Video - Raw video: The MOAB aftermath in Afghanistan.

Video - Defector from ISIS-Khorasan: 'I Witnessed the Worst Crimes against Humanity'

Shahindokht Molaverdi, VP for women and family affairs: "We have a village where every single man has been executed".

Shahindokht Molaverdi, VP for women and family affairs: "We have a village where every single man has been executed". (AlArabia).

An Iranian village has seen every one of its men executed for drug offences, according to a leading Iranian official.

The unnamed village in the east of the country was used as an example of how Tehran is taking a tough line against drug smugglers.

Shahindokht Molaverdi, vice-president for women and family affairs, made the comments to Iranian news agency Mehr.

"We have a village in Sistan and Baluchistan province where every single man has been executed," she said.

"Their children are potential drug traffickers as they would want to seek revenge and provide money for their families. There is no support for these people."

Molaverdi did not name the village, but said that welfare support programmes are providing financial assistance to those who might be otherwise induced into the drugs trade.

Iran is one of the world's leading executioners and capital offences include drug smuggling, homosexuality and adultery.

Tehran put to death more than 289 people in 2014 according to Amnesty International. The condemned are usually hung by cranes in public, although stoning to death remains on the stature books.

Iran is also grappling with a problem of widespread drug addiction. Read the full story here. More here.

Taliban search for man who cuts off wife's nose after dispute over Six year old new Fiancee.

Afghan woman Reza Gul lays in a bed next to an unidentified relative as she receives treatment at a hospital in the northern province of Faryab on January 20, 2016. PHOTO: AFP

Taliban search for man who cuts off wife's nose after dispute over Six year old new Fiancee. (ET).

The Afghan Taliban said on Wednesday they were searching for a man who cut off his wife’s nose, condemning the attack as “un-Islamic”, after online images of the young woman sparked widespread outrage.

Mohammad Khan has been on the run since he attacked his wife Reza Gul, 20, with a pocket knife on Sunday, severely disfiguring her face.

Local Taliban official Noor Mohammad branded the attack as “un-Islamic”. He said the group, who deprived women of many of their basic rights during their five-year rule, was “outraged by this incident”.

“We are trying to find the husband,” Mohammad added, without elaborating on what the militant group, known for their brutal justice, would do to Khan if they found him.

Gul was married off five years ago as a teenager and was regularly beaten by her husband, forcing her to flee to her parents’ home in a Taliban-controlled area, she previously told AFP.

While there, she said, the insurgents made her unemployed husband swear on the Quran that he would not hurt her again.

The woman, Reza Gul, 20, was attacked by her husband with a knife on Sunday in Shar-Shar, a village in an impoverished and Taliban-controlled part of Faryab Province.

On Sunday afternoon, Zarghona said, Reza Gul and Mr. Khan got into an argument over his having taken his uncle's 6- or 7-year-old daughter as his fiancée, with the intention of making her his second wife this year. 

During the dispute, Mr. Khan erupted into a rage, took a knife and cut off his wife's nose, said Zarghona, who goes by a single name.

Mr. Khan and one of his brothers then threw Reza Gul on the back of a motorcycle with the intention of taking her away to kill her, Zarghona said. But news of the attack spread quickly in the village, causing an uproar, and Mr. Khan fled for his life.

"I went to the Taliban," Zarghona said. "I asked them: 'Is this the Islam we are following? My daughter's nose chopped off? But you are doing nothing about it. I want justice.' "

Gul is currently in hospital in Faryab along with her two-month-old daughter.

Provincial authorities in Faryab are making arrangements to send Gul to Turkey for reconstructive surgery, which is not available in Afghanistan.

“The Turkish officials have promised that they will help in sending her to Turkey for treatment,” Mohammad Marouf Samar, the province’s acting health director, told AFP. Read the full story here, more here.

Afghanistan - Taliban have torched a Girls school in Loger province.

Afghanistan - Taliban have torched a Girls school in Loger province. (pajhwok).


PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Unidentified gunmen have torched a girls’ school in Pul-I-Alam, the capital of central Logar province on Wednesday morning, an official said.

Mohammad Shahpur Arab, the governor’s spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News the attackers set aflame the Haji Glon Secondary School before dawn.

He said around 500 girls were attending the school that lost all its rooms, including the administration block. The record room containing student documents was also destroyed.

“We would open another area for students to continue their education until this school is reconstructed,” Arab said, adding security forces had launched an investigation into the incident.

A resident of Haji Glon area, Syed Ahmad, told Pajhwok Afghan News that unknown men torched the school around 3am.

“We extinguished the fire when we came to the school in the morning and then reported the arson attack to the education department,” he said.

He added most parts of the building were completely destroyed. The Haji Glon Secondary School was established in 1993. A boys’ school was also torched by unknown gunmen in the Purak area of the provincial capital earlier in the year.

#Taliban have torched a Girls school in #Loger province. Local officials #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/CDnbLm57st

— Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) October 28, 2015

Update: At least 9 MSF staff killed in suspected US airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan

Afghanistan: It appears an errant US air strike hit the MSF hospital in Kunduz, killing staff.(MSF)

At 2:10 AM local time on Saturday October 3, the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) Trauma center in Kunduz was hit several times during sustained bombing and was very badly damaged.

Three MSF staff are confirmed dead and more than 30 are unaccounted for. 

The medical team is working around the clock to do everything possible for the safety of patients and hospital staff. “We are deeply shocked by the attack, the killing of our staff and patients and the heavy toll it has inflicted on healthcare in Kunduz,” says Bart Janssens, MSF Director of Operations.

“We do not yet have the final casualty figures, but our medical team are providing first aid and treating the injured patients and MSF personnel and accounting for the deceased. We urge all parties to respect the safety of health facilities and staff.”

MSF’s hospital is the only facility of its kind in the whole northeastern region of Afghanistan, providing free life- and limb-saving trauma care. MSF doctors treat all people according to their medical needs and do not make distinctions based on a patient’s ethnicity, religious beliefs or political affiliation. Hmmm........How can you mistake such a building? I guess they can't pin this one on Putin. Read the full story here. Update: At least 9 MSF staff killed in suspected US airstrike in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

57 of doctors, nurses and patients killed as #US-airstrikes hit a local #Kunduz hospital in #Afghanistan 📷 pic.twitter.com/c9CTBZCjFO

— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) October 3, 2015

Dr. Ameen Salarzai & Dr. Abdussalam, two other medical cadres martyred in #MSF hospital #Kunduz pic.twitter.com/nzIWJBZNIE

— Inayat ullah kakar (@Kalamnigar) October 3, 2015

#MSF zonal hospital in #Kunduz bombed by US planes, Dozens of medics, patients died...! pic.twitter.com/bKPuqnINpL

— Inayat ullah kakar (@Kalamnigar) October 3, 2015

#MSF #Kunduz trauma center aflame after aerial attack this morn. Staff tending to patients, each other, in aftermath pic.twitter.com/o6toDwivym

— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) October 3, 2015

C-130 plane crashes at Afghanistan's Jalalabad airport: 5 American service members, 5 civilian contractors & 2 Afghans died.

C-130 plane crashes at Afghanistan's Jalalabad airport: 5 American service members, 5 civilian contractors & 2 Afghans died. (ExpressTribune).


An American C-130 military transport plane crashed at Jalalabad airport in Afghanistan, a US defense official said Thursday

Eleven people, including six US troops, were killed when a C-130 military transport plane crashed Friday in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, an official said.

“The crew and passengers were killed,” US Army Colonel Brian Tribus said, noting that five civilian contractors were also on the plane. The crash occurred at about midnight local time on Friday morning

The C-130 Hercules is a cargo plane built by Lockheed Martin. It is powered by four turboprop engines and is used extensively by the military to ship troops and heavy gear.

Jalalabad is in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan. The Pentagon said it was “gathering further information.”  More here.

Update:  Taliban Claims Downing a US C-130 Army Plane. 

The Taliban claimed early Friday morning that it had shot down an American C-130 military transport plane in eastern Afghanistan. NATO had previously reported the crash, revealing that 11 people were killed including six US soldiers, but did not release details as to the cause of the fatal crash, reports AFP.

US Army Col. Brian Tribus said the non-soldiers were civilian contractors. "Our mujahideen have shot down a four-engine US aircraft in Jalalabad," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on Twitter. "Based on credible information 15 invading forces and a number of puppet troops were killed."Read the full story here.

The crashed C-130 went down in Jalalabad, Capital of Eastern Nangarhar province. Cause of the crash is not yet known.

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

The crashed USAF C-130 was carrying a fireteam of US Marines along with the contractors who had tagged along. Main passengers were Marines.

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Unconfirmed but I think the Marines who died in C-130 crash were members of the US Embassy Protection Detail. Contractors were probably OGA.

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Repeat. Fatalities of the C-130 Crash 5 American service members, 5 civilian contractors & 2 Afghans who died when the plane crashed on them

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Crash site of the @USAirForce C-130 is cordoned off by Afghan & US soldiers from Jalalabad Airfield. Its declared a no-fly zone temporarily.

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Sad news. C-130 transport aircraft belonging to the @USAirForce crashed in Afghanistan, killing 12 people including 5 Americans & 2 Afghans.

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Pictures of the US Special Forces who went to Kunduz to take part in the clearance operation: (Copyright?) https://t.co/j8YExGeheJ

— Mustafa Kazemi (@CombatJourno) October 2, 2015

Taliban attack on Afghan parliament in Kabul has ended, seven militants killed: official

Taliban attack on Afghan parliament in Kabul has ended, seven militants killed: official. (ET).

KABUL: A Taliban attack on the Afghan parliament Monday ended after all seven militants were killed, the government said.

“The attack has ended now. Seven attackers were involved — one detonated a car near the parliament building and six were killed by security forces after they entered a nearby building,” deputy interior ministry spokesperson Najib Danish told AFP.

Taliban militants attacked the Afghan parliament on Monday, with gunfire and a huge explosion rocking the building, sending lawmakers running for cover in chaotic scenes relayed live on television.

The militants swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack which came as the Afghan president’s nominee for the crucial post of defence minister was to be introduced in parliament.

A major assault on such a high-profile target in downtown Kabul raises fresh questions about security as Afghan forces battle a resurgent Taliban without the aid of NATO forces, who ended their combat mission in December.

Police denied that Taliban fighters had breached the high-security parliament building and there were no immediate reports on casualties. A thick plume of smoke was seen rising from the building. “It is a group attack by the Taliban on the parliament,” Kabul police spokesperson Ebadullah Karimi told AFP.

“They are not inside the parliament building, but they are somewhere outside the building". Hmmmm..... Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like ... Iraq .”Read the full story here.

Photo: Scene inside the #Afghanistan Parliament as gunmen storm the building pic.twitter.com/cQ3HSMDH7T

— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) June 22, 2015

Interior Ministry says a woman & 10-year-old girl) killed in attack on Kabul Parliament. 25 injured, 7 attackers killed. #Afghanistan

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) June 22, 2015

'Breaking Bad?' - Engineered yeast paves way for home-brew heroin

'Breaking Bad?' - Engineered yeast paves way for home-brew heroin. (Nature).

Biotechnology is about to make morphine production as simple as brewing beer. A paper published on 18 May in Nature Chemical Biology1 reports the creation of a yeast strain containing the first half of a biochemical pathway that turns simple sugars into morphine — mimicking the process by which poppies make opiates. Combined with other advances, researchers predict that it will be only a few years — or even months — before a single engineered yeast strain can complete the entire process.

Besides giving biologists the power to tinker with the morphine-production process, the advance could lead to more-effective, less addictive and cheaper painkillers that could be brewed under tight controls in fermentation vats. At the same time, it could enable widespread, localized production of illegal opiates such as heroin, increasing people’s access to such drugs. Recognizing that danger, the synthetic biologists behind the work have already opened a discussion of how to prevent the technology’s misuse without hampering further research.

“It’s easy to point to heroin; that’s a concrete problem,” says bioengineer John Dueber of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the latest research. “The benefits are less visible. They are going to greatly outweigh the negative, but it’s hard to describe them.”

Over the past decade, several research teams have tried to coax microbes, including the baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the lab-workhorse bacterium Escherichia coli, into making plant-derived drugs. The anti­malarial drug artemisinin, originally derived from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), is now produced commercially in yeast.

The opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), as the only commercial source of morphine and opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, is an obvious target for bioengineering.

The crop must be grown in highly regulated conditions, in only a few countries. Outside those boundaries, in places such as Afghanistan, it is grown to supply the illegal heroin trade.

Producing opiates in industrial facilities from yeast could eliminate the need for the tightly controlled legal plant-production chain. Read the full story here.

Afghan Women bury Farkhunda the innocent woman beaten to death by Islamist mob.

Afghan Women bury innocent woman beaten to death by Islamist mob.(ET).

Hundreds of people on Sunday attended the burial of an Afghan woman who was beaten to death and set on fire by a mob for allegedly burning a copy of the Holy Quran.

The body of Farkhunda, 27, who was lynched on Thursday by an angry mob in central Kabul, was carried to the graveyard by women amid crowds of men, an AFP reporter said, a rare act of protest in a male-dominated society.

The crowd, shouting “Allah o Akbar” (God is greatest), demanded the government bring the killers to justice. “This is a crime against this family, a crime against a sister and a crime against humanity,” said Bari Salam, a human rights activist.

“All those involved and all those who supported her killing should be brought to justice.”

Farkhunda’s father told the media that his daughter had a diploma in Islamic studies and could recite the Holy Quran by heart. He insisted she was not involved in burning the Muslim holy book.

The lynching sparked widespread condemnation at home and worldwide.

President Ashraf Ghani condemned the killing as “heinous” and ordered a commission to investigate the incident.

The United Nations also condemned the lynching and said Farkhunda had “suffered mental illness for many years”. Police said they have arrested eleven people in connection with the incident.

In 2012 the revelation that copies of the Koran had been burnt at the US-run Bagram prison sparked five days of violent anti-US riots and attacks across the country, in which 30 people died.

Once again, look at these drinking buddies, the murderers behind #IamFarkhunda's burning, #Justice4Farkhunda pic.twitter.com/6aSnAeYV2W
— Wayand (@wayandsangin) March 21, 2015

Tears, emotions, and anger filled the burial ceremony for #Farkhunda, cleric Niazi apologized #JusticeForFarkhunda pic.twitter.com/pzmgSfn8g7
— Zheela Nasari (@ZheelaJ) March 22, 2015

Afghan women show solidarity with woman beaten to death for burning the Qur'an: "Today it is her, tomorrow it is us!" pic.twitter.com/3Dl8yvPXFc
— Julie Lenarz (@MsIntervention) March 22, 2015

Warning tweet below contains graphic violence:

This man is particularly violent in the lynching of Afghan girl accused of burning Quran https://t.co/rszPT6zwZ1 pic.twitter.com/Muzh8wRlEG
— kurdish blogger (@kurdishblogger) March 22, 2015

Afghan women break tradition to carry coffin of #Farkhunda, killed, torched by mob http://t.co/pSDZKxVG6A pic.twitter.com/SJhFr944Eo v @dbelaid
— beena sarwar (@beenasarwar) March 22, 2015

#Afghanwoman set on fire by mob in #Kabul for 'burning Qur'an' was innocent, says investigator http://t.co/WUCkbqymLL pic.twitter.com/LdRTXei7rY

— ISTANBUL THEMES (@ISTANBUL_THEMES) March 23, 2015

Afghan 'Blasphemy' Case An Early Test For New 'moderate' Government

Afghan 'Blasphemy' Case An Early Test For New 'moderate' Government.(Rfelr).

Afghan authorities have arrested a newspaper’s owner and editor on charges of blasphemy, a move that poses an early test for new President Ashraf Ghani as he seeks to balance international demands for free speech with calls in powerful religious circles for severe punishment.

Ghani, a Western-educated technocrat, has gone to great lengths to court religious leaders by downplaying his foreign pedigree. But he has also called free speech protections a priority, recently allowing a U.S. journalist expelled by his predecessor to return to Afghanistan.

The owner and the editor in chief of the “Afghanistan Press Daily,” an English-language newspaper based in Kabul, were arrested October 24, according to a government official close to the case who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity. Their names have not been made public.

The newspaper’s offices and publishing house have also been shut down, the official said.

The arrests came after the newspaper published an October 15 op-ed that questioned God’s existence and launched a scathing attack against the Islamic faith. The piece has been widely condemned in the deeply conservative and religious country, where Islam is the state religion.

That anger boiled over into the streets of Kabul on October 24, when dozens of residents staged a protest against the newspaper. Demonstrators demanded that the daily be closed and the author of the op-ed be sentenced to death, warning that the protests would continue if their demands are not met.

The author, who wrote the article under the byline “A.J. Ahwar,” has been identified as Ahmad Javeed Ahwar, a 27-year-old Afghan student believed to be in the Netherlands.

On a Facebook page believed to be his but which has since been deactivated, Ahwar describes himself as a “secular, anti-Taliban activist.” Ahwar also appears to maintain a blog titled “True Pen.”

Ahwar’s op-ed was titled “The Islam Of The Taliban And ISIS,” an acronym referring to the Islamic State militant group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate.

In the piece, Ahwar claims that Islamic teachings give militants groups like IS and the Taliban license to kill nonbelievers. “What type of God you are? Are you insane? Can you tolerate an innocent human being to be killed? Are you OK with it? You ‘God’ are not understandable,” he writes.

He goes on to compare the “level of intolerance” in Islam to that of the Nazis.

“The fact is that neither God cares about human, nor does it matter to him if you worship him or not. It is a very old and boring novel now. We are OK without God,” Ahwar concludes.

Sources close to Ahwar’s family say he and his wife are currently seeking asylum in the Netherlands. Social media users have suggested that he wrote the piece to boost his case.

The newspaper has issued an apology and tried to distance itself from Ahwar. In an October 18 apology posted on its website, the newspaper said the article was published due to “a technical mistake.”

“We strongly condemn ideas and comments that were published to use this mistake for their political and individual purposes, we are not related to any political, religious, or any other armed groups,” the statement read.

‘Insult To The Whole Islamic Nation’ Read the rest and full story here.

Video - Former Afghan Intelligence Chief Amruallah Saleh: Pakistan Behind Terrorism in Afghanistan

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Calls on Obama to Promote Books, Not Bombs.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Malala Calls on Obama to Promote Books, Not Bombs. (RN).

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage girl who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle for women’s and girls’ rights to education, called on President Barack Obama to put an end to arming the world and instead promote education, NBC News reports.

"I said instead of sending guns, send books. Instead of sending weapons, send teachers," the young human rights activist spoke of her recent meeting with Barack Obama. In her opinion, the US President could contribute more to peace in many countries if he would use soft measures instead of military tactics.

Malala Yousafzai began to advocate for girls’ and women’s education rights when she was 12. She started writing an internet blog where she described her life under Taliban rule and tried to promote literacy, as well as better education prospects for girls and women.

When Malala was 15, she was shot in the head by Taliban attackers while returning from school. She managed to survive and is currently living with her parents in Great Britain, where she is continuing her “rights for education” campaign, as reported by Reuters.

Malala often says that her life is similar to a novel or a film story. "At the end, the villain loses and the hero wins, and there is a happy ending."

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Malala jointly with an Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." Her prominent co-winner, Kailash Satyarthi, aged 60, has also dedicated his life to the protection of human rights, championing for children’s education opportunities and fighting against child slavery.

Attacks against Afghan women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases ‘Cutting the nose, lips and ears’

Attacks against Afghan women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases ‘Cutting the nose, lips and ears’.(RT).

Chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Sima Samar, told Reuters that the pace and the hideousness of attacks on women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases from March through September.

"The brutality of the cases is really bad. Cutting the nose, lips and ears. Committing public rape," Samar said. "Mass rape... It's against dignity, against humanity."
The spokeswoman noted that as the withdrawal deadline draws near for international troops, women in tribal areas are less protected, leaving them vulnerable to violent assaults.
"The presence of the international community and provincial reconstruction teams in most of the provinces was giving people confidence," Samar said. "There were people there trying to protect women. And that is not there anymore, unfortunately."
She also noted that poor economic conditions and the lack of security are also contributing factor to the rise of incidents.
Other human rights workers are blaming the attacks and even killing of women on the absence of law in a country based on patriarchal tribal societies.
"Killing women in Afghanistan is an easy thing. There's no punishment," Suraya Pakzad, who runs women's shelters in several provinces, told Reuters.
Citing the cases of public stoning, Pakzad said, that the future looks bleak for women’s rights in the country.
"Laws are improved, but implementation of those laws is in the hands of warlords... I think we are going backwards."
In November, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Afghans to reject a proposal by the Justice Ministry that is assisting in drafting a new penal code that includes restoring stoning as punishment for adultery.
“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand,” Adams added.

The draft legislature is seeking to introduce stoning for sexual intercourse outside a legal marriage, and stipulates that both man and woman shall be sentenced to “[s]toning to death if the adulterer or adulteress is married.”It also states the “implementation of stoning shall take place in public in a predetermined location.” If the “adulterer or adulteress is unmarried,” the sentence shall be “whipping 100 lashes.”

Death through stoning was used during the Taliban government, in power from the mid-1990s to 2001. After the US lead invasion and the establishment of a new government, Afghanistan signed on to international human rights conventions pledging to protect rights, especially for women.
International law says that death by stoning violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Afghanistan has ratified.

In its 2013 report on Afghanistan, HRW blames the government for a “failure to respond effectively to violence against women” which “undermines the already-perilous state of women’s rights.”Furthermore, HRW argues that the rhetoric stemming from the leadership in the country further ignites violence against women.

“President Hamid Karzai’s endorsement in March of a statement by a national religious council calling women ‘secondary,’ prohibiting violence against women only for ‘un-Islamic’ reasons, and calling for segregating women and girls in education, employment, and in public, raises questions about the government’s commitment to protecting women. The minister of justice’s description of battered women shelters as sites of ‘immorality and prostitution’ deepens that skepticism,” the report stressed.

In October, UN Women’s right chief said that that “women's rights continue to be violated, female officials are being targeted and killed, and legal protection is under threat.”
“It is imperative that women's rights and empowerment are prioritized in the coming period of transition,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, told DW.


Most foreign forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of the year and it is unclear whether any will remain beyond 2014 as the Karzai government is still reluctant to sign a bilateral security agreement with the United States and has made demands that Washington calls “unrealistic”.Hmmmm.....Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!

As Keith Koffler said today: "I have finally figured out the Obama Doctrine: Screw up the hard fought gains handed him by George W. Bush."

High probability Threats to America in 2014

High probability Threats to America in 2014.HT: Heritage.

Americans will die on American soil in large numbers. So predicted the Hart-Rudman Commission seven months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

No commissioner felt good about it getting it right. But the purpose of identifying “black swan” events before they happen is to give our leaders a chance to prevent them.
Here are some black swans that threaten to nest next year:

The unending Iranian nuclear threat: The P5+1 deal exchanging sanctions relief for building “trust and confidence” with the Iranian regime will accomplish nothing. The mullahs are not that interested in a civil nuclear program. They want the capability to build a bomb and put it in a missile so they can threaten other countries.

When the P5+1 deal expires next year, the sanctions regime will be broken and the U.S. won’t be able to put it back together. Meanwhile, Iran will claim the right to “enrich” nuclear material. The U.S. will have two options: be denounced by enemies and frenemies for refusing to engage in more feckless negotiations, or play along with Tehran, yammering our way through even more rounds of negotiations that merely give Iran more prep time to become the new kid on the nuclear block.

The Taliban are back: Many in the White House crave the “zero option,” a scenario in which the Afghan government refuses to allow NATO forces to stay in-country. It happened in Iraq, they note, so why not in Afghanistan? (What they do not note is the serious security threat now rising in Iraq.)
Hmmm......... Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!......Yup and a success it is : Taliban back in the saddle in Afghanistan by 2017


Read the rest at The Washington Examiner >>>

Afghanistan agrees on regional security pact with Iran.

Afghanistan agrees on regional security pact with Iran.(RT).

“Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran,” President’s Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said, as quoted by Reuters. “The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reached the deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Sunday. The joint communique issued after the talks stipulates that foreign ministers of both counties were assigned to draw up the topics of such a pact, IRNA reports

At the meeting Rouhani voiced Iran’s strong opposition to foreign presence and its destabilizing effect for the region.

“We are concerned about tension arising out of the presence of foreign forces in the region, believing that all foreign forces should get out of the region and the task of guaranteeing Afghan security should be entrusted to the country’s people,” Rouhani was cited by IRNA as saying.

The Iranian President reiterated the message on his twitter page after the meeting.

All foreign troops should be withdrawn from the region. Security of #Afghanistan should be entrusted to the Afghan people. [w/ Pres #Karzai]
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) December 8, 2013

For his part Karzai said that the Afghan government is keen on signing the pact with the Islamic Republic. The Afghan president also congratulated his counterpart on securing a nuclear agreement in Geneva that defused decades-long tensions.
Meanwhile US defense secretary Chuck Hagel said that he supports a NATO force in Afghanistan after 2014, as Washington and Kabul continue negotiations on securing a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will allow foreign forces to stay in the country past the deadline.

“I believe there is a role for our coalition partners and the United States, but that depends on the Afghan people,” Hagel told US troops in Afghanistan on Sunday. “If the people of Afghanistan want to continue that relationship, then we will.”
Hagel did not meet Karzai during his trip to US bases in Afghanistan this weekend, but he is optimistic that the new pact between US and Afghanistan will be signed. “I have hope that the BSA will get signed,” he said on a stop in Kandahar as he acknowledged “uncertainty about what happens next.”

The defense secretary did discuss the security agreement with the Afghan defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who reassured Hagel that the pact will be signed in “a timely manner.”

“I don’t think pressure coming from the United States, or more pressure, is going to be helpful in persuading President Karzai to sign a bilateral security agreement,” the defense secretary said Saturday.

Last week, Karzai said that he may not sign the US-Afghan security pact until April, despite approval from the Loya Jirga, an assembly of Afghan elders. On Saturday Hagel warned against the delay, saying there was “a cut-off point” at which time the pact would be scrapped, but adding he was “not prepared to give a date on that.”

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also urged Karzai to sign a security agreement with Washington by the year’s end.

“Let me be very clear: It is a prerequisite for our presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 that an appropriate legal framework is in place,” Rasmussen told reporters at a briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday. Without the deal “it will not be possible to deploy, train, advise, assist the mission to Afghanistan after 2014,” Rasmussen said.

There are currently around 80,000 NATO multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan, the majority of which are US soldiers who now stand to be pulled out by the end of 2014. NATO is planning to leave a training mission of up to 12,000 soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014 to help Afghan Army fight insurgents.

The US previously warned that forces would have to leave by the end of next year, the so-called “zero option,” if Afghanistan fails to sign the pact. And if the Americans leave altogether, the other ISAF member states are unlikely to leave their troops in Afghanistan.

However, Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said Saturday the warnings of a complete pullout “is more a tactical maneuver to put pressure on President Karzai to sign [the pact] as soon as possible.” “We believe there's no deadline,” Faizi said. Hmmmm.....It becomes pretty obvious there won't be any pact signing from Karzai, fools just want to be misled.

Afghan President to Visit Iran on Sunday

In Choir now 3, 2, 1  ...'Death To America'

Afghan President to Visit Iran on Sunday. HT: UskowiOnIran.


Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to visit Iran on Sunday. The Afghan-U.S. Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which lays out the rules for U.S. troops to operate in the country after 2014, is expected to top the agenda during meetings between Karzai and senior Iranian officials.

Karzai is refusing to sign the BSA, even though a Loya Jirga appointed by him approved the pact last month. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel arrived in Kabul amid disagreement over whether he would even meet the Afghan president in the face of the security pact row. A meeting is reportedly set for late Saturday.

Without the BSA, The United States and its NATO allies will have to exercise the so-called “Zero Option,” meaning no troops left behind at the end of 2014, pretty much like what happened in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Iranian government has been strongly pushing for the Zero Option.

“Iran does not see the signing and ratifying of this security pact to be beneficial for the long-term interests of the people and government of Afghanistan,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham. (AFP, 7 December)

UPDATE: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Kabul that he has received assurances from Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi that “the BSA would be signed in a timely manner.” (Reuters, 7 December). Hmmm.......BSA? BullShit Agreement?Death to America still valid during 'Deal'.

US again driven to distraction by Karzai.

Afghanistan - Iran - Pakistan.......new axes 

US again driven to distraction by Karzai.(ET).

Eye rolls are the usual response when Karzai’s name comes up in official circles in Washington – where the Afghan leader was once feted as a silk robed savior but is now mocked as an erratic Machiavel.

In his latest mercurial move, Karzai is refusing to sign a painstakingly negotiated bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States, setting rules for American soldiers in a post-2014, post-combat force that would train Afghan troops and counter terrorism.

Washington warns that unless Karzai relents before the end of the year, there will be no option but to plan a full US exit that would put Afghanistan at risk of a Taliban resurgence and choke off billions of dollars of military aid.

Karzai, who openly mistrusts Washington, says it should be up to the next president to sign the BSA. But since the coming election is in April – US military planners say they would not have time to prepare a post-2014 force that could stretch to 15,000 troops.

Karzai has nursed a long grudge against Barack Obama’s White House, perhaps unhappy that his frequent contact with ex-president George W Bush was not replicated by his successor.

He has also railed against US military tactics, civilian deaths and drone strikes through the 12-year war.
But patience for Karzai in Washington, always endangered, is almost extinct.

Obama sent National Security Advisor Susan Rice to read the riot act to Karzai last week – but she returned only with new conditions – including a demand for no operations by foreign troops in residential areas.
Karzai is now accusing the United States of halting fuel and supplies to Afghan troops to force his hand – a charge NATO denies.

Many observers here believe that Karzai is motivated by a desire to exercise his own political leverage and to preserve his own power in the run-up to elections.

Washington is meanwhile loathe to let the BSA, already endorsed by a loya jirga of Afghan tribal elders, become an election issue.

But few observers are surprised that best laid plans are once more being disrupted by Karzai and former officials who have dealt with him are betraying frustration that the administration is struggling to keep private.
“President Karzai should go ahead and sign the agreement,” said Tom Donilon, who until August was Obama’s National Security Advisor told ABC News, branding the Afghan leader’s antics as “reckless.”

Former CIA Chief and National Security Agency boss Michael Hayden told Fox News Sunday that Karzai’s gambit was a “temper tantrum” while warning that tough US rhetoric would not work.

Officials in the White House and the Pentagon are clear about what further delays could mean.
“We’d like to see the BSA signed as soon as possible – certainly by the end of this year,” said Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

“If it’s not signed very quickly, we will be forced to begin planning for an Afghanistan that has no US presence after 2014,” said Warren.

Such an outcome would be unpalatable for Washington; it would risk a collapse of still fragile Afghan forces; it could open the door for a resurgence of the Taliban, and forces like al Qaeda which the war was launched in 2001 to quell.

A total withdrawal would also leave Obama with the question of whether he squandered the sacrifice of nearly 2,300 US troops in Afghanistan. It could also condemn the country to the same post-US torment as Iraq.

But Obama is also adamant that there will be no troops left in Afghanistan if they are not offered the legal protections that the BSA provides – and there remains a suspicion that some officials would welcome the chance to wash their hands of Afghanistan.

A delay in the US-Afghan BSA is also problematic for US NATO partners who must conclude their own status of forces agreements with Karzai.

Many analysts believe that Karzai will not ultimately allow his nation to be left alone to its fate and believe he will sign in the end.
One option may be just to wait Karzai out, said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior military analyst at the Brookings Institution.
“The better part of wisdom here is just to relax, time will make it a lot easier,” O’Hanlon said, arguing that the true answer to the conundrum was to stress the long-term interests of the Afghan people and not Karzai’s personal pique.

Caroline Wadhams, of the Center for American Progress, just back from Afghanistan, suggested Karzai had miscalculated his nation’s strategic importance to Washington – and convinced himself that Obama would make further concessions because Washington is desperate to stay.

“It is not clear what he wants. I don’t know how you negotiate with him,” she said, adding that Washington needed to convince Karzai, “this is it, we are not doing this anymore.”Hmmmm.....My guess the 'related' story has more to do with Karzai's behavior.

Related:

U.S.-Afghan security deal not useful for Afghanistan says Iran 

Pakistan: Sharia law is back - Adulterers may face stoning in Afghanistan under new law.

Pakistan: Sharia law is back - Adulterers may face stoning in Afghanistan under new law.(ET).

KABUL: Afghanistan is considering bringing back stoning for adultery, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the justice ministry said on Monday, possibly restoring a punishment in force during the Taliban regime.

The penalty for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country’s penal code being considered by the ministry of justice.

Ashraf Azimi, the head of ministry’s criminal law department, confirmed to AFP that stoning to death is included in the draft. The draft provisions state that the “implementation of stoning shall take place in public in a predetermined location”. If the “adulterer or adulteress is unmarried”, the sentence shall be “whipping 100 lashes”.

“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand.”

Azimi told AFP the new law was less than halfway finished. “The ministry of justice is working on a law to punish those who commit adultery, robbery and alcohol-drinking according to Sharia law,” he said.Hmmm.....My heart go's out to all these women and children the West once gave hope and now abandon them to the dark ages.

Families suspect SEAL Team 6 crash was inside job.

Families suspect SEAL Team 6 crash was inside job.(WT).

Questions haunt the families of Extortion 17, the 2011 helicopter mission in Afghanistan that suffered the most U.S. military deaths in a single day in the war on terrorism.

The investigative file made available to The Washington Times shows that the helicopter’s landing zone was not properly vetted for threats nor protected by gunships, while commanders criticized the mission as too rushed and the conventional Chinook chopper as ill-suited for a dangerous troop infiltration.

Every day, Charlie Strange, the father of one of the 30 Americans who died Aug. 6, 2011, in the flash of a rocket-propelled grenade, asks himself whether his son, Michael, was set up by someone inside the Afghan government wanting revenge on Osama bin Laden’s killers — SEAL Team 6.

“Somebody was leaking to the Taliban,” said Mr. Strange, whose son intercepted communications as a Navy cryptologist. “They knew. Somebody tipped them off. There were guys in a tower. Guys on the bush line. They were sitting there, waiting. And they sent our guys right into the middle.”

Doug Hamburger’s son, Patrick, an Army staff sergeant, also perished when the CH-47D Chinook descended to a spot less than 150 yards from where armed Taliban fighters watched from a turret.

He asks why the command sent his son into Tangi Valley toward a “hot landing zone” in a cargo airship instead of a special operations helicopter. The souped-up choppers — the MH-47 and the MH-60 Black Hawk, which SEAL Team 6 rode the stealth version of to kill bin Laden — are flown by Night Stalker pilots skilled in fast, ground-hugging maneuvers to avoid detection.

“When you want to fly them into a valley, when you’ve got hillsides on both sides of it with houses built into sides of the valley, that is an extremely dangerous mission,” Mr. Hamburger said. “The MH, the new model, they’ve got radar that will pick up an incoming missile or incoming RPG. They’re faster. They’re quicker on attack. They’re more agile. So there was every reason in the world to use the MH that night.”

Sith Douangdara, whose 26-year-old son, John, was a Navy expeditionary specialist who handled warrior dog Bart, said he has lots of unanswered questions.

“I want to know why so many U.S. servicemen, especially SEALs, were assembled on one aircraft,” he said. “I want to know why the black box of the helicopter has not been found. I want to know many things.” Read the full story here.