‘EVERYONE IS FORGIVEN’: Taliban holds first official press conference in Afghanistan

The Taliban has given its first official news conference in Kabul since the shock seizure of the city, declaring it wants peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law.

“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” the movement’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.

The insurgents seek no revenge and “everyone is forgiven” he said.

Mujahid said women would be allowed to work and study and “will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam”.

The Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the Western-backed government, he said, saying the movement was granting an amnesty for former Afghan government soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces.

“Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors,” he said.

He said private media could continue to be free and independent in Afghanistan, adding the Taliban was committed to the media within its cultural framework.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inAfghanistan, Culture, Islam's war on women, Islamic Barbarians, Taliban

Prince Andrew reportedly still person of interest in sex-trafficking probe

Prince Andrew Royal Pedophile at Epstein’s NYC Home. This was after Epstein’s conviction Andy. Not buying your wounded dignity BS.

Britain’s Prince Andrew remains a person of interest in the federal investigation into the sex-trafficking case involving late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a new report says.

The UK royal — who was sued by rape accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre last week — has allegedly been stonewalling US investigators’ attempts to interview him.

Last year, then-US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman accused the royal of having “sought to falsely portray himself to the public as eager and willing to cooperate” with the criminal investigation despite “unequivocally” refusing to.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Woke Royals"

Taliban pledged safe passage of civilians to Kabul airport, White House says

“We intend to hold them to that commitment,” national security advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters amid a barrage of questions about the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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by Sarcasticat••0•Posted inAfghanistan, Taliban, USA, White House

The Scale of Humiliation

To reprise a line from a decade-old column of mine:

Afghanistan is about Afghanistan – if you’re Afghan or Pakistani. But, if you’re Russian or Chinese or Iranian or European, Afghanistan is about America.

That’s the point to remember: if you’re an Afghan schoolgirl, today is the fall of Kabul; elsewhere, in the chancelleries of allies and enemies alike, it’s the fall of America. Even by their usual wretched standards, the world’s most somnolent media are struggling to stay up to speed on the story. 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAfghanistan

An Afghan woman in Kabul: ‘Now I have to burn everything I achieved’

A university student tells of seeing all around her the ‘fearful faces of women and ugly faces of men who hate women’

Early on Sunday morning I was heading to university for a class when a group of women came running out from the women’s dormitory. I asked what had happened and one of them told me the police were evacuating them because the Taliban had arrived in Kabul, and they will beat women who do not have a burqa.

We all wanted to get home, but we couldn’t use public transport. The drivers would not let us in their cars because they did not want to take responsibility for transporting a woman. It was even worse for the women from the dormitory, who are from outside Kabul and were scared and confused about where they should go.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAfghanistan

Ontario pauses further reopening as it reveals new vaccine policies for high-risk settings

TORONTO — Ontario is putting the brakes on any further reopening ahead of a “difficult fall and winter” as the province reveals new vaccine policies for high-risk settings.

Employees, staff, contractors, students, and volunteers at hospitals and home and community care settings will, at a minimum, have to provide proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, have a medical reason for not being vaccinated, or complete a vaccination educational session.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease"

From Biden to the Taliban with Love

Locals in Istanbul were recently shocked to see hordes of young Afghan men in worn out uniforms, strolling aimlessly down neighborhoods that were already home to thousands of Syrian refugees. Later, Turkish police detained and expelled nine of the men. Hundreds of others are communicating with their relatives and friends in Afghanistan and Iran and most likely updating them on the illegal migration routes into Turkey — Afghans would typically pay smugglers $1,000 for the trip from Kabul to Van in eastern Turkey. With the victory of the Taliban and the collapse of the Afghan government, hundreds of thousands may be crossing via Iran into eastern Turkey, finally seeking the least dangerous (and least costly) route into European Union soil.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Joe Sleazebag Biden", Afghanistan

Twitter pulls Conservatives’ ‘Willy Wonka’ attack ad on Trudeau due to copyright

Oompa loompa doopety da.

If you respect copyright, then you will go far.

Twitter says it has pulled a Conservative Party attack ad against Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau from its platform after the studio behind Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory complained that a scene from its 1971 film had been used without permission.

That’s election interference. Pity as it was a good ad.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Another Damn Election"

Biden’s speech on Afghanistan fact-checked

 

The remnants of an army, Jellalabad (sic), January 13, 1842, better known as Remnants of an Army, is an 1879 oil-on-canvas painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. The walls of Jalalabad loom over a desolate plain and riders from the garrison gallop from the gate to reach the solitary figure bringing the first word of the fate of the “Army of Afghanistan”.

‘Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building.’

President Biden stressed the purpose behind the US intervention in Afghanistan had “always been preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland” and “never supposed to be creating a unified centralised democracy”.

This clearly contradicts his previous positions on the US objective in Afghanistan.

At the outset of the conflict in 2001 when Mr Biden was a US senator, he outlined the long-term purpose of the American military intervention, saying: “Our hope is that we will see a relatively stable government in Afghanistan, one that… provides the foundation for future reconstruction of that country.”

And again, in 2003 – in another quote, tracked down by the Politico website – he said the “alternative to nation building is chaos, a chaos that churns out bloodthirsty warlords, drug traffickers and terrorists”.

Senility in action.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Joe Sleazebag Biden", Afghanistan

Diane Francis: The Liberals’ record of COVID-19 vaccine failure

If the Liberals are going to run on their record during the COVID-19 pandemic, then the electorate has a right to know what that record actually is

Now that we are in an election campaign, let’s not forget that the Liberal government’s failure to procure an adequate supply of vaccines in a timely manner cost this country hundreds of billions of dollars, because supply delays required long, economically damaging lockdowns.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Another Damn Election"

Taliban leader was freed from Guantanamo Bay in 2014 swap by Obama

When President Barack Obama released five Taliban commanders from the Guantanamo Bay prison in exchange for an American deserter in 2014, he assured a wary public that the dangerous enemy combatants would be transferred to Qatar and kept from causing any trouble in Afghanistan.

In fact, they were left free to engineer Sunday’s sacking of Kabul.

h/t HallsOfMacademia

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAfghanistan

Mail-in voting set to soar in Canada election, could undermine Trudeau, New Democratic Party

OTTAWA, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Mail-in voting in Canada is set to soar ahead of the Sept. 20 election amid fears of COVID-19, and the complex registration process could deter voters, possibly undermining Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bid for a majority government.

Pollsters say mainly Liberal and left-leaning voters would like to use mail-in balloting, while Conservatives prefer to vote in person. But Liberal strategists are concerned the sign-up process for casting ballots by mail could discourage their supporters from using it and lead them to not vote at all.

I am suspicious of any Reuters story concerning the LPC given Freeland’s connections there.

I doubt mail in ballots will hurt the LPC or the NDP for that matter, it sure helped the Democrats.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Another Damn Election"

Afghanistan: In 2001, UK officials took a top-secret trip to Moscow for advice – the response was brutally prophetic

In the days before the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, a group of British defence and security officials took a top-secret trip to Moscow.

The plan was to ask their Russian counterparts for advice on operating in the country given the former Soviet Union’s doomed Afghan intervention that ended in defeat in 1989.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Afghanistan, Islam, Islam and violence