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Defense Force quietly releases response to 'systemic failings' revealed in Afghan war crimes inquiry

Rashida Yosufzai, Tom Stayner.
SBS News
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Campbell
© AAP
Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Angus Campbell delivers findings from the Afghanistan inquiry
The Australian Defence Force has released a four-year plan to address systemic and cultural failings within the organisation as part of a long-awaited response to the Afghanistan war crimes inquiry. The plan was posted on the website of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force on Friday, with no public statement or press release acknowledging its publication.

The 36-page document sets out a series of "work packages" to be rolled out until the end of 2025, with a commitment to making changes to organisational arrangements, recruitment processes and performance management.

It says the plan will be divided into five "streams", with focuses on organisational arrangements and command accountability, culture, workforce, information and partnerships. It also notes criminal, disciplinary and administrative action will be taken against individuals found guilty of wrongdoing. The document says by the end of 2021, Defence will have addressed 90 per cent of its responsibilities in relation to "specific allegations of wrongdoing against individuals".

Comment: According to 'The Afghan Files', Aussie war crimes have been ongoing in Afghanistan since 2005.

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House

Welcome to the Great Reset? Corporate landlords poised to snatch Americans' property after eviction moratorium expires

Graham Dockery
RT
Sun, 01 Aug 2021 00:03 UTC
Vertentes
© AP/Charles Krupa
Luis Vertentes, tenant from East Providence, R.I. at an eviction hearing.
Millions face imminent homelessness, after the Democrats left Washington for the recess without extending an eviction moratorium set to expire on Saturday. America's largest corporate landlords are about to make a killing.

An 11-month eviction moratorium that prevented tens of millions of Americans from losing their homes during the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown expired on July 31, after Congress left Washington for recess without passing a bill to extend it.

The moratorium was put in place by the Trump administration last year and extended by the Biden administration in June, but a Supreme Court ruling that same month stated that a further extension would require "clear and specific congressional authorization."

President Biden asked his allies in Congress to pass a bill extending the eviction ban, and House Democrats had enough votes to do so, but nevertheless did not. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the failure down to not having "enough time to socialize it within our caucus as well as to build the consensus, especially in a time of Covid."

Pelosi's typically Washingtonian answer will do little to assuage the millions of Americans who are behind on their rent. A precise figure is hard to nail down, but Moody's estimates that six million tenants are in arrears, while more than 3.5 million people told the US Census Bureau earlier in July that they face eviction within the next two months. As of Saturday, they are no longer protected from being turfed out onto the streets.

Comment: While 3.6M+ Americans are being tossed out of their housing and allocated funding has not arrived, Biden is still importing south-of-the-border migrants and has made a promise to thousands from Afghanistan. In queue are18,000 applicants and 53,000 family members while congress just authorized 8,000 more visas signed into law last week.
The eviction system, which saw a dramatic drop in cases before a federal moratorium expired over the weekend, rumbled back into action Monday, with activists girding for the first of what could be millions of tenants to be tossed onto the streets as the delta variant of the coronavirus surges.

Landlords tired of waiting for federal rental assistance were in court hoping to evict their tenants, while families from Ohio to Virginia turned up before judges hoping for a last-minute reprieve. In Detroit, at least 600 tenants with court orders against them were at immediate risk.

Only about $3 billion of the first tranche of $25 billion had been distributed through June by states and localities. A second amount of $21.5 billion will go to the states.

More than 15 million people live in households that owe as much as $20 billion to their landlords, according to the Aspen Institute. As of July 5, roughly 3.6 million people in the U.S. said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey.

In Rhode Island on Monday, Gabe Imondi, a 74-year-old landlord, was in court hoping to get an eviction execution — the final step to push a tenant out of one of four housing units he owns in nearby Pawtucket. Imondi said he and his tenant both filed forms for the billions in federal aid meant to help keep tenants in their homes but so far, he said, he hasn't seen a cent of the state's $200 million share.

Around the country, courts, legal advocates and law enforcement agencies were gearing up for evictions to return to pre-pandemic levels, a time when 3.7 million people were displaced from their homes every year, or seven every minute, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Some of the cities with the most cases, according to the Eviction Lab, are Phoenix with more than 42,000 eviction filings, Houston with more than 37,000, Las Vegas with nearly 27,000 and Tampa more than 15,000. Indiana and Missouri also have more than 80,000 filings.

While the moratorium was enforced in much of the country, there were places like Idaho where judges ignored it.
The destabilization of America is well underway - the real virus amongst us.

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Rocket

Beirut 'responsible' for Lebanon-based 'terrorist attacks' on Israel, IDF claims as UN calls for 'restraint'


RT
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 15:50 UTC
Bomb Experts
© Reuters/Gil Eliyahu
An Israeli bomb expert and two soldiers inspect the remains of a rocket fired from Lebanon
Kiryat Shmona, Israel • August 4, 2021
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Beirut needs to take responsibility for acts of hostility, notably Wednesday's rocket fire originating in Lebanon, as the UN pleads with all involved to avoid an escalation.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) called on Israel and parties in Lebanon to stop firing after rockets were launched from inside southern Lebanon into Israel, triggering retaliation from the IDF.

A UNIFIL statement notes that the head of mission and force commander, Major General Stefano Del Col, had been in touch with both parties.

Comment: Other towns were alerted and took cover:
Sirens sounded in several towns in the north of the country. Residents of Kfar Giladi, Tel Hai, and Kiryat Shmona said they heard loud explosions in the area, according to local media reports.

A video uploaded on social media shows what is claimed to be a plume of black smoke coming from the rocket's impact site in Kiryat Shmona.


There have so far been no reports of casualties, but Haaretz said the explosion caused a fire not far from residential buildings in the town.

The blaze poses an added risk, as Israel is currently going through an extreme heatwave, with temperatures reaching 43C in some parts of the country. Shmona's mayor called upon locals to stay close to their bomb shelters and await further instructions from the authorities. The IDF said on Twitter that its artillery targeted Lebanese territory in response to the rocket attack.


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Take 2

Texas Governor Abbott fires back after federal judge blocks executive order on migrant vehicles

David Aaro
Fox News
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC
Abbott
© WhatsApp/Gov. Greg Abbott's Office
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott
The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott fired back Tuesday after a federal judge blocked his executive order calling for state troopers to stop drivers suspected of carrying illegal immigrants in hopes of containing the spread of the coronavirus. The statement said:
"The Court's recent order is temporary and based on limited evidence. We look forward to providing the Court with the evidence to support the Governor's Executive Order to protect Texans.

"The Biden Administration has knowingly — and willfully — released COVID-19 positive migrants into Texas communities risking the potential exposure and infection of Texas residents. The Governor's Executive Order attempts to prevent the Biden Administration from spreading COVID-19 into Texas and protect the health and safety of Texans."
Abbott's order banned the transportation of migrants within Texas by anyone other than law enforcement, according to reports.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone in El Paso granted a request by the Justice Department for a temporary restraining order against Abbott's move. The decision was seen as an initial victory for the Biden administration.


Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

Taliban commander leading assault on Afghan city was part of prisoner swap US pressured Kabul into

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 08:54 UTC
Checkpoint
© AP/Rahmat Gul
Afghan National Army soldiers at checkpoint near Bagram Base
Heavy clashes are taking place between Afghanistan forces and the Taliban in several Afghan cities following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country, despite ongoing peace talks between the government and the Islamist militant group in the Qatari capital of Doha.

As the Taliban continues to advance on major cities in Afghanistan amid the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, the group's commander overseeing an assault on Lashkargah is one of thousands of former prisoners released by the Afghan government last year, The Wall Street Journal cites Afghan and Western officials as saying.

The prisoner release was part of the US deal with the Taliban, signed on 29 February, to encourage negotiations between the group and the Afghan government, allowing for a cease-fire and eventual withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan.

However, according to Afghan officials, a reluctant Kabul agreed to the prisoner release only under pressure from Washington. The deal was touted as Afghanistan's best chance for progress in intra-Afghan negotiations.
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Quenelle

Russia to US: Don't lecture us on Crimea while you wholeheartedly back Israel's illegal occupation of Syrian territory

Rachel Lloyd
RT
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:46 UTC
golan heights israel doldier
© Reuters / Baz Ratner
An Israeli soldier stands guard in the Occupied Golan Heights.
If all are equal before international law, it's clear some are more equal than others. That much is plain from the fact Washington is driving condemnation of Russia's reabsorption of Crimea, while defending Israel's occupations.

The US and its allies have led the charge in the UN to condemn Moscow for the 2014 move that saw it reassert its historic control over the disputed peninsula. A measure that clearly had the support of an overwhelming majority of locals, which has been proven by subsequent American and German polling.

At the same time, though, it has turned a deaf ear towards that same body's criticism of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, internationally recognized as Syrian territory. One gets sanctions, the other gets support.
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Syringe

Russia's top EU envoy blasts Brussels for 'politicizing' Covid-19 vaccines: Blames 'Big Pharma' over delay in approving Sputnik V


RT
Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:31 UTC
sputnik V vaccines ampules covid Russia
© Sputnik; (inset); Getty Images / Cristina Arias
Ampules of the Gam-COVID-VAK (trademark "Sputnik V") coronavirus vaccine.
Vladimir Chizhov, Moscow's permanent representative to the EU, has hit out at the bloc for delays to the approval of his country's flagship coronavirus vaccine, arguing the hold-ups are in reality down to politics, not science.

Speaking as part of an interview with Moscow daily Izvestiya, published on Wednesday, the diplomat said the process of appraising Sputnik V had dragged on for months, despite talks with experts and officials in Brussels. Now, he said, the review had gone on for so long that it was unlikely the vaccine, made by Moscow's Gamaleya Center, would be bought in large volumes for use by member states.

Comment: Besides the obvious problem that utilizing the Russian vaccine will cut into western Big Pharma's profits, there is the problem of it being free of all the nefarious ingredients western vaccines contain, and thus safer and more effective. Can't have that.

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Pirates

The problem is evil: Of cyberterrorism, great resets, and political prisoners

Joaquin Flores
Strategic Culture Foundation
Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
capitol demonstration
© REUTERS Jim Bourg
The present elite in the west is governed by a misanthropic principle, which views the exercise of power as something measured by the degree to which it can be exercised in the most painful way.

How is a citizenry to respond to Evil, to publicly made threats that they are now in a period where novel viruses, cyberterrorism, and food shortages may strike at any moment?

What about the fact that making threats to achieve political or ideological aims is the very definition of terrorism itself, or the fact that using the internet to do this is the definition of cyberterrorism? When we look at those who have benefited politically and financially from the lockdowns, and who will undoubtedly do the same with the coming cyberterrorism seasons, we are reasonable in asking: Is the World Economic Forum website in fact a terrorist website?

Are the Davos people terrorists? Certainly, the plausible deniability here is that these 'threats' are actually just warnings, warnings that other nefarious actors like the so-called DarkSide, "thought" to be behind the Colonial Pipeline attack, are lurking in the shadows of supposed anonymity may carry out attacks or make threats.

What about the rising phenomenon of censorship, and the taking of political prisoners?

Well how about a bit of wisdom from wiseguys and gangsters, new and old, which goes something like this: those delivering warnings work for those behind the threats.
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Eye 2

We Have Entered the Eye of Davos' Storm

Tom Luongo
Gold, Goats 'N Guns
Sat, 31 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
black hole
Congress recessed for the summer passing neither the infrastructure nor spending bills that were the focus of all of Washington's attention for weeks thanks to Krysten Sinema from Arizona. She personally torpedoed the Biden Administration's signature piece of legislation that took months to wrangle to that point and then gave the whole thing a big John McCain-like thumbs down.

The debt ceiling suspension put in place under Trump has not been renewed. We are currently more than $6 trillion over it as I type this.

Fungal President Joe Biden stopped looked up from his jello cup long enough to implore Congress to extend the eviction moratorium for those behind on rent and mortgage payments which has been in place for more than a year. Estimates are 6.5 million people will now face eviction who are behind on their rent.

U.S. tax-cows have drawn down their savings at an alarming rate while facing this eviction cliff. But, hey, your per child tax credit is now showing up as a monthly check as long as the Post Office stays on the job. By the way, they are refusing to go along with Biden's plans for forcing all government employees be vaccinated against a virus which isn't killing anyone anymore.


This latest wave of homeless people wandering the streets of the U.S. over the next year will be used by the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) to demonize the evil Republicans for not DOING SOMETHING about this new crisis.

Never mind that it was wholly manufactured by locking down parts of the world and blowing up both the financial markets and disrupting the natural flow of goods that is a functional economy.
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Tornado2

Things get ripe

James Howard Kunstler
kunstler.com
Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
Man and Raven
© Unknown
Besides trying to just live their lives in these days of socioeconomic meltdown, which, Gawd knows, is hard enough, the people can barely sort out the seemingly malevolent intentions of the folks in-charge of the monster that government has become. And so, the question arises: are they actually trying to kill us all, or are they so corrupt and stupid that everything they touch falls apart? In other words, is it mastermindery or clusterfuckery?

On the former side, you have that gallery of international villains out of the James Bond playbook: Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, and George Soros — megalomaniacs armed with mega-money, a sho'nuff recipe for trouble — representing the emergence of a world-saving regime, in concert with lackey national leaderships. Their narrative goes like this:
Humans have over-replicated, like maggots in a trash can, they're wrecking the planet and gobbling (our) resources, and we must find a way to get rid of them that looks like a natural catastrophe so the hidden powers-that-be don't get blamed for pulling a global Auschwitz.
Hence Covid-19 and the sketchy vaccinations. ("The Great Reset." You will be dead and you will like it!)

I must say, I don't go for that story, even if that trio have played their parts in some wicked doings du jour. Rather, I subscribe to the latter scenario: the likelihood that we're in a pile-up of quandaries that we can only pretend to manage, and that all our pretenses of control and management only make things worse, while making a mockery of human ingenuity. This does not rule out an element of personal greed and attempted power-mongering, but look, for instance, at where all that has left the hapless Dr. Tony Fauci.
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