An affordable price is probably the major benefit persuading people to buy drugs at www.americanbestpills.com. The cost of medications in Canadian drugstores is considerably lower than anywhere else simply because the medications here are oriented on international customers. In many cases, you will be able to cut your costs to a great extent and probably even save up a big fortune on your prescription drugs. What's more, pharmacies of Canada offer free-of-charge shipping, which is a convenient addition to all other benefits on offer. Cheap price is especially appealing to those users who are tight on a budget
Service Quality and Reputation
Although some believe that buying online is buying a pig in the poke, it is not. Canadian online pharmacies are excellent sources of information and are open for discussions. There one can read tons of users' feedback, where they share their experience of using a particular pharmacy, say what they like or do not like about the drugs and/or service. Reputable online pharmacy canadianrxon.com take this feedback into consideration and rely on it as a kind of expert advice, which helps them constantly improve they service and ensure that their clients buy safe and effective drugs. Last, but not least is their striving to attract professional doctors. As a result, users can directly contact a qualified doctor and ask whatever questions they have about a particular drug. Most likely, a doctor will ask several questions about the condition, for which the drug is going to be used. Based on this information, he or she will advise to use or not to use this medication.
One has to understand the FBI had serious domestic cases during the tenure of then Director Louis Freeh. No one was paying enough attention to counter-terrorism cases and the same could be said for the CIA. This link from a Penn State investigator and summarized by Reuters takes us back to the cases that consumed the Bureau and hence Saudi operatives were not on the priority mission set.
The 9/11 survivors and families are still in the fight to resolve the matter of complicity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. What does that look like yu ask? A big hat tip to investigative journalist Catherine Herridge for her work on interviews and documents, newly discovered that the 9/11 Commission either ignored or missed.
We are at a time where after 24 years, nothing should be redacted or embargoed.
Herridge reports: JUST IN: We have confirmed that the @FBIis aware of our new investigation that challenges the timeline of events surrounding the 9/11 attacks. We understand that our reporting today on the Saudi “Advance Team” will be reviewed for leads and the Bureau welcomes tips and information from 9/11 families.
BREAKING: Newly Declassified FBI/CIA Reports Reveal Two Saudi Government Employees “May Have Served As An Advance Team” For 9/11 Hijackers
These records challenge the official 9/11 narrative shifting the timeline back to December 1998, almost three years before al-Qaeda… pic.twitter.com/okSx1QNIi9
The new information includes that some hijackers entered the United States as early as 13 months prior to 9/11 as advanced teams. Additionally, two other nodes of operations include Missouri and Oklahoma.
So many conspiracies continue to float about how GW Bush shares guilt and split loyalties. The information Herridge covers actually should place guilt and split loyalties with then President Clinton and then FBI Director Louis Freeh and his lack of leadership but one must also look at Congress because the FBI had gone through a time of a hiring freeze.
The consequences of unreleased documents, lack of re-examining the evidence of work of the 9/11 Commission and more interviews is still a requirement. While almost 3000 died due to the attacks of that horrible day…more have perished since due to illnesses caused by working ground zero.
9/11 Families United have the following on their website which remain open questions and unresolved today.
An exceptional tactic….cell phones were too easily tracked, so an order was given to use pagers….the clandestine operatives went to ground on that order.
At its core, the AP-900 alphanumeric pager functions as a wireless communication device that receives messages via radio signals. / Photo: TRT World
Can the AP-900 Be Hacked?
Theoretically, yes, the AP-900 can be hacked, but it would require specialised knowledge and equipment, information from open sources show.
The most straightforward method of compromise would involve intercepting and decoding the radio signals.
Since pagers receive messages over radio frequencies, these signals can be intercepted by anyone with the right equipment.
Although the messages are encoded, they are not typically encrypted, meaning that an intercepted message can be easily decoded.
More sophisticated attacks could involve compromising the messaging infrastructure or physically tampering with the devices during distribution. source
The Iran-backed militant group blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. How the attack was executed is largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.
Here’s what we know so far.
Why were pagers used in the attack?
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group’s movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.
A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the exploded devices were from a new brand the group had not used before. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, did not identify the brand name or supplier.
Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, explains smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to the more simple technology of pagers.
This type of attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies, said Reese, who previously worked as an intelligence officer, adding that survivors of Tuesday’s explosions are likely to throw away “not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”
How could sabotage cause these pagers to explode?
With little disclosed from investigators so far, multiple theories have emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press suggest that the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.
Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal.
By the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery,” said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.
A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.
“A pager has three of those already,” explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”
After security camera footage appeared on social media Tuesday purporting to show one of the pagers explode on a man’s hip in a Lebanese market, two munitions experts also said that the blast appeared to be the result of a tiny explosive device.
“Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,” said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.
This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He adds that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.
N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, agreed that the scale and sophistication of the attack “almost certainly points to a state actor,” and that Israel had been accused of carrying out such operations in the past. Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.
How long was this operation?
It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.
The sophistication of the attack suggests that whoever is behind it has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese explained. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.
And it’s likely the compromised pagers seemed normal to their users for some time before the attack. Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst with over 37 years experience in the region, said he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of Tuesday’s pager attack. He said the pagers were procured more than six months ago.
“The pagers functioned perfectly for six months,” Magnier said. What triggered the explosion, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices.
Based on his conversations with Hezbollah members, Magnier also said that many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They came to the conclusion that between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.
What else could have happened?
Another possibility is that malware could have been inserted into the operating system of the pagers — somehow causing the device batteries to all overload at a specific time, causing them to burst into flame.
According to a Hezbollah official and Lebanese security officials, the pagers first heated up and then exploded in the pockets, or the hands, of those carrying them Tuesday afternoon.
These pagers run on lithium ion batteries, the Hezboolah official said, claiming the devices exploded as the result of being targeted from an Israeli “security operation,” without elaborating further.
When overheated, lithium ion batteries can smoke, melt and even catch on fire. Rechargeable lithium batteries are used in consumer products ranging from cellphones and laptops to electric cars. Lithium battery fires can burn up to 590 C (1,100 F).
Still, Moorhouse and others noted that images and video footage seen Tuesday more strongly resembled the detonation of small explosive charge, not an overheating battery.
“A lithium ion battery fire is one thing, but I’ve never seen one explode like that. It looks like a small explosive charge,” said Alex Plitsas, a weapons expert at the Atlantic Council.
Among those pointing to the likelihood of a supply chain attack is Jenzen-Jones, who adds that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting” — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.
“How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.
On the third anniversary of the disgusting withdraw from Afghanistan, the Taliban took the day to celebrate and host a parade at the former U.S. military base, Bagram. Not only does it remain humiliating but the parade includes helicopters including Blackhawks.
On and by the way….who was invited to attend? Yes…Chinese and Iranian officials.
There are likely no words from the veterans, the lost souls and the survivors that would express the emotions they feel. Remember this travesty as you are told that Kamala Harris was the last person in the room with Biden when this decision was delivered.
The Taliban are marking their third annual “victory” parade on August 14th, commemorating the day in 2021 when U.S. troops withdrew, leaving behind a significant amount of military equipment. pic.twitter.com/TPRJ4Jp8Zo
While the Associated Press barely mentioned the parade, at least Voice of America had to following:
Islamabad — The Islamist Taliban marked the third anniversary Wednesday of recapturing power in Afghanistan with a public holiday and a televised military parade at the former U.S.-run Bagram airbase, among other symbolic events.
The so-called “victory day” celebrations occurred amid ongoing global criticism of the Taliban government, known as the Islamic Emirate, for allegedly creating “the world’s most serious women’s rights crisis” and making impoverished Afghanistan the only country where girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade.
UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters fly during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, Aug. 14, 2024.
The ceremony at Bagram, around 40 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, featured a 21-gun salute and speeches from top Taliban leaders, with thousands of people in the male-only audience, including foreign diplomats.
The then-insurgent Taliban swept back to power on August 15, 2021, as the U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country after their involvement in the Afghan war for almost 20 years.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, inspects the honor guards during a military parade, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.
The Taliban’s prime minister, Hassan Akhund, stated in a message read by his chief of staff, “Allah granted the Mujahid nation of Afghanistan a decisive victory on this date over an international arrogant and occupying force.” Akhund, largely considered a figurehead, was absent from Wednesday’s event.
Akhund’s message said that the Taliban government “has the responsibility to maintain Islamic rule, protect property, people’s lives, and the honor of our nation.”
De facto Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani addressing the Bagram ceremony just outside Kabul Aug 14, 2024, to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Taliban takeover.
The de facto Taliban government, not formally recognized by any country, cited the national solar calendar for marking the anniversary of “Afghanistan’s victory and freedom” from the U.S.-led “occupation” a day early.
Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, wanted by the United States for terrorism with a $10 million bounty for his arrest, also addressed the Bagram event, urging global cooperation and engagement with the Taliban administration.
“My message to the international community is that there is no need for dismay over the fact that you took our independence, and we reclaimed it successfully,” Haqqani said, without naming any country.
“We do not want to hold anyone accountable. We have created favorable circumstances and have good intentions for them to cooperate with us in rebuilding Afghanistan, similar to how they helped during the occupation,” he said.
Haqqani ran his network of militants, staging high-profile suicide bombings and other deadly attacks in support of Taliban insurgents on American and NATO forces during their presence in the war-torn South Asian nation.
The Bagram parade was also an opportunity for the Taliban to showcase the military hardware, including tanks, helicopters, and Humvees, left behind by U.S. and NATO forces.
Taliban Military Vehicles are seen during a military parade to mark the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan, in Bagram Air Base, Aug. 14, 2024.
Taliban leaders boasted about their conquest and subsequent achievements, such as establishing “peace and security” and an Islamic system in line with their harsh interpretation of Islam, but none of them responded to allegations of human rights abuses, particularly their sweeping curbs on women’s rights. They did not discuss hardships facing millions of Afghans.
The United Nations and international aid agencies have ranked Afghanistan as one of the world’s “largest and most complex” humanitarian crises. They estimated that 23.7 million Afghans, more than half women and children, need humanitarian relief.
Aid groups: Afghanistan at risk of becoming ‘forgotten crisis’
A group of 29 U.N. experts Wednesday jointly called for “stronger and more effective” international action to address the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan.
“We stress that there should be no move to normalize the de facto authorities unless and until there are demonstrated, measurable, and independently verified improvements against human rights benchmarks, particularly for women and girls,” the Geneva-based experts said in a statement.
In a separate joint statement this week, international non-governmental organizations warned of a growing aid funding gap.
Speaking ahead of the three-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover, a top U.N. official on Tuesday urged the world to support Afghan women’s fight for freedom.
UN expert condemns Taliban ‘crimes’ against Afghan women, girls
“Three years’ worth of countless decrees, directives, and statements targeting women and girls – stripping them of their fundamental rights, eviscerating their autonomy,” Alison Davidian, the U.N. Women’s country representative in Afghanistan, said while sharing details of the latest survey.
She referred to religious edicts the reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has issued over the past three years to govern the crisis-hit country, most of them leading to restrictions on the freedom of Afghan women and girls. Akhundzada rarely leaves the southern city of Kandahar, regarded as the country’s de facto capital.
“To date, no woman in Afghanistan is in a leadership position anywhere that has influence politically at the national or provincial level. When Afghan women are engaged in the Taliban’s structures, their roles are largely about monitoring the compliance of other women with their discriminatory decrees,” Davidian told reporters in New York.
“We must continue to invest in women. Nothing undermines the Taliban’s vision for society more than empowering the very part of the population they seek to oppress,” she stressed.
Human Rights Watch reiterated its call for the global community to press the Taliban to remove curbs on women.
“The third anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover is a grim reminder of Afghanistan’s human rights crisis, but it should also be a call for action,” said Fereshta Abbasi, the U.S.-based watchdog’s Afghanistan researcher.
Taliban call on West to build deeper ties, ignore curbs on women
The Taliban have dismissed criticism of their government as interference in internal matters of Afghanistan, saying their policies are aligned with local culture and Islam.
Terrorism-related international sanctions on many top Taliban leaders, isolation of their administration, and continued suspension of foreign development aid have made it difficult for Kabul to address deepening economic troubles.
The World Bank reported in April that the aftermath of the Taliban takeover had seen a stark decline in international aid, leaving Afghanistan without any internal growth engines and leading to “a staggering 26 percent contraction in real GDP.”
The White House is planning to circulate a new memo on Capitol Hill defending President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and claiming the move strengthened national security by freeing up critical military and intelligence agents, according to a copy of the document obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The memo comes as many across Washington are still seeking answers about the flawed evacuation. Republicans in particular are planning to use the one-year anniversary to reexamine the failures that led to the Afghan capital swiftly falling into the hands of the Taliban.
Driving the news: The memo was written by National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson in part as an attempt to preempt criticism from Republicans who are releasing an interim report on Sunday outlining what they see as the failures of the administration’s preparations for the evacuation.
The GOP report, led by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the likely chair of the panel if Republicans take back the majority next year, claims the Biden administration left key decisions on how to evacuate civilians from Kabul until the final hours before the city fell to the Taliban.
“There was a complete lack and a failure to plan. There was no plan and there was no plan executed,” McCaul said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning.
Details: The memo argues the GOP report is “riddled with false claims” and puts the onus on former President Trump for striking a 2020 deal with the Taliban — known as the “Doha agreement” — to evacuate the U.S. from the region by May 2021.
***
While some Afghanis fled to Iran were offered immunity to return, the report to soon be released is in stern opposition to the Biden White House positive spin. And while often inviting Biden administration officials to participate, especially the U.S. State Department, none did.
Thousands of Afghan security personnel, including special forces troops, likely fled to Iran with U.S. equipment and military knowledge as their country fell to Taliban insurgents last year, according to a new report released by House Republican leaders on Monday.
The 119-page document accuses President Joe Biden’s administration of failing to adequately prepare for the evacuation of Afghan allies in the months leading up to the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in August 2021. This includes using just 36 consular officers to process more than 100,000 requests for evacuation.
The authors said their findings come from interviews with whistleblowers, previously unreleased State Department memos and interviews with individuals on the ground in Afghanistan in the days leading up to the withdrawal.
It does not include any direct testimony from senior administration officials, who have previously criticized Republicans’ work on the issue as politically motivated.
***
There is a somewhat accurate report published by GZERO…it reads as follows:
Contrary to the hopes of optimists, no “Taliban 2.0” has emerged. The regime hasn’t really reformed, and is as hardline as it was when it ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.
There is no constitution. Religious policing is back with a vengeance. The media is muzzled. And the recent US killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a Kabul enclave that houses senior members of the Haqqani Network — whose boss is the current interior minister — has confirmed the skeptics who thought the Taliban could or would never disassociate from international terrorism.
Financially, things are as bad as they can get. The economy has essentially collapsed under the weight of international isolation, sanctions, and aid cuts. It was so hooked to the war that six months after the American withdrawal, GDP fell by a third. Now, Afghanistan is near universal poverty and starvation.
Women and girls have had it the worst. Millions of them have found themselves out of school, out of jobs, and out of public life altogether. The Taliban’s supreme leader vetoed a government edict to let them back to class in March, a political development that underscores serious schisms within the regime’s conservative and moderate — by Taliban standards — elements.
On Sunday, on the eve of the re-establishment of the “Islamic Emirate,” a few brave women marched in a rare protest in Kabul. They were beaten and scared off by automatic gunfire.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that donors contributed $1.67 billion for Afghanistan humanitarian assistance programs in 2021. The United States contributed the largest amount, over $425 million. These amounts far exceeded previous years’ humanitarian assistance.
…On December 22, the Treasury Department broadened the types of activities authorized under U.S. licenses, and the UN Security Council established a UN sanctions exemption to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian and other forms of aid to Afghanistan.
On January 11, 2022, the White House announced an additional $308 million in U.S. humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. On that same day, the UN launched a $5 billion funding appeal for its 2022 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan, the largest single- country aid appeal in UN history.
On January 26, the UN announced an additional appeal for $3.6 billion as part of its Transitional Engagement Framework. In total, the framework calls for more than $8 billion in humanitarian and other aid for Afghanistan.
No one can really estimate what is really required at this point or what arrangements the U.S. and other outside powers can make to allocate such aid to the Taliban or any other successor government, but the current outlook of estimates – that are even as high as $8.6 billion – seem to ignore several critical aspects of the financing of the past Afghan central government and the impact of its spending on the Afghan people before it was defeated and collapsed.
Some 75% of all Afghan government spending came from aid. As SIGAR notes, “prior to the collapse of the Islamic Republic, international aid contributed to around 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP and 75% of public expenditures.5 Total government spending financed most of the modern sector of the Afghan economy except for hard currency earnings from the export of narcotics.
For political reasons, much of the economic data on Afghanistan did not include narcotics exports. However, UNDOC estimates that, “the gross output of the Afghan opiate economy was between $1.8 and $2.7 billion in 2021, comprising the equivalent of 9–14% of Afghanistan’s GDP and exceeding the value of all of Afghanistan’s officially recorded licit exports for 2020 (estimated at 9% of GDP).6
At one point, General Allen was the top commander in Afghanistan until he retired in 2013. Imagine his knowledge and work at the Brookings Institute since his retirement but more consider his influence of the Biden administration for his advocacy of Qatar, the small Middle East country that Obama designated for the embassy location for the Taliban. Has anyone asked General Allen about his collaboration with Biden on the exit of U.S. forces in Afghanistan? Did Allen even show any emotion for those soldiers killed in Kabul as the U.S. bailed out? Crickets….
Oh yeah…President Barack Obama appointed Allen as special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL but that did not work out at all until President Trump terminated ISIS. As a sidebar…former CIA chief…John Brennan is an advisor for the Brookings Institute.
If you read on, perhaps this explains it all.
The prestigious Brookings Institution placed its president, retired four-star Marine Gen. John Allen, on administrative leave Wednesday amid a federal investigation into his role in an illegal lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.
Brookings’ announcement came a day after The Associated Press reported on new court filings that show the FBI recently seized Allen’s electronic data as part of the probe and detailed his behind-the scenes efforts to help Qatar influence U.S. policy in 2017 when a diplomatic crisis erupted between the gas-rich monarchy and its neighbors.
Allen, who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan before being tapped to lead Brookings in late 2017, has not been charged with any crimes. His spokesman, Beau Phillips, said Wednesday that Allen had done nothing improper or unlawful.
“Through decades of public service in combat and diplomacy, General Allen has earned an unmatched, sterling reputation for honor and integrity,” Phillips said in a statement. “We look forward to correcting the falsehoods about General Allen that have been improperly publicized in this matter.”
Brookings told staffers in an email Wednesday that the institute itself is not under investigation and that the think tank’s executive vice president, Ted Gayer, will serve as acting president.
“We have every confidence in the Brookings team’s ability to remain focused on delivering quality, independence, and impact,” the email said.
Brookings pays Allen more than $1 million a year, according to its most recently available tax records. The email to staff did not say whether Allen would continue to be paid while on leave.
The federal investigation involving Allen has already ensnared Richard G. Olson, a former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan who pleaded guilty to federal charges last week, and Imaad Zuberi, a prolific political donor now serving a 12-year prison sentence on corruption charges. Several members of Congress have also been interviewed.
An FBI agent said in an affidavit in support of a search warrant there was “substantial evidence” that Allen had knowingly broken a foreign lobbying law, and had made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents.
Allen’s behind-the-scenes work involved traveling to Qatar and meeting with the country’s top officials to offer them advice on how to influence U.S. policy, as well as promoting Qatar’s point of view to top White House officials and Congress, according to the FBI affidavit.
The Qatar Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brookings is one of the most influential think thanks in the U.S. and has long had strong ties to Qatar. In 2007, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed to fund a Brookings-backed offshoot in Qatar called the Brookings Doha Center.
The Qatari government said in a 2012 news release that the center’s role included “reflecting the bright image of Qatar in the international media, especially the American ones,” according to a New York Times report that showed Qatar had given Brookings $14.4 million in donations over a four-year span.
As a nonprofit, Brookings does not have to disclose its donations but it voluntarily discloses some data. Its annual reports show Qatar giving at least $2 million a year from 2016 to 2021. More here from AP
