Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 27 Sep 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Sheriff

Putin and Xi pledge to keep peace in Central Asia after US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Taliban affirms good relations with the two nations

Jinping
© Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on the sidelines of a BRICS summit, in Brasilia, Brazil.
Moscow and Beijing will work together to secure the region around Afghanistan, after Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping reiterated their commitment to Central Asia in a telephone call on Wednesday.

In a statement published by the Kremlin shortly after the two leaders spoke, officials disclosed that "the problem of Afghanistan was discussed in detail." Both sides reportedly "expressed their readiness to step up efforts to combat the threats of terrorism and drug trafficking emanating from the territory."


Comment: With the US on its way out, and with Russia and China assisting the Taliban in numerous areas from diplomacy to development deals, the CIA will struggle to maintain its drug networks logistically, but also by reducing poverty and increasing opportunities, less Afghans will be forced to work in the drug trade: Afghanistan and the CIA heroin ratline


According to the document, "The importance of establishing peace in this country as soon as possible and preventing the spread of instability to adjacent regions was emphasized." The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the so-called 'alliance of the East,' of which both Russia and China, as well as India and Pakistan, are members, was picked as the optimum format for co-ordinating security efforts.

Comment: For real insight into the situation in Afghanistan, check out SOTT radio's:



Newspaper

Turkey's refusal to recognize Crimea as Russian is main issue in partnership between two nations - Kremlin

Gaspra Crimea
© Getty Images / Oleksii Liskonih
Swallow's Nest castle after the reconstruction on Cape Ai-Todor in the village of Gaspra, Crimea, Russia. Sputnik; (inset)
Despite blossoming ties between Moscow and Ankara, relations now risk being derailed by Turkey's decision to back Ukraine's claims over the status of Crimea, after the country sent its top diplomat to Kiev in a show of support.

That's according to Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, who expressed concern that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu participated in the 'Crimean Summit' forum on Monday. The meeting was held to discuss how best Ukraine can re-assert control over the peninsula, which was reabsorbed into Russia in 2014.

"Russian-Turkish relations as a whole are about partnership, not only in name, but genuinely based on a real and solid foundation of trade, economic and investment activity," Peskov said. "But this does not mean that this relationship is free from significant disagreements."

Comment: See also:


Light Saber

China criticises 'anti-science' US intel Covid-19 origins report, suggests investigation into US bioweapons lab Fort Detrick

Wuhan
© AFP
WHO investigators visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology earlier this year.
China has stepped up its criticism of the United States over an intelligence services report into the origins of Covid-19, insisting it will be used as a political weapon.

In a phone call with Dutch counterpart Sigrid Kaag on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the report was "bound to serve its own political purposes and seriously interfere with international anti-pandemic cooperation".

He said the US was "anti-science" because it "has ignored and abandoned the research report worked out by WHO experts, and asked its intelligence agencies to come up with a so-called conclusion on origins tracing within a limited time", according to a readout from the Chinese foreign ministry.

Comment: See also: And for more on the suspect US' biowarfare laboratories, check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Interview with Dilyana Gaytandzhieva: Pentagon Biological Warfare And Arms Trafficking to Terrorists


Snakes in Suits

Who does Davos turn to after Biden?

confused Biden
With the collapse of Afghanistan and the clear inability of Joe Biden to handle the situation the clock is winding down quickly on The Davos Crowd to figure out how to keep things from going completely off the rails.

Opposition to mandatory vaccination and the public use of private medical data is rising far quicker than they anticipated. It's exposing the extent of the uselessness of the people installed by them in places of power around the world to effect the Great Reset.

From New Zealand to Canada, France to the White House, Davos thought they could basically pull an Emperor Palpatine and just 'make The Great Reset legal' and it would all work itself out. That is clearly not happening.

The stories coming out of Australia are as deeply disturbing as Biden's bungling the retreat from Afghanistan. It highlights how quickly petty tyrants have turned into inhuman killers of the defenseless, i.e. rescue dogs in Australia.

But, then again, this is the fundamental problem with collectivists of all types. They hate those things they want to protect. The same people criminalize 'animal abuse' then lobby for, fund and create through taxes doggie concentration camps at the local county run shelter.

Life to them is cheap. So cheap that they abstract the value of it to zero in order to justify their lust to rule over others, masking their fear of a hostile and unpredictable world. What's being done to dogs in New South Wales will escalate to unvaxxed humans if this isn't stopped in its tracks.

House

Airbnb to help house up to 20,000 Afghan refugees

Afghanistan refugees
© Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
Refugees from Afghanistan are escorted to a waiting bus after arriving at Dulles international airport in Virginia, US.
Airbnb will help house up to 20,000 Afghan refugees, the company has announced, as part of its Airbnb.org charitable arm.

The company will coordinate with Airbnb hosts who want to offer their homes to refugees for free, or at a discounted rate, with the charitable organisation picking up the rest of the bill, as well as any other operational expenditures. The Airbnb co-founder and chief executive, Brian Chesky, will also fund the effort.

"While we will be paying for these stays, we could not do this without the generosity of our hosts," Chesky said. "If you're willing to host a refugee family, reach out and I'll connect you with the right people here to make it happen.

Comment: See also: Meanwhile in the UK...



Wolf

Russia, China needed for "moderating influence" over Taliban - UK PM Boris Johnson

Raab
© REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
FILE PHOTO; Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London, Britain, August 20, 2021.
Britain would have to turn to Russia and China to exercise a "moderating influence" over the Taliban, despite a mistrust between the UK and those governments, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, reports Reuters.

"We're going to have to bring in countries with a potentially moderating influence like Russia and China, however uncomfortable that is," Raab told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

The Taliban seized power last weekend from a US-backed government, sending thousands fleeing and potentially heralding a return to the militants' austere and autocratic rule of two decades ago.


Comment: Not quite. The Taliban have already released a list of their intentions - likely to preemptively refute nonsense like the above - and they include girls in education, women in work and in parliament, guaranteed security for foreign embassies, as well as mutually beneficial development deals with China: Pepe Escobar: How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban


Comment: This is the same UK that, back in April, declared that it 'reserved the right' to launch new attacks on Afghanistan: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Kabul Chaos Biden's Bay of Pigs?




Light Saber

Taliban rejects evacuation extension, wants ALL foreign departures finished by August 31 - spokesman

afghan airport marine army
© Reuters / Sgt. Samuel Ruiz
A U.S. Marine provides assistance during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, August 22, 2021.
The Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has reiterated that the militant group will not accept any extension for foreign evacuations past the August 31 deadline, adding that Afghans are no longer allowed to go to Kabul airport.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mujahid insisted that the Taliban has not and will not grant foreign governments a prolonged window to evacuate their citizens from Afghanistan, and said that all repatriations should be done by the end of the month. The US has the resources and planes to complete the repatriation mission by August 31, he added.


Comment: Indeed, but, somehow, despite having at least 18 months to prepare, most of the foreign militaries managed to botch their evacuation operations.


Foreign embassies should not close or halt their operations in Afghanistan, he continued, saying their security has been assured by the insurgent group.


Comment: The Russian embassy can vouch for that; they say since the Taliban took control the situation is safer than it was before.


Comment: See also: For real insight into the goings on in Afghanistan, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Kabul Chaos Biden's Bay of Pigs?




Magnify

Grim conditions in Iran's Evin prison revealed after hackers leak CCTV footage

iran prison
© The Justice of Ali via AP
In this undated frame grab taken from video shared with The Associated Press by a self-identified hacker group called "The Justice of Ali," a guard looks at surveillance screens taken over by the group, at Evin prison in Tehran, Iran. The alleged hackers said the release of the footage was an effort to show the grim conditions at the prison, known for holding political prisoners and those with ties abroad who are often used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West. The caption on the screens reads in Farsi: "Cyberattack: Evin prison is a stain on (Iranian President Ebrahim) Raisi's black turban and white beard. General protest until the freedom of political prisoners."
The guard in a control room at Iran's notorious Evin prison springs to attention as one by one, monitors in front of him suddenly blink off and display something very different from the surveillance footage he had been watching.

"Cyberattack," the monitors flash. Other guards gather around, holding up their mobile phones and filming, or making urgent calls. "General protest until the freedom of political prisoners" reads another line on the screens.

An online account, purportedly by an entity describing itself as a group of hackers, shared footage of the incident, as well as parts of other surveillance video it seized, with The Associated Press. The alleged hackers said the release of the footage was an effort to show the grim conditions at the prison, known for holding political prisoners and those with ties abroad who are often used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the West.

Comment: Conditions in US prisons are not much better, in fact they are likely even worse; and at least Iran can claim that its country is under siege in the form of Western starvation sanctions, what's the US' excuse? Meanwhile Julian Assange's treatment in Britain's Belmarsh prison has been described as torture by a UN rep. So, whilst it is necessary to highlight Iran's failings, they're not exclusive to Iran. Which leads one to ask: why the hack and why the leak? Who was really behind it?

That the prison is already a target of sanctions, that the supposed hackers appear to be concerned with political prisoners who are also of interest to the West, and that surely Iranian hackers have more pressing grievances against their government, points to Israel and the US as the most obvious suspects. They also just so happen to be amongst the most skilled and equipped for cyberwarfare operations:


Megaphone

Bush-era war criminals are louder than ever because they've lost the argument

Blair
© ITV screenshot
Former British PM Tony Blair
After the US troop withdrawal established conclusively that the Afghan "government" they'd spent twenty years pretending to nation build with was essentially a work of fiction, thus proving to the world that they've been lying to us this entire time about the facts on the ground in Afghanistan, you might expect those who helped pave the way for that disastrous occupation to be very quiet at this point in history.

But, far from being silent and slithering under a rock to wait for the sweet embrace of death, these creatures have instead been loudly and shamelessly outspoken.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has posted a lengthy essay by the former Prime Minister who led the United Kingdom into two of the most unconscionable military interventions in living memory. Blair criticizes the withdrawal as having been done out of "obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending 'the forever wars'," bloviating about "Radical Islam," and asking, "has the West lost its strategic will?"

Comment: "The saner our society becomes..." but it isn't becoming more sane, and the divide is widening. But she's right. There won't be forgiveness nor a return to parity.


Calendar

Taliban will not allow Western forces to extend Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline

Marines
© Reuters
US Marines, 24th MEU search luggage at Hamid Karzai Intl. Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan
The Taliban will not extend an Aug. 31 deadline for Western forces to leave Afghanistan, two sources in the extremist group told Reuters on Monday.

A Taliban leadership official said the deadline would not be extended after President Joe Biden said US troops might stay longer to oversee a "hard and painful" evacuation.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will urge Biden this week to extend the evacuation deadline from Afghanistan, but even if one is agreed, the West will also need the approval of the Taliban, a British defense official said.

Panicked Afghans have clamored to board flights out of Kabul, fearing reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Islamic law that the Sunni Muslim group implemented when it held power.

Comment: A spokesman for the Taliban warned of "consequences" if evacuation operations continue beyond the end of the month:
Speaking to Sky News in Qatar, Dr Suhail Shaheen described the end-of-August date for the final withdrawal of US forces as a "red line" and said there was "no need" for any foreign military presence after that date.

Boris Johnson will personally lobby US President Joe Biden in a G7 summit on Tuesday to extend US operations in the hope of maximising numbers evacuated from Kabul airport. It is understood that cooperation of this kind has allowed the number of evacuees processed by the UK to rise from around 1,000 to 1,800 per day in recent days. Dr Shaheen told Sky:
"If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations - the answer is 'No'. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction."
Approximately 1,800 UK nationals still in the country and more than 2,200 Afghans who helped British forces are the "focus" of the Government's evacuation efforts.

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has called on Mr Johnson not to "cut and run" from Afghanistan.
"I support calls to ensure that there isn't a cut-and-run operation in Afghanistan, that Nato countries are there and meeting their responsibilities for as long as is necessary. The world has a massive responsibility towards people in Afghanistan and it's really important that that responsibility is lived up to."
No 10 said it was recognised that it would be "extremely challenging" for eligible Afghans not in Kabul to get to the airport to evacuate. Those unable to leave during the current airlift would be encouraged to apply for resettlement later, either from Afghanistan or a neighbouring country.

Said the PM's spokesman:
"This is the first phase of our operation, evacuating largely British nationals and those under the ARAP (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) scheme out in the time that we have. We will then move to the next phase, whereby we'll be able to resettle (people) over the coming days, weeks and months, and indeed years, as we did with the Syrian scheme. Now I appreciate that ... presents challenges for those wishing to leave Afghanistan who might not be based in Kabul, who might have to get to neighbouring countries, for example. We will continue to provide support through the Foreign Office, there's contacts both for those within Afghanistan and those outside of Afghanistan who want information about family members they may have remaining. So, we will continue to do everything possible."
Defence secretary Ben Wallace made clear the British evacuation operation will end with the departure of US troops who are securing the airport:
"The Prime Minister is, obviously at the G7, going to try and raise the prospect of seeing if the United States will extend. It's really important for people to understand the United States have over 6,000 people in Kabul airport and when they withdraw that will take away the framework ... and we will have to go as well. I don't think there is any likelihood of staying on after the United States. If their timetable extends even by a day or two, that will give us a day or two more to evacuate people. Because we are really down to hours now, not weeks, and we have to make sure we exploit every minute to get people out."
The Brits are scrambling, hoping to influence Biden to push the deadline, keep boots in Kabul Airport:
British minister said the flow of people outside the airport had improved as a result of the Taliban's intervention, allowing the pace of the UK evacuation to increase. The Times reported on Sunday night that RAF had already extended its own evacuation deadline with more people, including Afghan politicians and humanitarian workers, eligible for evacuation.

James Heappey, the armed forces minister, said the Taliban
"were marshaling people into separate queues for the US evacuation and the UK evacuation, and that is making a big difference to the size of the crowds outside the UK gate and allowing us to process people much more quickly".
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the chief of the Taliban's guidance council, said:
"All Afghanistan is secure, but the airport which is managed by the Americans has anarchy. The US should not defame itself, should not embarrass itself to the world and should not give this mentality to our people that [the Taliban] are a kind of enemy."
Heappey said that the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab had "made representations" to his counterpart, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, on the issue. But the British had received no reassurances. Just over 1,900 people were evacuated as part of the RAF operation in the 24 hours to Sunday night, the largest one-day total, taking the overall figure to 5,725 since 12 August.

Biden did not name the UK on Sunday night when listing the countries whose leaders he had spoken to.

Other issues included whether there were discussions over Nato allies temporarily holding Kabul airport without US troops; whether NATO forces could ensure safe areas to provide airport access; and if there was scope for a UN operation to assist.

Lord Ricketts, a former national security adviser, said Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and his approach to handling the retreat was "a wake-up call to allies who had nourished hopes of a return to US internationalism".