Puppet Masters

US reportedly froze Afghanistan's national reserves in American banks to deny Taliban access

Tim Korso
Sputnik
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:19 UTC

Following the Taliban's takeover of the country on 15 August, the US announced it wouldn't allow the new regime to access government funds, including financial assistance to Kabul from Western governments. Washington also said it was not planning to recognise the Taliban's government right away.

The US administration has frozen accounts at American banks that hosted part of Afghanistan's national reserves, cutting off the Taliban's access to the money left over from the previous government, The Washington Post has reported. The decision was made by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and officials from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the media outlet said, citing an anonymous source in the government.

Any Central Bank assets the Afghan government have in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban", the newspaper cited the anonymous US government official as saying. The asset freeze was reportedly carried out under sanctions implemented against the Taliban in the follow-up of the 9/11 attacks.

International Monetary Fund data shows that the ousted Afghan government had $9.4 billion in national reserves back in April 2021, prior to the Taliban offensive. It is unclear, however, how much of it was kept in the coffers of US banks. Washington also used to send $3 billion per year in financial assistance to the Afghan government - a practice that is likely to be halted with the Taliban's ascent to power.

Comment: The standard protocol of asset freeze gives the US a financial fist using Afghanistan's own money as its leverage.

32 years after he pulled USSR out of Afghanistan, Gorbachev says America's failed war was also a 'bad idea from the beginning'

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 15:51 UTC

The US should have admitted failure earlier in Afghanistan, but now is time to learn lessons and not repeat mistakes. That's according to Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who pulled his forces out of the same country in 1989.

Speaking to news agency RIA Novosti, Gorbachev called the US invasion of Afghanistan "a bad idea from the very beginning," suggesting that it was doomed from the start. He explained:

"Like many similar projects, it was based on an exaggeration of the threat and not very clear geopolitical intentions. Unrealistic attempts to democratize a multi-tribal society have added to this."

The Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan in 1979, in support of the socialist government, to fight against the Mujahideen. The conflict is seen by many as a proxy of the Cold War, as the Islamic guerrillas were backed by the US, the UK and other Western nations.

"The important thing now is to learn lessons and make sure that similar mistakes are not repeated," Gorbachev said.

Comment: Hindsight from one leader should, in theory, provide foresight for another. Many choose not to see.

Biden sinking in numerous polls amid Afghanistan crisis

Hank Berrien
The Daily Wire
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 00:00 UTC

President Biden's approval among Americans has plunged, as demonstrated by numerous separate polls.

Politico reported on Wednesday, "SIREN: President JOE BIDEN's average approval rating is below 50% for the first time this year. 538: 49.8% ... RCP: 49.4%."

The 538 poll found Biden with a 44% disapproval rating. The highest average approval rating the RDCP poll has ascertained for Biden during his presidency was at 55.8%; he has dropped over five points.

A new Reuters poll conducted on Monday found that Biden's approval rating had dropped by seven percentage points to rest at 46%, leaving him at his lowest level of his presidency.

"A separate Ipsos snap poll, also conducted on Monday, found that fewer than half of Americans liked the way Biden has steered the U.S. military and diplomatic effort in Afghanistan this year. The president, who just last month praised Afghan forces for being 'as well-equipped as any in the world,' was rated worse than the other three presidents who presided over the United States' longest war." Reuters reported that in the Ipsos poll, 44% of respondents said Biden has done a "good job" in Afghanistan. "In comparison, 51% praised the way former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama handled the war."

Comment: The race to the bottom is gaining speed. Show of hands Biden wins!

Intel agencies warned of Afghan collapse as Biden publicly downplayed possibility

Caroline Downey
National Review
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 02:06 UTC

U.S. intelligence agencies warned of the collapse of the Afghan military and government at the hands of a resurgent Taliban over the summer, as President Biden publicly downplayed the possibility of a government rout.

While Biden assured Americans on July 8 that the Afghan regime's disintegration was far from inevitable, quieting fears of a "Saigon-like" foreign policy fiasco, previous intelligence reports indicated that Afghan security forces as well as the seat of government in Kabul were weakening and could falter, current and former American government officials told the New York Times.

A specific July report affirmed the increasingly vulnerable position of the capital to attack as the Taliban advanced across the country, capturing a chain of major provincial cities and towns, a person familiar with the intelligence informed the Times.

Immediately before the events of last week, the U.S. intelligence community was largely in agreement that the Afghan government could endure for at 90 days at most, providing at least some breathing room for an organized, efficient withdrawal of American boots on the ground. This prediction was already a downgrade from a spring assessment, however, which gave the Afghan regime two years to hold together.

Comment: The US is exposed and scrambling as the Taliban can no longer be discounted.

Nobody wins and we all lose in the COVID-19 showdown

John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
The Rutherford Institute
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:16 UTC

We've reached the point where state actors can penetrate rectums and vaginas, where judges can order forced catheterizations, and where police and medical personnel can perform scans, enemas and colonoscopies without the suspect's consent. And these procedures aren't to nab kingpins or cartels, but people who at worst are hiding an amount of drugs that can fit into a body cavity. In most of these cases, they were suspected only of possession or ingestion. Many of them were innocent... But these tactics aren't about getting drugs off the street... These tactics are instead about degrading and humiliating a class of people that politicians and law enforcement have deemed the enemy. — Radley Balko, The Washington Post

Freedom is never free.

There is always a price — always a sacrifice — that must be made in order to safeguard one's freedoms.

Where that transaction becomes more complicated is when one has to balance the rights of the individual with the needs of the community.

Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau envisioned the social contract between the individual and a nation's rulers as a means of finding that balance. Invariably, however, those in power grow greedy, and what was intended to be a symbiotic relationship with both sides benefitting inevitably turns into a parasitic one, with a clear winner and a clear loser.

We have seen this vicious cycle play out over and over again throughout the nation's history.

Just look at this COVID-19 pandemic: the whole sorry mess has been so overtly politicized, propagandized, and used to expand the government's powers (and Corporate America's bank balance) that it's difficult at times to distinguish between what may be legitimate health concerns and government power grabs.

After all, the government has a history of shamelessly exploiting national emergencies for its own nefarious purposes. Terrorist attacks, mass shootings, civil unrest, economic instability, pandemics, natural disasters: the government has been taking advantage of such crises for years now in order to gain greater power over an unsuspecting and largely gullible populace.

This COVID-19 pandemic is no different.

Yet be warned: we will all lose if this pandemic becomes a showdown between COVID-19 vaccine mandates and the right to bodily integrity.

'Deny and accuse somebody else': FBI instructed informant in Michigan governor 'kidnap' plot to slander another man, report says

RT
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 17:48 UTC

A text from an FBI agent instructed an informant in the alleged militia plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to delete messages and shift blame onto another man, casting further doubt on the already doubtful case.

Five people are currently awaiting trial on federal charges that the "Wolverine Watchmen" militia they supposedly belonged to wanted to kidnap the Democrat governor. The FBI announced the plot and arrested them in October 2020, shortly before the US election.

In a court filing last week the attorney for one of them sought text messages from FBI special agents Henrik Impola and Jayson Chambers, citing an exchange with one of the informants, identified only as "Dan." A screenshot of it appeared online on Tuesday.

"Be sure to delete these," the agent - allegedly Impola - tells 'Dan,' and later instructs him to deflect accusations of being an FBI informant. "Best thing to do is deny and accuse somebody else," the agent texted, naming a man who wasn't charged in the plot.

As America's attempt to Westernise Afghanistan by force fails, Kabul may now find its place in Russian & Chinese-dominated Eurasia

Glenn Diesen
RT
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 19:05 UTC

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images
FILE PHOTO: US Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain and the 101st Airborne units disembark from a Chinook helicopter March 11, 2002.

Even the Taliban must be surprised at the immense speed of its victory in Afghanistan. The collapse of the US-backed government affects more than just daily life in Kabul, however, causing political echoes across the continent.

One of the last bastions of Euro-Atlantic influence in the Eurasian heartland has collapsed. As the US and its allies absorb the consequences of their defeat in Afghanistan, the major powers on the continent, such as Russia, China and Iran, will attempt to reorient the country towards a solution consistent with the Greater Eurasian Partnership.

A long way from Washington

Comment: Far from Afghanistan 'scrambling for solutions' over the US' withdrawal, Russia's Embassy, and apparently an overwhelming number of Afghans, who welcomed the Taliban over the increasingly corrupt Kabul government, see the country, as it is now, as being 'safer than before':

And for more of the real story on the Afghan withdrawal, check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?

Mayor of key Ukrainian city found shot dead as Kiev cracks down on country's popular 'pro-Russian' opposition party

RT
Mon, 16 Aug 2021 09:19 UTC

Police in the Ukrainian city of Krivoy Rog have opened an investigation after its mayor, Konstantin Pavlov, was found dead at home from a gunshot wound to the chest, amid a crackdown on the country's largest opposition party.

Pavlov's body was discovered on the veranda of his house in the industrial city, which is around 400km (250 miles) south of Kiev, with a weapon reportedly lying close by. The 48-year-old politician was a member of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, which is the main opposition group in the country's parliament. The faction is known for its criticism of President Volodymyr Zelensky's government, and for calling for closer ties with Russia.

The authorities say it isn't yet clear whether Pavlov's death was suicide or if foul play could have been involved. However, Vadim Rabinovich, a prominent businessman and fellow party member said the mayor had been "killed" and that suggestions he took his own life were "a deliberate lie." A source told local news outlet Strana that, after being hit by the bullet, Pavlov managed to stagger around 10 meters before he fell to the ground.

Comment: This kind of criminality has become relatively commonplace in Ukraine but even Russia, renowned for its patience with corrupt regimes, like the US, has had to step up its game in order to stop the situation deteriorating further:

US' irrational Xinjiang crackdown a danger to global industry and US business

Global Times
Tue, 10 Aug 2021 08:48 UTC

Among the US' anti-China tool kit, the "Xinjiang card" has been thrust under the spotlight. Based on a baseless "forced labor" accusation, Washington has launched its vicious scheme targeting Xinjiang industries and is reportedly stepping up pressure on American firms to pause imports from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

In addition to a series of bans or restrictions on Xinjiang cotton, tomatoes and polycrystalline silicon, the US Congress is expected to launch a tougher crackdown against the region by approving "legislation later this year that would prohibit imports of all products from Xinjiang unless the importer can prove their items are free of forced labor," the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

If this legislation gets passed, it will create widespread chaos throughout the global supply chain and even drag down the recovery of global economy during post-COVID era.

Comment: Indeed, the claims of China's labor camps and a discrimination campaign against the Uighur community doesn't stand up to scrutiny; The Independent newspaper admitted admitted as much recently:

For decades, China had one of the most extensive systems of minority preferential treatment in the world, including hiring quotas and extra points on college entrance exams. The government also allowed ethnic minorities two or three children, even as it restricted its Han majority to just one child.

Dubai's Princess Latifa, who failed to escape her 'evil' father, is set to hit the US courts

Chris Sweeney
RT
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 09:33 UTC

At the heart of the planned legal action is the daring - and probably illegal - high seas mission by Sheikh Mohammed to snatch his daughter back from a yacht in the Indian Ocean in 2018, one of Latifa's confidantes tells RT.

Nothing is ever quite what it seems to be when it comes to Dubai, a very sunny place full of very shady characters in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This shiny modern metropolis, built at fabulous expense, is a magnet for the world's intelligence agents, dodgy businessmen and rich people who enjoy eating the $14 oysters flown in from France at Atmosphere, the highest restaurant in the world, a quarter of a mile up the stupendous 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa tower.

In this Arabian Gotham-on-sand, ruled over with an iron fist by the staggeringly wealthy Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, there are enough dramas, and plots within plots, to keep the most demanding Hollywood producer busy for years.

Comment: See also:

Quote of the Day

State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.

- Ivan Ilyin

Exactly the same Faustian Bargain is being offered by Comrade Ardern here in NZ. Trouble is, there is no further plan, no "what happens next", and...

Martin Harris

winters and summers come and go and the downfall of earth is constantly wrongly predicted. summer is here; [Link] +1

rakarb

He's bloody moron and West's stooge. He was kissing frau Merkel's ass only a few weeks ago.

sinip

No way. Have you noticed that conspiring is practically, the most common social activity in existence? So how could that be?

sir_isO

RT = CNN So this piece is likely agitprop. "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Please, just follow the $cience.

DeliciousTears

Puppet Masters

US reportedly froze Afghanistan's national reserves in American banks to deny Taliban access

32 years after he pulled USSR out of Afghanistan, Gorbachev says America's failed war was also a 'bad idea from the beginning'

Biden sinking in numerous polls amid Afghanistan crisis

Intel agencies warned of Afghan collapse as Biden publicly downplayed possibility

Nobody wins and we all lose in the COVID-19 showdown

'Deny and accuse somebody else': FBI instructed informant in Michigan governor 'kidnap' plot to slander another man, report says

As America's attempt to Westernise Afghanistan by force fails, Kabul may now find its place in Russian & Chinese-dominated Eurasia

Mayor of key Ukrainian city found shot dead as Kiev cracks down on country's popular 'pro-Russian' opposition party

US' irrational Xinjiang crackdown a danger to global industry and US business

Dubai's Princess Latifa, who failed to escape her 'evil' father, is set to hit the US courts

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