allow the Pentagon to send more weapons to Ukraine now before going to Congress to request more money," the Post noted.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a supporter of the Audit the Pentagon Act, said Wednesday that "taxpayers can't keep writing blank checks—they deserve long-overdue transparency from the Pentagon about wasteful defense spending."
"If the Department of Defense cannot conduct a clean audit, as required by law," said Wyden, "Congress should impose tough financial consequences to hold the Pentagon accountable for mismanaging taxpayer money."
#us politics#news#common dreams#department of defense#the pentagon#2023#sen. bernie sanders#Audit the Pentagon Act#department of treasury#sen. chuck grassley#defund the military#audits#House Armed Services Committee#National Defense Authorization Act#us military#military budget#rep. Ro Khanna#defense contractors#Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq#Afghanistan Reconstruction#Defense Logistics Agency#cbs news#government accountability office#The Washington Post#ukrainian crisis#sen. Ron Wyden
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Remember This?
Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Reader
Word Count: 2,011
Warnings: Smut, unprotected sex, dirty talk, mentions of injuries/medical procedures
AN: I am dipping my toes back into the writing world for @roosterforme’s #love is in the air tgm challenge. My song is, “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men. Hopefully this isn’t a flop! Happy Valentine’s Day! XOXO
You enjoyed your job immensely. Helping people had always been something that was extremely important to you, and you were lucky enough to be able to do what you were passionate about. You finished medical school 3 years ago and now you were employed at your local VA Hospital part time, your other half being on base with your husband, Bradley. You had been high school sweethearts and you were still going on like it was your honeymoon.
You were overjoyed when you learned you were going to be able to help soldiers from all branches from all over the country. You helped veteran soldiers with rehabilitation mostly. Post war injuries that needed extra help and attention when they were able to come back home.
Bradley and his squadron were all in the Navy. Fanboy and Halo had done 3 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan while Bradley had done 2 recently. Hangman was almost killed in combat 4 days before he was due to come home from his last deployment. The others had thankfully come home in one piece, only minor scrapes and injuries from their time overseas. Bradley hadn’t been as lucky.
Bradley had been shot once in the chest inches away from his heart, and shrapnel had sliced through his face, neck, and arm. He was lucky to be alive but thankfully the doctors he had were good at what they do. They were able to save his life but not without complications. He had severe nerve damage through his left shoulder and bicep and his collarbone had been shattered and completely reconstructed. When he was sent home, he started showing up to the hospital you worked at for his physical therapy, often riding home with you at the end of the day.
You had just finished with a patient when you were heading to your office, passing by the nurses’ station on your way. You dropped the patient’s chart off at the desk but before you could start heading in the direction you desired, your charge nurse, Rebecca, stopped you with a gentle hand on your shoulder.
“You have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
“If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
She just shrugged her shoulders noncommittally with a smirk, walking away from you to continue your filing. Looking at your basket you noticed you had no patients waiting and walked to your office wondering who could be waiting for you.
As soon as you walked into your office your face broke out in a large smile. You knew it was your husband without a doubt. His 6’1” frame standing in front of your large window overlooking the city, broad shoulders, long legs, tight little ass, and hair with perfect curls for pulling.
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise.” You smiled while shutting your door, taking off your lab jacket and throwing it over the back of one of the chairs in your office. He turned around quickly and smiled at you, holding his arms open wide for you to walk into, bringing you into a warm and tight embrace.
“Yeah, I had my last appointment today and thought I’d come up and see you.”
“How’d it go?”
“Good. Almost as good as before.”
“That’s awesome, honey.”
“You don’t have any patients do you?”
“No, I think my next appointment is in another 45 minutes, why?”
With a mischievous look and a flick of the lock on your door, Bradley looks towards your desk and says, “Hey Alexa! Play my baby maker playlist.” You couldn’t help but laugh, burying your face in his chest as “I’ll Make Love to You,” starts to echo in your office.
“Haven’t heard this song since the night before my last deployment...you remember that night?” He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at you.
“Of course, I do! But Roo, we can’t do that here!”
“We can. I locked the door. C’mon baby, I thought we could celebrate a little early.” He could see the slight crack in your resolve and pounced on the seconds of vulnerability, the pride. “Besides, Rebecca is probably listening right outside the door right now anyway.:
Close your eyes, make a wish
And blow out the candlelight
For tonight is just your night
We're gonna celebrate, all through the night
Pour the wine, light the fire
Girl your wish is my command
I submit to your demands
Bradley wrapped one hand into your hair, gently pulling your head back, tracing his nose up your cheek. Pulling back slightly he hovers his lips over your own, a little quirk to his lips when he pulls millimeters away when you try and connect. Once, twice more before he lets out a breathy chuckle at your frustration, finally crashing his plush lips to yours in a passionate kiss. His other hand pushing into your lower back and pulling you flush against him, swaying to the harmony of the song. When he pulled away you were both breathless and dizzy. Desire had pooled in your core, and you could feel an impressive bulge digging into your stomach. “You gonna let me love you like it’s that night all over again? Right here, right now?”
He didn’t give you any time to respond before he crashed his lips back onto yours once again. This time the kiss was all tongue and teeth. He loved to bite on your lower lip when you kissed, and it always managed to send shivers down your spine. As soon as you let out a moan, he knew he had you right where he wanted you and he smiled against your mouth. He quickly picked you up, digging his hands underneath your ass cheeks and plopped you unceremoniously on top of your desk, pushing everything out of his way to give you enough room to lie down. Your movements were frantic, knowing time was limited, ironically the same as the night before he left.
I will do anything, girl you need only ask
I'll make love to you
Like you want me to
And I'll hold you tight
Baby, all through the night
I'll make love to you
When you want me to
And I will not let go
'Til you tell me to
Bradley was usually a rough lover, but he always managed to make you feel loved and protected, no matter what you were doing, and the sex was no different. His touch held a tenderness; a reaffirming touch that he would always be there to care for you.
You quickly pulled his shirt off of his broad shoulders and pulled it up over his head to reveal his chiseled chest and abs. Reaching up you pulled Bradley down toward you, kissing over his scars from the old wounds, shrapnel, and surgeries. This was something you always did, letting him know you were thankful he was alive and in your arms. The reminder that he was still beautiful in your eyes.
Girl relax, let's go slow
I ain't got nowhere to go
I'm just gon' concentrate on you
Girl, are you ready? It's gon' be a long night
Throw your clothes (throw your clothes) on the floor (on the floor)
I'm gonna take my clothes off too
I've made plans to be with you
Girl whatever you ask me, you know I can do
Bradley pulled your hair and moved your head back far enough to stretch your neck long, licking a broad stripe and ending with a quick nip underneath your ear. You let out an obscene moan making him pull back from you and stand up as straight as he could while leaning over your desk for support. “You gotta be quiet, baby.” He practically ripped your scrub pants and panties off of you in one quick pull, your shoes flying off along with them from the force of his tug. He placed your feet wide along the edge of your desk, opening yourself up to him. “Fuck Y/N…you’re already soaking wet.”
“I’m always wet for you, Bradley…now are you just going to stare or are you going to make love to your wife?”
I'll make love to you
Like you want me to
And I'll hold you tight
Baby, all through the night
I'll make love to you
When you want me to
And I will not let go
'Til you tell me to
Bradley’s demeanor instantly changed. His eyes quickly shot up to yours, narrowing into slits. He clenched his jaw making it tick, and he snapped his belt open, never once taking his eyes from yours. The intensity bringing a new wave of slick rushing out of you. There was no reply from him, his face telling you everything you needed to know. He was most definitely going to love you, and he was going to make sure you remembered it.
Pulling his jeans and boxers down just below his ass, his erection sprang free. It was long and thick, steadily leaking drops of precum. He wrapped his hand around the base, slowly stroking upwards, giving you a show. With a smirk he wrapped his hand around your thighs, pulling you down until your ass was flush with the edge of your desk.
Baby, tonight is your night
And I will do you right
Just make a wish on your night
Anything that you ask
I will give you the love of your life, your life, your life
No warning was given before he thrust into you in one slow and measured thrust, filling you to the brink, and trusting your body to accept him as it has hundreds of times before. Your eyes rolled back in your head and your mouth opened wide to let out a sound you had never heard yourself make before, not that you could bring yourself to care.
“I said,” he pistoned into you quickly, “be quiet. You don’t want those coworkers of yours getting too curious, do you?” You shook your head, biting your lip hard enough to draw blood in an attempt to muffle your noises. Bradley set a punishing pace knowing time was not on his side. His hips quickly meeting yours, the sound of slapping skin loud enough to echo throughout your office over the music. He pushed your scrub top up and over your breasts, pulling the cups of your bra down, and started to roughly caress your breasts with his left hand, his right holding tightly onto your hip to keep you from scooting across your desk from the power of his thrusts. The cold metal of his wedding ring made your nipples harden to tight peaks, the sensation running like a lightning bolt to your clit. “Fuck…Roo…please.”
He didn’t need to ask what you needed, knowing your body better than you did after all of these years. He quickly put his body flush with yours, chest to chest, intertwining your hands together beside of your head, and slammed his lips onto yours once again, tongues battling for dominance and attempting to muffle the noises trying to escape. The new angle caused him to move even deeper inside of you, completely bottoming out. The feeling of being so full and the delicious friction his pelvis was giving you by rubbing against your clit sent you over the edge.
I'll make love to you
Like you want me to
And I'll hold you tight
Baby all through the night
I'll make love to you
When you want me to
And I will not let go
'Til you tell me to
You arched your back and wrapped your legs tightly around his waist. The tight fluttering of your walls sending Bradley into his own orgasm, giving a growl you felt deep within his chest as he released himself inside of you. The sound of your intercom on your office phone went off, Rebecca’s voice floating through the room. “Your last appointment of the day just cancelled. See you tomorrow, Dr. Bradshaw!”
Both of you were still breathing heavily, interlocked together to the point you couldn’t tell where you began, and he ended. “Thank God because I don’t think I can walk after that.”
You both broke out into laughter, ready to go home. Bradley knew he had that record on the bookshelf in his office...round 2 is exactly what the doctor ordered.
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“NEVER FORGET” IS AN INSANE way to live.
Land of the free, monitored and brutalized. Home of the brave, willing to hurt anyone and everyone in our war against our own terror. I wanted to prove that I belong here. But who could wish to belong to the thing we have become?
At no point have we lived up to the promise of our own self-conception. Our history is marred by genocide, slavery and the failures of Reconstruction. But never have we so explicitly turned our backs on the thing we always imagined we could be: the shining city on the hill, a beacon of freedom, home to huddled masses yearning to be free. We buried that America the day the towers fell.
I do not know if we can fix this. I hope so. This is still my country. I still love the thing we could have been.
We can never undo the harm of these last twenty years, both to the world and to ourselves. But we could, perhaps, learn from our mistakes. We could remember that, when the towers fell, our first thought was not of vengeance or of war but of the people we love. The way that compassion spread to those we had never met and manifested itself in the need to help. The way untrained volunteers rushed into the wreckage to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble. The way people lined up to give blood to the Red Cross and opened their wallets to those in need. Disagreements that seemed insurmountable on September 10th shrank into nothing. We remembered, suddenly, that human life is precious, and beautiful, and fragile.
It is time to bury our rage and fear in an unmarked grave. Turn our faces towards the future and finally reach the acceptance stage of our national grief. Try to move towards something better. A country worth belonging to.
We have to forget.
Twenty years is long enough.
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This came up for discussion the other week when I was doing a bunch of food-related postings.* ...Then it got kinda buried: mea culpa. :/ ...So where was I?
John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes.
Anybody who reads Sherlock fic and doesn't know Azriona's work ought to be introduced to it. Here's a good place to start.
Mise en Place is succinctly described as "The One Where Sherlock Is Gordon Ramsay." ("I have no shame," the author remarks.) Super intrapersonal business, TV business, restaurant business, a really methodically nasty Moriarty, and a terrific chocolate pie. (Which I no sooner saw than adapted, because I too have no shame.)
Anyway, don't take my word for it: go find out. And remember, de gustibus non disputandum. :)
*I mean, a bunch all at once... :)
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I spent 15 hours, across three days, watching and taking notes on the legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel.
South Africa's case was a temporal snapshot that lay the weight of decades of historical context. Although the specifics of the case pertained to Israel's actions in Gaza, its overarching objective reached beyond these particulars. At its core, the case sought to address the substantial disparity between the lived reality of Palestinians and the narrative propagated by dominant political forces.
Across the globe, public anger regarding the events in Gaza has manifested on the streets. However, political leaders consistently chose to overlook, dismiss, ban, or vilify this collective sentiment. Maybe it is recency bias, but in my lifetime, there has never been such a disconnect between politicians and their people than when it comes to Gaza.
The significance of South Africa's case before the International Court of Justice is that it publically challenges the portrayal of the Palestinian cause as a fringe issue.
Beyond merely outlining the severity of events – 23,000+ killed in Gaza, the 1.9 million displaced, the 7,000+ missing under the rubble, and the thousands of bombs dropped, making this the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century – the case links these claims to the Geneva Conventions and human rights law.
But where are we as a society, as a human race even, that we are at a point where the case was brought forth in the first place? Such an initiative questions the legitimacy of the international response and underscores the diminishing persuasive power of Western logic in an increasingly multipolar world.
The case represents a broader confrontation within international institutions, raising doubts about the actual existence of the human rights infrastructure. The conflict has placed Western allies in the precarious position of undermining or neglecting their own established systems, eroding their credibility on the global stage. When you're against the United Nations and hundreds of human rights organisations and objecting to a submission in a global court (in the case of the US and UK, a court that they themselves established), you are simply pulling apart your house with the very tools that built it.
Western powers, having previously failed to support a Gaza ceasefire, will from now on be viewed in the global south as fighting on Israel's side. More so than they were already. And why wouldn't they be? These politicians have made it clear that they want to supply arms and military support to a regime, and their intervention, it seems, is contingent upon the safeguarding of goods shipment. These politicians assert that financial resources are lacking for reconstructing their nations, yet readily allocate funds for military endeavours. Why? How is any of this normal?
After the legal proceedings, Netanyahu said, "We will continue the war in the Gaza Strip until we achieve all our objectives. The Hague and the axis of evil will not stop us." Without compelling a policy change from Israel, what hope is there that South Africa's case will avail? It was obvious that Israel would use support from the US and the UK to prosecute the real agenda that Netanyahu and hundreds of Israeli politicians have hidden in plain sight (i.e. admitted on camera constantly): the destruction of Palestine and its people.
The recurring pattern is evident. Gaza transforms from an open-air prison to an open-air slaughterhouse under Israeli actions. Iraq faces invasion and fragmentation fueled by falsehoods and lies. Libya, once somewhat stable, descends into a state of civil war. Afghanistan witnesses invasion followed by prolonged failure and abandonment. Yemen endures relentless bombing, culminating in one of the most severe humanitarian crises in recorded human history. Syria? Also bombed, resulting in the displacement of thousands of refugees.
All of this, and more, is the legacy of Western "intervention", war, and policy in the Middle East.
Strangely, I find myself distanced from all this turmoil, yet the impact remains surprisingly profound. So many people I love have been impacted, yet I still experience a sense of detachment.
I go about my life. I have family and friends. I have hobbies and a job. But multiple times a day, it will hit me. I'll remember the videos I've seen of a mother crying over her son's body. Or the father carrying the remains of his children in plastic bags. Or the doctors performing amputations in overcrowded hospitals with nothing more than a dull butter knife. A wave of deep sorrow washes over me, settling in my chest like a persistent ache, lingering until I find a sufficiently absorbing distraction. And then, the cycle restarts.
But I don't want to be distracted. And I don't want to forget. I feel like I don't deserve to forget. It feels like the least I can do. Because I, unfortunately, do not have a megaphone loud enough to shout to those in positions of authority and tell them they are cowardly individuals sitting on chairs fashioned from the bones of Gaza's children.
In 2024, you would think that we would only be quoting Martin Luther King to learn about history and not to still use his message for current happenings, but he honestly said it best: "No one is free when we are all free."
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So in the documentary Harry moans about getting no support after he returned from afghanistan.. he has zero gratitude. William stopped the return interview cause he could see how exhausted Harry was. And Harry admitted it was William who persuaded him to get therapy. Harrys is amazing. His ability to reconstruct events is stunning.
I know those claims worked for Meghan, however, I don’t think they will work for Harry. He has been talking about PTSD nonstop for more than a decade, so I don’t think his claims that he got no help are credible.
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Every now and then I play a game in my head called "How would you win 9/11?" Not in the Mark Wahlberg sort of way but from the perspective of "if I were not a neocon ghoul, how would I handle this and avoid/postpone the sandbox forever war?"
Hard mode: Bin Laden has to still escape the battle of Tora Bora alive.
Extreme mode: you still have to invade Iraq at the behest of Reagan Era advisors still mad about Iran 30 years ago.
Easy mode I would just play the PR machine hard with the launch of Enduring Freedom. Like Panama, I'd hit hard and all at once with a coordinated force. The American people would need blood quick, and looking like a strong president is imperative for your first term, especially after such a hit to the American Ego.
Definitely approving the Ranger battalion's deployment to Tora Bora is the best path here, but the key is to pull out just as fast as we went in once we get our guy. Keep it feeling fresh, like Panama or Desert Storm. Afghanistan frankly has very little advantages for any army (according to most imperialist conquests of the area) so leave the government to the people that live there. The important part is that Americans feel that NYC has been avenged.
Hard mode means you don't get Bin Laden til 2011 as per current day, and therefore need to do a bit more cleanup during enduring freedom. Frankly my methodology here isn't much different than the current US anti-terror doctrine of airstrikes and deploying elite squads for night raids.
When you're fighting an asymmetrical war, using small units and remote explosions to hit key points (putting the "terrorism" in "counterterrorism") and match guerrilla fighters both costs less and beats the bad publicity of shipping corpses not old enough to drink home in flag wrapped caskets.
A low-impact campaign (read: less of a full on occupation) like this with US logistical support (and the input of people who're actually experts in Afghan geopolitics) would hopefully allow the US to avoid the protracted war with the insurgency that lasted literally 20 years and ended with the Taliban stronger than ever. Give it a couple years, call it a success, and hunt down the big guy until you get him in 2011.
Extreme mode isn't ideal (We shouldn't have been in iraq) but putting Bremer in control was really the nail in the coffin. I would demote him to janitor and find someone who understood the situation instead. Why build a highway next to an existing road? The obvious way to rebuild a country you bombed into fine gravel is to take advantage of the infrastructure you left behind.
I personally would've avoided treating Ba'athism like we could just denazify iraq, and rather pull key leadership and left the rest relatively intact so as to better rebuild the country. Allowing the military to remain standing (and in fact work as a method of reconstruction) and set up a client state that could keep Iran on its toes, sort of like how Iraq was before Desert Storm. Which still wouldn't be ideal but at least we'd significantly lower the chances of outright spawning ISIS through American cultural and administrative incompetence. There are no good imperialist wars but there are ways to not completely bungle it too.
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Biden Admin Has Sent $2.35 Billion to Taliban Since Disastrous Afghanistan Withdraw | The Gateway Pundit | by Johnathan Jones, The Western Journal
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Barmanou
The Barmanou is a bipedal humanoid primate cryptid that inhabits the mountainous region of northern Pakistan. Shepherds living in the mountains have reported sightings.
The Barmanou is the Pakistani equivalent of the Bigfoot. The term Barmanou originating in Khowar, but now used in several Pakistani languages including Urdu, Shina, Pashto and Kashmiri. In addition to the name Barmanou there are a few local variant names as well.
The proposed range of the Barmanou covers the Chitral and Karakoram Ranges, between the Pamirs and the Himalaya. This places the Barmanou between the ranges of two more-famous cryptids, the Almas of Central Asia and the Yeti of the Himalayas.
The Barmanou allegedly possesses both human and apelike characteristics and has a reputation for abducting women and attempting to mate with them. It is also reported to wear animal skins upon its back and head. The Barmanou appears in the folklore of the Northern Regions of Pakistan and depending on where the stories come from it tends to be either described as an ape or a wild man.
The first search in Pakistan for Bipedal Humanoid man was carried out by a Spanish zoologist living in France, Jordi Magraner, from 1987 to 1990. He wrote a paper, Les Hominidés reliques d'Asie Centrale, on the Pakistani cryptid – the wild man.
He later researched the Barmanou extensively in the 1990s, but was murdered in Afghanistan in 2002. Loren Coleman wrote that he "collected more than fifty firsthand sighting accounts, and all eyewitnesses recognized the reconstruction of Heuvelman's homo pongoides ["apelike man"—i.e., a living Neanderthal.]. They picked out homo pongoides as their match to Barmanu from Magraner's ID kit of drawings of apes, fossil men, aboriginals, monkeys, and the Minnesota Iceman."
In May 1994, during a search in Shishi Kuh valley, Chitral, cryptologist Jordi Margraner, Anne Mallasseand and another associate reported that once during a late evening they heard unusual guttural sounds which only a primitive voice-box could have produced. No further progress could be made.
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Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide.
An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N. officials details how deeply embedded the group once run by Osama bin Laden is in the Taliban’s operations, as they loot Afghanistan’s natural wealth and steal international aid meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Afghans.
The report was completed by a private, London-based threat analysis firm whose directors did not want to be identified. A copy was provided to Foreign Policy and its findings verified by independent sources. It is based on research conducted inside Afghanistan in recent months and includes a list of senior al Qaeda operatives and the roles they play in the Taliban’s administration.
To facilitate its ambitions, al Qaeda is raking in tens of millions of dollars a week from gold mines in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Takhar provinces that employ tens of thousands of workers and are protected by warlords friendly to the Taliban, the report says. The money represents a 25 percent share in proceeds from gold and gem mines; 11 gold mines are geolocated in the report. The money is shared with al Qaeda by the two Taliban factions: Sirajuddin Haqqani’s Kabul faction and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s Kandahar faction, suggesting both leaders, widely regarded as archrivals, see a cozy relationship with al Qaeda as furthering their own interests as well as helping to entrench the group’s overall power.
The Taliban’s monthly take from the gold mines tops $25 million, though this money “does not appear in their official budget,” the report says. Quoting on-the-ground sources, it says the money “goes directly into the pockets of top-ranking Taliban officials and their personal networks.” Since the mines began operating in early 2022, al Qaeda’s share has totaled $194.4 million, it says.
After regaining power in August 2021, the Taliban integrated a large number of listed terrorist groups that fought alongside them against the U.S.-supported Afghan republic. The Biden administration, however, has persistently denied that al Qaeda has reconstituted in Afghanistan or even that al Qaeda and the Taliban have maintained their long, close relationship.
Those denials ring hollow as evidence piles up that the Taliban and al Qaeda are as close as ever. The U.N. Security Council and the U.S. Congress-mandated Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) have consistently reported on the Taliban’s symbiotic relationship with dozens of banned terrorist outfits, including al Qaeda.
Few experts believed Taliban leaders’ assurances, during negotiations with former U.S. President Donald Trump that led to the ignominious U.S. retreat, that the group’s relationship with al Qaeda was over; bin Laden’s vision of a global caliphate based in Afghanistan was a guiding principle of the war that returned the Taliban regime, which one Western official in Kabul said differs only from the previous regime in 1996-2001 in that “they are even better at repression.”
The historic relationship hit global headlines when bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed on July 31, 2022, in a U.S. drone strike as he stood by the window of a Kabul villa. The property was linked to Haqqani, the head of the largely autonomous Haqqani network and a member of al Qaeda’s leadership structure. He is also a deputy head of the Taliban and its interior minister, overseeing security. He is believed to harbor ambitions for the top job of supreme leader, with aspirations to become caliph.
Now that they can operate with impunity, the reports says, the Taliban are once again providing al Qaeda commanders and operatives with everything they need, from weapons to wives, housing, passports, and access to the vast smuggling network built up over decades to facilitate the heroin empire that bankrolled the Taliban’s war.
The routes have been repurposed for lower-cost, higher-return methamphetamine, weapons, cash, gold, and other contraband. Militants from Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and the Palestinian territories also circulate through the al Qaeda training camps that have been revived since the Taliban takeover. Security is provided by the Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence.
The report includes a list of al Qaeda commanders, some of whom were bin Laden’s lieutenants when he was living in Afghanistan while planning the attacks on the United States. Those atrocities precipitated the U.S.-led invasion that drove him, and the Taliban leadership, into Pakistan, where they were sheltered, funded, and armed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
The report’s findings “demonstrate that, as expected, the Taliban leadership continues to be willing to protect not only the leadership of al Qaeda but also fighters, including foreign terrorist fighters from a long list of al Qaeda affiliates,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, the senior director of the Berlin- and New York-based Counter Extremism Project and an expert on terrorism. “It is clear that the Taliban have never changed their stance toward international terrorism and, in particular, al Qaeda.”
Many analysts believe President Joe Biden’s decision to stick to Trump’s withdrawal deal led to Afghanistan becoming an incubator of extremism and terrorism. Leaders of neighboring and regional states, including Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and countries in Central Asia, have expressed concern about the threat posed by the Taliban’s transnational ambitions. U.N. figures, including Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett, have repeatedly called out Taliban suppression of rights and freedoms and the imprisonment and killing of perceived opponents.
In February, the George W. Bush Institute released the first report in its three-part Captured State series titled “Corruption and Kleptocracy in Afghanistan Under the Taliban,” which recommends action by the United States and the U.N. to rein in Taliban excesses. It calls on the United States and allies “to pressure foreign enablers of Taliban corruption and reputation laundering to stop facilitating corrupt economic trading activities, illicit trafficking, and moving and stashing personal wealth outside Afghanistan.”
Pointedly, it says the U.N. and other aid organizations “should demand greater accountability for how aid is spent and distributed” and urges international donors to support civil society, which has been decimated by the Taliban.
It’s a reference to the billions of dollars in aid that have been sent to Afghanistan since the republic collapsed—including, controversially, $40 million in cash each week, which has helped keep the local currency stable despite economic implosion. The United States is the biggest supporter, funneling more than $2.5 billion to the country from October 2021 to September 2023, SIGAR said. Foreign Policy has reported extensively on the Taliban’s systematic pilfering of foreign humanitarian aid for redistribution to supporters, which has exacerbated profound poverty.
The Bush Institute paper is one of the few comprehensive studies of the impact of the Taliban’s return to power to publicly call for the group to face consequences for its actions. It suggests, for instance, the enforcement of international travel bans on Taliban leaders, which are easily and often flouted.
Recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan “would reinforce the Taliban’s claim to power and strengthen their position” by giving them even greater access to “cold, hard cash,” the report says, a warning that comes amid growing fears that the United States could be preparing to reopen its Kabul embassy, which the Taliban would see as tacit recognition.
By “capturing the Afghan state, the Taliban have significantly upgraded their access to resources,” the Bush Institute argues, putting the group “in the perfect position now to loot it for their own individual gain.”
That plundered resource wealth also appears to be boosting the coffers of like-minded groups. The London firm’s unpublished report identifies 14 al Qaeda affiliates—most of them listed by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team—that are directly benefiting from the mining proceeds. They include seven inside Afghanistan (among them, the anti-China East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the anti-Tajikistan Jamaat Ansarullah, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is fighting the Pakistani state) and seven operating elsewhere: al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda in Yemen, al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in Syria, al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, al Qaeda in the Mahgreb, and al-Shabab, largely active in East Africa.
For Western governments that might be pondering a closer relationship with the Taliban regime or even diplomatic recognition, Schindler of the Counter Extremism Project sounded a note of warning. The Taliban, he said, are “not a viable counterterrorism partner, even on a tactical level.” Instead, the group “remains one of the prime sponsors of terrorism” worldwide.
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The Imperial War Museum was established in 1917, while the fighting was still going on, ‘as a record of the toil and sacrifice of those who had served in uniform’ during the Great War. It was first called the National War Museum; the change to ‘Imperial’ was made after India and the Dominions complained that the name did not reflect their sacrifices. Today it describes itself as a ‘global authority on conflict’. It is a subdued and serious place, eager to point out that it does not celebrate war or victory; it was never supposed to be a frozen military parade, even if the suspended Spitfire in the main atrium – the military equivalent of the Natural History Museum’s Diplodocus – appeals directly to Britain’s neurotic Second World War triumphalism. Toil and sacrifice remain the watchwords. (Only in the gift shop does discipline break down, with poppy-spattered kitchenware and Churchill cult icons playing to a less reconstructed wartime imaginary.)
The museum’s commemorative ethos presents war as a kind of social paroxysm, which from time to time afflicts ordinary men and women. A carefully weighted combination of historical exactitude and apolitical detachment can be maintained for the world wars, as they were joined in defence against aggression and fought by conscript armies; with 9/11 and ‘terrorism’ emerging as the pivot point, the museum also shows ambiguous signs of trying to construe 21st-century engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan as similar tragedies of necessity. There is some justice in this approach. Soldiers do not start or choose the conflicts they are shipped off to fight. But many of Britain’s 20th-century conflicts would not respond well to the same treatment: the Kenyan torture camps, the Special Night Squads of Palestine, the beheaders of the Malayan Emergency and Britain’s other dirty wars of colonial counterinsurgency are not easily transformed into neutral objects of genuflection. Castrating prisoners with pliers is the wrong kind of toil and sacrifice.
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John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
The US government’s Afghanistan watchdog told lawmakers Wednesday that he cannot say with certainty that US aid to the country is “not currently funding the Taliban.”
“Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending from the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people,” John Sopko said.
“I would just say, I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV, they all seem to be fat, dumb, and happy,” he later added. “I see a lot of starving Afghan children on TV, so I’m wondering where all this funding is going.”
His testimony before Congress – alongside other government inspectors general – coincided with the release of the latest SIGAR report, which said that efforts to process Afghan visa applications or refugee applications are chronically understaffed and face a backlog of approximately 175,000 applicants.
Source: cnnpolitics Instagram
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[VOA is US State Media]
The Taliban may have achieved a diplomatic win in an agreement to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan[...]
“The three sides reaffirmed their resolve to fully harness Afghanistan’s potential as a hub for regional connectivity," said a joint statement released in May following a meeting of officials representing the three countries in Islamabad. The countries restated their commitment "to further the trilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and to jointly extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan.”[...]
The $62 billion CPEC connectivity project is a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative[...]
[A Brookings Senior Fellow] said China continues its narrative “that the West is to blame for the humanitarian crisis [in Afghanistan, and] that the West should not be holding [the] money of the central bank of Afghanistan.”[...]
“[B]y seizing Afghanistan’s overseas assets and imposing unilateral sanctions, the U.S., which created the Afghan issue in the first place, is the biggest external factor that hinders substantive improvement in the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in April.[...]
The ministry’s position paper on Afghanistan stated that China would “do its best” to support Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development.
In recent months, Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan[...]
Last week, in a meeting with Taliban officials in Kabul, officials of Fan China Afghan Mining Processing and Trading Co. announced an investment of $350 million in various sectors ranging from construction to health to energy in Afghanistan, according to the Bakhtar News Agency, Afghanistan’s state news agency.
In January, the Taliban signed a contract with CAPEIC to extract oil in the north of the country by investing $150 million annually.
China has also shown interest in the development and operation of mines in Afghanistan. A Chinese company, Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), signed a contract with the then-Afghan government in 2008 to extract copper from Mes Aynak in Logar province.
But that work has not started yet. Last month, the Taliban’s mining and petroleum minister, Shahabuddin Delawar, urged MCC to begin “practical” work on the development and operation of the mine.
12 Jul 23
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Hola Steph! How have you been?
I was wondering if you have any Johnlock fic recs that are... maybe academic rivals or work rivals to lovers AU? A healthy dose of sexual tension and slow burn or whatever. Could be any word count. These days I've kinda been craving for that type of stuff, so please drop if you know any of those.
Take care dearie<33
Hey Nonny!
AHHHHH Not... precisely? Like I have Alternate Professions fics, but these three fics just came to mind that have something similar:
Love or What You Will by miss_frankenstein (T, 31,987 w., 11 Ch. || College/Uni AU || Professor John, Ph.D Student Sherlock, Pining John, Poetry, Falling in Love / Slow Burn, Light Angst, Happy Ending) – John is an English professor who specializes in War and Post-War Literature and Sherlock is the brilliant yet impossible Ph.D. student assigned to be his TA because no one in the Chemistry Department is willing to put up with him. And - somewhere between Waugh and Plath, e-mails and takeaway, novels and villanelles - they fall in love.
Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori (E, 156,714 w., 21 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE|| Hollywood / Actor AU, Secret Relationship, Falling in Love, Slow Burn, Romance, Coming Out, Fluff and Angst, Pining) – Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world? Part 1 of Performance in a Leading Role
Mise en Place by azriona (M, 161,004 w., 28 Ch. || Restaurant (Kitchen Nightmares) AU || Sherlock is Gordon Ramsay / Celebrity Sherlock, Restauranteur John, Harry Plays Prominent Role, Alternating POV, Mutual Pining, Cranky Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Slow Burn) – John Watson had no intentions of taking over the family business, but when he returns from Afghanistan, battered and bruised, and discovers that his sister Harry has run their restaurant into the ground, he doesn't have much choice. There's only one thing that can save the Empire from closing for good – the celebrity star of the BBC series Restaurant Reconstructed, Chef Sherlock Holmes. Part 1 of Mise en Place
-----
I know there are a tonne more, please feel free to remind me of them :)
#steph replies#johnlock fic recs#rivals to lovers fics#enemies to lovers fics#help steph find fics#alternate profession fics
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“Gil-Galad gaslights Galadriel when he declared Sauron was no longer a threat”
This popular stance inaccurately personalizes what is ultimately an impersonal leadership decision. A manipulative one, yes, though not with nefarious intent. Rather, in service to what he believes will produce the best outcomes for both Middle Earth and Galadriel.
Consider Gil-Galad's decision from leader's perspective who must prioritize the bigger picture when disclosing sensitive information.
Juding by the ceremony for Galadriel and company, Gil-Galad was officially on the fence with Sauron still posing a threat. Not validating her is “gaslighting” as a necessary political evil for the greater good. It also presumes because she is entitled to his real beliefs while failing to recognize the risk of disclosure. The remaining episodes make it pretty clear: give Galadriel an inch and she'll take it to the moon. Oh, dear, what could go wrong?
For Gil-Galad to so casually disclose his true beliefs to Elrond after Galadriel departs Middle Earth, tells us he didn't beforehand due to his herald's close friendship with her.
The High King says to Elrond, "we foresaw” (royal we or plural we?) that Galadriel might have:
"...kept alive the very evil she sought to defeat. For the same wind that seeks to blow out a fire may also cause its spread."
There are a few different ways to interpret this. Knowing exactly how he reaches this conclusion (canonical wisdom, gift of foresight, or other means) would help narrow it down. If Galadriel's mutiny was given greater gravitas, as it should have had over disobeying Gil-Galad's orders, I would say he worries of her becoming evil due to her search, thus "evil spreading."
(Maybe Gil-Galad read the script?)
In any event, when the High King decided to end the war and send her to Valinor, updating Galadriel on Noldor happenings on Middle Earth becomes a moot point.
I liken S1 Galadriel to an American 9/11 neoconservative* hardliner, warning everyone about WMDs Sauron. Her aggressive zealotry renders Gil-Galad unable to trust her pursuing Sauron either as a commander in his army or discontinue as private citizen of his realm. If he discloses the fading of the Elves to her, he needlessly risks Galadriel's defection and jeopardizes his plans of intervention. And we know he's right when Galadriel reveals her plans to defect to Elrond post-ceremony.
And since nobody has ever refused the call to Valinor, so he had no reason to think any harm might come from not telling her.
(Also, if you undermine your boss’s authority, and your subordinates rage quit, you might find validating you is not at the top of anyone’s to-do list.)
*A tongue-and-cheek way of saying she supports intervenist foreign policy a la Numenor to sending a military force into the Southlands to prevent the execution of a “weapon of mass destruction” aka Sauron’s “shadow lands” scheme.
It’s comparable to coalition forces sent invading Afghanistan to locate WMDs. However, in Galadriel’s scenario, the WMDs were within and alongside her the entire time.
Although Tolkien hated allegory, RoP has chosen include in its creative direction. The Southlands closely mimics the American post-Civil War Reconstruction Era minus the actual reconstruction. Pharazon is now a populist leader. I figured, why not carry-on with modern American political parallels.
#rings of power#rop galadriel#galadriel rop#gil galad#trop#theory#LotR prime comment#to one of my old posts#that subreddit 🤨
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