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An interagency delegation of U.S. officials met this weekend with senior representatives with the Taliban and called the two-day meeting in Doha “candid and professional,” a statement from the State Department obtained by Fox News read.
The meetings covered a lot of ground and ranged from terrorism concerns to human rights in the country. The statement said the delegation also called for the safe passage for U.S. citizens and others in the country.
The U.S. delegation—once again—told the Taliban that they will be judged on their actions, not only their words, Ned Price, the spokesman, said.
Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the Associated Press there would be no cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
IS has taken responsibility for a number of recent attacks, including a suicide bombing Friday that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens as they prayed in a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz.
Last month, the White House said there is “no rush” to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, saying that recognition from the U.S. will be “dependent” on their actions, as the group announced the formation of its new government.
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Afghanistan’s state power company has appealed to a United Nations-led mission to give $90 million to settle unpaid bills to Central Asian suppliers before electricity gets cut off for the country given that the three-month deadline for payments has passed. source
(AP) — A month after the fall of Kabul, the world is still wrestling with how to help Afghanistan’s impoverished people without propping up their Taliban leaders — a question that grows more urgent by the day.
With the Afghan government severed from the international banking system, aid groups both inside Afghanistan and abroad say they are struggling to get emergency relief, basic services and funds to a population at risk of starvation, unemployment and the coronavirus after 20 years of war.
Among the groups struggling to function is a public health nonprofit that paid salaries and purchased food and fuel for hospitals with contributions from the World Bank, the European Union and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The $600 million in funds, which were funneled through the Afghan Health Ministry, dried up overnight after the Taliban took over the capital.
Now, clinics in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost Province no longer can afford to clean even as they are beset with COVID-19 patients, and the region’s hospitals have asked patients to purchase their own syringes, according to Organization for Health Promotion and Management’s local chapter head Abdul Wali.
“All we do is wait and pray for cash to come,” Wali said. “We face disaster, if this continues.”
Donor countries pledged during a United Nations appeal this week to open their purse strings to the tune of $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid. But attempts by Western governments and international financial institutions to deprive the Taliban-controlled government of other funding sources until its intentions are clearer also has Afghan’s most vulnerable citizens hurting.
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union suspended financing for projects in Afghanistan, and the United States froze $7 billion in Afghan foreign reserves held in New York. Foreign aid to Afghanistan previously ran some $8.5 billion a year — nearly half of the country’s gross domestic product.
China has been an aggressor when it comes to Taiwan. The two nations have had separate governments since 1949 but under Chinese President Xi, he is determined to have full dominion over the small island nation. Major threats have been prevalent in recent years by China and President Trump took action more than a year ago.
In the last few days, more than 150 Chinese aircraft have challenged Taiwan airspace by flying into the Taiwan Air Defense Zone.
On October 1, China’s National Day, two waves of aircraft flew near Taiwan’s airspace; the first maneuver included 25 jets, and the second one involved an additional 13 planes. In total, the aerial flotilla included 28 Shenyang J-16 multirole fighters, six Russian-made Su-30 multirole fighters, two Xian H-6 long-range bombers, one Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, and one Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft.
And then there were more in the days following.
Yet, Taiwan did respond.
Taiwan’s air force is trained to resist invasion, including operating from strips of highway if air bases are rendered inoperable.
Twitter/ROC Ministry of Defense
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The Trump administration is said to be encouraging Taipei to purchase dozens of F-16s, a sale that, like other major arms deals, would require congressional approval. The last time the United States sold these fighter jets to Taiwan was 1992. If the sale goes through, it would mark another departure from the Obama administration, which declined to sell the jets to avoid escalating tensions with Beijing. But experts say a sale would be put on hold until after the United States seals a trade deal with China.
WSJ: A U.S. special-operations unit and a contingent of Marines have been secretly operating in Taiwan to train military forces there, U.S. officials said, part of efforts to shore up the island’s defenses as concern regarding potential Chinese aggression mounts.
About two dozen members of U.S. special-operations and support troops are conducting training for small units of Taiwan’s ground forces, the officials said. The U.S. Marines are working with local maritime forces on small-boat training. The American forces have been operating in Taiwan for at least a year, the officials said.
The U.S. special-operations deployment is a sign of concern within the Pentagon over Taiwan’s tactical capabilities in light of Beijing’s yearslong military buildup and recent threatening moves against the island.
The special-operations unit and the Marine contingent are a small but symbolic effort by the U.S. to increase Taipei’s confidence in building its defenses against potential Chinese aggression. Current and former U.S. government officials and military experts believe that deepening ties between U.S. and Taiwan military units is better than simply selling Taiwan military equipment.
The U.S. has sold Taiwan billions of dollars of military hardware in recent years, but current and former officials believe Taiwan must begin to invest in its defense more heavily, and smartly.
“Taiwan badly neglected its national defense for the first 15 years or so of this century, buying too much expensive equipment that will get destroyed in the first hours of a conflict, and too little in the way of cheaper but lethal systems—antiship missiles, smart sea mines and well-trained reserve and auxiliary forces—that could seriously complicate Beijing’s war plans,” said Matt Pottinger, a distinguished visiting fellow at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution who served as a deputy national security adviser during the Trump administration.
The Pentagon knows for sure and is not talking or doing any reporting. We have advanced technology to see the activity at Bagram including GeoSpatial systems. Anyone asking the right questions? Not so far but read on.
Ah, but the Taliban denies this story…of course they do as does the Chinese Foreign Minister.
Chinese ‘military’ aircraft landed in Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, said the Daily Mail on Sunday.
The UK newspaper’s report was based on its own sources, noting that power was restored in the airbase the US left in July.
The Daily Mail said unconfirmed reports suggest that the Chinese forces are the ones who “occupied the former US stronghold.”
The Daily Mail also noted that many military aircraft had been seen taking off and landing in the airbase, as images and videos circulating on social media show its floodlights in the distance amid reports of flights.
China, a country bordering Afghanistan, accused the United States of “leaving chaos” behind in Afghanistan after withdrawing from the country. This comes especially after scenes of civilians attempting to escape through the Kabul airport as the US was evacuating its nationals and embassy staff went viral.
A Chinese government spokesperson later declared that China was ready to enhance cooperation with Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country.
In July, ahead of the US withdrawal, a Taliban delegation met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and the Taliban pledged that Afghan territories would not be used to undermine the security of other countries. In return, China offered economic support and investments to rebuild the country torn by the 20-year US-NATO war on it.
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The Taliban has already begun talking up plans for cooperation with Beijing.
A Taliban spokesman told an Italian newspaper that Afghanistan’s new rulers will rely primarily on financing from China as it seeks to head off a looming humanitarian crisis and begin reconstruction.
‘China is our most important partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us, because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,’ Zabihullah Mujahid told La Repubblica in an interview.
He also praised the New Silk Road – part of the Belt and Road Initiative that China is using to open up trade routes – and said Beijing investment could help reopen copper mines.
A report suggests China’s deployment might not be coming for another two years and it would not involve them taking over the base, merely sending personnel at the Taliban’s invite.
China likely achieve its latest ambitions for Bagram through help from Pakistan, Sun says, adding, ‘I am sure they would like to cut out the middleman,’ she added. ‘If the Taliban requests Chinese assistance, I think China will be inclined to send human support. Most likely, they will frame it as technical support or logistic support.’ source
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In late September –
Chinese Delegation Visits Bagram Airbase: As soon as America is out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and China are showing their interest in almost every matter related to this country. A few days before the announcement of the interim government of the Taliban, Faiz Hameed, the chief of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, arrived in Kabul. Now the news has come that the Chinese delegation has visited the Bagram airbase last week. This airbase was Afghanistan’s largest military base for the US during the war that lasted for two decades. It is also considered strategically very important.
According to a media report, this Chinese delegation included senior intelligence and military officials (Chinese Delegation at Bagram Airbase). It is not yet clear why they visited the airbase, but they are believed to have come here allegedly “to gather evidence and data against the US”. According to sources, it seems that China is developing a ‘facility’ here in collaboration with Taliban and Pakistan to keep an eye on Uyghur Muslims living in its Xinjiang province.
Chinese officials who came through Pakistan
The report quoted sources as saying that the most interesting thing during this period was that instead of landing at Kabul airport, Chinese officials came here via Pakistan. The arrival of Chinese officials to Bagram airbase is also a matter of concern for India (China Bagram Airfield). The report quoted senior government sources as saying, “We are confirming the news of the arrival of the Chinese group here. This is very serious… If they establish a base here with Pakistan, they will encourage terrorist activities and create instability in the region.
Earlier this month, Pakistan ISI Chief Faiz Hameed met the intelligence chiefs of Russia, China, Iran and Tajikistan. During this, Hameed informed them about the Taliban government of Afghanistan and the changes that took place there. Hameed allegedly spewed a lot of venom against India as well (Taliban Afghanistan Government). At the same time, in the internal government formed by the Taliban with the Haqqani network, terrorists have been placed in high positions. This government was announced about three days after Hameed’s visit. Talking about China, it is the first country that has established diplomatic contacts with Afghanistan after the occupation of Taliban.
Several lawsuits have challenged the current law, alleging it’s discriminatory and unconstitutional. The Supreme Court declined to hear a suit brought by the National Coalition for Men challenging the male-only draft in June.
Last year, a committee created by Congress recommended that women be included in the draft and in 2019 a federal Texas judge ruled that the all-male draft is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court passed on a case questioning whether the draft is constitutional last month on the grounds that the issue would soon be addressed by Congress.
“I actually think if we want equality in this country, if we want women to be treated precisely like men are treated and that they should not be discriminated against, we should be willing to support a universal conscription,” said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), chair of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. Speier tried to persuade the House to include the provision in 2017.
Analysis published by the Pew Research Center in 2019 shows than fewer than one-third of the world’s countries draft people into militaries. Of 60 countries found with active conscription programs, only 11 were confirmed to draft men and women. source
Source: The congressional debate about “Draft Our Daughters” legislation—whether Selective Service should include young women in registration for a possible future draft—has taken a new and disturbing turn.
For clarity, consider President Joe Biden’s unilateral imposition of unprecedented COVID shot mandates on millions of Americans. Signing executive orders affecting private employers and individuals without congressional authorization, Biden announced with a grimace, “This is not about freedom or personal choice.”
Even for vaccination advocates, Biden’s use of a public health emergency to expand big government power smacks of tyranny. Now consider this: What if Congress authorized even more executive power for use during another type of emergency—one involving national defense?
We could find out, too late, if Congress approves a pending defense bill that would authorize Selective Service registration of both men and women for reasons that have never justified conscription before.
On September 1, five misguided Republicans joined with all but one Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee to approve an amendment that Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pennsylvania, sponsored for addition to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2022.
The Houlahan amendment would authorize Selective Service registration and possible conscription of all “citizen(s),” including women, “[To ensure] adequate personnel with the requisite capabilities to meet the mobilization needs of the Department of Defense during a national emergency and not solely to provide combat replacements” (emphasis added).
This is a blank check that the full Congress must not sign. If enacted in law, Pentagon bureaucrats would be empowered to interpret and stretch the open-ended provision beyond anyone’s expectations or imagination. The fact that such a radical, unjustified change is being made without hearings, public debate, or informed national discussion is unconscionable.
There are few reasons the federal government may restrict personal freedom. From World War I until today, the purpose of a Selective Service draft always has been to provide replacements for soldiers fallen in battle during a nation-threatening war.
The goal is military readiness, not “equity” between the sexes. The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of this limited purpose, which the Houlahan amendment would acknowledge for the first time by summarily erasing it.
Even with the new language, however, nothing would preclude a draft to conscript equal numbers of minimally qualified men and women to fight in a future war. Persons in the Selective Service pool would be sent to units where the need is greatest, such as the infantry.
Induction of women for purposes of “equity” would jam the induction system and slow mobilization due to physical differences that are not going to change. According to scientific research done by the Marine Corps, men are stronger, faster, less likely to be injured, and more likely to complete combat missions.
Ignoring the disconnect between egalitarian theories and physical realities could cost lives and weaken national defense at the worst possible time. More complications could ensue because, as we have seen in recent months, “national emergency” is an ill-defined term.
Biden Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, for example, has redefined Defense Department needs to include “climate change.” Austin also began his term in office with military-wide stand-downs to obsess about “extremism” in the ranks with a “woke” bias against non-minorities.
Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley and Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday have vigorously defended divisive and demoralizing “critical race theory” (CRT) instructions and reading lists. In addition, all branches of the service are pursuing racial and gender quotas in pursuit of “Diversity as a strategic imperative.”
The Houlahan language is broad and elastic. Selective Service for purposes separated from combat would justify almost anything to meet Defense Department “emergency needs.” Unelected, faceless Pentagon bureaucrats could cite such a law to pursue more social agendas and to establish nationwide, mandatory databases collecting all sorts of personal and private information from young men and women between the ages of 18 and 26.
Houlahan’s redefinition of Selective Service is not out of the blue. It repeats word-for-word Section 401 (Title IV) of the grandiose “Inspire to Serve Act,” which the $45 million, three-year National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service set forth in its 2020 Final Report.
The commission’s 388-page Legislative Annex recommended that the purpose of Selective Service be changed to something other than “combat replacements” –– the phrase used in a U.S. Senate report that the Supreme Court upheld as constitutional in its 1981 Rostker v. Goldberg landmark decision.
Such a change would be an incremental, possibly irreversible step in the direction of Universal National Service, coordinated by the commission’s recommended Council on Military, National and Public Service. This cabinet-level council would be empowered to commandeer the lives of young people, employing a combination of financial carrots and punitive sticks, for purposes of the government’s choice.
This is not about freely chosen volunteer activities in one’s own community. Congress is about to pass a monumental change with no thought given to what the blank check would cost America in terms of personal freedom and a strong national defense.
Congress must apply the brakes. There is no compelling reason to “Draft Our Daughters,” since we know women have always volunteered to serve and will do so again. This is a matter of national security, not “men’s rights” or “women’s rights.”
As leading pro-defense and pro-family groups have stated in a united message to Congress, the National Commission disregarded credible research discrediting the theory that great numbers of average female draftees would be the physical equals of average male draftees.
The commission did not make the case for changing the purpose of Selective Service, or for its imperious plans to replace Americans’ Presumption of Freedom with a Presumption of Service directed by Big Government. Instead of rubber-stamping an unprecedented expansion of bureaucratic power, Congress should reject blank-check Draft Our Daughters legislation and show true respect for women by taking this issue seriously.
The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favorable to China.
At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.
China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.
How about APT 40 (Advanced Persistent Threat) published by CISA? Can we really safeguard our trade secrets, intellectual property and infrastructure from the Chinese cyber war? Did General Milley discuss any of this in any other phone calls with his Chinese Communist Party counterpart?
China hacked Microsoft. Chinese hacking goes back several years. How about NASA, the World Bank, the State Department (East Asia Division), the Commerce Department, the Naval War College or the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter program?
Remember when President Obama removed all CIA operatives from China? That was because the Chinese military was killing our operatives in country. How did they know?
The discovery of U.S. spy networks in China fueled a decadelong global war over data between Beijing and Washington.
Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Chinese operatives began in some cases as soon as the CIA officers had cleared passport control. Sometimes, the surveillance was so overt that U.S. intelligence officials speculated that the Chinese wanted the U.S. side to know they had identified the CIA operatives, disrupting their missions; other times, however, it was much more subtle and only detected through U.S. spy agencies’ own sophisticated technical countersurveillance capabilities.
More than a thousand visiting researchers from China working at US universities have left the country since the summer, according to John Demers, chief of the Department of Justice’s national security division. This exodus comes as the Department of Justice has intensified its investigations of espionage by scientists at US institutions who are secretly affiliated with the Chinese government or military.
This summer, the Department of Justice has had at least five researchers from China arrested. They all had US visas but hadn’t disclosed their affiliations with the Chinese Communist party or military in their visa applications, Demers explained at a 2 December virtual summit of the Aspen Institute, a global non-profit think tank based in Washington DC. Those handful of arrests were ‘just the tip of the iceberg’, Demers stated.
‘Between those five or six arrests, and the dozens of interviews that the [FBI] did with individuals who were here under similar circumstances … more than 1000 [People’s Liberation Army]-affiliated Chinese researchers left the country,’ he claimed.
It appears that those departures were in addition to about a thousand Chinese graduate and postgraduate students whose visas were revoked by the State Department back in September under a ‘proclamation’ announced by outgoing President Trump. That directive prohibited individuals from studying or conducting research in the US if they were found to have links with the Chinese government or its military.
Bill Evanina, the US government’s top counterintelligence official, said at the summit that of the 1000-plus Chinese researchers who left the US he is ‘most concerned about the graduate-level students’. These researchers all came to the US ‘at the behest of the Chinese government and intelligence services’, and are going to particular universities to study specific fields that are expected to benefit China, he claimed.
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CHICAGO (WLS) — The spy case against a former U.S. Army reservist and student at Illinois Institute of Technology wasn’t a one-man espionage show, according to federal investigators.
Ji Chaoqun’s federal court appearance in Chicago on Thursday is routine, in an anything-but-normal case. Chaoqun is charged against the backdrop of a possibly wider Chinese scheme to siphon intelligence information overseas.
Chaoqun and a similarly-accused spyman in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared the same foreign connection according to authorities, what’s known in intelligence circles as a “handler.” That link is pointed out in federal court records examined by the I-Team.
Chinese national Chaoqun, 30, is charged with providing intelligence officials in China with background check information on eight American citizens including defense contractors, federal investigators say. He had arrived in Chicago in 2013 with a student visa to study electrical engineering at IIT on the South Side but since being arrested has been locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in the Loop for allegedly violating America’s Foreign Agents Registration Act.
In the Cincinnati case, Yanjun Xu is being held on charges he tried to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation, the giant military contractor and manufacturer. Xu, 40, is accused of downloading GE Aviation records onto his personal laptop and then smuggling them on a flight to China. As part of the charged scheme, federal authorities said Xu had posed as a technology association official and invited a GE Aviation employee to travel to China for a presentation. Xu became the first suspected Chinese intelligence official ever extradited to the U.S. He was arrested in Belgium and is now being detained at the federal penitentiary in Milan, Michigan.
So, what’s the connection between Cincinnati’s Xu and Chicago’s Chaoqun? While there is no indication the men were actual associates, commiserated in crime, or even ever met, the alleged link is buried in a Chicago court file.
Chaoqun’s criminal complaint cites a “clandestine and overt human source collection” used by Chinese officials to recruit spies and gather stolen intelligence.
“Chinese intelligence services conduct extensive overt, covert, and clandestine intelligence collection operations against U.S. national security entities, including private U.S. defense companies, through a network of agents within and outside of China,” states FBI Special Agent Andrew K. McKay.
According to the FBI, Chaoqun and Xu shared the very same covert, Chinese handler. U.S. authorities say the Chinese man assigned to secretly oversee both assignments, met with each alleged operative separately. They would get together in secret locations, frequently hotel rooms, but for the same alleged purpose: provide “information as a benefit to the Chinese government.”
Did General Milley discuss of of this with Li Zuocheng? Remember it is said that China was a little rattled at the potential instability of the United States and needed hand holding before and after the election of 2020 and the January 6 chaos in Washington DC. Seems, we Americans need hand holding from the woke Joint Chiefs of Staff and Pelosi.
Calls are routine? But the subject matter is hardly routine much less loyal to the homeland and the Constitution. Greg Nash
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler on Wednesday confirmed that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley called his Chinese counterparts after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol but said those calls were routine.
Butler said in a statement that Milley “regular communicates with Chiefs of Defense around the world, including China and Russia. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.”
The statement comes in response to reports that a forthcoming book says Milley once told his Chinese counterpart that he would give a heads up before any attack on China by the U.S.
“You and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” Milley said, according to an excerpt from a new book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and The Washington Post’s Robert Costa.
“All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency,” Butler said in Wednesday’s statement.
Greg Nash