Afghanistan: Mission Accomplished

[teqniq]

Well what a fucking surprise:

 

[ska invita]

Well what a fucking surprise:

"greater degree of clarity"

 

[teqniq]

They have absolutely no shame whatsoever.

 

[Pickman's model]

Well what a fucking surprise:

The government doesn't really want any Afghans here

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I don't know about nation-wide, but there's over 1,000 coming here:

The number of Afghan evacuees coming to Nebraska has grown to over 1,000, and about 500 of them have already reached the state.

So far, 469 people evacuated from Afghanistan since the nation’s Aug. 15 collapse have arrived in Nebraska, or are on their way, from U.S. military bases around the nation. Another 635 Afghan evacuees destined for Nebraska were still at bases, Nebraska State Refugee Coordinator Sara Bockelman said Wednesday.

That’s in addition to a smaller, undetermined number of people who came directly to Omaha from Afghanistan or otherwise have ended up in Nebraska.

Bockelman, speaking to a meeting of the Omaha Refugee Task Force, said a total of 1,104 Afghan evacuees are currently expected in Nebraska. Initially, it was projected that about 655 Afghan evacuees would be placed in Nebraska. But officials said all along that they expected that number to grow.

About 300 of the Afghan evacuees so far have been placed in metropolitan Omaha by Lutheran Family Services and the Refugee Empowerment Center, the two resettlement agencies that place people in Omaha. Others have been placed in Lincoln and Council Bluffs.

About 500 Afghan refugees have arrived in Nebraska; resettlement agencies swamped

Finding housing is proving to be a challenge. While many people have been placed in apartments or rental houses, some are staying in such temporary lodging as Airbnbs and extended-stay

journalstar.com

We've already got 3,000 Yazidi refugees here.

 

[spring-peeper]

I don't know about nation-wide, but there's over 1,000 coming here:

About 500 Afghan refugees have arrived in Nebraska; resettlement agencies swamped

Finding housing is proving to be a challenge. While many people have been placed in apartments or rental houses, some are staying in such temporary lodging as Airbnbs and extended-stay

journalstar.com

We've already got 3,000 Yazidi refugees here.

How do people feel about that number of refugees coming into the area?

 

[teqniq]

The government doesn't really want any Afghans here

I would never have guessed.

 

[Pickman's model]

I would never have guessed.

Yeh well you already know the way in which successive governments used the Afghans as proxies or auxiliaries

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

How do people feel about that number of refugees coming into the area?

I don't hear a lot of push back. The state government is run by the Catholic Church and it's their refugee resettlement organization that brings refugees in. There's often calls for donations for furniture, housewares, and bedding to furnish an apartment for incoming refugees. There is also usually jobs waiting for them in meat packing, if they're able. Those aren't great jobs, but it usually allows them to get a foothold to get established.

That isn't to say there aren't problems to come up. With Iraqi war refugees there was a misunderstanding about the appropriate age to marry off girls. A couple of families decided to marry of their 14-year-old girls to much older men against their will. At least one of these cases resulted in the underage girl being forced into sex. This resulted in a court case and several people went to prison, but I think the sentences were reduced because the cultural differences were taken into account in sentencing.

 

[gosub]

The End of the Afghanistan War Was Even Worse Than Anyone Realized

New details on the monumentally bungled final phase.

slate.com

 

[gosub]

DEC Afghanistan Crisis Appeal

I've just made a donation to @RESCUE.UK to support people in crisis around the world. You can support them too, make a gift today https://help-uk.rescue.org/ Thanks

help.rescue-uk.org

 

[weltweit]

No trips for Afghan women unless escorted by male relative: Taliban

KABUL: Afghanistan

www.bangkokpost.com

women seeking to travel anything other than short distances should not be offered transport unless they are accompanied by a close male relative.
..
the ministry asked Afghanistan's television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors.
..
women TV journalists to wear hijabs while presenting.
..
The ministry's directive also asked people to stop playing music in their vehicles.
..

 

[PursuedByBears]

Of course.

 

[teqniq]

 

[Humberto]

They are talking about aid, but the sanctions have also helped paralyze the economy. They need some kind of rapport or diplomatic communication. It's looking desperate.

 

[miss direct]

That was horrifying to watch. Isn't John Simpson there too?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I found this interesting. I'm sure everyone remembers the green-eyed girl on the cover of National Geographic? She's recently turned up as a refugee in Italy:

Sharbat Gulla, the woman behind the iconic photo taken by photographer Steve McCurry, arrived in Italy following a push "by those in civil society, and in particular by non-profit organizations working in Afghanistan" to evacuate her from the country, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office said in a statement, The Associated Press reported.

Gulla sought help to leave Afghanistan as the nation now contends with Taliban rule following the collapse of its former government.

Draghi's office said in their statement that Gulla's evacuation was "part of the wider evacuation program in place for Afghan citizens and the government's plan for their reception and integration" in Italy, according to the AP.

MSN

Of course, she looks little like her picture from 1985 since life is sometimes quite harsh for green-eyed girls in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

 

[Brainaddict]

I found this interesting. I'm sure everyone remembers the green-eyed girl on the cover of National Geographic? She's recently turned up as a refugee in Italy:

MSN

Of course, she looks little like her picture from 1985 since life is sometimes quite harsh for green-eyed girls in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

There's an interesting article about her somewhere about the dishonesty and poor ethics of the photo. We're meant to see fear and trauma in her eyes but iirc the reality was that she just didn't want to be photographed but didn't feel able to refuse.

 

[Pickman's model]

There's an interesting article about her somewhere about the dishonesty and poor ethics of the photo. We're meant to see fear and trauma in her eyes but iirc the reality was that she just didn't want to be photographed but didn't feel able to refuse.

A quick search returns one like that You ll Never See the Iconic Photo of the Afghan Girl the Same Way Again

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

There's an interesting article about her somewhere about the dishonesty and poor ethics of the photo. We're meant to see fear and trauma in her eyes but iirc the reality was that she just didn't want to be photographed but didn't feel able to refuse.

Considering how much money National Geographic (and the photographer) has made from that photo, I'd think they could at least assist in getting her settled.

 

[gosub]

Leaked document reveals Biden’s Afghan failures

The notes shed new light on how the administration was unprepared to evacuate Afghan nationals who'd helped the U.S. against the Taliban.

www.axios.com

 

[Humberto]

Just to update the thread a bit:

Two suspected British Islamic State recruits seized by Taliban at border

Exclusive: first reported case of attempted international recruitment to IS since US left Afghanistan

www.theguardian.com

 

[friedaweed]

John Simpson goes back to Afghanistan to explore the shocking unravelling of a country he has been reporting on for more than 40 years.

Watched this last night. Unsurprisingly grim viewing.

Blair should be gaffa taped to a chair and forced to watch it..... and then waterboarded every time he said it was the right thing to do at the time.

Him and Dubya have a lovely legacy to look back on.

 

[Humberto]

Outrageous really isn't it? They are incapable of getting it right. They topple the government, build a country largely reliant on foreign money to keep it going and then lose a war because of their incompetence. Then they drop the Afghan people overnight AND apply economic sanctions during a humanitarian crisis.

 

[teqniq]

I am thinking this is ill-considered:

Biden unfreezes Afghan funds for in-country relief and 9/11 legal fight | CNN Politics

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday allowing $7 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan's central bank to eventually be distributed inside the country and to potentially fund litigation brought by families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks, senior administration...

edition.cnn.com

 

[Pickman's model]

I am thinking this is ill-considered:

Biden unfreezes Afghan funds for in-country relief and 9/11 legal fight | CNN Politics

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday allowing $7 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan's central bank to eventually be distributed inside the country and to potentially fund litigation brought by families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks, senior administration...

edition.cnn.com

Don't think much of us involvement in Afghanistan in the last 21 years has been well-considered so it fits well within that trend

 

[jeff_leigh]

At the moment Biden’s ratings are in the toilet so you can imagine what Fox News would make of it he gave to afghans that hosted Bin Laden but not 9/11 victims

 

[ska invita]

utter scum

CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach interrogators torture techniques

Newly declassified documents reveal Ammar al-Baluchi was repeatedly slammed against a wall while naked until all trainees received ‘certification’

www.theguardian.com

A detainee at a secret CIA detention site in Afghanistan was used as a living prop to teach trainee interrogators, who lined up to take turns at knocking his head against a plywood wall, leaving him with brain damage, according to a US government report.

The details of the torture of Ammar al-Baluchi are in a 2008 report by the CIA’s inspector general, newly declassified as part of a court filing by his lawyers aimed at getting him an independent medical examination.

 

[Humberto]

Unless they change the US Governments' restrictions on Afghanistan's Central Bank and other sanctions because of the Taliban being in government, we will continue to hear reports like this:

Since January 2022, roughly 13,000 newborns have died from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases, 95 percent of the population does not have enough to eat, and 3.5 million children need nutritional support. The United Nations has called the situation “a food insecurity and malnutrition crisis of unparalleled proportions.”


“Half of those we admit for critical care are also malnourished,” a doctor with Médecins Sans Frontières reported. Almost 800 children in one hospital in Helmand province are there because of acute malnutrition.

Time Running Out to Address Afghanistan’s Hunger Crisis

“Children in the provinces – they are only skin on bones now – and I’m afraid this is only going to get worse,” the director of an international humanitarian organization in Afghanistan told me.

www.hrw.org

 

[hitmouse]

New interview with a member of an Afgan/Iranian anarchist group, audio with transcription:

Updates from Afghanistan and Iran | The Final Straw Radio Podcast

thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org