'Safer than before': Russian Embassy in Kabul sees no reason to evacuate as Taliban takes over security - ambassador

RT
Mon, 16 Aug 2021 18:26 UTC

Russian diplomats in Kabul feel safe and are continuing to work in the wake of the capital's takeover by the Taliban, Moscow's envoy to Afghanistan told RT, adding that the US had been "tilting at windmills" for 20 years.

"The situation is calm," the Russian ambassador to Kabul, Dmitry Zhirnov, told RT on Monday, as he described the developments in the Afghan capital a day after its takeover by Taliban militants as seen from the Russian mission's compound. The diplomats feel in no immediate danger, he said, denying reports of an evacuation.

Earlier, some media outlets reported that Russia was reducing the number of its diplomats in Kabul, but Zhirnov says the embassy continues to operate "in full force." Some staff members have left on a "planned vacation," while others have departed because their assignment had ended, but the rest of the staff are working as normal.

Comment: See also:

And for the real story behind what's going on in Afghanistan, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?

Taliban take Kabul, Ghani flees country

RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 18:57 UTC

Taliban commanders have apparently taken control of the presidential palace in Kabul shortly after President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan. The group says it expects a total handover of power.

Taliban militants entered the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday, after a whirlwind advance that saw them take most of the country's provinces and cities - some without firing a shot - on the heels of the US military withdrawal. Amid negotiations to surrender, US-backed President Ashraf Ghani departed shortly afterwards, reportedly bound for Tajikistan.

By Sunday evening, Taliban commanders told Reuters they had entered Ghani's presidential palace and taken control of the building. Their claim has not been confirmed by Ghani's government.

Comment: Ghani says he resigned in order to prevent a Taliban slaughter in Kabul, where multiple explosions were reported today at key locations, including the presidential palace and US embassy.

Before Ghani fled, Taliban representatives had reportedly headed to the palace to negotiate a peaceful surrender. The Ghani government had hoped for a "transitional administration," and the Taliban had expected a "peaceful transfer of power" over the next few days. Events seem to have intervened. Fighters, who had the city encircled, were instructed to refrain from violence and allow safe passage for those leaving the city. Only sporadic gunshots have been reported from the capital. Before taking Kabul, Jalalabad surrendered.

In Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan province, Taliban fighters showed off the ostentatious palace of US ally and warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum:

A Taliban spokesman promises that Afghan women will not be deprived of work or education, provided they remain veiled in public. Watch out, Taliban, Nancy Pelosi is watching:

Severe flooding hits Turkey's Black Sea region, AGAIN! Third such event within 4 weeks - Death toll rises to 58 (UPDATES)

Daily Sabah
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 10:54 UTC

Road collapse in Bartın, Turkey

One month after floods and landslides killed six in Turkey's Black Sea region, heavy precipitation took hold in the region's central parts on Tuesday and Wednesday. A woman went missing in Bartın, one of the provinces hit worst by rainfall that triggered floods on Tuesday. Floods were also reported in Karabük and Kastamonu provinces.

In Bartın, floodwaters inundated a large number of houses and businesses, sweeping away vehicles after severe precipitation late on Tuesday. The heaviest damage was in Ulus district. Part of a road connecting the province to Karabük collapsed while bulldozers waded through floodwaters to save 20 people trapped in their houses. Search and rescue crews were deployed to the flood-hit areas. The province's governor Sinan Güner told reporters that they started receiving first reports of flood damage and stranded people around 3:00 a.m. He was speaking to reporters on Wednesday on a road closed due to landslides. "We rescued people stranded in their houses near river beds. Our crews also saved people trapped in their cars," he said. Güner said that an elderly woman went missing in Akören Söküler village after her wooden house had almost collapsed due to floods that carried her away. "There are many bridges, roads to villages and houses collapsed in the region," he lamented. The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) announced that 13 people were injured due to the collapse of a bridge on a road connecting Bartın and Karabük provinces.

Comment: Update 12 August 2021

Euronews reports that the death toll has risen to 17.

Bianet.org reports on some of the local rainfall numbers:

Precipitation on August 11-12

According to the reports of the General Directorate of Meteorology, on August 11, 2021, the amount of precipitation received by districts was as follows: Bartın Ulus - 90 mm; Kastamonu Küre - 198 mm, Pınarbaşı - 167 mm, Azdavay - 145 mm, İnebolu - 123 mm, Abana - 122 mm, Bozkurt - 117 mm; Sinop Merkez - 104,6 kg, Ayancık - 301,03 kg, Boyabat - 76,6 mm, Dikmen - 54 mm, Erfelek - 78,6 mm, Gerze - 72,4 mm, Merkez - 83,8 mm, Türkeli - 223,23 kg. The heavy rainfall is expected to subside in the region as of 6 pm today (August 12).

Update2 August 14: The Daily Sabah carries this AP report:

Deaths in northern Turkey floods rise to 44 as rescuers push on

© AP
At least 44 people died from disastrous floods and mudslides in northern Turkey, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said Saturday.

Torrential rains that pounded the Black Sea provinces of Bartın, Kastamonu and Sinop on Wednesday caused flooding that demolished homes, severed at least five bridges, swept away cars and rendered numerous roads unpassable. AFAD said 36 people were killed in Kastamonu, seven in Sinop and one in Bartın.

Nine people remained hospitalized in Sinop, and one person was missing in Bartın province, according to the agency.

Rescue teams and sniffer dogs continued the painstaking task of trying to locate residents. AFAD said 5,188 personnel, 27 rescue dogs, 19 helicopters and two search planes were at the disaster spots.

About 2,250 people were evacuated across the region, some lifted from rooftops by helicopters, and many were being temporarily housed in student dormitories, authorities said.

Update3 August 15: Reuters reports:

Death toll from northern Turkey floods rises to 58

Flash floods that have swept through towns in the Turkish Black Sea region have killed 58 people, authorities said on Sunday, in the second natural disaster to strike Turkey this month.

The floods brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires had been brought under control after raging through southern coastal regions for two weeks.

Forty-eight people died as a result of floods in Kastamonu province, another nine people died in Sinop and one in Bartin, the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said.

Drone footage by Reuters showed massive damage in the town of Bozkurt in Kastamonu province. Emergency workers were searching demolished buildings for the missing.

Torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, destroyed buildings and bridges closed roads, and cut off electricity to hundreds of villages.

More than 2,000 people were evacuated from affected areas, some with the help of helicopters and boats, the AFAD said.

Here is a report on the deluges that hit northern Turkey last month: Floods and landslides hit Turkey's Black Sea region for second week in a row

The cyber espionage state of Israel

Vladimir Platov
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 13 Aug 2021 19:41 UTC

After several dozen international publications, including The Washington Post and The Guardian, simultaneously reported in mid-July on a major investigation by Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories over Israel's Pegasus spyware, another scandal over Israeli cyber-spying activities erupted.

According to the articles, not only Israel itself but also dozens of governments used Israeli technology to hack the phones of politicians, journalists, opposition activists, and human rights activists. Tens of thousands of phones were tapped. A direct trace is also evident in Israel's complicity in the cyber-surveillance of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hence the responsibility for the events that happened to him. The investigation contains a great deal of information about human rights abuses in many regions of the world through programs developed by Israel and, in particular, by the NSO Group, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. It has become apparent to everyone that not only government services are engaged in cyber espionage in Israel but, in addition to the NSO Group, there are other Israeli companies competing with each other: they manufacture similar products and supply them to those who commit similar crimes. There are also technologies possessed exclusively by the Israeli security and intelligence agencies, which provide their services to Israel's close friends, including several Arab states.

Comment: Notably, a cyber security firm working in league with Israel's government recently released a report accusing other countries, China in particular, of hacking various other nations to 'advance its negotiations in tech and business'. Meanwhile, as the research above reveals, Israel is involved in much, much worse. And the implications for freedom and democracy around the world are massive. Although this isn't a great surprise to those who've been paying attention to world events over the last two decades.

With the WEF's ominous threat that we can expect to see a 'cyberpandemic' in the near future, one wonders just what part Israel will play?

See also:

After 20 years and billions of dollars, American defeat in Afghanistan worse than the Soviet failure - how has this happened?

Paul Robinson
RT
Fri, 13 Aug 2021 13:07 UTC

As the last men of the dwindling American garrison in Afghanistan pack their bags, there is an echo of the Soviet Union's own withdrawal from the country, more than 30 years ago. But, in truth, Washington's defeat is far greater.

In December 1979, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan to support the unpopular government of the ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). They soon found themselves bogged down in a bloody war against the mujahideen guerillas. Nine years later, the Soviets decided that there had been enough bloodshed and, in May 1988, they began their exit. The final contingent of Soviet troops drove back across the bridge to the USSR in February the following year.

Twelve years later, US troops arrived to fight the Taliban. Soldiers of other NATO states then followed. Together, they stayed even longer than the Soviets, but are now on the way out. US President Joe Biden has promised that American soldiers will leave Afghanistan by the end of August.

As the US completes its retreat from its longest war, its enemy is on the march. In the past week, the Taliban have captured 12 of Afghanistan's 34 provincial capitals, including the second and third largest cities in the country, Kandahar and Herat, both of which fell on Thursday.

Comment: Grooves: Even if the lessons of Afghanistan manage to hit home in America, they will not likely carry over into future conflicts, power grabs, resource rapes, population decimation nor governance upgrades. The US is too big, too complex and too compromised to change.

Why Do Some People Support Tyranny While Others Defy It?

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.us
Thu, 12 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC

There is a fundamental question that haunts the pages of history and it is one that has never been addressed in a satisfactory manner. There are many schools of thought on why and how tyranny rises in any given society and all of them miss the mark in terms of explanations, primarily because they all allow their biases to rule their conclusions and blind them to the deeper aspects of power and conspiracy. In other words, they are willing to go down the rabbit hole only so far, and then they deny that the rabbit hole even exists.

The common assumption when it comes to autocracy or oligarchy is that people are "stupid" and easily manipulated into following compelling personalities that make promises they never intend to keep. This is a foolish oversimplification. In truth, the level of manipulation needed to lure a majority of people into dictatorship is so complex that it requires an advanced understanding of human psychology.

In our modern era, people cannot merely be ordered to submit at gunpoint, at least not right away. They must be tricked into conforming, and not only that, but they must be made to think that it was THEIR IDEA all along. Without this dynamic of self censorship and self enslavement, the population will eventually rebel no matter how oppressive the regime. A thousand year tyranny cannot exist unless a number of people are conned into applauding it, or, they directly benefit from it.

Taliban's 'master plan' in Afghanistan: All roads lead to the battle for Kabul

Pepe Escobar
Asia Times
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC

© AFP / Farshad Usyan
Afghan militia fighters keep watch at an outpost against Taliban insurgents at Charkint district in Balkh Province in June.

City after city has fallen from government to Taliban control but Afghanistan's end-game is still unclear

The ever-elusive Afghan "peace" process negotiations re-start this Wednesday in Doha via the extended troika - the US, Russia, China and Pakistan. The contrast with the accumulated facts on the ground could not be starker.

In a coordinated blitzkrieg, the Taliban have subdued no less than six Afghan provincial capitals in only four days. The central administration in Kabul will have a hard time defending its stability in Doha.

It gets worse. Ominously, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has all but buried the Doha process. He's already betting on civil war - from the weaponization of civilians in the main cities to widespread bribing of regional warlords, with the intent of building a "coalition of the willing" to fight the Taliban.

The capture of Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province, was a major Taliban coup. Zaranj is the gateway for India's access to Afghanistan and further on to Central Asia via the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC).

India paid for the construction of the highway linking the port of Chabahar in Iran - the key hub of India's faltering version of the New Silk Roads - to Zaranj.

At stake here is a vital Iran-Afghanistan border crossing cum Southwest/Central Asia transportation corridor. Yet now the Taliban control trade on the Afghan side. And Tehran has just closed the Iranian side. No one knows what happens next.

Who fact checks the fact checkers? A report on media censorship

Phillip W. Magness and Ethan Yan
American Institute for Economic Research
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 06:32 UTC

The advent of fact-checker journalism may be wearing out its welcome. Perhaps the increasing politicization of American life is a contributor to the downward spiral of the fact-checking profession that is primarily run by politically engaged reporters, not expert specialists in the subjects they assess by any sense of the imagination. Not that any one group of experts should have the authority over the truth either. Self-appointed media gatekeepers are a ticking time bomb of political censorship, waiting to be unleashed when the temptations are too great and the necessity for impartiality is even greater. With White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki calling for collusion between social media companies and the government to censor "misinformation", this threat seems to be as close as ever.

Although fact checkers purport to be independent guardians of accountability, recent events have exposed them as mere enforcers of fashionable political positions. This brings us to a relatively new, but powerful company known as NewsGuard, which claims a partnership with Microsoft and gleaming spotlights in major outlets. Its staff and board boast powerful connections to the government, finance, and the media. According to an Op-ed in Politico written by NewsGuards' CEO, rather than simply being a fact-checking company that can only debunk stories after they go viral, NewsGuard rates entire websites' trustworthiness. This new strategy is aimed at discrediting the very source that alleged misinformation or disinformation may come from. NewsGuard publishes lengthy "nutritional labels," rating websites on various criteria of journalistic importance and outlining its reasons for giving certain ratings. Perhaps one day, these ratings may be used to filter out certain websites, which is what NewsGuard's CEO alludes to by citing the great political scientist Francis Fukuyama's article in Foreign Affairs.

In fact, the company made the following tweet on July 17, 2021, essentially siding with Psaki's call for a government-media partnership to censor internet content.

Comment: See also:

'Delta variant can infect vaccinated, mass testing pointless, need to live with the virus', AstraZeneca lead scientist tells Britain's parliamentary group

Sarah Knapton
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 11 Aug 2021 12:07 UTC

Sir Andrew Pollard thinks testing may soon only be used to diagnose COVID in someone with symptoms.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, according to the Oxford scientist who led the AstraZeneca vaccine team, as he called for an end to mass testing so Britain could start to live with the virus.

Scientists who addressed Britain's all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus said it was time to accept that there is no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.

Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford vaccine team, said it was clear that the Delta variant can still infect people who have been vaccinated, which made herd immunity impossible to reach, even with Britain's high uptake.

Comment: Throughout history herd immunity has been achieved through mass infection, not through mass injections; moreover, it's likely that the experimental injections are in large part to blame for the rise in virulent variants.

Comment: That's an alarmingly wrong, and potentially deadly, comment from the paediatrician, because the data already shows that children, even those with multiple comorbidities, are at no risk from the coronavirus and its current variants, and there's increasing evidence showing that young people are more at risk of severe side effects from the experimental injections:

'Alex Jones was right'? US govt-funded project 'harvests' ORGANS from aborted babies for medical research, documents show

RT
Fri, 06 Aug 2021 09:11 UTC

The US funded a project that collects body parts from aborted babies - some of them apparently alive moments before their organs are harvested - new documents show, prompting claims that conspiracy theorists have been vindicated.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded at least $2.7 million to a University of Pittsburgh program that sought to create a "tissue hub" sourced from aborted fetuses ranging from six to 42 weeks' gestation. Forty-two weeks equates to more than 10 months of pregnancy.

Details about the program emerged after conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and the Center for Medical Progress obtained 252 pages of documents as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought against the HHS.

Comment: See also:

Also check out SOTT radio's: Objective: Health - Law or Flaw? Let's Talk About Abortion

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'Safer than before': Russian Embassy in Kabul sees no reason to evacuate as Taliban takes over security - ambassador

Taliban take Kabul, Ghani flees country

Severe flooding hits Turkey's Black Sea region, AGAIN! Third such event within 4 weeks - Death toll rises to 58 (UPDATES)

The cyber espionage state of Israel

After 20 years and billions of dollars, American defeat in Afghanistan worse than the Soviet failure - how has this happened?

Why Do Some People Support Tyranny While Others Defy It?

Taliban's 'master plan' in Afghanistan: All roads lead to the battle for Kabul

Who fact checks the fact checkers? A report on media censorship

'Delta variant can infect vaccinated, mass testing pointless, need to live with the virus', AstraZeneca lead scientist tells Britain's parliamentary group

'Alex Jones was right'? US govt-funded project 'harvests' ORGANS from aborted babies for medical research, documents show

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