General Milley is captured on camera lauding the brutal, oppressive, genocidal regime.

General Mark Milley – who participated in secret phone calls with Chinese military leaders while pledging to not carry out then-President Donald Trump’s orders – revealed he “hesitates” to call China an enemy, insisting he trusts the Chinese Communist Party to be forthright with its military ambitions in remarks unearthed by The National Pulse.

Milley – who used a treasonous backchannel to inform Chinese Communist Party officials that he would alert them ahead of U.S. military actions – divulged his view of the regime while speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Land Warfare Conference in 2017.

“I would hesitate to call China an enemy. Some would say adversary. Others would say enemy. Some would say hostile. I think they are what the slide implies.”

– General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2017

The slide referenced by Milley reads: “The Modernisation of Land Forces to Deliver Land Power Decisively in an Era of Constant Competition.”

“They’re a competitor and the competition between the United States and China has a military dimension to it, but that is a far cry and that’s a long leap between that and enemy,” he added, before concluding, “there is a lot of time between now and any time the United States and China would become quote-on-quote an enemy where armed conflict were to be pursued.”

RUSI, an establishment British think-tank, summarized Milley’s speech by noting “China and the United States are competitors, not enemies” in a tweet from the event.

Gen Milley at #RUSILWC; China and the United States are competitors, not enemies. But, that competition does have a military aspect.

— RUSI (@RUSI_org) June 27, 2017

Speaking about his worldview regarding China, Milley admitted “that is a construct, though, that we use, that I use within the United States Army” at the event which he noted had Chinese Communist Party military officers in attendance.

MUST READ:  EXC: Biden’s National Security Council China Director Is Former Fellow At Chinese State-Funded Group Advising Communist Officials Sanctioned For Human Rights Abuses.

“There’s a lot of commonality, areas of common interest.”

In addition to his rejection of the belief that the Chinese Communist Party is not an enemy of the United States, Milley also reveals he takes the regime “at their word” concerning their military ambitions:

The Chinese military is clearly and unambiguously developing a very modern, capable military. Why are they doing that? The Chinese have their own reasons, but they have clearly published it in unclassified documents. I believe them. I take them at their word. I believe the declaratory policy, that they want to assert themselves and be a co-equal partner with the United States on the global scene and they want to dominate the region in general and assert their historical rights.

The Chinese Communist Party has run influence operations across the United States and Europe for decades, culminating in the bribery of public officials, as well as outright propaganda successes.

WATCH: Gen. Milley’s Shocking Admission About ‘Commonalities’ With the Chinese Communist Party. (thenationalpulse.com)

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) wants the U.S. military to be more focused on “readiness, not wokeness” and hopes to put an end to “dangerous and divisive” critical race theory being taught to service men and women.

Earlier this week, Buck submitted an amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which specifies the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense, regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion practices being mandated at the DOD, when it comes to employment training.

Buck is just one of many GOP lawmakers who oppose critical race theory (CRT) over fears that peddling the Marxist theory to service members will only serve to reduce both their cohesion and combat effectiveness when it comes to fighting real threats facing America, such as those posed by terrorist groups. 

Critical race theory redefines human history as a struggle between the “oppressors”—typically white people—and the “oppressed”—other identity groups—similar to Marxism’s reduction of history to a struggle between the “bourgeois” and the “proletariat.”

CRT adherents generally believe that America is systemically racist and that racial oppression exists and that institutions that emerged in majority-white societies are racist and “white supremacist.” The theory has slowly expanded in recent decades through academia, government structures, school systems, and the corporate world.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, congressman Buck said he believes CRT—which has become more of a central focus following the death of George Floyd while in police custody on May 25, 2020— has “no place” within the U.S. military, calling it “dangerous and divisive”.

“I think that there are political theories that are being espoused in this country, such as critical race theory, that are dangerous, and divisive and have no place in the military,” he said.

“If we want to have those discussions in the private sphere, in the marketplace of ideas, we can certainly have those discussions, but to require members of the military to be trained in critical race theory and to have inclusion and diversity officers in the Department of Defense, I think undermines the necessary discipline that we need in our military to conduct business.”

Advocates of CRT, such as Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have defended its teachings among the U.S. military, saying that he wants to “understand white rage” and that it’s important for military members to be “open-minded and be widely read”.

But Buck disagrees with this sentiment, and says the military should instead be focusing their attention on “winning wars” and not spending hours and hours being trained on “social issues”.

“Any time we require hours and hours of training on diversity, inclusion, and other areas, we take away from the time that our troops are actually engaged in the activities that that will save their lives, the training is so important to them,” the congressman said.

“I can remember talking to a general several years ago, and the Obama administration required more hours of training in a particular month than the service members worked in that month,” Buck said.

“In other words, more than 40 hours a week they were expected to be in this type of diversity training, and not in the field practicing and training for why they joined the military.”

Buck noted that placing too much of a burden on teaching social issues to military members can also actually widen the divide between Americans based on their race, among other things, which in turn “takes away from the cohesion that is necessary to create a unified fighting force.”

“It reduces our ability for military preparedness for all threats out there — China, which is the greatest threat to this country’s security,” he said while adding Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups that present a threat to the United States.

Cathy He contributed to this report. 

Plenty of people have pointed out what went wrong in Afghanistan, but far too few people have asked who should now be held accountable for this national disgrace.

The debacle in Afghanistan should be setting off alarm bells in Washington. We surrendered the country that we’d been defending to a seventh century tribe, which had endured immense casualties and was unable to defeat the United States on the battlefield. But the Taliban was able to defeat America politically and psychologically.

In a healthy country, the Taliban takeover would be a real crisis—one that causes a fundamental rethinking within the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community about how they’ve been operating.

How can we have spent 20 years, thousands of lives, and trillions of dollars and then lose to a band of medieval thugs with no air force? This is the kind of question the generals, diplomats, and analysts should be asking in the halls of government.

It’s troubling how unphased many of our leaders appear to be, especially the principals of the Biden administration. What they don’t seem to understand—or perhaps worse, don’t recognize the importance of—is that what happened in Afghanistan isn’t just about Afghanistan.

China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, other jihadists—they’re all taking note of what’s transpired over the past several weeks. The world now sees America as completely unreliable. We need to show that we’re both reliable and dangerous.

Accountability is absolutely crucial to come to grips with how big a problem this is and to reestablish respect among allies and enemies. The leaders who, through their shameless incompetence, threw away two decades of sacrifice in a matter of days, left Americans behind enemy lines, betrayed our Afghan allies, and left Afghanistan to reemerge as a terrorist haven must be held responsible.

Someone who’s trying to hold these people accountable is retired Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle, a decorated veteran who first entered the Army in 1969. Currently, Arbuckle is the founder and spokesperson of Flag Officers 4 America, an organization of retired military officers dedicated to supporting and defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Flag Officers 4 America just organized an open letter from retired generals and admirals regarding Afghanistan. The letter, signed by Arbuckle and 160-plus retired military leaders, demands accountability for the botched withdrawal and for both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to resign for their handling of the situation.

Arbuckle told me why he wrote the letter and analyzed the scene in Afghanistan last week on my podcast, “Newt’s World.” As the general explained, this was a difficult decision, but accountability is a foundational principle of the military. President Biden’s military advisers knew the fiasco that would ensue by not extending the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline. When Biden decided to push ahead with his plan, Arbuckle said, Austin and Milley had two choices: resign in protest or follow the order and take responsibility for the outcome.

Unfortunately, no one is taking responsibility—not Biden, not Austin, not Milley. And the nation will suffer as a result, with its leaders refusing to learn lessons from their failures. This should be unacceptable to the American people.

For those interested, Flag Officers 4 America recently partnered with the Committee to Support and Defend so that civilians and veterans who are non-flag officers can also have a voice and sign onto similar letters to the one organized by Arbuckle.

As Arbuckle and I discuss, with our military leadership focusing on critical race theory rather than warfighting, the country is in trouble. Holding leaders accountable is the first step to getting us back on track—and earning back the respect of the rest of the world that was lost in Afghanistan.

From Gingrich360.com.

Time to Hold Our Leaders Accountable for Afghanistan Fiasco (theepochtimes.com)

Credit Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) with posing the critical question during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Sept. 14 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

After declaring he was not speaking on a partisan basis and that “there is not enough lipstick in the world to put on this pig (the Afghanistan withdrawal),” Risch asked a nervous Blinken: “Who is responsible? Who made the decisions on this? Was it the president of the United States?”

“Ultimately, the president makes the decisions,” Blinken replied. He quickly added a string of qualifications. “Hundreds and thousands of decisions …,” Blinken opined, “… go into a situation as complex as this one.” The president makes “big strategic decisions,” but “tactical and operational decisions are made by different agencies, agency heads and agency officials.”

Risch is the committee’s ranking minority member. He didn’t need to hear a truism-packed sermon on trickle-down bureaucratic decision-making calculated to appear to take responsibility without really doing so. But that’s what he got.

As I scanned a transcript of his testimony, I noticed Blinken sidestepped discussing decisions (made by unnamed individuals) that on-the-ground action in Afghanistan had proved to be utterly wrongheaded and destructive.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Blinken that if he were just reading Blinken’s prepared testimony, then he would think the withdrawal “was a smashing success. But I do read the news, as most Americans do, and we realize this is a complete debacle … what concerns me the most … is the detachment from reality …”

In the Biden administration, political “optics” overrule reality. Blinken repeats, with premeditation, the Biden administration’s most grievous strategic error: focusing on managing political perception instead of executing policy actions that address on-the-ground facts.

On Aug. 31, Reuters confirmed that harsh truth when it published the July 23 telephone exchange between Biden and Afghan then-President Ashraf Ghani. Biden told Ghani that “… the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan … is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

Biden knew his poorly planned and incompetently executed withdrawal was failing, but perhaps he could fool the public. Now Blinken continues to wage perception warfare against American citizens, attempting to hide a planning failure that amounts to dereliction of duty.

The debacle’s principal component was a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO). By U.S. doctrine the State Department serves as the lead agency in a NEO. However, withdrawal from a combat zone requires military forces to maintain security, which means the State and Defense Departments must constantly coordinate with allies in planning the evacuation and in all phases of its execution. Moreover, in a complex situation like Afghanistan, the U.S. president must be willing to send military reinforcements to respond to surprises—like unanticipated enemy attacks.

An experienced planner can sketch a basic NEO plan in 10 minutes, one designed to set conditions favorable to a successful evacuation.

The following are some of the key elements. Identify and secure evacuation corridors. In a landlocked territory (like Afghanistan), secure multiple airports, even if that means temporarily sending in more troops. Stock the air bases with food and medical supplies. Alert and begin staging airlift assets, to include commercial and contract aircraft. State Department consular teams (protected by security units if necessary) seek out American citizens. The State Department surges Special Immigrant Visa processing and arranges for third-country safe havens for SIV and noncitizen evacuees. What processing cannot occur in-country, safe havens can handle.

Many of these suboperations could have begun April 14, the day Biden gave the withdrawal order.

Common-sense advice: Don’t set firm dates for completing the evacuation if you can avoid it—tipping off the enemy is a bad idea. Withdraw security forces based on the threat. As the evacuation nears completion, the military begins to “shrink the perimeter” while maintaining punitive strike-back capability.

The sad thing is the United States has the institutional resources and experience to conduct a successful evacuation. But the tragic results tell us Biden administration senior leaders had no clue how to organize them, much less use them.

Biden Administration Strategic Errors Led to Afghan Debacle (theepochtimes.com)

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) is hoping to dismantle the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) influence on American academic institutions through Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes.

The congressman earlier this week submitted an amendment (pdf) to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a massive defense bill that authorizes spending levels for defense, seeking to bar the use of funds from the legislation to provide grants to “any academic institution that receives funding from the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Government or its affiliates, or hosts a Confucius Institute.”

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Buck described Confucius Institutes as “an avenue for the Chinese government to spread propaganda on U.S. campuses.”

“The propaganda is misleading and untruthful,” he added. “We as a government should not be funding institutions of higher education that are using and allowing Chinese propaganda to be spread.”

Billed as Chinese language and culture programs, Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes have drawn heightened criticism in the United States over their role in promoting CCP propaganda and stifling academic freedoms on American college campuses. The State Department during the Trump administration designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center as a foreign mission in recognition of its role as a propaganda agent of the Chinese regime.

Trump administration officials and lawmakers have also piled pressure on universities to disassociate from the institutes, resulting in dozens of closures across the country. There are currently 36 Confucius Institutes in the United States, down from more than 100 in 2017, according to the National Association of Scholars.

“My hope is that the universities will shut down the propaganda machines of one of our adversaries,” Buck said.

The measure was one of four NDAA amendments submitted by Buck to the House Rules Committee due for consideration on Sept. 20, before the bill moves to the House floor.

The congressman, in another proposed amendment, is pushing for a ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from being downloaded onto U.S. government devices.

“The threat is that the Chinese Communist Party … can use TikTok to gather sensitive information about Americans,” Buck said.

The Trump administration had attempted to ban TikTok last August, saying that the app could be used by the CCP to spy on Americans, but the order was never enforced due to several court orders. President Joe Biden revoked the ban in June, instead directing the Commerce Department to a review of apps with ties to the Chinese regime for national security risks. TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has denied allegations that the app poses an espionage risk.

Buck also wants Congress to take a stronger stance against the CCP’s sweeping human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in a network of internment camps.

The current version of the House’s NDAA condemns the CCP’s actions in Xinjiang, but does not label it a genocide. Buck is hoping to change this.

“The term genocide is used in a particular way in international law and is condemned in a particular way in international law,” he said.

“It’s important that the United Nations and our allies of the world understand that the United States Congress believes that the Chinese government is committing genocide.”

The U.S. government and several other Western legislatures have recognized the CCP’s campaign in Xinjiang as genocide.

The congressman called on the House to adopt these amendments, saying that Congress should send a “very strong message to China.”

“We will not tolerate their military activities around the world. We are aware of their activities, we’re concerned about those activities, and we are not going to turn a blind eye,” he added.

“It’s very important in this NDAA that we send a message that Congress is absolutely resolute in recognizing the threat from China,” he said.

Rep. Buck Calls on US Universities to Shut Down CCP ‘Propaganda Machines’ (theepochtimes.com)

Milley is a threat to our Constitution, our democracy, and our country’s national security.  He is, in a word, dangerous.

Gregg Jarrett joined ‘Hannity’ to discuss the growing controversy surrounding Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley. If the reporting in the soon-to-be-released book Peril is accurate, Milley should be relieved of duty pending a thorough investigation.

An independent and bipartisan commission is a good idea; the military is also duty-bound under the Military Code to conduct its own probe.  If there’s credible evidence, Milley should face a general court martial.

The charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice Milley could face would include:

• Usurping Authority of the President…known as sedition
• Aiding the Enemy…providing advanced intelligence
• Possible Espionage…conveying top secret and classified military information to a foreign adversary

Milley didn’t seem to understand that he has no authority whatsoever.  None.  As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, he’s an adviser to the president and the security council.  Nothing more.  He is not in the chain of command, meaning he’s prohibited by law from having any operational command authority.

Yet, Milley allegedly convened a covert meeting of top Pentagon officials and instructed them that no one was to act on orders for a military strike —even from the president— without his approval.  Milley was seizing presidential power and actively subverting the elected civilian leadership embedded in our constitution.

Furthermore, he then advised the Chinese that there would be no surprise attack against them.  His office admits this.  But he also reportedly vowed that he would warn the Chinese in advance of any attack.  Good Lord!  What if the Chinese had decided, “This is great information; we can now launch our own devastating preemptive attack against the U.S. because there’s a power vacuum in there!”

No amount of rationalization by Milley can justify his lawless and treacherous actions.  He claims he thought Trump might attempt a coup after losing the election. Milley’s dishonorable response was to mount a coup of his own against the president.

In our democracy, we don’t let one man decide all on his own, “I think the president is unstable…so I’m taking over control.”  That’s not his judgment to make.  He’s not remotely qualified.  Nor is the Joint Chiefs constitutionally authorized.  He is nowhere in the chain of command.  The White House janitor has as much power as Milley.

It’s insane that Biden is defending Milley.  Will the general at some point (tomorrow, next week, next month) decide that Biden is mentally deficient or unstable and once against try to seize presidential powers and control over the military?

Biden better think about that —to the extent that he’s alert and conscious— before continuing to support  Milley. Milley is a threat to our Constitution, our democracy, and our country’s national security.  He is, in a word, dangerous.

General Milley Seized Presidential Power and Subverted Leadership Embedded in Our Constitution | Gregg Jarrett (thegreggjarrett.com)

Former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who briefly led the Pentagon from late 2020 until January 2021, said he did not authorize an alleged phone call between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and his Chinese Communist Party counterpart.

“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer whose sole role is providing military-specific advice to the president, and by law is prohibited from exercising executive authority to command forces,” Miller said in a statement to Fox News, referring to allegations contained in a forthcoming Bob Woodward book that Milley made two secret phone calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army in late October 2020 and two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, respectively.

“If the reporting in Woodward’s book is accurate, it represents a disgraceful and unprecedented act of insubordination by the Nation’s top military officer,” Miller’s statement added, saying that Milley’s alleged “histrionic outbursts and unsanctioned, anti-Constitutional involvement in foreign policy prove true, he must resign immediately or be fired by the Secretary of Defense to guarantee the sanctity of the officer corps.”

When he led the Pentagon, Miller recalled that he didn’t and wouldn’t “ever authorize such conduct.”

The Woodward book, co-authored by Robert Costa, asserted that Milley became concerned that former President Donald Trump was unstable and would spark a war with China. That prompted him to arrange two secret phone calls with Li, it claimed, adding that Milley told his Chinese counterpart that the United States wouldn’t strike and said he would tell his counterpart if Trump ordered an attack.

Following publication of the alleged phone call, Milley’s spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, told news outlets that his communications with Li were part of his normal responsibilities and duties and that Milley did not break protocol in how he spoke to Li.

“All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense,” Butler said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other Biden administration mounted a defense of Milley, saying they believe he is still suitable to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley “is somebody who has fidelity to the Constitution,” she said, adding that Biden “has confidence in [Milley’s] leadership and the role he has played in his experience with him.”

Later, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he cannot verify the claims in Woodward’s book but added he “see[s] nothing in what I’ve read that would cause any concern.”

But Miller said that if the allegations are correct, an investigation is warranted because “a lesser ranking officer accused of such behavior would immediately be relieved of duty.”

“Any accusations that President Trump was intent on starting a war with China are completely unfounded,” Miller also said in his statement. “President Trump absolutely believed and advocated for a more aggressive approach to China, but he was elected to end our Nation’s wars, not start new ones. I was proud to play a small role in achieving those goals.”

The Department of Defense hadn’t responded to a request for comment as of this article’s publication.

Former Trump Pentagon Chief Says He ‘Did Not’ Authorize Mark Milley–China Calls (theepochtimes.com)

Pennsylvania’s Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted along party lines on Sept. 15, following a heated debate, to issue subpoenas to Acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid, requiring her office to provide extensive information about the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections.

Democrats hope to block the subpoenas in court.

“It has been made plain that the Department of State and acting Secretary of State Degraffenreid are not willing to participate in this investigation into the 2020 general election and the 2021 primary election, and how the election code is working after the sweeping changes of act 77 of 2020,” Committee majority Chair Cris Dush, a Republican, said in the opening comments of the meeting.

Act 77, signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in 2019, created a new option to vote by mail without providing a reason, which had previously been required for voters using absentee ballots. It also allowed for a 50-day mail-in voting period, the longest vote-by-mail period in the country; extended the deadline to register to vote to 30 days from 15 days before an election; and extended mail-in and absentee submission deadlines from the Friday before an election, to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

The Sept. 15 subpoenas call for the Department of State to provide the following information to the Senate Republican Caucus by Oct. 1:

All communications between the Department of State and any county election director and other election officials; a copy of every version of directives, guidance, policies, and procedures in effect during specified dates, relating to elections, election systems, mail-in ballot applications, ballots, polling places, or poll watchers; and all training material used to train election workers.

The subpoenas also seek a list of all changes made to voter records; a copy of the certified results for every race or ballot question for both elections; a copy of all audits or reviews of the voting system; and a copy of annual reports submitted to the Department of State in 2021.

Also requested by subpoena are detailed voter lists, including name, date of birth, driver’s license number, last four digits of Social Security number, address, and, in some cases, date of last voting activity. This information was requested for lists of all registered voters, those who voted in the 2020 general election or the May 2021 primary, in-person, by mail-in, absentee, or provisional ballot.

Democratic Opposition

Democratic committee members took issue with the request for driver’s licenses and partial Social Security numbers.

“You’re asking for a lot of information … for nearly 7 million people,” Democratic state Sen. Steven Santarsiero said. “What do you hope to do with that information?”

Dush said the documents are part of any audit that the auditor general would conduct, or anybody who is looking to verify the identity of individuals, their place of residence, and their eligibility to vote.

“There have been questions regarding the validity of people who voted—whether or not they exist. We’re not responding to proven allegations,” Dush said. “We’re investigating the allegations to determine whether or not they are factual.”

If there are problems, Dush said, the legislature has a responsibility to create legislation that will prevent problems in future elections.

Santarsiero grilled Dush on the cost and the name of the vendor that would handle the investigation.

“We are still looking at vendors who will handle the information,” Dush said. “I’m not going to be hiring political activists to do the investigation.”

Democrats protested the subpoenas so vigorously that three times, Dush stopped the meeting as it was broadcast across Pennsylvania.

“This meeting is at ease! Cut the feed,” Dush said, when Democratic state Sen. Vincent Hughes complained about members of the Senate who were “involved in the insurrection” having access to investigation information.

He was referring to Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who has said he attended the Jan. 6 rally and march for President Donald Trump in Washington, and that he followed the law while there.

“We have a public that is concerned about how the last election was conducted,” Republican state Sen. Jake Corman said. “Credibility is important to all of us. When we look at the results of this investigation, one of two things will happen. Either it will give us action items to better our laws, or it will dispel the concerns that people have.”

Ultimately, the committee voted 7–4 to issue the subpoenas.

“I thought it was totally inappropriate,” Minority Chair Anthony Williams, a Democrat, told The Epoch Times. “I felt frustrated by the manner in which this was done and the substance. We don’t know the cost, we don’t know who the vendors will be, we don’t know what they will do with the information.”

The Senate’s Democratic Caucus was expected to file papers in the Commonwealth Court, seeking an injunction to stop the subpoenas, Williams said.

Pennsylvania Senate Committee Spars Over Advancing Election Investigation (theepochtimes.com)

Mehrdad Ansari sent advanced weapon parts to Islamic regime

An Iranian national convicted by a federal jury was sentenced Tuesday for sending the Islamic republic advanced military components used in nuclear weapons and missile guidance systems.

Mehrdad Ansari, a resident of the United Arab Emirates who is originally from Iran, was sentenced to 63 months in prison for circumventing U.S. sanctions on Iran through his distribution of sensitive military matériel. Ansari, who worked alongside Taiwanese citizen Susan Yip and Iranian citizen Mehrdad Foomanie to evade the American sanctions, over a four-year period obtained or tried to obtain more than 105,000 parts valued at more than $2.6 million.

American officials said the sentencing shows the Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue anyone who poses a threat to national security.

“Ansari and his co-conspirators attempted to profit from a far-reaching, extensive scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran,” said National Security Division acting assistant attorney general Mark J. Lesko. “They repeatedly lied to numerous U.S. suppliers and illegally obtained very sensitive dual-use items. As demonstrated by this prosecution, DOJ pursues those who threaten U.S. national security, even years after their original crimes.”

The sentence comes on the heels of escalating tensions between Iran and the Biden administration. According to experts, Iran may in a month have enough material to build an atomic bomb. Successful Iranian nuclear weapons would likely reset diplomatic talks between the Biden administration and Tehran, which have stalled out in recent months as the president and his team work on another nuclear deal with the Islamic republic.

Iranian National Sentenced for Sending Nuclear Weapon Components to Iran (freebeacon.com)

Excerpts from the new Bob Woodward book reveal a partisan coup at the heart of the U.S. government.

Through secret backchannels unbeknownst to then-President Donald Trump, General Mark Milley informed leaders from the Chinese Communist Party and Democratic Party that he would not carry out “any kind” of military action ordered by Trump.

The revelations represent a stunning admission of an effective coup d’etat at the top of the U.S. government, with U.S. officials colluding with the Chinese Communist Party in order to limit Donald Trump’s powers.

Backchannels.

General Milley – who controversially defended teaching Marxist “critical race theory” in the military – telephoned his Chinese Communist Party counterpart, General Li Zuocheng, twice in the final months of the Trump administration.

Milley’s calls – according to Bob Woodward’s and Robert Costa’s new book entited Peril – were aimed at restricting the President of the United States’ abilities to wage kinetic war against China. Stunningly, Milley even secretly pledged to inform Beijing ahead of any potential U.S. military action.

On the first call on October 30th, 2020, just four days before the U.S. election, Milley assured his Chinese Communist Party friends that the U.S. would not attack China:

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.”

– Gen. Milley

“General Li, 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,” he added. “Li took the chairman at his word,” The Washington Post notes.

The second call between the two generals, of which Milley did not inform Trump, took place on January 8th, 2021.

“Things may look unsteady,” Milley posited to Li, adding “but that’s the nature of democracy, General Li. We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” In response, Li suggested that the Chinese Communist Party felt that the United States government was unstable during the hour and a half phone call.

Milley believed that Trump would attempt to create a crisis in an effort to seize power, “similar to Hitler’s exploitation in 1933 of an arson fire at the German Reichstag to help institute emergency powers,” according to The Washington Post.

In reality, it was the anti-Trump establishment that turned a small fracas at the Capitol on January 6th into a full-blown “insurrection” – a framing which an increasing number of Americans now reject.

To address these unfounded fears, Milley spoke to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, informing her that he would prohibit Trump from using “any kind” of military force.”

Partisan Military Leadership.

As The New York Times recounts:

Later that day, General Milley spoke to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was growing increasing concerned Mr. Trump would lash out and use military force.

“This is bad, but who knows what he might do?” Ms. Pelosi said. “He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy. He’s been crazy for a long time. So don’t say you don’t know what his state of mind is.”

“Madam Speaker,” General Milley said, “I agree with you on everything.”

General Milley, who as the president’s top military adviser is not in the chain of command, tried to reassure Ms. Pelosi that he could stop Mr. Trump.

“The one thing I can guarantee is that as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I want you to know that — I want you to know this in you heart of hearts, I can guarantee you 110 percent that the military, use of military power, whether it’s nuclear or a strike in a foreign country of any kind, we’re not going to do anything illegal or crazy,” he said.

“Well,” Ms. Pelosi said, “what do you mean, illegal or crazy?”

“I can give you my word,” General Milley said. “The best I can do is give you my word and I’m going to prevent anything like that in the United States military.”

Afghan Failures.

The report from Peril also reveals Milley’s partisan deference to Joe Biden over the Afghanistan withdrawal, a series of decision that led directly to the deaths of American servicemen, Afghan civilians, and the continued abandonment of hundreds of Americans in the country.

“You’re dealing with a seasoned politician here who has been in Washington, D.C., 50 years, whatever it is,” Milley told the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

That seasoned politician later went on to call the Afghan withdrawal an “extraordinary success,” before openly showing his disdain for dead Americans arriving at Dover.

COUP: General Milley Secretly Pledged to Warn Chinese Communist Party if Trump Planned a Strike. (thenationalpulse.com)

Satellite photos show that the United States has removed a significant number of its advanced missile defense systems and Patriot missile batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent days.

Photos that were obtained and published by The Associated Press showed that the Prince Sultan Air Base previously had a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit, another missile defense system, and Patriot missiles provided by the United States. But those batteries are no longer at the base, according to satellite photos taken in late August and reviewed by the AP.

“The Defense Department continues to maintain tens of thousands of forces and a robust force posture in the Middle East representing some of our most advanced air power and maritime capabilities, in support of U.S. national interests and our regional partnerships,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the outlet in response to questions about the move. The Epoch Times has contacted the Pentagon for comment.

Over the past several years, amid Saudi incursions in nearby Yemen, the country’s Houthi rebels have fired missiles and carried drone strikes against Saudi assets. The United States in 2019 deployed two Patriot missile systems following attacks on Saudi oil production sites as Washington blamed Iran for the strikes, although Tehran has denied the allegations.

Officials in the kingdom on Sept. 5 said it intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Houthi rebels near the Saudi city of Dammam, according to news reports.

Amid the missile defense pullout, Saudi Prince Turki Al-Faisal said in a recent interview that he wants Washington to show it is committed to the kingdom, urging the Americans to leave the defense systems in the country.

“I think we need to be reassured about American commitment,” Al-Faisal, who is Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief, told CNBC. “That looks like, for example, not withdrawing Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia at a time when Saudi Arabia is the victim of missile attacks and drone attacks—not just from Yemen, but from Iran,” he added.

Meanwhile, as the United States pulled out of Afghanistan after a decades-long military occupation, questions were raised about whether the Biden administration would be able to fully protect U.S. allies and interests around the world. The Afghan government collapsed in just under two weeks to the Taliban extremist group, leading the United States to carry out a chaotic and rushed evacuation that was punctuated by a terrorist attack that killed 13 service members in late August.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to several Middle Eastern countries in recent days, but a scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia was scrapped due to an alleged scheduling problem. It’s not clear if he will return to the kingdom in the near future.

Biden Admin Pulls Missile Defenses in Saudi Arabia: Photos (theepochtimes.com)

There are many ways in which to divide humanity—the decent and the indecent, the happy and the unhappy, the cowardly and the courageous, those who lead and those who follow, etc.

Two major divisions that are less often noted but highly consequential are between those who want to control others and those who have little interest in controlling others, and between the related categories of those who are comfortable with being controlled by others and those who detest being controlled by others.

Those who seek to control others and those who seek to be controlled by others would seem to be on opposite ends of the political spectrum. But they are not. Both groups are overwhelmingly populated by individuals on the Left.

They currently dominate four of the five English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom may be the one exception). The ease with which Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders have accepted the loss of liberty in their respective countries has been the saddest and most frightening development since the rise of totalitarianism in the early 20th century.

Even sadder and more frightening has been the acceptance of authoritarianism by half of the American people. America has been the beacon of liberty in the world. America was the country to which France gave the Statue of Liberty. America has been, as President Abraham Lincoln characterized it, “the last best hope of Earth.” America’s self-image has been that of a “sweet land of liberty” and of “the land of the free and home of the brave.”

Then came a new virus (one with a survival rate in the 99 percent range for nearly all age groups except older adults who are also very sick), and suddenly, in the name of “public health,” no amount of suppression of liberty, no matter how irrational, has been resisted by the majority of Americans or almost any citizens of the other English-speaking countries.

The citizens of Australia’s biggest states are not allowed to leave their homes for more than a few hours a day, not allowed to congregate with other citizens even outdoors, not allowed even to speak with one another outdoors. For more than a year and a half, Australians have not been allowed to leave their country without the express permission of their government, which will decide whether they have a good enough reason. And, of course, church services are forbidden. Australians, Canadians, and New Zealanders, most of whom are thoroughly secular, have only contempt for their compatriots who wish to attend religious services.

In many arenas of life, most Australians have fewer rights than most Soviet citizens did. Like Australians, Soviet citizens could not leave their country without permission, but they were allowed to leave their homes, to speak with people in the street, and to visit dying relatives in hospitals.

Meanwhile, a large percentage of Americans support a president of the United States who offers government and an enormous number of private-entity workers a choice between getting vaccinated—no matter how young they are, and whether they already had COVID-19—or losing their job. In other words, many Americans support firing any unvaccinated fellow citizens who work for the government, the medical professions, or privately owned companies with 100 or more employees.

Half of America supports a president who portrays the other half of America as an enemy, their fellow Americans as people for whom they should have hatred. No American president has ever given as divisive a speech as the one in which President Joe Biden announced his vaccine mandates (something he denied wanting to impose only nine months ago, in December of 2020). Lincoln, despite the Civil War, a war in which more Americans were killed than in all other American wars combined, called on Americans to have “malice toward none.” Biden, as mean-spirited a president as this country has ever had, has called for malice toward 100 million Americans, declaring, “our patience is wearing thin.”

There is a three-pronged left-wing assault on liberty: in the name of public health (COVID-19); in the name of “anti-racism”; and in the name of saving the planet (climate change). By ratcheting up fear and hysteria, the Left is using each to end individual liberty, including freedom of speech, for the first time in American history.

Will the Left succeed?

Unless Americans fight the Left as hard as the Union fought the slave states, the answer is yes.

Why Freedom Is in Serious Jeopardy (theepochtimes.com)

The announcement comes as DHS continues to respond to the crisis in Afghanistan and the damage caused by Hurricane Ida

Karen Olick, the chief of staff for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, announced today that she’s leaving her position.

Olick is said to be pursuing a new, unspecified opportunity and will leave the department by the end of the month.

In an email to DHS staffers, Mayorkas said, “We are grateful to Karen for her service during the critical first nine months of the new Administration.”

POLITICO: Department of Homeland Security chief of staff resigns

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) September 13, 2021

Olick led the ballot initiative practice for a Democratic strategic communications firm before joining the federal government. Additionally, she worked on political campaigns for Joe Biden and former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. She previously served as an aide to Senator Barbara Boxer for over ten years including serving as chief of staff until 2007. On January 20, 2021, Olick was appointed to the chief of staff position with DHS. 

In a message to DHS, she wrote, “Though too often underappreciated by our fellow citizens, I am continually struck by how many millions of Americans sleep in safety every night because so many at DHS do not sleep.” 

According to Politico, “Employees and senior officials at DHS have also been working non-stop on other crises that their department is taking a lead on including responding to the impacts of Hurricane Ida and helping vet tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who the U.S. evacuated from Kabul in August.”

Earlier this year, Mayorkas was under fire for his handling of the southern border. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham called on the DHS secretary to change his policies or resign.

In a statement, Graham said the Biden administration has “lost control of the border” and that Mayorkas “doesn’t have either the will or capability to fix the problem.” 

During his testimony to a House committee, Mayorkas “admitted his department released illegal immigrants into communities without testing them for the coronavirus. Local officials say up to 25% of the migrants are COVID-positive,” per The Washington Times.

The chief of staff position will be temporarily filled by Jennifer Higgins, the associate director of Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She has worked for the federal government for over 20 years.

Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Resigns | TIMCAST IRL

During a Monday hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accusations flew from partisans on both sides of the political aisle. Democrats, hoping to defend President Joe Biden’s unpopular handling of the withdrawal, blamed the Trump administration for the catastrophe. Republicans, riding the wave of increased apprehension toward Biden after the fiasco, went on the offensive, blaming Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for their handling of the situation.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the committee, said in his opening statement that “disentangling ourselves from the war in Afghanistan was never going to be easy.”

He continued: “And for my friends who presume a clean solution for the withdrawal existed, I would welcome hearing what exactly a smooth withdrawal from a messy, chaotic, 20-year war looks like. In fact, I’ve yet to hear the clean withdrawal option, because I don’t believe one exists.”

Meeks accused Biden’s critics, who have come from both major parties since the fall of Afghanistan, of “inject[ing] domestic politics into foreign policy.”

Starting a trend continued throughout the meeting by his Democratic colleagues, Meeks shifted the blame to former President Donald Trump, referencing a 2020 deal that would have fulfilled one of the president’s campaign promises to get the country out of the war.

The former president has been heavily critical of Biden’s handling of the withdrawal. In discussions of the situation, Trump has been open about the deal that he and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made with the Taliban, but has remained insistent that this deal would have been reliant on the Taliban meeting several conditions and that his administration would have handled the situation much differently.

Afterward, ranking minority party member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) spoke for Republicans in his opening statement, shifting the blame to Biden’s handling of the situation.

He began, “This did not have to happen, but the president refused to listen to his own generals and the intelligence community who warned him what would happen if we withdrew.” The outcome of the situation, he said, was essentially “an unconditional surrender to the Taliban.”

He roasted Blinken and Biden for their “betrayal” of U.S. allies in the region after promising them that they would be evacuated safely. In the wake of this betrayal, McCaul said, “a dark veil of shariah covers Afghanistan,” leaving not only longtime allies to the Taliban’s retribution but also “stripp[ing] away in a matter of weeks” all efforts to bring rights to women and girls in the country.

McCaul said, “We’re here today to better understand how this administration got it so wrong.”

Blinken Defends Biden Administration Handling

In his own opening remarks, Blinken defended the efforts of the administration and downplayed critics’ accusations.

He began by saying that the United States had two main goals in going into Afghanistan in the first place: “bringing justice to Al Qaeda” for its role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and ensuring that the country could not be used as a launching point for another such terror attack. These goals, said Blinken, were “completed long ago.”

Still, Blinken indicated that the current administration felt forced into conforming with the deal made by Trump with the Taliban. Biden had two choices when he came into office and inherited this deal, Blinken said: “ending the war or escalating it.”

Blinken then pointed to the successes of the administration during the crisis.

He said that in March, just weeks after Biden took office, the State Department was telling Americans to leave the country and offering to help them do so. At the same time, he claimed, the administration worked to speed up the processing of special immigrant visas (SIVs), a usually long and arduous process under standing law; the Trump administration, he added, had done little on this front.

Repeating an often-stated refrain, Blinken said that the rapid decay of the country’s political and military situation defied all predictions. Blinken said that “even the most pessimistic prediction” did not indicate such a quick collapse.

Later, Blinken was asked whether the Trump administration left behind information on Americans in Afghanistan or on its plans for U.S. withdrawal.

Again pushing the blame to Trump, Blinken responded curtly that the administration “inherited a deadline, we did not inherit a plan.”

Democrats, Republicans Hurl Accusations

During a heated part of the debate, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) accused the president of lying about the situation since it began. Wilson cited claims by the president that there would not be a collapse of the country to the Taliban, that there would not be Vietnam-like scenes of evacuation, and that there would be significant air support for fleeing Americans and Afghans, among others; about each of these, Wilson claimed, Biden lied.

In an equally-heated retort to Wilson, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) snapped at him and other Republicans, accusing them of being “selective” in their concerns about terrorists, again pointing to the Trump administration’s negotiations with the Taliban.

In another showdown, Blinken was asked a question about a phone call from Biden to the now-former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani obtained by Reuters. In the call, Biden is alleged to have told Ghani to lie about the severity of the situation. Blinken refused to comment, neither confirming nor denying the call’s veracity.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) defended the administration’s handling of the crisis. At the height of the evacuation, Sherman said, the Kabul airport was experiencing a constant “stampede.”

“There is simply no way the administration can have an orderly or successful stampede,” Sherman ruled.

Republicans Grill Blinken on Afghanistan, Democrats Blame Trump (theepochtimes.com)

The future darkens as differences between the West and China’s techno-dictatorship rapidly vanish

In 1992, historian Francis Fukuyama wrote that the fall of the Soviet Union signaled “the end of history.”

Capitalism Won Over Marxism

There were nuances to Fukuyama’s theory, but essentially it held that in the battle between Marxism and Capitalism, Marxism had lost. Communist countries from Cuba to China and everywhere in between were all abject economic failures, murderous regimes and horrendous polluters that were absolute hellholes. The top-down, anti-God, oppressive communist system had failed to deliver on its promises in every way.

Conversely, free capitalist nations of every stripe performed relatively well in virtually every way that mattered—in living standards, in freedom for people in all its forms, in technological innovation, artistic and political expression, human rights and even in lowering pollution. All that remained, according to Fukuyama, was the technical management of absorbing the failed Marxist nations into the capitalist global economy.

Making China in Our Image–or Vice Versa?

But a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the “end of history.” A decade before the fall of Soviet communism, the West—led by America—decided that engaging the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would not only be a counterweight to the USSR, but would also result in China becoming more like the free, capitalist West.

The thinking was that by giving money, factories, technology and markets to the communist Chinese, we could remake the world’s most populous nation into a society that resembled our own. We thought we were succeeding, but the 1989 slaughter of 10,000 young students in Tiananmen Square ended that delusion.

After that cruel display by the CCP, the United States doubled down on China. First, the United States responded with weak sanctions and then in 2000, invited the CCP into the World Trade Organization. From 1980 to 2020, China went from a backward agrarian nation unable to feed itself, to rivaling the United States in technology, economic power and global influence. Over those years, what China didn’t get legally in terms of intellectual property and technology, it stole from the West, one way or another. That practice continues today.

Social Credit System Emerges

Not too ago, the CCP gained the technological capabilities—from facial recognition, to cameras, recording devices, GPS locators and other items—to create a digital surveillance system to monitor, track, identify, arrest, detain, and dispose of those individuals who may or could possibly pose a threat to the State. China’s social credit system was born.

Then, the CCP bundled their surveillance technology, marketed it as “smart city” technology, and sold it to other authoritarian regimes around the world. The CCP certainly didn’t invent smart tech surveillance, the UK has been among the most surveilled societies on Earth for decades. But China has perfected it.

CCP Virus Brings Totalitarianism

As for censorship and propaganda, the U.S. media and academia fought the Trump administration and its supporters to a degree we hadn’t seen before. Negative events were magnified and even invented out of whole cloth, while any positive ones were simply underreported, distorted, or not reported at all.

But all of these developments were only the precursor to what was to come with the debut of the CCP virus (commonly known as the novel coronavirus) in 2019.

As it turns out, we in America have our own homegrown strain of totalitarians who have been ready to be triggered into action. It has become evident that for America’s Big Tech moguls, great wealth isn’t enough.

They want great power, and indeed, they have it.

Medical Authoritarianism

Sadly, the tech moguls’ coordination with the federal government to censor any ideas that contradict the official narrative regarding the CCP virus in America resembles the relationship between the CCP and the state media in China. Social media companies, along with the federal government are using the CCP virus to justify infringing on our Constitutional rights under the guise of “safety.”

It’s as if the Bill of Rights—which not only guarantees our civil rights and freedoms as individuals, but also restricts the authority of the federal government—has itself succumbed to the virus and has been replaced by medically-induced authoritarianism.

That’s because it has.

The Power of Fear

Sadly, this bothers far too few people in America. Of course, who can argue that relinquishing our rights in the name of medical safety isn’t wise or legal? Very few, because if you do, you’ll be censored. Publicly excoriated. Unemployed. Cancelled.

The reality is that we’ve been spoon-fed fear day in and day out for 18 months now, we all need to accept that we’re too vulnerable, too weak, too afraid to face the world, to face a disease with a 99 percent survival rate, without living under the protection of the State.

And where is China in all of this?

Everywhere.

China Gaining Control Over America

In fact, over the past several years, China has been buying up much of American industry—from agricultural farmland and our largest meat processing plants to AMC movie theaters and major media outlets. The consequences of this are chilling: The CCP is gaining great influence on what we put into our bodies and in our minds. That’s just the kind of power the CCP likes to have.

What’s more, all of these tech giants have made billions of dollars in China and remain deeply connected to the communist regime. Another coincidence. But can anyone really hold that against them? After all, the same could be said of the Biden family.

But where does that leave the American people?

A Return to Empires of Old?

For decades, the oppression of the Chinese people by the CCP was regarded the world over as a dismal historical aberration—a dreary dystopian stepchild of the old Soviet dictatorship. The assumption that it would evolve into a more Western-style country has been proven foolhardy. Rather, current trends show that China is a growing empire with global capabilities and ambitions, disdaining the very Western nations that enabled its rise.

From today’s perspective, perhaps it is the America that is disappearing before our eyes that is the historical aberration. Is history, marked mostly by the brute force and tyranny that defined empire after empire, now returning to form?

CCP Virus Remaking the World in China’s Image (theepochtimes.com)

North Korea said on Sept. 13 that it had launched new long-range cruise missiles. These missiles can likely carry nuclear weapons. The missile tests were the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s first since March, and highlight the continued danger that China, Russia, and their totalitarian ally, North Korea, hold for truly democratic countries in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the United States.

North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in 2006, and has since frequently tested additional nuclear weapons and the missiles that carry them. The technological sophistication of these weapons has increased markedly in the last six years. The DPRK started testing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) in 2015.  In 2017, North Korea tested three intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and a sixth underground nuclear weapon. Afterward, North Korea claimed the ability to hit the continental United States with a nuclear weapon.

In October 2020 and this January, North Korea paraded newly-developed ICBMs and SLBMs. North Korea’s March tests included a new ballistic missile that carries a 2.5-ton warhead. In August, the United Nations claimed that North Korea apparently restarted one of its main nuclear reactors. Earlier this month, South Korean media reported that North Korea was developing a short-range ballistic missile with a three-ton payload.

China has provided finances, high technology, front companies, and diplomatic cover to North Korea during its nuclear weapons development. Beijing protected North Korea diplomatically at the U.N. from tougher sanctions necessary to augment existing sanctions since 2006. U.N. sanctions weakened by Beijing have as a result failed, making the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responsible for North Korea’s continued transgressions, and any of the massive harms that could result.

In 2005, the United States effectively sanctioned a Chinese bank for the facilitation of North Korean money laundering. Xi Jinping, in 2011, approved the arguably illegal sale of 16-wheel trucks that North Korea needed to transport nuclear-capable missiles to launch pads. In 2016, North Korean Kwangmyongsong-4 rocket parts that fell into the Yellow Sea, and were retrieved by the South Korean navy, revealed that motor parts, wiring, and other essential components came from China.

Monday’s North Korean cruise missile tests included targets that were 932 miles away. They were hit, according to North Korea’s official media, after the missiles changed trajectory and circled their targets, making counter-missile defense more difficult. The missile strikes are implicit threats against South Korea and Japan’s five main islands, all of which are within range of the new missile. North Korea announced on Monday that the new cruise missile was “a strategic weapon of great significance” and a goal of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, announced in January.

The missile test highlights the weakness of current U.N. sanctions against North Korea, which ban the country from developing or testing ballistic missiles that can reach the United States, but not the cruise missiles that can reach Japan and South Korea, including the U.S. forces on those islands.

As a result of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, all three countries are increasing their investment in missile and other military defenses. These costly military expenditures in democracies are the fault of China, Russia, and the rogue regimes they support, including North Korea. Without these offensively-oriented dictatorships, the United States and its allies would be able to devote more spending to social services.

American nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea are stalled, and successive American administrations have unfortunately been unwilling to take the necessary action, including tougher economic sanctions on China and North Korea, to remove the threat. This failure to take action against China and North Korea puts American and allied lives at risk.

Given the CCP’s influence over North Korea, the country could be used to launch a proxy war that includes nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies. This could allow Beijing to facilitate nuclear strikes without suffering retaliation, which would effectively remove American deterrence of a nuclear war.

China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, is scheduled to meet the South Korean foreign minister on Sept. 15. The latest DPRK missile test will give Beijing more bargaining leverage over South Korea during these talks. South Korea increasingly needs the CCP’s assistance in decreasing the threat from North Korea. Indeed, the Sept. 13 test may have been timed by Beijing to assist it in the Sept. 15 negotiations.

China has been implicated in the provision of funding, technology, and diplomatic support for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and in turn, benefits from the North Korean program due to its close alliance with the country. The CCP regime must therefore be held fully responsible for any harm that results from North Korea’s nuclear weapons.

Hold China Responsible for North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons (theepochtimes.com)

Laura Loomer has had street art of Jack Dorsey plastered all around Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.

The posters feature Dorsey as a member of the Taliban, as they allow them to remain on Twitter while banning conservatives — including Loomer.

The art was designed by Loomer and drawn by Bosch Fawstin, a former Muslim who won the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” that was attacked by ISIS in Garland, Texas.https://www.youtube.com/embed/g9jScXWr8BQ?feature=oembed

TRENDING: EXCLUSIVE: Large Sections of the Border Wall Have Been REMOVED and Left WIDE OPEN Along Heavily Trafficked Drug Route in Southern Arizona

“For years, I have been raising awareness about Twitter’s alliance with Islamic terrorist organizations and their willingness to platform enemies of America. This is a concept I have referred to as Silicon Sharia, as Twitter has shown they have no problem banning millions of Americans for their constitutionally protected speech, including myself and sitting President Donald Trump during our elections, while they happily provide a platform for recruitment and propaganda for actual terrorists,” Loomer said in a statement provided to the Gateway Pundit.https://www.youtube.com/embed/CQNmpVU4xw0?feature=oembed

“OPERATION TaliBANNED was created to highlight this absurdity and how Big tech tyrants like Jack Dorsey continue to wage digital jihad on free speech in America with widespread bans rooted in the false Left-wing notion that conservatives and Trump supporters are the real terrorists,” Loomer continued. “Twenty years ago, Twitter did not exist, but it would have been unfathomable to every American that someday in America, the leader of one of the most powerful tech companies in the world would aid and avert Islamic terrorists in the digital public sphere. Jack Dorsey has made it clear that thanks to people like him, Americans are less safe than they were 20 years ago.”

Fawstin pointed out that the issue, for him, is not that Twitter bans people — but who they ban and who they don’t.

“The issue with leftist-run tech companies like Twitter is not about whether they have the right to ban people from their platform, it’s about who they consistently target for banning and why, and who they don’t ban, no matter what. They banned a sitting president, Trump, over the lie that he was the leader of an ‘insurrection’, which the FBI now admits there was no proof of,” Fawstin said.

Fawstin said that Twitter acts “in full accordance with Shariah blasphemy laws” by banning critics of Islam from the platform.

“Twitter bans Islam critics like me and Laura, acting in full accordance with shariah blasphemy laws, while allowing Islamic terrorists who murder Americans to spread their propaganda on their platform. That’s evil, whether or not they have the technical ‘right’ to ban whomever they want. And I do wonder that if our government ever were to officially declare war on the Islamic terrorist enemy, if this aiding and abetting of an enemy in a time of war that Twitter engages in would be legally recognized as such.”

Those who wish to contribute to Loomer’s activism can do so here.

TaliBANNED: Laura Loomer Has Street Art of Jack Dorsey Plastered All Around Twitter HQ (VIDEOS) (thegatewaypundit.com)

Conservative activist Laura Loomer on Thursday described her experience confronting former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at a book signing event in New York City.

“It’s definitely an adrenaline rush because this is probably the most hated women in America. To ask her questions that one, the mainstream media refused to ask her and two, that so many Americans want answers about, it was great that I was able to do that,” she told FOX Business’ Liz MacDonald on “Risk and Reward.”

The book Clinton released on Tuesday, called “What Happened,” documents her experiences during her failed 2016 presidential election bid, including what it was like to run against President Donald Trump, the mistakes she made and how she dealt with the loss.

While Loomer was being escorted out of the event, she also questioned Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who was also at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square where the book signing was held.

“Huma! It’s so great to see you. I have a question for you: When are you going to divorce your husband [Anthony Weiner] for texting underage girls?” she asked.

The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch recently released emails from Huma Abedin’s account, which the group said gave examples of “pay to play” at the Clinton State Department, which did not surprise Loomer.

“It’s what everybody already suspected and knew to be true, but now new evidence is coming to light, which shows that we were all correct and it confirms our worst suspicions,” the conservative activist said.

Clinton questioned about emails, Benghazi at book signing | Fox Business

• The newly-released document details a 2015 FBI interview with a staffer who worked at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles prior to the 9/11 attacks 
• The man is only referred to in the document as PII
• PII is accused of helping 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar shortly after they arrived in the United States  
• Families of 9/11 victims are eager to probe potential Saudi government links to the attack 

The FBI has released its first declassified 9/11 document exactly 20 years after the deadly terror attack which claimed the lives of 2,996 people.  

The document was published Saturday evening, a week after President Biden signed an executive order directing the agency to make the secret files available to the public for the first time. 

The order to release the documents came amid significant pressure from the families of 9/11 victims, who are eager to probe potential Saudi government links to the attack.

The FBI file that is significantly redacted details a 2015 interview with an official who worked at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles. 

He admitted that he allowed two hijackers to use his apartment and helped them travel around LA. He was found to be an al-Qaeda ‘facilitator’ by the FBI and the Saudi Consul General wanted to fire him for distributing extremist Muslim literature. 

He was also a close associate of two other Saudis, Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, who the helped the hijackers.  

The new FBI file reveals that al-Bayoumi, who has admitted befriending them, worked as a ‘ghost employee’ at a Saudi aviation firm in the US.  

And it details how al-Thumairy gave the hijackers money, travel assistance and lodging.  

The Saudi official, who is only referred to as PII and who applied for US citizenship in 2015, is thought to be Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah who worked at the Saudi Consulate in Washington, DC. 

Al-Jarrah’s name was accidently left unredacted in separate court papers penned by an FBI official. However, he has vigorously denied any involvement and insists he did not know any of the hijackers.  

Of the 19 hijackers on board the four doomed 9/11 planes, 15 were Saudi nationals. 

Last Wednesday, Saudi Arabia released a statement maintaining its innocence, saying ‘it is lamentable that such false and malicious claims persist’.  

The FBI has released its first declassified 9/11 document exactly 20 years after the deadly terror attack. The document was published Saturday evening, a week after President Biden signed an executive order directing the agency to make the secret files available to the public

It is theorized PII may be Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, who  worked for a time at the Saudi Consulate in Washington, DC. However, he has vigorously denied any involvement and insists he did not know any of the hijackers

The hijackers are identified in the document as Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. Both of the men were on board American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. 

The pair were reportedly already long-time affiliates of al-Qaeda with extensive fighting experience, and were chosen by Osama bin Laden to be a part of the ambitious 9/11 terror plot. 

The FBI document states that PII admitted showing al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar the location of a Mediterranean restaurant in Los Angeles that was frequented by others suspected of providing logistical support to the terrorists. 

PII ‘denied being tasked to do so’ and stated that he simply ‘assisted al-Hazimi and al-Mihdar because he is a good Muslim and helping two new students in town is the Muslim way’. 

The document also states that PII had his own sister move out and stay with another sister for a couple of weeks ‘because he was having al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar stay with him’.   

It also states that PII ‘worked as a facilitator for the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and was associated with members of the Salafist Group For Preaching and Combat.’

It importantly notes that GIA and the GSPC ‘have evolved into al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’. 

Additionally, sources allegedly told the FBI that PII was ‘very very vocal against Christians, Jews and enemies of Islam.’

Another stated that ‘the Saudi Consul General in LA wanted to fire PII for storage and and distribution of extremist Muslim literature at the consulate’.    

PII was suspected of helping hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi (left) and Khalid al-Mihdhar (right). Both of the men were on board American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon on September 11

55 military personnel and 70 civilians were killed when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar were two of the hijackers on board the plane 

According to the FBI’s newly released document, ‘PII was forthcoming with numerous specific details regarding his … employment with the Consulate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Los Angeles, [and] anecdotes of personal interactions with Consular leadership.’

During his FBI interview, PII described his duties at the Consulate ‘providing assistance to Saudi college students studying in the US, providing translation assistance, executing administrative tasks, and distributing literature on Islam’. 

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 Interestingly, the FBI notes that the two hijackers PII is suspected of helping originally traveled to the US as college students.

It is unclear whether PII was ever granted US citizenship following his 2015 interview with the FBI, or whether he is still connected to the Saudi Consulate. 

PII worked at the Consulate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Los Angeles

New document also reveals PII’s links to ‘suspected Saudi intelligence agent’ Omar al-Bayoumi

PII was an associate of Omar al-Bayoumi, who admitted to befriending the two hijackers before 9/11 

The newly-released document also states that PII was an associate of Saudi man Omar al-Bayoumi. 

Al-Bayoumi has previously admitted to befriending al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar, but denied ever working officially with them as part of a terrorist plot.  

Documents declassified in 2016 reveal that the FBI believed back in 2003 that it was ‘possible that al-Bayoumi was an agent of the Saudi Government and that he may have been reporting on the local community to Saudi Government officials’.

He has also been described as a ‘suspected Saudi intelligence agent’.  

Al-Bayoumi was arrested in London the week after the September 11 attacks and his phone calls and bank accounts were researched before he was released without charge.  

The final 9/11 Commission report, published in 2004, concluded that there ‘was no credible evidence that al-Bayoumi believed in violent extremism or knowingly aided extremist groups.’

However, the newly-released document appears to say otherwise, and reveals that he had odd ties to the two terrorists. 

It states: ‘al-Bayoumi’s logistic support to al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar included translation, travel assistance, lodging and financing. Anomalous money transfers within al-Bayoumi’s bank accounts coincide with transactions wherein al-Bayoumi provides assistance to al-Hazimi and al-Mihdhar. 

The report also states al-Bayoumi’s ex-wife told him they were ‘at Jihad’.  

Interestingly, in his 2015 interview, PII recalled al-Bayoumi receiving special treatment at the Saudi Consulate in LA prior to the 9/11 attack. 

According to the newly-released FBI document: ‘PIl described al-Bayoumi as a Saudi citizen treated with great respect inside the Saudi Consulate, well regarded by Consulate personnel who held a ‘very high status’ when he entered the building.

He alleged that stated al-Bayoumi’s status was even higher than many of the Saudi persons who were in charge of the Consulate.

The reason for his high status among Saudi officials remains unclear.   

al-Bayoumi told investigators in 2003 that ‘he came to the US to study work for a Saudi aviation company named Dallah AVCO. Regarding his employment, however, witnesses at AVCO described him as a ‘ghost employee’ who was ‘one of approximately 50 individuals paid at the company who did not show up for work’. 

 It is reported that al-Bayoumi now lives back in Saudi Arabia.

PII was also ‘a close associate of Fahad al-Thumairy – ‘a hardcore, militant individual who supported the events of 9/11’ and had ‘had an office in the Saudi Consulate

The new FBI file also highlights PII’s links to Fahad al-Thumairy

The new FBI file also highlights PII’s links to Fahad al-Thumairy. 

Al-Thumairy was reported to the the Imam of the King Fahad Mosque in Los Angeles. 

Interestingly, al-Thumairy also served as an administrative officer at the Saudi Consulate and had an office there. 

The newly-released document also notes that al-Thumairy held extremist beliefs and was ‘removed from his mosque for un-Islamic activity’. 

He reportedly left the United States just before the September 11 attacks.  

 However, in his 2015 interview with the FBI, PII admitted to still being in contact with al-Thumairy. His current whereabouts has not been disclosed.   

The families of roughly 2,500 of those killed, and more than 20,000 people who suffered injuries, businesses and various insurers, have sued Saudi Arabia seeking billions of dollars.

However, newly-released FBI document does not confirm claims Saudi Arabian officials were involved in the planning of the September 11 attacks. 

But a statement on behalf of the organization 9/11 Families United, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed on Sept. 11, said the document released by the FBI on Saturday put to bed any doubts about Saudi complicity in the attacks.

‘Now the Saudis’ secrets are exposed and it is well past time for the Kingdom to own up to its officials’ roles in murdering thousands on American soil,’ the statement, published by Reuters, read.  

Biden’s executive order for the FBI to release the files  came amid significant pressure from the families of 9/11 victims, who are eager to probe potential Saudi government links to the attack. Saudi Arabia has maintained their innocence 

FBI release first secret 9/11 files: Anonymous Saudi embassy staffer ‘helped two hijackers in LA’ | Daily Mail Online

The FBI over the weekend released the first previously declassified document about the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack hijackers, responding to an order handed down by President Joe Biden days earlier.

On Saturday night, a 16-page heavily redacted document (pdf) that was written in 2016 sheds light on the logistical support that was given to some of the Saudi Sept. 11 hijackers. Families of victims who died during the 2001 attacks have long sought the declassification of the report, as well as other documents related to the incident.

According to the document, the FBI did not find evidence that linked the Saudi government to the terror attacks, although 15 of the hijackers were Saudi nationals. Previously, a U.S. commission said it had no evidence Saudi Arabia directly funded al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that was long suspected of directing the terrorist attacks.

The families of about 2,000 people who died in the attacks as well as thousands more who were injured or suffered financial losses have filed lawsuits against Saudi Arabia seeking billions of dollars.

The newly declassified document reveals the FBI’s work to investigate the logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles had provided to two of the terrorists who hijacked planes. It details several connections and witnesses’ testimonies that prompted the FBI to investigate Omar al-Bayoumi, who was suspected of being an intelligence agent and allegedly provided “travel assistance, lodging, and financing” to help the two hijackers.

Hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar were assisted by al-Bayoumi when the pair first arrived in the United States in 2000. They met via a “chance encounter” at a restaurant before he helped them.

Family members of the Sept. 11 attack victims released a statement saying that the Saudi government was most likely complicit.

“Even with the unfortunate number of redactions, the report contains a host of bombshell new revelations, implicating numerous Saudi government officials, in a coordinated effort to mobilize an essential support network for the first arriving 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar,” 9/11 Families United said in a statement over the weekend. “The range of contacts at critical moments among these Saudi government officials, al-Qaeda, and the hijackers is stunning.”

But the Saudi government, ahead of the release of the document, denied that it was connected to the attacks. The United States and Saudi Arabia have long been allies and even coordinate with one another on counterterrorism issues, with the United States having sold the kingdom tens of billions of dollars in weapons in recent years.

“As past investigations have revealed, including the 9/11 Commission and the release of the so-called ’28 Pages,’ no evidence has ever emerged to indicate that the Saudi government or its officials had previous knowledge of the terrorist attack or were in any way involved,” said the Saudi embassy in a statement last week.

The document was released after an executive order was handed down by Biden earlier this month directing the Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI, to review classified information. It came after Sept. 11 victims’ families called on the president to do so and said that if he did not, Biden shouldn’t attend any of their memorial events.

FBI Releases First Declassified 9/11 Document 20 Years After Attacks (theepochtimes.com)

Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL credited with killing Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, said that the biggest threat to America comes not from outside but from internal strife and division.

O’Neill made the remarks in an interview with Fox News on the eve of Sept. 11, as the nation prepared to honor victims of the terror attack on the World Trade Center 20 years ago that killed at least 2,977 people and injured thousands more.

“My biggest concern is the division in this country,” O’Neill told the outlet. “Most people are good to each other. But the anger and the division gets the ratings, and that’s what people hear. A lot of people know if they keep people divided they can stay in power and it’s wrong.”

“We can disagree with each other but we’re on the same team when it all comes down to it,” O’Neill added.

O’Neill was part of the 2011 raid in Pakistan targeting the Al-Qaeda leader and says he was the one who fired the fatal shot.

In a separate interview with CBS News, O’Neill recounted the daring mission that left bin Laden dead.

“When I turned the corner, I saw Osama bin Laden standing there,” he said, adding that he thought the Al-Qaeda leader may have been preparing to detonate an explosive.

“He’s a threat, he’s going to blow up, I need to treat him like a suicide bomber and that’s why I had to shoot him in the face,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill said the mission to get bin Laden was a testament to the ability of people holding different political views to join forces to counter threats against the homeland.

“We proved that we can work together,” he said, adding that he hopes events like the anniversary of 9/11 are seized as an opportunity by both the right and the left to bridge divisions in the pursuit of common objectives.

“When all is said and done, we’re all Americans and we should be on the same team,” he said.

O’Neill’s remarks about the need for Americans to bridge political and ideological divides was echoed by President Joe Biden, who in a recorded video released on Sept. 10 recalled the heroics seen in the aftermath of the terror attacks and how America saw “a true sense of national unity.”

Biden, who on Saturday was set to visit three sites attacked on 9/11, added in the video that “unity makes us who we are” and called for people to “have a fundamental respect and faith in each other and in this nation.”

Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News that he planned to visit Ground Zero in New York City on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Navy SEAL Who Shot Bin Laden Says Internal Division Now Biggest Threat to America (theepochtimes.com)

President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has ruined, perhaps for decades, America’s most important bilateral relationship of this era.

If Washington is going to deter a militant China, it needs the support of democratic India. Unfortunately, India looks like the country most immediately—and perhaps most adversely—affected by the Biden-created debacle. As a result, New Delhi could decide to side not with America but with a Chinese ally, Moscow.

New Delhi was one of the staunchest supporters of the American-backed Afghan government and was working alongside Washington in the war against the Taliban and other insurgents. For instance, Indian intelligence was instrumental in breaking up an Afghan ring of Chinese spies working with the Haqqani Network. The Trump administration believed that the Chinese members of that ring, taken into custody last December, were, among other things, offering cash to kill American troops in-country.

India saw the Afghan government as a friend in blunting extremism in neighboring Pakistan, which has always defined itself as India’s enemy. Islamabad continually foments trouble in India-controlled Kashmir and has continually backed insurgents targeting India. The Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists who attacked targets in Mumbai in November 2008, for instance, came from Pakistan and relied heavily on Pakistani government resources.

The fall of the Afghan government was, therefore, a blow to New Delhi. Worse, the inability of the Biden administration to orchestrate an orderly withdrawal resulted in compounding the damage to Indian interests.

“The U.S. left behind reinvigorated jihadist networks, tens of billions of dollars in weapons and communications systems, critical strategic infrastructure, and even, reportedly, intel not only on who was working with the U.S. but some who were working with India,” Cleo Paskal of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Gatestone. “Physically, the closest target for this massively armed and confident jihadist resurgence is India. As a result of decisions taken in Washington, India is dramatically less secure today than it was a few months ago.”

To obtain security, New Delhi had been looking toward the United States. Consequently, Russia’s and China’s friends in Indian policy circles were losing influence, a trend especially evident after the Chinese incursions in Ladakh beginning in May of last year. Russia’s friends were delegitimized by that event because Moscow had assured New Delhi that the movement of Chinese forces in Tibet, which occurred immediately before the invasion, was only a drill.

As a result of Ladakh and other incidents, the government of Narendra Modi had been working fast to build military ties with the United States. In the wake of the fall of Kabul, however, relationships with Washington have been put on ice. “Indian strategists who have been saying that the way forward is working more closely with the U.S. are being openly taunted by those who have a more pro-Moscow bent,” Paskal, also associated with Chatham House, reports.

“There is a reassessment going on,” she added. “One possible outcome is that Delhi works more closely with Tokyo, and possibly Canberra and Taipei.” Japan, Australia, India, and the United States form what is known as the Quad, which up until the fall of Kabul was coming together as an effective grouping. Now, all bets are off.

Another scenario is that New Delhi decides to work more closely with Russia, reviving decades-old ties. Russia, of course, is increasingly aligned with China.

In the wake of the fall of Afghanistan, Taiwan has become the critical test of American resolve, especially as President Biden has justified the withdrawal as a strategic move to counter Russia and China. “The world is changing,” he said to the American people on Aug. 31. “We’re engaged in a serious competition with China. We’re dealing with the challenges on multiple fronts with Russia.”

It is significant, therefore, that on Aug. 27 USS Kidd, an American guided-missile destroyer, and USCG Munro, a Coast Guard cutter, transited the Taiwan Strait. The transits come on the heels of Vice President Kamala Harris’s welcome comments in both Singapore and Hanoi on China’s “bullying” in the South China Sea.

The Biden administration may in fact be willing to defend Taiwan, but that is not all that counts at this crucial time. What also counts are perceptions, and the perceptions that especially count are those in Beijing. Chinese propagandists promoted two narratives as Kabul fell: The United States will not defend Taiwan and an America unable to deal with the Taliban cannot hope to stand up to China.

Those two narratives appear to in fact reflect Chinese thinking, especially because the withdrawal from Afghanistan signaled to Beijing a complete failure of the U.S. intelligence community, the Pentagon, and the White House national security apparatus. Chinese exercises in areas adjacent to Taiwan in August and an Aug. 13 simulated attack on Taiwan with a short-range missile are, in this context, ominous.

The other perceptions that count are those in New Delhi, which had been inching toward closer cooperation with Taiwan. Indian thinkers realized that they needed to challenge China in its peripheral seas as China was challenging India in its nearby waters. India’s close ties with Vietnam are an indication that India perceives its security as dependent on an open South China Sea and even East China Sea. Taiwan, which sits at the intersection of those bodies of water, is essential in keeping sea lanes there open.

America more than ever needs India’s help in ensuring peace in the ring of countries surrounding China and its surrounding waters. Now, however, India could desert America as America has just deserted India. Said Paskal, “To say there is a crisis in trust in current U.S. policymaking in New Delhi is an understatement.”

From the Gatestone Institute.

Chaotic Afghanistan Pullout Puts Important Relationship With India in Peril (theepochtimes.com)

A couple of boys in Indiana made their neighbor proud when—while out riding their bikes—they heard a military funeral procession, stopped, and stood at attention while Taps played.

Batesville local Jacqi Hornbach was dog-sitting at her friend’s house, which is across the street from a cemetery, when the procession pulled in on Thursday, Sept. 2.

“The boys rode up on their bikes and immediately stopped when they saw the funeral,” she told The Epoch Times. “They got off their bikes, put down their backpacks, and waited quietly together for a minute or two.

“The respect these two young boys showed for the deceased military man was so heartwarming.”

Jacqi was so moved that she snapped a few pictures of them as they stood there. She later took to Facebook and shared the photos with the world—despite her initial hesitation.

She wrote in a caption: “I debated whether or not to post this, but with all the negative things going on, I thought this was needed.”

Jacqi told the newspaper she wanted to spread some positivity in a world where the “news can be so negative.”

“I had to snap a pic as I was so proud of these two young men,” she wrote. “Their parents should be so proud, and I’m sure the serviceman was in heaven smiling down on them.❤️”

One of the boys’ fathers, Sean Moody, said he raised his son Lane, 8, to have “honesty, respect, and to be polite and respectful.”

“When he heard the 21-gun salute and Taps he knew it was important,” Sean said. “When I got home from work, they told me what they had done and I was proud to hear they had done that!

“It wasn’t until I’d seen the pictures of the boys that had a whole different feeling with it!”

The soul-stirring pictures of the boys went viral on Facebook, garnering hundreds of reactions, shares, and patriotic comments.

Facebook user Julie Zacher wrote: “What a tribute to our fallen soldier but also to their parents!”

A U.S. Army vet from Arkansas, Clif Arnold, commented: “I’m as patriotic as they come, and I’m not sure if my boys would have done the same.”

2 Indiana Boys on Bikes See Military Funeral and Stop to Pay Respects as Taps Plays (theepochtimes.com)

For 20 years since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. presidents have been saying their anti-terrorism policies have worked, as evidenced by no new attacks on America. While we should be grateful another attack hasn’t occurred, past performance is no guarantee of future success. Fanatics are nothing but patient, as we have seen in Afghanistan.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley has said the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could lead to civil war and the possible “reconstitution of al Qaeda.” That should come as no surprise as the goals of our enemies in the Middle East have been expressed openly for decades. Their actions have proven a commitment to killing Americans and destabilizing democracies and their economies.

Underestimating one’s enemy is always a fatal error as we saw on 9/11. President Obama once dismissed al-Qaeda as the “JV team.” In fact, they are the varsity. It is difficult to deter or destroy an ideology whose adherents are willing to die for its cause, especially when they believe they are carrying out orders from their god.

In its March 2015 issue, The Atlantic noted a New York Times story about confidential comments made by Major General Michael K. Nagata, at the time the Special Operations commander for the U.S. in the Middle East. Gen. Nagata reportedly admitted he had yet to figure out the appeal of one of many terrorist organizations. About the Islamic State, he said, “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.” Whose fault is that?

With their win in Afghanistan, terrorists by whatever name, can only be further motivated to conduct new attacks. What might those look like? From experience we know they prefer the big event, such as crashing airliners into buildings and blowing up high value targets. There are other options when big targets are not vulnerable.

Lone suicide bomber incidents can also strike fear into a nation, especially if they are sustained and coordinated.

In 2003, Tom Clancy wrote a novel called “The Teeth of the Tiger” about terrorists who sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border and in coordinated attacks shoot up suburban shopping malls. Fear of terrorists slipping over the border is not fiction, but of growing concern.

Small-scale attacks, undetectable in advance, have been occurring since 9/11.

Two recent incidents demonstrate what we’re up against.

On the Sunday before the last American military planes left Kabul, a gunman shot and killed a Lyft driver in Garland, Texas. He then drove to a nearby police station and began shooting at people inside. The gunman was identified as Imran Ali Rasheed. Police killed him.

The FBI said Rasheed “may have been inspired by a foreign terrorist organization to commit these crimes.” Ya think? Suspected terrorists are crossing our southern border at “unprecedented level,” according to the outgoing U.S. Border Patrol chief. In New Zealand, a man named Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen stabbed seven people inside a store where he had bought a knife. Police shot and killed him. Authorities drew the obvious conclusion, calling it a “terrorist attack.”

Who knows how many—if any—terrorists are among the thousands of Afghan refugees now pouring into America? The Biden administration claims the vetting system should weed out anyone who means us harm, but there are no guarantees and the radicals can be expected to lie and perhaps even have forged papers.

After turning back German General Erwin Rommel’s forces in what Winston Churchill called “The Battle of Egypt,” Churchill famously said: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Given the commitment and resourcefulness of this modern enemy, I’m not sure we are even at the end of the beginning.

The Next Terrorist Attack (theepochtimes.com)

Interview with the Antichrist is a must-see film, especially for Christians. In the movie, the Antichrist interviewee made a warning that soon he would take all lukewarm Christians to Hell, instead of being saved by God. Who is this guy? And who are the lukewarm? Could this happen in the real world, and how to prevent it? You will get an answer to these questions after watching this feature.

Director Timothy A. Chey shared he was an atheist until in his 30s. Since then, he has become very spiritual and committed to making faith-based films. Chey does not think the movies he made are merely fictional or for entertainment. “My one and only goal is to bring people true salvation in Christ in these very last days,” Chey said, “the Lord is coming sooner than we think.” And what he is most interested to illustrate is the battle of Armageddon described in the book of Revelations—the destruction of humanity by the Antichrist before God returns and how mankind would go through this great tribulation.

“I believe the Antichrist is alive right now,” Chey stated, “so it intrigued me to show a live broadcast with the Antichrist to ask him every question under the sun.” That is why, in the film, the Antichrist is peppered with stark questions including media domination, the battle between pastor John MacArthur and the California governor, the ACLU, Netflix and couch potatoes, the 9/11 terrorist attack, mass shootings, radical left movements, communist China, the evils of political correctness, pandemic lockdowns, and other mandates.

In the movie, the Antichrist mocks Pope Francis’ Interfaith Unity movement and lukewarm Christians spending more hours watching food channels than reading the Bible. Is even the Pope lukewarm? Some churchgoers may be shocked.

Lukewarm is neither hot nor cold. Lukewarm Christians are people who claim they have faith in Lord, but in the real world, are on and off. Are you lukewarm? Maybe you’re thinking, “No, I’m a devout believer of God.” That is remarkable. But wait for a minute. Is this your resolution or actual daily practice?

When the apostles worried about their clothes and bread, and when frightened by the storm, they were called “ones of little faith.” Peter denied his identity three times, even though he was the first disciple to acknowledge the Messiah.

Like water being cooked, every molecule of water in the pot is lukewarm until it boils. So lukewarm might not be name-calling, but a description of certain status or phase in the spiritual journey. And a person’s spiritual level is not static throughout one’s life; shifts in both directions are possible.

Viewer Joan Enderman agrees this movie is a wake-up call because she has found herself “slipping,” “being a Christian and sealed by the Holy Spirit does not give us immunity from sin and slipping backward.” Another viewer Christine Kenyon notes, “it now becomes harder and more of a spiritual battle because our eyes and hearts have been opened.” The movie talked about people being deceived or attached to worldly desires. For example, the lure of pornography is everywhere, from movies to TV shows, from advertisements on the street to the internet.

The Antichrist in the film is an anthropomorphized character. Through the dialogue between host Alex Carter and the Antichrist, the film conveys that the Antichrist is alive and is everywhere, as many politicians and influential figures believe more in the power of man than in God. This is exactly the spirit of the Antichrist.

Undoubtedly, communism or Marxism has been a collective representation of the Antichrist for the last hundred years. Opposing capitalism and preaching common prosperity through violence are just the political slogans of communists. But anti-God and anti-humanity are their hidden intentions.

The communist regimes have killed hundreds of millions of innocent people simply because of their spiritual beliefs. Affirmed by the China Tribunal, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime has committed forced organ harvesting for years on a significant scale, “an unprecedented evil on this planet.” The reason the communists denigrate and eliminate all traditional beliefs and values is that they want humans to worship them as god or savior.

If you were thinking the Antichrist would only appear in the Western world, that might be a mistake. Revelation 14:9 reads that the worshippers of the beast will receive “the mark on his forehead or on his hand.” Think about the communist posture of raising their hands to take the oath, and then you may understand the verses better.

Likewise, Revelation 17:1-2 says, “The great whore… With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Who better to be called the great whore than the CCP that has lured the leaders on earth with money and coaxed the inhabitants of the earth with poor quality and low-priced goods?

Stressed in the movie, the Antichrist and his secular agents are most adept at creating and exploiting various forms of crisis to panic people into ceding their rights to the government and totalitarians. Hence, many people fear that America might become like a communist country.

If you are someone who wants to take your faith seriously, or is concerned about the future of America, or cares about the health and well-being of yourself and your family, I suggest you watch this film. It is available on EpochTV, a streaming platform for exclusive programming that includes investigative news analysis, in-depth interviews, and award-winning documentaries and films.

Lukewarm Christians, Watch This Before It’s Too Late (theepochtimes.com)

Paul Shinkman of U.S. News wrote the other day:

“China is considering deploying military personnel and economic development officials to Bagram airfield, perhaps the single-most prominent symbol of the 20-year U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

“The Chinese military is currently conducting a feasibility study about the effect of sending workers, soldiers and other staff related to its foreign economic investment program known as the Belt and Road Initiative in the coming years to Bagram, according to a source briefed on the study by Chinese military officials, who spoke to U.S. News on the condition of anonymity.”

As Moon Unit Zappa used to say, “Gag me with a spoon!”

Feasibility study? You don’t have to be Nostradamus to figure out how that’s going to turn out, assuming it hasn’t been done already and this is just a masquerade.

Why wouldn’t the Chinese take over Bagram? It’s sitting there.

And no real estate could be more apt for their Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as One Belt, One Road), essentially a large-scale bait-and-switch operation. The Chinese—in reality the Chinese Communist Party—lends the poor country—in this case the impoverished Taliban—money to modernize their infrastructure with the caveat that, if they don’t pay off the loan in a certain amount of time, guess who owns said infrastructure?

Well, we know the answer to that. The Chinese are in essence buying the world with the help, note well, of some of the most prominent American firms (pdf) busy enriching themselves with more money than most of us can compute.

(If you’re interested in how successful the BRI has been, here’s a helpful map from the Council of Foreign Relations.)

What has occurred in recent days is that China has achieved something absolutely free for which the Soviets and the United States wasted decades of personnel (tragically dead or wounded), matériel and trillions of dollars, not to mention ended up by disgracing themselves in the eyes of the world.

Effectively, the Chinese own Afghanistan, the important parts of it anyway—airbases, ports, mineral rights, and so forth—or will shortly.

As for internal Taliban affairs, the Chinese communists aren’t about to lift a finger about the horrifying level of women’s rights or the extensive drug growing and dealing the terror group engages in, especially if they send as much of it as possible to America.

As long as the various Islamic terror organizations leave the Chinese alone, the Chinese will let them do as they wish. Yes, some—al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, one we haven’t heard of yet—may make a fuss about the treatment of the Uyghurs and make their violent presence known, but I would imagine they ultimately see the Chinese forces as much more ruthless than the Americans (now especially) and this will be at best a temporary sideshow of little global importance. Realpolitik will be at play on both Chinese and Taliban (Islamic) sides as they benefit each other, at least for now.

So how did we get here? If this is all so obvious—and it is—wasn’t our State Department and our military aware of how this would, or certainly could, turn out? (Wouldn’t they at least leave a small NATO force guarding Bagram and destroy our weaponry?)

I imagine many of our officials were—how could they not be—aware of this eventuality. And that’s highly disturbing.

Why then did the USA cede Afghanistan—a territory bounded by Iran and Pakistan, among other states, not to mention control of much of the world’s rare earths and other key resources—to the increasingly totalitarian China of Xi Jinping?

For an answer, it’s hard not to think back to those days when, shortly before declaring for the presidency and reversing himself on the topic, our current president told us “The Chinese aren’t our enemies, folks.”

Was he covering up for his own activities and connections that could have been recorded on his son Hunter Biden’s laptop, much of which is as yet unseen? Do the Chinese, in the crudest sense, have something on him? Unfortunately, considering the operations and governance of our FBI and Department of Justice, we may never know.

We can, however, make our own surmises. But whatever they may be, they’re only a part of a more depressing overall zeitgeist.

I have believed for some time—and our extraordinarily rapid and ill-conceived evacuation of Afghanistan, leaving behind not only Bagram but enough U.S. weaponry to make the Taliban’s army nearly equivalent to the Italian’s, not to mention putting our advanced military technology in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians, only underscores this—that a large percentage of our Democratic Party leadership as well as a tragically significant percentage of the Republican have long believed the Chinese regime are winning the battle between China and America for global hegemony. They are therefore, overtly or covertly, consciously or subconsciously, throwing in with the Chinese side for their own economic—and to a lesser extent survival, though the two interact—advantage.

Our globalist-leaning corporations, like the giant law firm linked above, that deal extensively with China are similar. They’re going with what they think is the winning side.

And globalism is not democracy. For the globalist, people voting has been irrelevant, even retrograde, for decades. It’s the one-party state gone world-wide.

So, to be overly colloquial, “bugging out” on Afghanistan to them is no big deal. And China taking over, well, to them it’s just part of the game.

Why Did the USA Hand Afghanistan to China? (theepochtimes.com)

A couple of weeks before the completion of the catastrophe of the American presence in Afghanistan—or, if you believe President Joe Biden, the “extraordinary success” of the American evacuation—a Russo-British comedian named Konstantin Kisin published a brilliantly funny thread on Twitter headed: “You’re struggling to understand why some people are vaccine hesitant. Let me help you.”

The “let me help you” megathread, as he called it, consisted of example after example of so-called “expert” opinions that have turned out to be completely wrong—beginning with the British vote for Brexit and the American vote for President Donald Trump in 2016, both of which elections the top experts at the time confidently assured us would go the other way.

Actually, Kisin’s spiel could be considered as a belated gloss on one of the most famous quotations to come out of the Brexit referendum, that of the Brexiteer and veteran government minister Michael Gove who said: “I think the people of this country have had enough of experts.”

I think that Trump was striking the same responsive chord with Americans when he disparaged what he called “political correctness”—still ravaging the county after four years of his administration—which was also the product of that breed of experts who call themselves “intellectuals.”

If people were fed up with experts in 2016, think how much more reason they have to be so five years later! Kisin does, and he goes ruthlessly through the whole catalog of errors from Russian collusion to “systemic racism” and “white supremacy” to “toxic masculinity” and the abolition of sex in favor of the nebulous idea of “gender.”

And of course we mustn’t leave out the conflicting and often mendacious pronunciamentos of “the Science” on the coronavirus, which have culminated in the distrust, not so much of the vaccines themselves, but of “the experts’” attempts to demonize those who remain skeptical about them.

And all this was before the collapse of the Afghan government and army under the onslaught of the Taliban gave us what may be the best reason ever for thinking that we, too, have had enough of experts in this country.

“Afghanistan: the graveyard of experts,” wrote Tim Black at Spiked Online.

“US ‘experts’ who created Afghanistan mess should be fired for malpractice,” wrote Rebekah Koffler for The New York Post—though of course they won’t be. They never are. They’re the experts.

A writer on Substack named Richard Hanania compared the galaxy of American Ph.D.’s (including the now-deposed president of Afghanistan himself, Ashraf Ghani, who has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia) who got us into Afghanistan with the madrassa-educated Taliban and wrote that, “It’s as if Wernher von Braun had been given all the resources in the world to run a space program and had been beaten to the moon by an African witch doctor.”

Unsurprisingly, there were a great many negative comments appended to Kisin’s bonfire of the experts, most of them to the effect that, just because some people have been wrong about some things it doesn’t mean that other people are going to be wrong about other things—especially when those things include vaccines which, as there are sound scientific reasons for believing, can be life-saving.

Nor should we neglect to consider that the lives saved are not only of those who receive the vaccines but also those of the immunosuppressed and other vulnerable people who come in contact with them.

They have a point. But so has Kisin. The latter is certainly right in thinking that the experts, particularly those who write for the partisan media, have taken too little care of their own credibility in the past, instead expecting to be trusted and believed as right, just because of who they are. When they then turn out to be wrong, they have no one but themselves to blame if people don’t believe them the next time.

Some people are always going to be wrong about almost everything, but the case is altered when the people who are wrong have set themselves up in the profession of being right. These are the people we call “experts” solely because they have the recognized credentials of experts—advanced degrees from top universities or awards for their expertise from other experts—whether or not they have any real-world experience or expertise.

Their authority is what the anthropologists call “positional”—like that of the parent who answers a child’s question of why? by replying: “Because I said so!” or “Because I’m your mother.”

The experts treat us all like those children—and then they wonder why they are resented and distrusted.

They are the people who identify themselves with their beliefs to the extent that they can never admit it—and so never learn from their mistakes—when those beliefs turn out to be wrong.

That’s how you get to Biden’s calling an obvious disaster of the first water an “extraordinary success”—with no more than an occasional raised eyebrow from the compliant media.

Much publicity in the last week or so was given to a Reuters report of a conversation between Biden and Ghani in the dying days of the latter’s government, as the Taliban were closing in. What he had to worry about, said the American president to the Afghan one, was the “perception” that he was losing the war, not the fact that he actually was losing it.

All he had to do to get American help, said Biden, was change this perception, “whether it is true or not.”

I think a lot of the criticism of this extraordinary conversation was misdirected. The problem wasn’t that Biden told Ghani to lie. Lying to the enemy has a long and honorable tradition in the history of warfare.

No, the problem was that he was foolish enough to think he could lie in that situation: that he (or Ghani) could get away with spinning the enemy as he himself was used to spinning the American media—as, of course, he would go on to do again with the claim of an “extraordinary success.”

A man whose self-assurance and self-absorption is such that he believes reality can make no claim against him that he can’t pay off with the experts’ counterfeit currency of interpretive ingenuity and rhetorical sleight-of-hand is a man who can only lead his country and himself into more disasters.

Bonfire of the Experts (theepochtimes.com)

Kellyanne Conway, a former senior Trump counselor, posted a fiery message to  President Joe Biden Wednesday, after receiving an email from the administration telling her to resign from the U.S. Air Force Academy board or be fired.

“President, Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should,” Conway posted to Twitter, captioning a letter she wrote to POTUS.

President Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should. pic.twitter.com/HuRYM4bLYP

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 8, 2021

“Your decision is disappointing,” Conway wrote in the letter, “but understandable given the need to distract from a news cycle that has you mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting poll numbers, including a rise in new COVID cases, a dismal jobs report, inflation, record amount of drugs coming across the southern border, and, of course, the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan that left hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies stranded under Taliban rule.”

In a follow-up post reacting to criticism on left-wing social media site Twitter, Conway suggested her foes “get some fresh air” and “make a friend” offline.

“Since I’m not the Conway on Twitter regularly,” she wrote, referencing her husband George Conway, “I’d forgotten how left-wing it is and how nutty some people are. LOLOL. I’m WORRIED for you. Get some fresh air, folks. Wear pants that button and zipper again. Get a hobby that doesn’t involve a keyboard. Make a friend.”

Since I’m not the Conway on Twitter regularly, I’d forgotten how left-wing it is and how nutty some people are. LOLOL. I’m WORRIED for you. Get some fresh air, folks. Wear pants that button and zipper again. Get a hobby that doesn’t involve a keyboard. Make a friend. https://t.co/k1mR2JVLON

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 8, 2021

Conway was not alone in her defiant message. Trump-era White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced Wednesday that he will not be resigning from the Naval Academy Board and will instead join a lawsuit against the Biden administration.

“All Trump appointees, including myself, have been kicked off the boards of the United States Naval Academy Air Force Academy in West Point in an unprecedented move by the Biden administration,” Spicer announced his Newsmax show, “Spicer & Company.”

“I’m announcing tonight for the first time that I will not be submitting my resignation and I will be joining a lawsuit to fight this,” he told viewers.

Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki suggested Conway, Spicer, and others from the past administration are not “qualified” to be on the board and do not “align” with Biden administration “values.”

“The President’s objective is what any president’s objective is — to ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with your values,” Psaki said at the presser. “And so yes, that was an ask that was made.”

“I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards, but the President’s qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration,” she added.

The Daily Wire on Wednesday reported on the unprecedented move by the administration to remove Trump era officials:

The Joe Biden administration is purging the federal government’s constellation of advisory boards and commissions of Donald Trump appointees, even though such people are typically appointed to fixed terms and are not removed by new presidents.

Officials received a curt letter, one dated today, saying “Please submit your resignation to me by the close of business today. Should we not receive your resignation, your position with the Board will be terminated effective 6:00 pm tonight. Thank you.”

The removals range from highly credentialed experts at obscure entities where politics are unlikely to be an issue, such as the Arctic Research Commission, to military service academies.

In some cases, the Biden administration initially opted to refused to convene the commissions, including the National Board for Education Sciences — meaning the Biden administration chose to suspend a board dedicated to science in education during a year defined by schools’ attempt to grapple with how they should respond to the coronavirus, seemingly to ensure that no one tied to Trump would have a voice.

Related: Sean Spicer: ‘I Will Not Resign’ From Naval Academy; Suing Biden Admin For Kicking Him Off Board

‘I’m Not Resigning, But You Should’: Kellyanne Conway Fires At Biden Over Military Academy Board Removal | The Daily Wire

Karl Eikenberry – a former Ambassador to Afghanistan under President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden – now collaborates with several Chinese Communist Party-funded influence groups seeking to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition” to the regime and works for a state-run university in China, The National Pulse can reveal.

The sole political appointee to fill the role in the Obama-Biden years, Eikenberry served as Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011. His appointment followed his service as a Lieutenant General in the U.S. Army focusing on Afghanistan, overseeing the training of the now-defunct government’s army and police forces.

Since his departure from the role, Eikenberry has affiliated with several Chinese Communist Party-run institutes and initiatives.

In addition to serving as a senior advisor to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defense, he doubles as a Visiting Professor at Schwartzman College housed at Tsinghua University. The alma mater of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, Tsinghua University has a history of launching cyberattacks against the U.S. government.

Tsinghua also has a “clear connection between them and the state administration for technology and industry in discussions on what [they] can do to help the national security,” according to former Senior Intelligence Officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency and State Department Official Nicholas Eftimiades.

Similarly, Eikenberry is an International Security fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). The National Pulse has previously highlighted the center’s deep collaboration with several Chinese military and government-linked entities, including those flagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for espionage and blacklisted by the U.S. government.

Eikenberry is also part of a working group based at the University of California San Diego’s (UCSD) 21st Century China Center, which is predominantly funded by the co-founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba. The China-based firm has close financial and personnel ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its military. It has been flagged as a “tool” of the Chinese Communist Party by the U.S. State Department.

Beyond academia, Eikenberry has also participated in dialogues at the East-West Institute sponsored by the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF). The organization was founded by the Vice-Chairman Chinese Communist Party’s “United Front,” an effort that seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party” and “influence foreign governments to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”

Another event sponsor – the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) – has been flagged by the U.S. government as a United Front group operating under the auspices of China’s military.

“CAIFC has additional ties to the Ministries of State Security, Civil Affairs, and Foreign Affairs, and it is a platform for deploying undercover intelligence gatherers,” the federal commission’s report adds.

Despite these ties, Eikenberry participated in a 2018 military-to-military dialogue – the Sanya Initiative – alongside Chinese Communist Party counterparts sponsored by CUSEF and CAIFC.

“Retired American and Chinese senior flag officers and executives of the hosting organizations met in Beijing to discuss critical issues of mutual concern and interest impacting the U.S.-China military-to-military relationship, including North Korea, Taiwan, the South China Sea, emerging technologies, as well as other regional security challenges,” an event summary notes.

Foreign Policy magazine noted how the Chinese regime effort aims to subvert former American military leaders into advocating on behalf of Beijing and its People’s Liberation Army (PLA):

• One of those PLA projects is the Sanya Initiative, an exchange program that brings together U.S. and Chinese former high-ranking military leaders. On the Chinese side, the Sanya Initiative is led by a bureau of the PLA that engages in political warfare and influence operations, according to Mark Stokes, executive director of the Project 2049 Institute.

• Sometimes the results of such high-level exchanges aren’t subtle. In February 2008, PLA participants in the Sanya Initiative asked their U.S. counterparts to persuade the Pentagon to delay publishing a forthcoming report about China’s military buildup, according to a segment excised from the 2011 annual report of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

• The U.S. members complied, though their request was not successful.

Obama-Biden Afghan Ambassador Is Now A China-Funded Academic Tied To Influence Groups ‘Neutralizing’ Beijing’s Enemies. (thenationalpulse.com)

One anonymous 4Chan user suggested Afghan refugees might vote for Democrats

Refugees fleeing the Biden-induced human rights catastrophe in Afghanistan are streaming into Washington, D.C., and flowing into the area’s hospitals amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the district’s emergency management agency has issued a stern warning about the threat of online extremism.

The District of Columbia’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency warned law enforcement officials earlier this week that “extremist rhetoric has risen online following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.” According to an intelligence assessment obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the agency assessed that “the increase in extremist rhetoric may presage targeted violence against Afghan refugees.” The evidence cited to support that assessment, however, was rather scant—just a handful of examples from “known online forums,” such as 4Chan, Free Republic, BitChute, and the official QAnon Telegram channel.

The report, dated Sept. 7, quotes an anonymous 4Chan user who responded to a series of posts about the resettlement of Afghan refugees. “Hello…don’t yall [sic] see the democratic strategy here?” the anonymous poster posted. “[The refugees] arent [sic] going to strong blue states but the key electoral swing states.” It goes on to note that the deranged North Carolina man who precipitated a standoff with law enforcement outside the U.S. Capitol Building last month had “shared frustration with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan on Facebook.”

Additional evidence includes “open-source comments” on Free Republic containing “implied threats” against President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), and a post suggesting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) wants to bring in “200,000 [evacuees], that is 4000 new terrorists…per state.” The assessment also cites two comments from “identified” BitChute users who referenced “replacement theory” and “white genocide” in response to posts about refugee resettlement, and another from the QAnon Telegram channel describing the resettlement of Afghan refugees as “an enemy invasion.”

There are a couple posts that could realistically be defined as vague threats against refugees, such as one from a QAnon Telegram user who urged Americans to “Arm yourself!…citizens should storm the airports and blow up the runways.”

The report did not elaborate as to whether any (or all) of the posts were written by law enforcement agents and informants, nor did it discuss the amount of taxpayer dollars and government manpower the agency devotes to perusing online forums.

Amid Afghan Refugee Influx, DC Govt Warns of Dangers of Online Extremism (freebeacon.com)

Sound familiar? [US Patriot]

The Taliban on Sept. 8 announced a ban on all slogans, demonstrations, and protests that don’t have official approval in yet another signal that the Islamic terrorist group is taking a hardline and repressive approach to government.

A decree was issued on Sept. 8 by the head of the Taliban’s new interior ministry, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is a member of the Haqqani network that has long been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. The department also has a $10 million bounty on Haqqani’s head, while the United Nations has Haqqani on a sanctions list.

Haqqani’s decree said that protesters without the Taliban’s permission to stage demonstrations in a stated time and location will face “severe legal consequences.”

Approval must also be given for any slogans that might be used during the protest.

The decree also accused Afghans protesting in Kabul and other provinces in recent days of “disrupting security, harassing people, and disrupting normal life,” telling citizens that “no one should protest and cause concern to the citizens” without permission from the Ministry of Justice.

It claimed, “The Islamic Emirate addresses the legitimate demands and rights of all citizens and must be given time to take the necessary steps to address other issues once security is restored.”

The announcement comes amid multiple protests in the country between Taliban fighters and demonstrators—including one protest led by local women in Kabul.

On Sept. 7, members of the terrorist group were seen firing shots into the air in an effort to disperse a large protest being held outside the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, while several reporters were arrested as they attempted to document the demonstration, according to reports.

Thousands of Afghan men and women took to the streets to protest against the Taliban and what they characterized as Pakistani intelligence’s interference in the affairs of the Middle Eastern nation and for allegedly being the guiding hand behind the Taliban’s return to power.

Demonstrators allege that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) supported the Taliban’s latest offensive that routed resistance fighters in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul—the last area where anti-Taliban resistance fighters have held out against the terrorist group. Islamabad denies this.

Some of the protestors carried signs reading “ISI stay away.” Others shouted slogans such as “Azadi [freedom or liberty]” and “Death to Pakistan.”

On Sept. 7, the Taliban announced its new government for Afghanistan, challenging claims to rightful government by former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who says he is the “legitimate caretaker president,” according to the country’s constitution adopted in 2004. The Taliban’s cabinet notably doesn’t include any women or non-Taliban figures, despite the militant group vowing to form an “inclusive government” as part of the Doha Agreement.

The group named Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as the country’s interim prime minister and co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as second in command, while Mullah Yaqoob will be the defense minister.

The international community has expressed concern over the lack of diversity within the Taliban’s so-called government, with the United States previously stating it wouldn’t recognize a Taliban-led government if it wasn’t inclusive.

“We note the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women. We also are concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals,” a spokesperson for the State Department said in a statement following the Sept. 7 announcement.

“We understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson echoed U.S. concerns over the Taliban’s proposed government and the distinct lack of diversity.

“We would want to see, in any situation, a diverse group in leadership which seeks to address the pledges that the Taliban themselves have set out, and that’s not what we have seen,” a spokesman for Johnson said. “We will continue to judge the Taliban on their actions.”

EU spokesperson Peter Stano said the new government “does not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan we hoped to see and that the Taliban were promising over the past weeks,” in a statement to media outlets.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the exclusion of groups outside the Taliban, coupled with the violence perpetrated by Taliban terrorists against protesters and journalists in Kabul “are not signals that give cause for optimism.”

“It must be clear to the Taliban that international isolation is not in its interests, and especially not in those of Afghanistan’s people,” Maas said.

Taliban Declare Ban on Slogans, Protests That Don’t Have Its Approval (theepochtimes.com)

The Biden administration has forced out nearly a dozen Trump administration appointees from their positions on the advisory boards of U.S. military service academies, the White House confirmed on Wednesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a press briefing that the administration was seeking to ensure that the advisory board members were “qualified to serve” and “aligned” with President Joe Biden’s values.

Shortly afterwards, White House spokesman Chris Meagher said that all of the Trump appointees “either resigned” or have been “terminated from their position.” Eighteen members of military service advisory boards, including 11 officials appointed by former President Donald Trump, were asked to resign or be fired.

These included former Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway; the former president’s first White House press secretary Sean Spicer; Trump’s second national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster; and Russell T. Vought, a former White House Office of Management and Budget director under Trump.

“The president’s objective … was to ensure you have nominees and people serving on these boards who are qualified to serve on them and who are aligned with our core values,” Psaki said on Wednesday. “I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified or not political to serve on these boards.”

The duties of the boards are “to inquire into the state of morale and discipline, the curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the academy which the Board decides to consider.”

Members typically serve the entirety of their three-year terms.

Several of the officials posted screenshots on social media of the letters they said the White House sent them on Wednesday, asking that they either resign by 6 p.m. that day or be fired.

“On behalf of President Biden, I am writing to request your resignation,” White House Personnel Director Cathy Russell wrote to the appointees. “Please submit your resignation to me by the close of business today. Should we not receive your resignation, your position with the Board will be terminated effective 6:00 pm tonight. Thank you.”

Conway shared a letter addressed to Biden, saying that she wouldn’t resign from her advisory position at the Air Force Academy.

“President Biden, I’m not resigning, but you should,” she wrote on Twitter.

“Three former directors of presidential personnel inform me that this request is a break from presidential norms,” Conway wrote in her letter to the president. “It certainly seems petty and political, if not personal.”

Vought posted on Twitter a copy of the letter from Russell, saying he wouldn’t resign as a member of the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Naval Academy.

“No. It’s a three year term,” Vought wrote on Twitter.

“Instead of focusing on the stranded Americans left in #Afghanistan, President Biden is trying to terminate the Trump appointees to the Naval Academy, West Point and Air Force Academy,” Spicer said on Twitter.

Spicer said on his show on Newsmax that he and other appointees intend to file a lawsuit challenging the decision.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for additional comment.

Biden Forces Out Trump Appointees From Military Academy Advisory Boards (theepochtimes.com)

Democrats in the House Education and Labor Committee revealed how their committee would use the $761 billion from the $3.5 trillion budget resolution package, saying that among other things, the money will be used to lower the cost of childcare and provide free preschool and community college.

“The Education and Labor Committee’s portion of the Build Back Better Act makes historic investments that will lower costs for nearly every family, create good-paying jobs for American workers, and provide our nation’s children the strong foundation they deserve,” said Chairman Robert C. Scott (D-Va.) in a press statement Wednesday.

The committee will begin marking up the legislation on Thursday with members offering amendments in an attempt to change how the $761 billion is spent.

The legislation would subsidize childcare programs, making it so most families would not have to pay more than 7 percent of their income for each child’s daycare. The funding would also subsidize a pay increase for childcare workers, so facilities could hire more workers.

The funding would also subsidize universal pre-K, so all 3- and 4-year-olds could go to school.

The funding allots $111 billion to provide two years of free community colleges, invest in the Pell Grant program, and fund educational institutions that cater to blacks, Hispanics, and minorities to make quality degrees more affordable for those groups.

The committee’s bill provides $82 billion to public schools for repairs and upgrades. It will invest close to $80 billion in workforce development programs including training people for climate change energy-related jobs.

The funding will also include about $35 billion for school food programs during the school year and the summer months, as well as provide money to upgrade school kitchens.

Ranking Member of the committee Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-S.C.) slammed the committee’s bill, calling it a part of Biden’s “reckless,” “partisan” spending.

“Congressional Democrats could empower individuals and entrepreneurs to make the financial, professional, educational, and parental decisions that work best for them. Instead, Democrats are pushing an irresponsible spending scheme that will double down on the inflation crisis and allow the federal government to infringe on Americans’ liberties,” Foxx said in a press statement Wednesday.

Democrats are pressing forward with their $3.5 trillion budget resolution even though there is opposition within their own party, with some moderates saying this level of spending will increase inflation and saddle future generations with federal debt.

Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has repeatedly said he does not think that this level of spending is wise and his party should put a pause on the legislation until after the pandemic and after assessing the recent inflation.

Republicans have all said they will oppose the budget resolution, but Democrats do not need the GOP to vote in favor of the bill if they get all 50 Democrat senators to vote in favor of the package.

Top Democrat leaders have shared confidence that their party will rally together to pass the massive funding bill.

Schumer was asked by a local ABC news reporter on Sunday if he can convince all members of his party, particularly Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has also said she will not support the resolution, to vote in favor of the massive spending bill.

“I’m going to do my best and you know so far, after some discussion, and some compromise they have gone along with previous bills. Let’s hope it happens again,” said Schumer. “I have a caucus that runs from Bernie Sanders on the left to Joe Manchin, on the right. How do I bring them all together when you only have 50 votes and every one of them counts?”

Meanwhile, Sanders said he speaks directly to caucus members, in an effort to further negotiations on the budget bill.

“After a lot of negotiations and pain—and I’m going to be on the phone all week—what we are going to do is pass the most comprehensive bill for working families that this country has seen,” Sanders told The New York Time

House Education and Labor Committee Reveals How They Would Spend Their Portion of the $3.5 Trillion (theepochtimes.com)

What’s Happening:

News came out recently that, despite pulling our troops out, Americans were still stranded in Afghanistan. Doing what Biden refused to do, private citizens raised money to fly home those left behind.

We were told the Taliban was trying to block these flights. But, as it turns out, many of them can’t get clearance. Why?

Because the State Department is ignoring them.

Now, even Biden-supporting Democrats are getting “furious.” From Fox News:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is “furious” over the Biden administration delaying flights with Americans trying to escape Afghanistan after President Biden’s botched troop withdrawal.

The senator from Connecticut issued a press release on Monday eviscerating the Biden administration for delaying flights…

Blumenthal – who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has sons who have served in the military – expressed he has been “deeply frustrated, even furious” at the U.S. government’s “delay and inaction” in rescuing the people left behind in Afghanistan after Biden’s deadly troop withdrawal.

A leading Democratic Senator blasted Joe Biden for failing to help Americans get out of Afghanistan.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal took the lead to arrange flights for stranded families. But the Biden’s State Department reportedly will not give them clearance to leave.

He even arranged a place for the flights to land, in Doha, saying they are “already been cleared to land.”

The only hold-up? Biden apparently won’t give the go-ahead.

Blumenthal blasted the administration saying he’s “deeply frustrated, even furious.”

He criticized Joe Biden because he expected his administration “to do everything in their power – absolutely everything – to make this happen.”

But it looks like Joe is not doing that. Not even close.

Some people have previously claimed the State Department is refusing to give the green light, out of embarrassment.

They failed to get out all Americans and Afghan allies. So, they are refusing to let these flights happen, to avoid calling attention to their failure.

If that’s the case, wow. Biden is abandoning Americans because he wants to save face?

No wonder even Democrats are ticked off.

Key Takeaways:

• Democrat Sen. Blumenthal blasted Biden for refusing to help stranded Americans.
• The senator claims Biden’s State Department won’t give clearance to flights.
• Blumenthal said he was “deeply frustrated, even furious” at the president.

Source: Fox Business

Biden’s Democrats Tell Joe They Are “Furious” With Him – Leading Democrat Blumenthal Accuses Joe Of Delaying Escape Flights (thepatriotjournal.com)

Blinken and Psaki said prisoners posed no threat

When President Barack Obama struck a deal with the Taliban in 2014 to free several high-ranking terrorists being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, his defenders argued their release would do little to harm U.S. national security. Now, four of those terrorists are serving in senior roles in Afghanistan’s newly formed Taliban government.

The Obama-era deal’s prominent defenders include officials now serving in senior posts in the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House press secretary Jen Psaki. They claimed there was no indication these terrorists, known as the Taliban Five, would return to the battlefield, let alone rise to senior leadership positions in the Taliban government following the United States’ much-criticized evacuation from Afghanistan. The prisoners were swapped for Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was later charged with desertion.

Blinken, who was then serving as deputy national security adviser, told NBC that “any threat they would pose to the United States [and] to Americans has been sufficiently mitigated.” Blinken also claimed the terrorists would be “very carefully monitored” by Qatar, which helped facilitate the trade and provided safe haven to the five detainees after their release. “There will be restrictions on their travel, on their activities,” Blinken said.

Jen Psaki, who served as the State Department spokeswoman at the time of the deal, hailed it as a signature achievement by the Obama administration. “Was it worth it? Absolutely,” Psaki said in 2015.

Biden himself, who was vice president at the time, also celebrated Berghdahl’s release on Twitter.

The ascension of these former prisoners is a sign the Taliban has no interest in moderating its behavior since the United States fled Afghanistan and allowed it to reclaim control of the war-torn country. With Americans and vulnerable Afghans still stranded in the country, these prisoners-turned-leaders could play a central part in the Taliban’s efforts to arrest, detain, and kill those they accuse of aiding America during its 20-year presence in Afghanistan.

After Kabul fell to the Taliban last month, the former prisoners flew to Afghanistan to join the new government.

Former detainee Khairullah Khairkhwa is now the acting minister for information and culture, according to national security expert and Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow Thomas Joscelyn. Norullah Noori now serves as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, while Abdul Haq Wasiq is the acting director of intelligence and Mohammad Fazl is the deputy defense minister.

Haq Wasiq was a senior intelligence official for the Taliban prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and worked with al Qaeda as it plotted the strike that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

Fazl was the Taliban’s deputy defense minister in 2001 and now resumes that role. He also worked with al Qaeda and terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s chief lieutenant.

Before he was arrested, Khairkhwa inked an agreement with Iran to fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan post-9/11.

Top Biden Officials Backed the 2014 Bergdahl Deal. Now, the Terrorists Released Are Taking the Reins in Afghanistan. (freebeacon.com)

Flags that were displayed in California to honor 13 U.S. military members who died last month during a terrorist bombing were allegedly vandalized, according to officials on Tuesday.

A memorial including 13 American flags and a Marine Corps flag was displayed on a fence above the 91 Freeway in Riverside, said the Riverside Police Department in a statement on social media. Police officers were notified on Monday after an individual who noticed the flags may have been defaced, said the department.

“Sometime yesterday, an observant citizen noticed the flags appeared to be damaged and it was reported to the police,” said the department, including photos of flags that appeared to be either ripped or cut. “At this point, we don’t have any suspect description but it’s obvious the flags were intentionally damaged.”

The group, “What Is Going on in Riverside County,” brought the incident to the department’s attention, while police said that the allegedly defaced flags were removed and were turned over to a local Boy Scout Troop 703 for proper retirement.

The 13 soldiers were killed during the U.S.-led evacuation mission at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. Terrorist group ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack, which also claimed the lives of more than 150 Afghans.

It occurred in the midst of a rushed and chaotic evacuation of Americans, Afghans, and other foreign nationals who were attempting to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban extremist group took over Kabul in mid-August. The Biden administration drew significant condemnation from a number of veterans, Republican lawmakers, and even members of his own Party over how he handled the pullout.

And on Aug. 31, the United States carried out its final evacuation flight and removed all its military troops from Afghanistan, effectively ending the 20-year-long conflict. However, it is believed that hundreds of American citizens and their family members may remain inside the country amid conflicting reports and statements from various administration officials.

Pentagon officials last month acknowledged that possibly thousands of ISIS members may have been released from Afghan prisons by the Taliban as the group made advances across the country.

Ten of the U.S. service members killed in the incident were based out of California’s Camp Pendleton, located in San Diego County and south of Riverside County. The attack last month represented the worst single-day loss since the August 2011 attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed 30 service members.

The department then asked that anyone who has information about the vandalism to contact the Property Crimes Unit at (951) 353-7955. Other details about the incident were not provided by police.

American Flags Honoring 13 Military Members Killed in Terrorist Attack Vandalized in California: Police (theepochtimes.com)

On Sept. 7, Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a news conference in Qatar declared he was “unaware” of any “hostage-like situation” in aircraft waiting to take off from Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport.

Blinken was responding to Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). On Sept. 5, McCaul told Fox News Sunday that six planes at Mazar-i-Sharif transporting American citizens and Afghan interpreters had been denied departure. The State Department “has cleared these flights and the Taliban will not let them leave the airport,” he said. He added: “We know the reason why (they are held) is because the Taliban want something in exchange.” McCaul speculated the Taliban wanted U.S. diplomatic recognition.

McCaul is the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s ranking Republican.

Mazar-i-Sharif is 190 miles northwest of Kabul. Several private organizations have tried to arrange chartered flights from Mazar-i-Sharif with the aim of evacuating stranded Americans and Afghan nationals who possess or deserve a U.S. Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV.

McCaul described a hostage situation quid pro quo. In exchange for releasing Americans held against their will, the Taliban want diplomatic recognition, which might give the Taliban access to frozen Afghan financial assets.

Blinken’s oily response was a nondenial. Claiming he is personally “unaware” doesn’t mean no one in his State Department knows otherwise. Note Blinken adds cheap spin with the weasel term “hostage-like.”

Blinken’s waffles followed White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s Aug. 23 Alice in Wonderland reply to a reporter that “Americans aren’t stranded” in Afghanistan. On the fly, Psaki redefined “stranded” to mean something it doesn’t. She contended citizens denied entry to Kabul’s airport weren’t stranded because they had cellphone contact.

They follow their leader. Blinken and Psaki mimic President Joe Biden’s example. On Aug. 31, Reuters published a July 23 telephone exchange between Biden and Afghan then-President Ashraf Ghani. Biden told Ghani that “… the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

The Reuters report has decisive historical importance. Biden knew his clumsy, incompetent, and haphazard withdrawal was failing. However, instead of assisting the Afghan government in order to safely and successfully evacuate U.S. citizens, Biden wanted Ghani to use word and image perception gimmickry to conceal Biden’s real-world leadership, policy, and battlefield failure.

Blinken’s Sept. 7 performance included some subtle but ugly admissions. Flights from Afghanistan were denied exit because people with valid travel documents are grouped with people lacking proper State Department paperwork.

Biden announced his withdrawal on April 14. He craved the optics of exiting Afghanistan by 9/11’s 20th anniversary. But Biden’s presidential order failed to prod the State Department to act to meet his withdrawal deadline.

On Aug. 16, the Washington Examiner reported that the State Department had a SIV “processing backlog” for 18,000 Afghan allies and 53,000 Afghan dependents.

That “backlog” testifies to the life-threatening wages of the State Department’s ingrained institutional defects. I’ll list a few: paper shuffling, bureaucratic 9-to-5 inertia; lack of accountability; and focus on perception, not policy execution and results.

Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) is Pentagonese for “the departure of civilian noncombatants and nonessential military personnel from danger in an overseas country to a designated safe haven …”

By doctrine, in a NEO the State Department is the lead government agency. The State Department identifies who should be evacuated, processes their paperwork, and arranges for safe havens. The State Department constantly coordinates with the Pentagon, so the military is prepared to safely conduct the evacuation.

Biden and Blinken at best gave a nod to a haphazard planning process. Then they mismanaged the withdrawal’s preparatory action phase and utterly botched its execution phase.

We confront our appalling moment: Biden and Blinken’s leadership failures and the State Department’s ineptitude have created a prolonged hostage situation. The failures and ineptitude also spurred the chaos that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. military personnel.

Biden Administration Word Games Cannot Hide Prolonged Hostage Crisis (theepochtimes.com)

From Fox News:

The State Department refused to grant official approval for private evacuation flights from Afghanistan to land in third countries, even though the department conceded that official authorization would likely be needed for planes to land in those nations, an email reviewed by Fox News shows. 

Furthermore, the State Department explicitly stated that charter flights, even those containing American citizens, would not be allowed to land at Defense Department (DOD) airbases. U.S. officials have pointed to possible security threats from landing charter planes at military bases, saying that they lack the resources on the ground to fully verify flight manifests.

The Biden administration’s delaying of private evacuation efforts has been a widespread source of frustration, infuriating rescue organizers and even a prominent Democratic senator. 

Eric Montalvo, who organized a series of private flights evacuating those stranded in Afghanistan, shared that email and others with Fox News after his evacuation efforts were repeatedly hampered by the federal bureaucracy. 

A Sept. 1 email that a State Department official sent to Montalvo underscores the extent to which private evacuation efforts have run into bureaucratic roadblocks. 

“No independent charters are allowed to land at [Al Udeid Air Base], the military airbase you mentioned in your communication with Samantha Power. In fact, no charters are allowed to land at an [sic] DoD base and most if not all countries in the Middle Eastern region, with the exception of perhaps Saudi Arabia will allow charters to land,” the official wrote.  

“You need to find another destination country, and it can’t be the U.S. either.”

The official noted that though some third countries “may require” official approval from the State Department before accepting the private charter flights, the department “will not provide” that approval. 

“Once you have had discussions with the host/destination country and reached an agreement, they may require some indication from the USG that we ‘approve’ of this charter flight. DOS will not provide an approval, but we will provide a ‘no objection’ to the destination country government via the U.S. Embassy in that country.”  

Read the full report here.

EXCLUSIVE: ‘State Department Obstruction of Private Rescue Flights from Afghanistan Revealed’ | Sean Hannity

Joe Biden’s disastrous handling of U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan is an impeachable offense for a president if there ever was one. Despite trying to impeach Donald Trump twice for far less, Democrats are not calling impeachment.

But some Republicans are. Forbes reported Thursday, “Nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans on Thursday called for President Joe Biden to resign or be removed over a terrorist attack in Kabul that killed at least a dozen U.S. service members, as tensions between Biden and Republicans in Congress have worsened amid the U.S. withdrawal of troops from the region.”

Two dozen is not enough. All Republicans should be calling for impeachment. In no particular order, some of these House and Senate Republicans include Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Tom Rice, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsey Graham and Mary Miller.

Do you know if your representative is calling for impeachment?

I’m not counting on useless Never Trumpers who are probably about to be voted out of office anyway.

If dereliction of duty is not an impeachable offense, what is? Biden badly botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan because he did not have an exit strategy. Well, he did have one – don’t follow Trump’s exit strategy.

The former president’s deal with the Taliban included a May 1st withdrawal that Trump repeatedly warned Biden to stick to. Former vice president Mike Pence blames Biden for breaking the deal his administration brokered with the Taliban.

For Biden, there was no deal, no plan and no strategy. It was a dereliction of duty of the grandest scale.

We could throw in Biden’s dereliction of duty on our southern border as well, but for our purposes here let’s stick to one colossal Biden failure at a time.

The Democrats spent four years calling for Donald Trump’s head over nothing. Every Republican should be calling for the removal of Joe Biden from the White House for inaction that has cost lives and more.

So, where does your congressman stand?

About two dozen Republicans have called for Biden to be impeached. What about your congressman? (foramerica.org)

Sirajuddin Haqqani has $5 million bounty for killing a U.S. citizen in 2008

A Taliban spokesman on Tuesday announced the appointment of a terrorist on the FBI’s most-wanted list to a cabinet-level position in its new government.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is a senior leader in the al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network of terror groups, will serve in the Taliban’s government as minister of the interior. He is wanted by federal authorities for his involvement in a 2008 bombing in Kabul that killed Thor Hesla, a U.S. citizen. The State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to Haqqani’s arrest.

Haqqani authored an op-ed in the New York Times in February 2020, which expressed the demands of the Taliban ahead of talks with U.S. officials in Qatar.

The Taliban leader said his organization would work to protect human rights for all Afghans and work toward “mutual respect” with foreign powers. The claims run counter to reports of atrocities the Taliban have committed against Afghans, many of whom assisted the United States during its 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Haqqani’s op-ed ran four months before a now-infamous New York Times editorial by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) that argued federal forces should be deployed to quell violence and restore order in America’s cities during the summer’s riots. Whereas some employees said Cotton’s views put black journalists at the newspaper “in danger,” no Times employees said publishing a known terrorist’s words in their opinion pages put any subgroup of U.S. citizens at risk.

United Nations-sanctioned terrorist Mohammad Hasan Akhund will lead the newly installed Taliban government. A 2020 report from the United Nations Security Council said the Taliban’s senior council of 20 members—including Akhund—maintained close ties with al Qaeda during negotiations with the West.

Taliban Taps Terrorist Wanted by FBI for New Government (freebeacon.com)

A U.S.-Afghan interpreter with family stuck in Afghanistan has spoken out against what she describes as unforgivable negligence by the U.S. government. Amidst reports that the Taliban is conducting online surveillance operations against American allies in a possible revenge campaign, The Epoch Times has chosen to withhold the names of the interpreter and her family. This is their story.

During her roughly six-day ordeal escaping Afghanistan last month, a U.S.-Afghan interpreter was harassed by the Taliban, nearly trampled by stampeding crowds, and subjected to wildly inhumane conditions.

She expected that kind of treatment from the Taliban.

What the interpreter didn’t expect, however, was receiving similar treatment from her own government. She didn’t foresee being misled by her president, cursed at by Marines, or lied to by State Department officials.

She didn’t expect to have her family betrayed.

Now, the interpreter wants the American people to know how their taxpayer-funded officials turned their backs on countless allies and others in desperate need of help.

Chaos

“I don’t like spotlights. I don’t want attention. I just want the American people to know the truth—that, I’m sorry, but our president is standing there, and the words coming out of his mouth don’t match what he did,” she said. “And I was there, I saw it, and it’s not okay. Someone has to be held accountable.”

A native of Afghanistan who moved to the United States following the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979, the interpreter wanted to serve the country that provided her refuge.

Afghanistan provided her with that opportunity. During her time there, she worked with village stability teams operating out of Camp Vance in Bagram in 2012 and 2013, assisting U.S. troops and security contractors on numerous projects.

She told The Epoch Times that she was the first female to help coach then-Afghan commandos at the Afghan Special Security Forces ANA Special Operations Command— “I think that was the proudest thing for me, and I have a lot to show for on that,” she said.

After her stint in Bagram, the interpreter returned home to Idaho. But when the Taliban began retaking the country earlier this year, she knew she had to get her family out of danger.

Arriving in Kabul on Aug. 7, the interpreter thought she had until the end of the month to arrange for her sister and others to travel back to America.

Like so many others—including the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus—she was wrong.

“I told her to hurry up and go to Afghanistan in August and it would be safe—but to hurry up,” said George McMillan, a security contractor who worked with the interpreter. “And then the Afghan Army in the Pashtun-dominated areas just surrendered.”

Chaos ensued.

Sister Gives Up

The interpreter’s primary mission became getting herself and her older sister—who was the family matriarch following the death of their mother, as per Afghan cultural norms—on the soonest plane back to the United States.

Making their way through the streets of Kabul, they arrived at one of the security checkpoints outside of the Kabul airport. There, they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The interpreter said they spent some 48 hours in line, standing under the scorching sun with no food or water, sleeping in garbage and feces, and dealing with the all-to-real threat of being trampled by throngs of would-be refugees. There were times when the interpreter passed out in her sister’s arms from exhaustion, and vice versa.

Finally, they made it to the gate, where the interpreter presented her American passport to a U.S. Marine.

Instead of letting them through security, the Marine “told me to [expletive deleted], go wait in the back of the line, and that he didn’t give a [expletive deleted],” she said.

At that point, the sister fainted. When she woke up, the sister asked to go home—where she remains to this day. Unlike the interpreter, the sister has lived in Afghanistan her whole life, and she gave up hope on ever making it to America.

“She said, ‘Just take me home.’ She said, ‘I don’t want to be here; just take me home,’” the interpreter said through her tears. “She was really sick; she was dehydrated.”

Adding insult to injury, the Marines allowed an influx of refugees to enter the airport about 10 minutes after the sisters were booted to the back of the line. Few, if any, had documentation, according to the interpreter.

The interpreter’s heart-breaking journey wouldn’t end there. Nor would the abject horror.

Non-Americans Board

After dropping her sister home, she made her fifth attempt to catch a flight. This time, she was with two cousins, one of them an Afghan national who works for the United Nations, and the other a former U.S. embassy employee. The Marines let them inside the gate, but they were not allowed to board the flight, she said.

A State Department employee told the cousins that “only American citizens were allowed aboard.” Therefore, it came as a shock to the interpreter when she boarded the plane to find “hundreds” of non-American Afghans.

“How are you going to sit there and lie to my face like that? A plane full of Afghans—none of them with the proper documents—yet you’re turning away an active employee of the United Nations,” she said. “He still had his badge. The other [cousin] was an active employee of the U.S. embassy. The State Department’s website says, ‘U.S. citizens plus their family’ [are allowed to board].

“But they were turned around, right there in front of the plane … I wish to God that I would have taken the name of that [State Department official] lady.”

Not only were the cousins replaced by non-American citizens on the flight home; the interpreter said she thinks a Talib may have been aboard as well.

She said she helped serve as a translator when the plane left Kabul, assisting those who couldn’t speak English. One man stood out to her in particular—and not for good reasons.

“He was there, and I saw it with my own eyes that he had two different passports—one was an American passport and the other one was an Afghan passport. And he did not speak one word of English, not one word. So, it’s like, how the hell somebody can have American passport and not speak one word of English? It is beyond imagination.”

The interpreter said the man was questioned by authorities upon reaching the United States, but was still allowed in the country—where he’s likely at-large in America.

She took a brief video of the man on the plane and sent it to her former colleague McMillan, who shared her assessment about the person’s likely allegiance to the Taliban.

“He spoke only Pashtun, so it is impossible that he worked for the United States in any capacity,” he said, noting that the man was from the Khost Province. “Khost is almost exclusively Pashtun and therefore Taliban in the mountain range on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border.”

Some two weeks after her hellish ordeal, the interpreter is still bruised and battered.

“I’m not normal. I’m not. I’m really going through PTSD,” she said. “It’s, it’s, it’s—I don’t think I can recover from this.”

She wants answers, and for people in power to be held to account.

Meanwhile, the cousins and sister are still in Afghanistan, living in danger from a revenge-driven Taliban.

The interpreter talks to them on a regular basis.

“They’re trying to survive. As you know, their biometrics and pictures, IDs and passports are all in Taliban’s hand. I know everybody likes to believe this fairy tale that the Taliban won’t do anything to these people,” she said. “Yeah, they’re going to do something to these people. They’ll be the first to be slaughtered.”

The interpreter is working with private groups to extract them, but she isn’t holding her breath. She’s certainly not counting on the U.S. government to help her.

She fears that last month was the last time she’ll ever see her sister.

“I don’t know,” she said through more tears. “I hope not.”

‘Get to the Back of the Line’: Interpreter Feels Betrayed by US Government (theepochtimes.com)

Top Republican says Taliban is limiting travel to strong-arm Biden administration

The State Department says there is little it can do to help Americans and at-risk Afghans whose planes are reportedly grounded at an airport as the Taliban prevents them from leaving the country.

At least six chartered planes are attempting to evacuate these Americans and others from Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport, but the Taliban is reportedly preventing them from taking off. Since it evacuated U.S. military forces and diplomatic personnel from the war-torn country, the Biden administration has not had the resources necessary to ensure that flights chartered by nonprofit groups and others can depart Afghanistan.

“We do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace—whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region,” a State Department spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon. “We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan.”

While the State Department says it has little to no information about the situation but is pressing the Taliban to make good on its promise to allow Americans to leave the country, Republican lawmakers are now raising the alarm that the Taliban is grounding planes as leverage to extract concessions from the Biden administration.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has received classified briefings on the matter, told Fox News on Sunday morning that there are hundreds of American still trapped in Afghanistan and that the “Taliban want something in exchange” for letting these people leave.

McCaul has been tracking the situation and says the State Department cleared these flights to leave, but that the Taliban is responsible for stopping them. The State Department reportedly confirmed to Congress that flights from Mazar-i-Sharif are being held until the Taliban gives its approval.

McCaul says the planes have been stuck at the airport for the past several days and include American passengers, as well as Afghans who are trying to flee the Taliban, which has been trying to detain those citizens who worked with the United States and other coalition forces during the 20-year operation there.

“What we are seeing right now in Mazar-i-Sharif—this didn’t have to happen,” McCaul told the Free Beacon. “If the president had listened to the bipartisan pleas from Congress, his own generals, or the intelligence community, he would have properly planned for this withdrawal, including evacuating Americans before he pulled out the military. Instead, Americans are trapped in a country run by brutal terrorists, who are currently not allowing them to leave.”

The State Department said Sunday that it does not have a “reliable means” to get information about the passengers on the charter flights.

“Given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues,” the spokesman said.

As Taliban Grounds Planes Out of Afghanistan, Biden Administration Says There’s Little It Can Do (freebeacon.com)

In the afterglow of the shambles of American and NATO policy in Afghanistan, it is probably a good time to review American strategic thinking in the Mideast and South Asia generally.

While the Cold War was in progress and the Nehru-Gandhi Congress party was in power in India, it made some sense for the United States to prop up Pakistan, as a partial counterweight to India, a contact bridge with China (which facilitated the reopening of relations between the U.S. and China), and as a friendly Muslim power.

The dynamics of these relationships changed after China, under Deng Xiaoping, opted for economic growth and a strenuous, stylized version of state-led capitalism, and India sloughed off the Nehru-Gandhi pretension to being the world’s moral arbiter (partly because of its vast poverty), and set out after economic growth also.

The People’s Republic gradually emerged as a challenger to the United States as the world’s most influential country and it has treated the mountainous India-China border as a convenient skirmishing place in order to claim to be clearly preeminent over India also—it’s only demographic rival in the world.

American relations with India have steadily improved for nearly 40 years and presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump particularly emphasized that progress with very successful visits to India.

Update Pakistan Relations

Throughout the 20-year NATO involvement in Afghanistan and for some years prior to that, the Pakistani military and intelligence services, which have derived much of their operating budget from the largesse of the United States, have been funneling a substantial amount of it into Afghanistan and particularly to the Haqanni Taliban, a large Taliban faction that has been intermittently bedeviling and killing NATO forces throughout their sojourn in Afghanistan.

Given the vigorous activity of the Pakistani-sponsored Taliban faction in Afghanistan to frustrate and harass the NATO effort there, and especially in light of the pitiful ending of that effort, the status of American relations with Pakistan really should be brought up to date.

In 1971, in the India-Pakistan War in which India succeeded in politically separating East Pakistan 1200 miles distant from West Pakistan and effectively dividing that country in half, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Pakistan was drastically weakened, losing half its population in a way that presaged the disintegration of the Soviet Union 20 years later.

The United States had attempted to assist Pakistan at that time. It is a tough region: the Pakistani president in 1971, Yahya Khan, was deposed; his successor Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was executed; his successor Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq was assassinated, and his eventual successor-Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir Bhutto, was also assassinated.

The Indian Premier Indira Gandhi and her successor, her son Rajiv Gandhi, were both assassinated, and the founding leader of Bangladesh, Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated with his family (and the family dog) in 1975. It is, politically and otherwise, a rough-and-tumble area.

The United States appears to have been somnambulating through these years with Pakistan mindlessly continuing a relationship which has subsidized Afghan terrorist activity and outright war with NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Pakistan has throughout that time never shown the slightest solidarity with American interests. The current Pakistani leader, former star cricketer Imran Khan, celebrated the American defeat in Afghanistan with ululations of good riddance.

All the neighboring countries have their protégé factions in Afghanistan: Russia, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Iran. And however mistakenly and unceremoniously, the West has renounced the policy of developing and financing a pro-Western faction, dominating the cities and assuring that Afghanistan does not become again a breeding ground and launching place for sophisticated international terrorists.

In these circumstances, the United States should sever all assistance to Pakistan, a primitive, fragile, truncated, and often politically insolent country that has never ceased to swindle and confound the United States and assist its enemies these last 40 years.

It knowingly harbored Osama bin Laden and periodically suspended overland American access to its expeditionary forces in Afghanistan, irritatingly confident of its ability to spite the United States with impunity. It should at least be disabused of that practice. If Pakistan blows up, then as Henry Kissinger said of Bangladesh on its independence day in 1971: “It’s not our basket case.”

Rebuild American Credibility

The United States has just committed on behalf of NATO a spectacle of astonishing self-humiliation. It will require radical changes of personnel and policy to rebuild American credibility as an ally and as an opponent, but it can certainly be done and almost certainly will be done.

It took President Kennedy, who admitted error frankly and made radical changes of personnel and policy, 18 months after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to regain his stature and reestablish the preeminence of the United States even in its own hemisphere, in the Cuban Missile Crisis. And his failure was only in giving arm’s-length support to an inadequately strong rebel group—there was no humiliating departure by the Armed Forces of the United States from Cuba.

I doubt that anyone now visible in the Biden administration is remotely qualified to do what needs to be done, but that is essentially to lead NATO into association with the alliances that the United States has in East Asia, South Asia, and Australasia and convert it all into an alliance of democratic states.

Unless Pakistan is prepared to take drastic steps of political and foreign policy reformation and play it straight and bear the burdens as well as receiving the benefits of being an American ally, the West can step back slightly and allow the vaunted Chinese Belt and Road to go through Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iran.

China as Bully

China is not fundamentally nearly as strong a country as the United States, and the greatest danger that it poses to us is if we push Russia into its arms so that there is an infelicitous combination of unexploited Siberian resources and surplus Chinese population. China is a newcomer to great power politics since its last turn as a major power was many centuries ago, and its interest was then effectively confined to the bullying of its neighbors.

It seems not altogether to have outgrown those habits and even the dogged colonels of Myanmar tired of Chinese overlordship and threw the Middle Kingdom out, bag and baggage. Any Chinese success or major Western failure such as Afghanistan seems to propel the People’s Republic to greater outrages—Hong Kong, the Uyghurs, incursions into India, and threats against Vietnam.

Eventually China will irritate all those whom it seeks to bully or dominate and all of the money that it is investing in Africa will eventually be seized by the locals, and the Chinese will be sent packing. Their Belt and Road is nonsense but if they want to hurl money at the underdeveloped countries we should welcome that, not just for humanitarian reasons, but because it will not lead to significant geopolitical inconvenience for the West.

On one point the hapless Joe Biden is right: Afghanistan is strategically useless, a primitive landlocked country inhabited by fierce and inhospitable people. If it possesses resources in rare-earth, that is a very recent discovery that reminds me of Marxist Herbert Marcuse’s theory that the United States was in South Vietnam in pursuit of oil (which has still not been discovered).

Not much can be expected from the deflated, excuses-addled Biden foreign and strategic policy team in terms of an imaginative foreign policy such as that pursued by President Truman and General Marshall and Dean Acheson or by President Nixon and Henry Kissinger. But even Biden might be up to giving Pakistan a good and well-deserved kick in the shins.

US Can Move Beyond Afghanistan Shambles With Alliance of Democracies (theepochtimes.com)

The Taliban terrorist group has been accused of killing an 8-month pregnant policewoman in front of her family over the weekend, according to witnesses.

The incident comes amid mounting concerns and reports of repression against women in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s rule.

A spokesperson for the group denied the accusations while speaking to the BBC, adding that an investigation into the murder is ongoing.

“We are aware of the incident and I am confirming that the Taliban have not killed her, our investigation is ongoing,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujaheed said.

Relatives of the victim, who has been identified by her sister as Negar Masoomi, said she worked at a local prison in Ghor, a central Afghan province.

On Sept. 4, three armed Taliban terrorists reportedly forced their way into the house where the family lives, tied everyone up, and searched the house before executing Masoomi with a knife.

“They killed our mother before our eyes. They killed her with a knife,” Mohammad Hanif, the son of the victim, told a local CNN reporter in Ghor. The motive for her death is currently unclear.

The Taliban has previously promised they would not seek revenge on former enemies and assured they will respect women’s rights and grant amnesty to those who fought them in the past.

Mujaheed repeated the terrorist group’s amnesty promise for those who worked for the previous administration and shifted the murder down to a “personal enmity or something else.”

When the Taliban was in power last time between 1996 and 2001 prior to a U.S.-led military operation two decades ago that ousted the group, they banned women from the workplace and nearly all women were mostly confined to their homes. They also forbid women from leaving the home unaccompanied and forced them to cover their entire bodies.

In recent weeks, the Taliban has urged employed Afghan women to temporarily stay indoors until fighters of the terrorist group are trained in “respecting and dealing with women.”

“Our security forces are not trained [in] how to deal with women—how to speak to women,” a spokesman for the group, Zabihullah Mujahid, told reporters at a press briefing on Aug. 24, referring to some fighters in the group.

Over the weekend, Taliban terrorists in camouflage fired weapons into the air, bringing an abrupt and frightening end to a protest in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, by women demanding equal rights from the new rulers.

The women’s march—the second in as many days in Kabul—began peacefully. Demonstrators laid a wreath outside Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry to honor Afghan soldiers who died fighting the Taliban before marching on to the presidential palace.

As the demonstrators reached the presidential palace, a dozen Taliban terrorists ran into the crowd, firing in the air and sending demonstrators fleeing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Taliban Accused of Executing Pregnant Afghan Police Officer in Front of Family (theepochtimes.com)

Patriots are mobilizing all over the country to defeat Joe Biden and reverse his failed policies. As America’s Sheriff, I’m supporting Create Change Now’s nationwide effort to stop the oncoming socialism train in its tracks by educating, motivating, and mobilizing American conservative patriots. There’s too much at stake in 2022 and beyond for us to leave anything to chance. The professional progressive left spends millions of dollars organizing, training, and mobilizing their socialist foot soldiers, and we must beat them at their own game. I’m proud to support Create Change Now as I travel the country firing up American patriots. So join me by making your immediate, direct investment of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000 toward their work today! The integrity of our elections is in question. Radical leftist politicians are loosening reasonable voter protections, and unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats are changing the rules of elections while voters are casting ballots. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have blown open the gates at our Southern Border as waves of unvetted illegal aliens stream into our country. And Joe Biden’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan further destabilizes the Middle East and sends a poor message to our allies while emboldening our enemies. A little more than a week before the 20th Anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. All while far-left politicians are demoralizing and defunding law enforcement in Congress and State Capitols across the nation. Failed progressive “leadership” is an absolute nightmare! Create Change Now is slamming the brakes on the far-left’s radical agenda by empowering and equipping patriots like you and me with the tools to fight and win. The radical left has an army of Saul Alinsky-inspired professional activists who mobilize voters in their communities. All too often, that organizational capacity gives them an edge over patriots like you and me. While we don’t have an army of paid, professional agitators to get out the votes of the Silent Majority, we do have an influential organization called Create Change Now that’s working overtime to stem the tide of progressivism on our shores. To save the greatest nation in the history of mankind from the clutches of radical progressives, we must organize millions of patriots and stop the left at the ballot box. I support Create Change Now’s mission, and I hope you’ll join me with your generous investment of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000. Anything you can give would be a shot in the arm for Create Change Now’s mission to train, organize, and mobilize millions of patriots and stop socialism in its tracks. You and I have a lot of work to do between now and November 2022, and it starts with supporting my friends at Create Change Now. Join me by supporting Create Change Now before Joe Biden and the radical left drives our country off the cliff! Thank you. In Liberty, Sheriff David Clarke, Jr. American Patriot FIGHT THE RADICAL LEFT

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When President Joe Biden was elected in November under hotly contested circumstances, he was supposed to be the most popular presidential candidate in our nation’s history, receiving more than 81 million votes.

The magic of this remarkable achievement wore off pretty quickly once he took up the post of commander-in-chief, however.

In less than a year, his administration has overseen crippling inflation, a horrific humanitarian crisis at the border and a return to pre-9/11 conditions in Afghanistan as the Taliban retook the nation with ease before our troops — and our civilians — had withdrawn.

It’s been a mess and a disaster. And now, the people who voted for and against the most popular presidential candidate in U.S. history want answers.

It’s not just Republicans, although they’re certainly making the most noise. Last week, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was joined by over two dozen of his colleagues who demanded answers on what went wrong in Afghanistan.

Trending:Afghan National Stabs Woman Working Outside Because He Didn’t Think It Was an Appropriate Job for Women

A solid majority of voters believe that Congress should investigate the withdrawal.

Yes, Biden is turning out to be quite the historical president — although more so for his administration’s quickly-earned notoriety than succusses at this rate.

A Rasmussen Reports survey released last week found that while less than one-third of likely voters believed the Afghanistan withdrawal was a success (those are some optimistic likely voters), nearly two-thirds believed that the handling of the withdrawal should be investigated.

The national online and phone survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Aug. 30-31, as the last of the U.S. troops were pulling out of the nation and Americans, including schoolchildren, were left stranded in the Taliban-controlled nation.

The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed responded affirmatively to the question, “Should Congress investigate how the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was handled?”

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed opposed a congressional investigation (imagine opposing government accountability at a time like this), while 10 percent were not sure.

Here’s the thing: the refrain from the Democrats over the last month has been that what happened in Afghanistan was the fault of former President Donald Trump, who negotiated a peace treaty with the Taliban and set a withdrawal date for May of this year before leaving office.

It certainly stands to reason that any voter would want Congress to investigate what happened regardless of who was to blame.Related:Apprentice Winner & Major Star Predicts Possible End of Biden’s Presidency

Yet it was under the command of Biden’s military leaders that the United States appeared to completely abandon the Afghan national army to the mercy of the Taliban and left billions of dollars worth of equipment in their hands.

It is these same military officials — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley — on whom over 100 retired military officers have called to resign.

It is Biden who appeared to advise the now-deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to give the public impression that the Taliban wasn’t winning in July if he wanted to receive more U.S. aid, according to Reuters.

It is Biden who was running things when thousands of Americans were scrambling to evacuate and when hundreds were abandoned in the country after we withdrew.

It is the Biden administration that was facilitating the chaotic evacuation and that gave the Taliban the names of Americans and U.S.-allied Afghans as the terror group appeared to control the entrance to the Kabul airport in the final days of the withdrawal.

And it was Biden who was commander-in-chief when Islamic State group terrorists detonated a suicide vest and opened fire upon the crush of desperate civilians trying to flee Afghanistan in an attack that killed 13 U.S. service members, the worst single-day casualty event our forces had seen in 11 years.

The American people are right to want answers — and it is from President Joe Biden that they must be demanded.

Bad News for Biden: It Looks Like Voters Aren’t Going to Let Fatal Afghan Withdrawal Be Forgotten (westernjournal.com)

The sister of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum is speaking out against President Joe Biden after her brother was tragically killed in the suicide bombing near the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, making him one of the last American casualties of the War in Afghanistan.

Cheyenne McCollum courageously spoke with Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” on Monday to discuss meeting with the president at the dignified transfer of her brother’s remains.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say I stayed to meet him. I stayed to support Rylee’s wife because I didn’t want her to sit alone, and she wanted the chance to look him in the eye, so I sat beside her to do that as well,” McCollum said.

“I stayed, and when he came up to us about 15 seconds in I ended up having to walk away. It was so insincere, and he didn’t look us in the eye, he gave her a pat on the knee and said, ‘I know what you’re going through — I lost my son.’ Which, he didn’t lose his son serving.”

She noted that the interaction was roughly three minutes long and spoke about how the president tried to relate it to his own son’s death from cancer.Trending:Afghan National Stabs Woman Working Outside Because He Didn’t Think It Was an Appropriate Job for Women

“He just said, ‘There’s nothing I can say,’ and would just go on to talking about his son. … I don’t even think he knows Rylee’s name, to be honest. … He didn’t know or say anything personal. It was very scripted,” she added.

“Everything felt fake, if I’m being honest.”

McCollum’s wife is pregnant with their first child, making the emotions run even higher for the family.

Two GoFundMes set up were set up to support his wife, Gigi, and their unborn child’s education fund. The two campaigns have raised over $875,000 combined.

“He was so excited,” his sister said about how he was going to become a father. “He was gonna be such a good dad.”

The establishment media has painted Biden as an empathetic figure, but this interview suggests otherwise.

While it is hard to know what was going through the president’s mind during the dignified transfer, some in attendance were clearly upset with his cold behavior.

If the Biden administration properly accounted for the threat of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate while withdrawing troops, this tragedy could have been prevented.Related:Apprentice Winner & Major Star Predicts Possible End of Biden’s Presidency

The McCollum family is just one of the 13 families that lost a service member, so it is reasonable for them to be upset with the president.

For those on the left who would like to create a false equivalency to the lives lost to coronavirus, they must be reminded that this was the result of policy, not a pandemic.

These service members sacrificed their lives to protect freedom and democracy overseas, only for their families to be passively glanced over by their commander in chief.

Gold Star Sister: I Had to Walk Out of Meeting with Biden After 15 Seconds Because I Was So Disgusted (westernjournal.com)

Or what I call, “The True White Supremacists” [US Patriot]

For years now, the left has demonized President Donald Trump as a right-wing authoritarian who’s dragging America down into a dark pit of tyranny and oppression. Democrats and the media continue to push this narrative, even with him out of office. Yet, Trump champions free-market enterprise and individual liberty—in other words, freedom, the opposite of authoritarianism. In reality, the true authoritarian threat to America comes from the left.

The great irony is that so many on the left used their argument that Trump is an authoritarian to justify acting as authoritarians themselves. For starters, look at the mainstream media.

For years, the media was biased, slanting its coverage in favor of Democrats and left-wing positions. But at least journalists were doing their basic jobs of reporting the news. Today, however, they’re openly partisan liberals with press credentials.

The political rise of Trump caused members of the media to see themselves as the guardians of democracy, protecting us all from the predations of Trump the dictator. Because Trump was so terrible and the stakes were so high, journalists believed their job was to advocate a cause, not to report the news.

As a result, the media has published a torrent of misleading if not outright false stories about Republicans and conservatives, deceiving the public in order to paint the right as evil. This is a classic authoritarian tactic: pushing misinformation to undermine and demonize one’s political opponents.

Of course, the media isn’t alone. Corporations are now reflecting the whims of the woke mob, adopting causes such as Black Lives Matter and the left’s push to federalize elections. Corporate executives are imposing a far-left ideology not because they believe in critical race theory or universal mail-in voting, but because they’re cowardly and succumbing to the pressure and bullying from the mob. Here is another example of leftists overtaking a key institution.

This leftist onslaught is compounded by Big Tech, which is clearly waging a war to silence conservatives and snuff out dissent. Indeed, the oligarchs running the likes of Google, Twitter, and Facebook claim they’re merely targeting misinformation, but this has consistently manifested as a political witch hunt against one side. “Misinformation” is a catch-all phrase that allows the titans of tech to censor anything they don’t like in a way that doesn’t look like blatant suppression. Of course, much of this began in 2016 with Donald Trump’s tweeting.

To make matters worse, Democrats are effectively pressuring social media companies to ramp up the censoring of this right-wing material, saying they’ll remove Big Tech’s liability protections if Silicon Valley doesn’t take down “misinformation.” This is authoritarianism in the most classic sense: the government using its power to violate individual rights.

The list of left-wing authoritarianism threatening American freedom is long and unending, from COVID-19 lockdowns run amok to the growing imposition of cradle-to-grave socialist government. I discuss it all with Ben Shapiro on this week’s episode of my podcast, “Newt’s World.” Shapiro, the editor in chief of the Daily Wire and host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” just wrote an important book on this topic titled, “The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.”

As Shapiro explains, the left, led by the woke mob, specializes in bullying to get what it wants. One recent example is Major League Baseball moving its annual All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado because of the former’s voting law, which sparked leftist outrage and calls to boycott the state. Yet, these same leftists have the audacity to cry victim and claim they’re the victims of right-wing bulling.

To the left, everything is both personal and political. There’s no compromise, no middle ground. That’s why Parler gets banned and teachers get fired for opposing critical race theory. Leftists want submission and conformity, not debate. They want diversity of appearance but not diversity of thought. In short, the left seeks raw power to impose a radical, divisive vision on the country.

There are certainly authoritarians on the right, but they live in obscurity, on the fringe, without any institutional control. But the authoritarians on the left control our society’s most powerful institutions—and they’re ascendant in the Democratic Party. They are the authoritarians truly threatening America.

From Gingrich360.com.

The Real Authoritarians Threatening America (theepochtimes.com)

My first encounter with Afghanistan was many years ago through Eric Newby’s “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.”

The book is a hoot, partly because Newby made it quite clear that no walk in the Hindu Kush is short, but mostly because of its dramatization of the encounter between a modern Westerner and the harsh, primitive tribalism of a society caught in the past like a bug in amber.

I think my next virtual trip to Afghanistan was through Peter Hopkirk’s riveting book “The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia.”

Hopkirk’s account of Maj. Gen. William Elphinstone’s disastrous withdrawal from Kabul in 1842—out of a party of 16,000 precisely one European, William Brydon, an army surgeon, made it out alive—made a deep impression on me.

“Where’s the army?” he was asked when, badly wounded, he wobbled into the British garrison in Jalalabad, some 90 miles East of Kabul.

“I am the army,” was his reply.

Miraculously, Brydon lived on for another twenty years. The pony that bore him into the fort was not so fortunate. He lay down directly and never rose.

There is a reason that Afghanistan is called the “graveyard of Empires.”

The Russians know a thing or two about that, though they at least managed their withdrawal in an orderly fashion.

Unlike the United States, whose departure, though not as sanguinary as Elphinstone’s, may well have bigger global repercussions.

I should say for the record that I strongly supported America’s entry into Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

Indeed, it might be said that I supported it more strongly than our leaders since I thought the rules of engagement we followed hampered the effective prosecution of the assault.

Early on, for example, we had a clear shot at the Taliban bigwig Mullah Omar, but permission to take him out was denied for fear of collateral damage.

I should also say that I supported Donald Trump’s plan to extricate the United States from what had become America’s longest war.

Was his deal with the Taliban, the so-called Doha agreement, a good one?

Maybe not.

Trump had promised to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of May, 2021, provided that the Taliban upheld their end of the bargain, which prominently included a promise that they would engage in “intra-Afghan dialogue” in order to to achieve a “permanent and comprehensive ceasefire” that would yield a “political roadmap” for the country’s future.

As a recent story in The Wall Street Journal notes, “Trump administration officials emphasized the conditional nature of the U.S. commitment when the Doha agreement was signed.”

Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, noted in March 2020 that Doha “is a conditions-based agreement.”

If “we assess that the Taliban is honoring the terms of the deal,” he said, “including progress on the political front between the Taliban and the current Afghan government,” the United States will “reduce our presence toward a goal of zero in 2021.”

“If.”

Should progress toward that goal stall, he warned, then “our drawdown likely will be suspended, as well.”

I mention this minutia to answer critics of Trump’s plan, in and out of the Biden administration.

The administration’s whining that the evacuation was Trump’s plan, and therefore it was bad, but nonetheless that it was “extraordinarily successful” is especially risible or, to be more strictly accurate, is pathetic.

The Taliban did not abide by the agreement. They took the country by force, and they did it in such short order that General Mark Milley didn’t even have time to complain about all the “white rage” on view.

That said, Biden’s mistake was not in withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

His mistake was twofold: not holding the Taliban to their word, and utterly bungling—bungling that rises to the level of criminal negligence—the evacuation.

Memo to the “experts” in the State Department: the next time you have to withdraw from a hostile country, do not, I repeat, do not abandon your chief strategic airbase before evacuating American citizens and our allies.

Also, do not leave behind hundreds of millions of dollars of military hardware for the enemy to hoover up and use against its own population and, in due course, the West.

Finally, do not listen to anything that Antony Blinken says.

I stress again, however, Biden’s mistake was not in leaving Afghanistan.

That was long overdue.

His mistake was the way he left.

Writing at The Spectator World, Daniel McCarthy got to the nub of the issue. “Biden deserves censure for a thousand reasons,” McCarthy notes.

“But the public deserves an honest accounting of the war itself, which was never winnable in the way that those who sold the conflict to America at the outset had promised.”

Twenty years and $2 trillion on, we all know that (well, maybe not Bill Kristol or David French, but everyone who matters).

McCarthy underscores the hard truth of the situation: “Afghanistan is a disaster not primarily because of Biden but because our leadership class, in politics and the media alike, cannot confront uncomfortable truths,” above all the uncomfortable truth that Afghanistan was always an unlikely candidate for the institution of liberal democracy and all the nonsense about “diversity,” “gender equity,” and the like that accompanies the American variety of liberalism like a limpet.

No, we should have gone into Afghanistan after 9/11, devastated al-Qaeda and anyone harboring them.

Then we should have left.

We didn’t, and the result is this sucking mess that is destroying the Biden administration and will likely have very serious implications for America’s status on the international stage.

Again, Daniel McCarthy was absolutely correct: “Afghanistan was lost the minute the mission became democracy-promotion and nation-building. A humiliating end was written in failures right at the start.”

Afghanistan: the Mistake Was Not Going In, It Was How We Left (theepochtimes.com)

National Fraternal Order of Police

Honoring the 13 Fallen Service Members 🇺🇸

Last night, Jefferson County (TN) Law Enforcement held a 13 car memorial caravan that traveled across Jefferson County to honor the 13 service members who were targeted and murdered in Afghanistan. We will never forget these heroes. Please pray for their families!

The event was organized by Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Coffey and each Jefferson County agency was represented.

Fraternal Order of Police, Tennessee Lodge 61 – Jefferson County

The 13 cars forming the number 13 are in honor of the fallen hero’s listed below:

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah

Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, Calif.

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, Calif.

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Neb.

Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Ind.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Mo.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyo.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif.

Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tenn.

National Fraternal Order of Police – Honoring the 13 Fallen Service Members | Facebook

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) was in a plane circling the U.S.-held airport in Kabul with Special Forces last week on a mission to rescue Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

Mullin had learned American citizens were stuck in the Taliban-controlled country and wanted to help get them out before U.S. troops withdrew before President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline.

But the attempt failed, the congressman said on Friday.

“They would never let us in Afghanistan,” he said on Fox News, blaming Biden administration officials.

The 20 Americans the flight was aimed at rescuing haven’t been in contact since, Mullin said.

The secretive trip led to reports that Mullin’s whereabouts were unknown and claims he threatened staff members at the U.S. Embassy in Tajikstan as he tried to enter Afghanistan for a rescue mission.

Mullin and a spokesperson issued brief statements earlier this week saying he was safe, but the television appearance was the first-term representative’s first time getting into detail on what unfolded.

The chaos in Kabul, where tens of thousands of Afghans and thousands of Americans tried to brave Taliban checkpoints before convincing U.S. troops and other personnel to let them into the airport, unfolded over 17 days after the terrorist group barreled through U.S.-backed Afghan forces and assumed control of the country.

Some Americans reported being unable to reach the airport, with reports of scattered beatings being confirmed by the Pentagon. That led to appeals to outside parties, including Mullin, to carry out rescues.

Mullin said people started calling him to ask for help evacuating Americans and Afghans. One phone call concerned 20 U.S. citizens who needed a State Department or another government entity, such as a member of Congress, to sponsor a flight. That’s how he ended up on board a plane that was set to touch down in Kabul before taking off with more passengers on board.

Mullin and those with him were aware of the danger. “We felt like we probably had a 50–50 chance of coming back,” he said.

But he feels no regrets about the attempt, which did not culminate with a rescue.

“How do you say no when you have the option to do something?” he wondered. “I’d do it again tomorrow.”

Mullin targeted Biden and other top officials, saying that they lied when they said all Americans who wanted out would be evacuated before U.S. troops left.

The withdrawal ended on Aug. 30, leaving behind between 100 and 200 Americans, according to administration officials. A chunk of those were schoolchildren from California.

Mullin, who said his flight received a humanitarian plan from the Federal Aviation Authority, accused the State Department of interfering with the mission.

The authority told The Epoch Times via email that any operators flying into the airport were told Aug. 18 that they must obtain permission from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The Department of Defense and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

The congressman also denied the anonymously-sourced report that claimed he threatened American staffers in Tajikstan. He said he did have a large sum of cash, because of the prediction money might be needed to get through Taliban checkpoints. He said the U.S. ambassador in Tajikstan refused to help.

Two other members of Congress did make it into Afghanistan, but they went to oversee the evacuation, not carry out a rescue mission.

Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) reached Kabul on Aug. 24 and spent several hours at the airport before leaving, Pentagon officials have confirmed.

House of Representatives leaders from both parties said the trip shouldn’t have happened, though House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he understood why it did.

“They’re both veterans, they’re both frustrated, they have an administration that won’t tell them the answers to how many Americans are left,” he told reporters in Washington.

‘I’d Do It Again Tomorrow’ Congressman Says After Attempt to Rescue Americans Stranded in Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

As Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, U.S. deaths from COVID-19 reach grim milestone

President Joe Biden promised the American people the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan would not in any way resemble the humiliating end to the Vietnam War. He broke that promise.

“The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army. They’re not—they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability,” Biden said during a press conference on July 8. “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Several weeks later, American forces were scrambling to evacuate diplomats and staff from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kabul as the Taliban advanced toward the capital. Chaos ensued as thousands gathered at Hamid Karzai International Airport, where 13 American service members were killed in a suicide bombing attack, and hundreds of American citizens and Afghan allies were left behind. Earlier this week, Biden hailed the disastrous withdrawal as an “extraordinary success” that went exactly “as designed.”

Meanwhile, back in the United States, another human-rights disaster has been unfolding on Biden’s watch. More than 235,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since Biden took office in January. That is more than quadruple the number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War (58,220) from 1964 to 1975. On average, COVID-19 has killed more than 1,000 Americans every day that Biden has been president.

The horrific death toll marks another broken promise for Biden, who insisted during the 2020 presidential campaign that he would “shut down the virus” in the United States. In fact, the number of COVID-19 deaths on Biden’s watch is even greater than the American death toll was on October 22, 2020, the date of his final presidential debate against former president Donald Trump.

“Two-hundred twenty-thousand Americans dead,” Biden said. “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America. We’re in a situation where there are a thousand deaths a day.”

Once again, Biden promised that electing him president would halt the deadly pandemic in its tracks. “The way this president has responded to this crisis has been absolutely tragic,” he said. “So, folks, I will take care of this. I will end this. I will make sure we have a plan.”

Fact check: He did not.

Biden’s Other Vietnam (Times Four) (freebeacon.com)

Two weeks ago in this space, I wrote about the foolishness of a political leader like President Joe Biden who is so ideologically rigid, so thoroughly self-identified with his beliefs about the world that, when those beliefs turn out to be wrong, he can never afford to acknowledge the truth.

This week, Biden provided yet another illustration of this foolishness by an address to the nation, occasioned by what anyone could see was America’s worst military disaster in nearly half a century.

Yet not only did he fail to acknowledge the disaster, he treated it as if it were a triumph.

“Last night in Kabul,” he began, “the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought were [sic] possible. No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it, and we did it today.”

Then he continued: “The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.”

Even allowing for the fact that he knew he could rely on a sycophantic media to back up or rationalize this patently false claim to “success,” or least decline to notice its falseness, it was a powerful testimony to the capacity for self-delusion of the modern ideologue—both of him who made the claim and those millions who are presumably still willing to support him in that self-delusion.

A few weeks earlier, right around the time that Biden was assuring us that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” I also wrote of how the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military services, General Mark Milley, had also become a prisoner of ideology, since he appeared to have acquiesced in the hard-line Democratic ideologues’ view of Trump supporters as a threat to national security.

This delusion, presumably shared by other senior officers in the armed forces, was potentially even more dangerous than that of Biden about the Taliban, but it also turned out to have foreshadowed it.

You could tell by the transparently political happy-talk briefing given by General Hank Taylor and Pentagon press secretary John Kirby a week before the curtain fell on the American military presence in Afghanistan. (We still don’t know, as of this writing, how many other Americans were left behind there when the last military transport took off.)

“I’m pleased to report our best departure results since evacuation operations began have happened in the last 24 hours,” burbled General Taylor. “Where 37 US Military aircraft, 32 C-17s, five C-130s departed from Kabul with approximately 12,700 personnel. On top of that, 57 coalition and partner aircraft left Kabul aircraft with 8900 personnel.”

He was speaking before the deaths of 13 American service personnel in the suicide bombing at Kabul Airport on Aug. 26. That tragic event caused General Milley to feel “pain and anger” but no regrets for anything he had done.

The “pain and anger,” he said, “comes from the same as the grieving families”—which seemed to rule out the possibility that some of the anger of the grieving families was directed at himself.

“This is tough stuff,” he explained. “War is hard. It’s vicious. It’s brutal. It’s unforgiving.”

No kidding! Don’t look to him to take any responsibility for those 13 deaths, however. “War” was to blame, not he.

In the olden days, losing generals would expect to be relieved of their command—and be thankful they weren’t living in Roman times when they would also have been expected to fall on their sword to atone for the dishonor of losing.

As late as 1757, the British put Admiral Byng up before a firing squad for a relatively trivial loss in the Seven Years’ War. Voltaire responded by saying that it was good to kill an admiral from time to time, “pour encourager les autres”—to instill a bit more intestinal fortitude in the surviving admirals.

Yet apparently in our age of ideology, when no one with the “right” political views can ever be wrong, no American general will even lose his job or his general’s pension over the military debacle in Afghanistan—though a lowly lieutenant colonel, who thought and said publicly that somebody higher up ought to pay a price for the disaster, was relieved of duty and forced to resign his commission.

It shouldn’t be necessary to say it, but someone who can never admit to his mistakes can never learn from them.

That’s presumably why we’ve been making the same mistake in waging our American wars since Korea—the mistake of not realizing that if you’re not winning, you’re losing.

General Douglas MacArthur warned us against this mistake when he was fired by President Harry Truman for believing that he had been put in charge of UN Forces in the Korean war to win it, not to create bargaining chips for politicians to trade away in negotiations with the enemy.

“In war,” as General MacArthur put it, “there is no substitute for victory.”

But the lesson of his dismissal for all our generals since, down to General Milley, has been that you can never get in trouble, no matter how badly you screw up, for agreeing with the civilian leadership, only for disagreeing, never for being too cautious or complacent, only for being too bold.

Only, that is, for wanting to win. For it is boldness that wins wars. Not caution. Not complacency.

With leaders who can never admit they were wrong, we can expect to do a lot more losing.

Afghanistan Brings Disaster, but no Responsibility is Taken (theepochtimes.com)

Some 40,000 people airlifted from Afghanistan have arrived in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday.

U.S. troops flew or facilitated the flight of more than 120,000 people from the airport in Kabul during about two-and-a-half weeks through Aug. 30, when the troops withdrew from Afghanistan completely.

Approximately 13 percent of the evacuees that have entered the United States have been U.S. citizens, according to Mayorkas. Another 8 percent were lawful permanent residents. The rest were Special Immigrant Visa holders or applicants or other Afghan nationals deemed vulnerable to Taliban terrorists if they had not been evacuated.

Mayorkas has been using his powers of parole to let in some Afghans who lack a visa, the Department of Homeland Security revealed last week. Mayorkas declined to say how many Afghans have been granted parole.

The evacuees were initially flown from Kabul to U.S. military bases in third countries, such as Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

After vetting by a team of hundreds of government workers, including FBI officials, the cleared evacuees were flown to the United States. Most have been landing at Dulles International Airport in Virginia or Philadelphia International Airport in Pennsylvania.

They are then shuttled to one of eight military bases scattered across the country, including Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

Approximately 25,600 Afghans were being housed at the military bases as of Sept. 3, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

The military has a capacity across the eight installations for about 36,000 but is working to increase that to at least 50,000. No more bases are expected to be needed to house the evacuees.

About 1,000 Afghans have been resettled, or moved off of bases, according to U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and Northern Command.

Mayorkas said the number of evacuees is expected to come in above 50,000.

“The number is something I don’t want to estimate because—as I’ve mentioned before—our commitment is an enduring one,” he said. “This is not just a matter of the next several weeks. We will not rest until we have accomplished the ultimate goal of Operation Allies Welcome.”

U.S. officials pledged to Afghans who helped U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan that they would be evacuated before troops withdrew. Some were not. Between 100 and 200 Americans were also left behind.

Governors from each party have said they will welcome refugees to their states.

“The Afghans fleeing the Taliban regime served alongside America’s military forces and fought for freedom. We’re grateful for their efforts and Arizona wholeheartedly welcomes our fair share of the refugees in our state,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, both Republicans, said in a joint statement last month.

But some officials have expressed concern about the influx of refugees, arguing they could pose security problems.

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) said he visited Fort McCoy last week and discovered all Afghan nationals there were on parole.

“The Biden administration has circumvented the SIV process,” he said.

Afghans are also being allowed to leave the base at will, he added.

40,000 From Afghanistan Airlift Have Entered United States: Official (theepochtimes.com)

While there is technically no federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the United States, widespread vaccine mandates among public and private institutions have formed a “de facto…nationwide mandate” that is “creating a two-tier society” in which the unvaccinated are systematically ostracized, warns economist and author Jim Rickards.

“Whether you had [COVID-19] or not, need [the vaccine] or not, young or not, vulnerable or not, you have to take it, or you’re going to be pushed to the margins of society,” Rickards, author of “The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World,” told The Epoch Times.

In addition to government institutions mandating vaccines—including the Pentagon recently requiring that military members get vaccinated—private companies requiring employee vaccinations include Walmart, Google, Netflix, Disney, and Tyson Foods. President Joe Biden specifically thanked these companies in an August press briefing “for their recent actions requiring vaccination for employees,” and said, “I know this isn’t easy—but I will have their backs.”

“One by one, these private institutions, think tanks, universities, state and municipal governments, the military, federal police … federal contractors … uniformed military, etc. … when you add up all these individual mandates, public and private, they’re tantamount to a federal mandate, even though there’s no single federal mandate,” Rickards said.

“This is just a drive, almost a monomaniacal drive, to get everybody in America to take the vaccine. Everybody,” he added. “If you want to participate in society, whether it’s going to school, dining out, social life, sports, whatever, you have to be vaccinated. If you’re not vaccinated, you’re going to be, in effect, in the basement. You’re going to be crammed down in the basement. You’ll be treated like a leper.”

Rickards further described a new societal dynamic that he sees taking shape, saying that there is an institutional drive to make life difficult for those who resist receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

“[Institutions are] not content. They’re saying, well, in some situations, we can’t force you to take the vaccination, but we’re going to make your life miserable in the meantime by saying you have to be tested once a week or you have to sit apart,” he said, using sporting events as an example. Earlier this year, Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners provided special “vaccinated-only” seats without social distancing for fans who had received a COVID-19 vaccination, while those who had not been vaccinated were seated in socially distanced “unvaccinated” sections. Other perks for vaccinated fans included access to special sections in the Mariners’ stadium, including a space next to the bullpen in center field and a terrace above left field.

“Some places, they say, ‘Well, [unvaccinated fans] can come to the sporting event, but we have a special seating section in the upper deck, and the hot dog guy doesn’t go there. So, you can go to the ballgame, but you get the worst seat and no hot dogs and no beer, etc.’ But that’s what we’ve done.”

Rickards said that there are major questions about why so much institutional pressure is being brought to bear to enforce blanket COVID-19 vaccinations, pointing out that there has been serious discussion in the United States about potentially needing a vaccine passport for interstate transportation.

He asked, “Is it about pharmaceutical company profits? Is it about basically using COVID vaccination as a handle for a national ID system?”

Censorship and Mandates

On Aug. 28, former New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson, who is a noted critic of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, was permanently suspended from Twitter after posting: “It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity.”

Rickards considers that available COVID-19 treatments commonly referred to as vaccines are, by definition, not actually vaccines.

“It doesn’t stop you from getting [COVID-19], and it doesn’t stop you from spreading [COVID-19]. And so, that’s not a vaccine as it’s understood, and it’s not a vaccine as it’s defined in law,” Rickards said of available COVID-19 treatments. “So, is it a treatment? Yeah. Is it effective in some ways? Yes. I don’t deny that.”

In his book, Rickards cites Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University, who previously said, “There aren’t any vaccines for human coronaviruses … We don’t have a single vaccine for any of them.”

“Dr. Bhattacharya makes a point that is often lost in the Wall Street chatter and hype about ‘silver bullets’ and ‘miracle drugs,’” Rickards writes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies have said that COVID-19 vaccines “are safe and effective” after clinical trials and say that side effects are rare. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy and others have cited studies saying that the vaccines don’t necessarily prevent transmission of COVID-19, but have stated that the shots limit the severity of the illness.

The CDC, on its website, also says that mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are considered vaccines.

“mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, work differently than other types of vaccines, but they still trigger an immune response inside your body. This type of vaccine is new, but research and development on it has been under way for decades,” it states.

Pfizer and Moderna did not return requests for comment.

Berenson, the former New York Times journalist, also hinted that he will be filing a lawsuit related to his suspension from Twitter, writing on his Substack page, “I can’t wait to hear what a jury will make of this.”

Prior to his Twitter suspension, Berenson had also posted tweets about university COVID-19 vaccine mandates. In July, after a federal judge rejected a request by eight Indiana University students to block the university’s requirement that students be vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive an exemption, Berenson noted in a tweet, “Another court ruling in favor of vaccine mandates/quasi-mandates – this time for a public university.”

Later, in August, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett refused an emergency request from the eight students to block Indiana University’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The students had argued that they “have a constitutional right to bodily integrity, autonomy, and of medical treatment choice in the context of a vaccination mandate.”

Regarding university COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Rickards said: “Basically the entire class, the entering or returning class of 2021, is being told, ‘you can’t go back to school without a vaccine.’ By the way, [these students] are college kids, you know they’re 18, 19, 20 years old. They’re the least vulnerable [to COVID-19] other than children.”

The author, who completed his undergraduate studies in the 1970s, said that those who are older statistically have different risk calculations with respect to COVID-19 vaccination than university students.

“My chance of a severe case of COVID is much higher … Statistically that’s just true, and I’ll take my chance with the vaccine, but 18- and 19-year-olds have no business taking the vaccine because the trade-off is different, your risk of a serious case is very low and [of] side effects—they could be a lifetime—are high,” he said.

Rickards predicted that there will likely be more cases similar to the lawsuit brought by Indiana University students in the near future, with “inconsistent decisions” in various courts and “one or more landmark rulings over the course of the next year.”

“The history of cases like this when you get back to other vaccines … in terms of public school admissions and so forth, has tended to favor the vaccine requirement. Not in every case,” he said. “I’m not highly optimistic that the courts are going to come down on the side of the individuals in these cases. But again, these cases have a long way to go.”

‘Live Free or Die’

Rickards noted that, in addition to vaccine mandates, “mask mandates are back in a lot of places” in the United States, and are impacting interstate travel.

“I live in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and our motto here is ‘Live Free or Die,’” Rickards said, referencing the state’s motto, which was originally written by John Stark, a Continental Army general during the American Revolution. “And I’ll give the [New Hampshire] governor [Chris Sununu] a lot of credit. So far we’re standing up for that … right now there’s no mask mandate, there’s no vaccination requirement for indoor dining.”

In other parts of the country, however, mask mandates are in effect. Rickards described a recent mask-related standoff that he experienced in Los Angeles: After landing at Los Angeles International Airport, Rickards rented a car to drive to his hotel, and pulled up to an airport parking lot checkpoint, staffed by an attendant who would open a gate to let Rickards drive the rental car out of the parking lot.

“I pull up to the booth, I’m not wearing a mask, and the guy says, ‘Put a mask on.’ I said, ‘I’m in a car by myself. Why do I need a mask?’” Rickards recounted. “And he said, ‘If you don’t put the mask on, I’m not opening the gate.’ And he was 10 feet away. He had a mask on.”

Rickards was carrying a mask in his pocket, and put it on to comply with the attendant’s demand.

“He opened the gate, and I ripped it off before I drove through to let him know what I thought of it,” Rickards said.

He stated that varying and inconsistent pandemic-related rules across the United States discourage travel and create an “enormous” economic headwind.

“There are all kinds of constitutional and curtailment-of-liberty-and-freedom-of-choice issues all around this,” Rickards said, referring to pandemic-related mandates. “But if you just want to convert it to dollars and cents, this hurts business, travel, leisure, resorts, restaurants, cruise ships, airlines, hotels, you name it. It’s hurting all of it.”

Vaccine Mandates ‘Creating a Two-Tier Society’ in the US: Expert (theepochtimes.com)

The Afghanistan withdrawal is worse than you think. Whatever level of incompetence you think was at play, however poorly you think the planning was, however avoidable you think this disaster should have been, it’s honestly so much worse. If you know anyone who thinks there was no way to pull out of Afghanistan without the country devolving into utter chaos, or if you know anyone who thinks Trump couldn’t have done any better, it is your duty to sit them down and make them watch the premiere of Season 2 of “Kash’s Corner.” I don’t care how you do it. Tie them to a chair. Tape their eyelids open. Offer them twenty bucks. Just make them watch “We Knew This Would Happen in Afghanistan and We Had a Strategy to Prevent It,” because they’re wrong.

Obviously it’s impossible to say with absolute certainty that the exit from Afghanistan would have gone better under former President Trump, because he isn’t the president and we don’t have access to alternate timelines. However, Kash Patel worked on Afghanistan under both the Obama and Trump administrations and the insight he provides into how those administrations tackled the problem of our longest war versus our current administration makes it difficult to believe Trump’s plan would have ended in such a catastrophe. The episode was clearly filmed before the worst day of the entire withdrawal, when 13 members of our armed forces—the bulk of them well under the age of 30—were killed by a suicide bomber, along with nearly 200 civilians.

The episode lasts just under 50 minutes, allowing Patel and Jekielek plenty of time to discuss in depth the steps President Trump had undertaken to ensure a successful withdrawal; the same steps President Biden completely ignored. Anyone not wholly consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome likely knows that President Trump’s deal to withdraw was conditions- based, and that the Taliban knew full well that if they didn’t meet the conditions then the deal was off. Trump wanted to remove our troops sooner than the agreed-upon May 1st deadline, but had already delayed withdrawal once and was willing to do so again if necessary. He’d already proved to the Taliban that he wouldn’t pull our soldiers out on a fixed deadline if they weren’t holding up their end of the bargain, which was a strong incentive for them to do just that.

Patel’s explanation of the Trump administration’s handling of Afghanistan goes far beyond outlining the conditions and is infuriating. Trump ran on a platform that included ending the never-ending wars in the Middle East, with Afghanistan at the top of the list. However, he wanted to finally leave Afghanistan in such a way to hopefully allow for some modicum of peace between the Afghan government and the Taliban, which was the whole point of a conditions-based exit. The only way we were leaving was if both parties met these conditions, and since both the Taliban and Afghan government wanted us gone they were highly motivated to do so. The Taliban was required to renounce Al-Qaeda and come to the table with the Afghan government to negotiate an interim government, which they’d repeatedly done. We agreed to keep special forces in the country specifically to combat terrorism, and we made sure they knew we’d wipe anyone off the map who killed an American citizen or harmed an American interest.

This plan was already in place and working well when President Biden took office. As with many of Trump’s policies that Biden dismantled, all the incoming administration had to do was keep everything in place and the mission could have been, if not a rousing success, at least not a total failure. Patel says that he and his colleagues were instructed to share anything and everything they had on Afghanistan with the incoming administration, and in fact gave the Biden administration the most materials from the Department of Defense of any administration in transition history. Only the incoming administration wanted nothing to do with any of it. They refused to meet with the outgoing members of the Department of Defense. They weren’t interested in hearing about the intel the Trump administration had on what was happening on the ground. The best the outgoing staff could do was make sure the career military members they worked with had everything the Biden administration would need and hope for the best.

Patel goes on to explain that Afghanistan was a high priority for President Trump in ways that it clearly hasn’t been for President Biden. Trump took daily briefings on conditions on the ground, listened to his military commanders, and was willing to pivot to a different strategy on a moment’s notice. The Biden administration took a completely different tactic, deciding that the intelligence focus should be on the white supremacy boogeyman within the Department of Defense. Rather than looking outward, U.S. intelligence agencies were looking inward, so when Biden finally got around to getting back to Afghanistan, months had passed since the last time anyone had paid much attention to what was happening on the ground.

The idea that there was no way to know the Afghan army would immediately collapse is one that Patel completely refutes, as the intelligence they were collecting (which the Biden administration was not) was very clear that if we did something like, oh say, leave in the middle of the night, the country would collapse. Based on the daily briefings, President Trump believed it would happen in a matter of days, leading to the plan to withdraw based on conditions. All of this intelligence that led Trump and his administration to this conclusion was and still is readily available for the new administration to look at any time they want, but clearly they didn’t want to or they wouldn’t have been shocked when Afghanistan collapsed over the course of a weekend.

Biden deciding that he wasn’t going to be held to Trump’s timeline also damaged our ability to leave Afghanistan in one piece. Patel makes a point that isn’t widely discussed about Biden moving the deadline and how the Taliban interpreted that as the United States breaking one of the conditions. Since the incoming administration immediately scrapped the withdrawal date everyone had agreed to, the Taliban no longer saw any reason to continue negotiating with the Afghan government in good faith. Perhaps we should have sent a strongly-worded letter that they’d better hold up their end of the bargain even though we had no intention to hold up ours. Then we might have avoided this whole thing.

Jekielek then asks about the media’s role in this whole debacle, marveling at the fact that suddenly the media remembered to do their job. Patel agrees that the shift in tone is quite drastic from their previously glowing coverage of Biden’s Afghanistan plan to covering the breakdown of the country honestly, which just goes to show how bad the situation is. If the media can’t find some way to ignore it, gloss over it, or interest the American public in what kind of pudding Biden had for dinner, you know it’s truly a disaster.

That’s a 500 foot overview of just the first half of the episode. Patel also talks about just how unconscionable it is that Biden’s DoD went into the withdrawal with no plan on how to get Americans and our allies out beyond giving them a phone number, the plans Trump had in place to actually extract the Americans who are now stuck, and how monumentally boneheaded it was to let go of Bagram Airfield. Trump even had a plan to get our weapons and machines out after the civilians but before the military—the exact opposite of what the Biden administration did. Every subject Patel and Jekielek touch on made this reviewer want to bang my head on a desk until the list of stupid, ego-filled, politically-driven decisions by the current administration stopped. But the list doesn’t stop for nearly an hour, and it never gets any better.

No matter what the media says, or how White House talking heads try to spin it, Patel makes it very clear that the Biden administration’s plan to withdraw from Afghanistan was very clearly, “Whatever Trump was going to do, we’re not going to do that,” and that’s it. That’s literally it. That’s why it’s so egregious that President Biden continues to throw out straw man arguments to deflect the public’s anger on this withdrawal, by suggesting that Americans are upset that we left, not how we left, or somehow insisting we either had to get out or send in more troops indefinitely. It’s also appalling that Biden continues to try to blame President Trump for his utter surrender to the Taliban, and that he thinks he can simply walk away from the press without taking questions or shame the public for being outraged about the way this war ended. Every American should see this episode and share this episode, especially with blind partisans who still somehow buy the lie that the blood spilled in the last week in Afghanistan isn’t solely on Biden’s hands. It is, and everyone needs to know it.

“Kash’s Corner” premiers every Friday at 8 p.m.—exclusive on EpochTV.

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Epoch TV Review: You Can’t Blame Trump for This (theepochtimes.com)

It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. Joe Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country.

In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise. We were told that the terrorist victors share similar goals to ours in a hasty American retreat from Kabul. We were reminded that Afghan refugees (unlike U.S. soldiers) will not be forced to be vaccinated on arrival. Such statements are either untrue or absurd.

On the very day of the attack that killed American troops, the sergeant major of the U.S. Army reminded us in a tweet that diversity is our strength, commemorating not the dead but Women’s Equality Day. If so, then is the opposite of diversity—unity—our weakness? Will such wokeness ensure that we do not abandon the Bagram air base in the middle of the night without opposition?

The chief of staff at the Office of Naval Intelligence warned the ONI’s active duty and retired service members that they must not criticize Biden, their commander in chief, over the Afghanistan fiasco. The office correctly cited prohibitions found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice barring any disrespect shown to senior government leadership.

Indeed, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps was relieved of his command for posting a video accurately blaming military and civilian leadership for the Afghanistan nightmare.

Yet until Jan. 20, retired top brass had constantly smeared their elected commander in chief with impunity.

Recently retired Gen. Michael Hayden retweeted a horrific suggestion that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan, where they presumably would be left to die. Hayden earlier had compared Trump’s border facilities to Nazi death camps.

Other retired high-profile military officials variously called their president an emulator of Nazi tactics, a veritable Mussolini, a liar, and deserving of removal from office sooner than later. None of these retired four-stars faced the sort of repercussions that the Office of Naval Intelligence just warned about.

More than 50 former intelligence officials on the eve of the November election signed a letter suggesting that incriminating emails found on Hunter Biden’s missing laptop might be “Russian disinformation.” They used their stature for political purposes to convince the American people that the story was a lie.

Retired Gen. Joseph Dunford and retired Adm. Mike Mullen recently blasted retired brass who had questioned Biden’s cognitive ability. OK. But they should have issued a similar warning earlier, when the violations of fellow retired officers were even more egregious in election year 2020.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for doing a photo op with Trump, erroneously buying into the narrative that Trump had ordered rioters cleared from Lafayette Square for the staged picture. Worse, he leaked to journalists that he was so angry with Trump that he “considered” resigning.

Think of the irony. If Milley considered a politicized resignation to rebuke Trump over the false charge, then surely he could consider a real resignation after overseeing the worst military disaster of the last half-century in Kabul.

Milley had promised to root out white supremacy from the ranks while recommending that his soldiers read Ibram X. Kendi’s racialist diatribes.

Something is terribly wrong in the ranks of America’s top commanders that reflects something wrong with the country.

The Pentagon needs to stop virtue-signaling about diversity days and culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees. Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram air base was abandoned by night, or why Taliban terrorists are our supposed “partners” in organizing our surrender and escape?

Which general allowed more than $85 billion in American weapons to fall to the Taliban—a sum equal to the price of seven new U.S. aircraft carriers?

Who turned over to the Taliban the lists of Americans and allied Afghans to be evacuated?

Who left behind biometric devices that the Taliban are now using to hunt down our former Afghan friends?

Somehow our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing the trust of the American people—along with the wars it fights abroad.

There’s a Problem in the Upper Reaches of Our Military (theepochtimes.com)

Rep. Jim Banks’s (R-Ind.) on Wednesday introduced an amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act to ban the teaching of the quasi-Marxist critical race theory (CRT) or any related theories in the military.

“Today, I will be offering an amendment in the House Armed Services Committee to ban racist Critical Race Theory teachings in our military,” the Republican lawmaker, a vocal critic of CRT, announced on Twitter.

CRT advocates for critiquing social problems through the lens of racial struggle, and argues that racism is inherent in the foundational values of Western societies. As such, it seeks to fundamentally transform social institutions so as to end racial oppression.

Conservatives have expressed increasing concern that the U.S. military is becoming “woke” as it incorporates CRT in its training and education. They argue that promoting CRT weakens the armed forces’ ability to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.

Critics of CRT say its proponents apply the Marxist tactic of “class struggle” to race, dividing people along race, gender, and ethnic lines to label them “oppressors” and “oppressed,” which further divides society.

“Critical Race Theory is a dangerous and radical ideology that has no place in the U.S. military,” Study Committee Chairman Banks said in a statement. “I don’t know how anyone can justify teaching men and women, who are being asked to serve and protect our country and potentially pay the ultimate sacrifice, that America is a fundamentally evil or racist country.”

CRT Shares the Same Ideology as China’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese American Warns

Among the amendment’s cosponsors so far are Reps. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Jerry Carl (R-Ala.), Pat Fallon (R-Texas), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and Rob Wittman (R-Va.).

In a heated discussion, Gaetz called CRT “a poison.”

“It otherizes our fellow Americans,” Gaetz said. “It is not what we need in our military, in our schools, in our lives or anywhere in a great nation.”

“Every single one of us in this room know that this is the greatest country in the history of this world,” Banks added. “Are we perfect? No. Is our history perfect? Of course not. But there’s nothing that comes close to what we have in America. And it is not sustainable to tell our troops anything otherwise. In fact, it’s dangerous.”

Some Democrats have pushed back against the amendment, arguing that CRT addresses the racism in American history.

“[B]y being honest about our past, we can actually teach the hard truths about our country,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said.

Terri Wu contributed to this report.

Rep. Jim Banks Introduces Amendment to Ban Teaching of CRT in Military (theepochtimes.com)

“House Democrats just refused to recognize Republican veterans on the House Floor to read the names of our fallen service members in Afghanistan,” Florida combat veteran, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said on Twitter. “That’s how far our nation has fallen.”

House Democrats just refused to recognize Republican veterans on the House Floor to read the names of our fallen service members in Afghanistan.

That’s how far our nation has fallen.— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) August 31, 2021

Rep. Carlos A. Giminez (R-FL) blasted Pelosi and the House Democrats on Tuesday, saying “how badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle? They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week. Don’t you think our military deserves better?”

How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle?

They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week.

Don’t you think our military deserves better?— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) August 31, 2021

Wounded combat veteran from Afghanistan, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), told The Floridian “during a Republican-only moment of silence, Speaker Pelosi refused to recognize them to read names or bring up bills or anything. We gaveled in, had a prayer, said the Pledge of Allegiance, took a moment of silence with pretty much all Republican veterans, then asked to be recognized to read names and bring up Afghanistan legislation. They did not acknowledge us, and just closed the House down.”

On Monday, Congresswoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) announced that she and 158 co-sponsors introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 slain US service members. This medal is Congress’ most distinguished award.

Today, I introduced bipartisan legislation, alongside 158 cosponsors, to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 servicemembers killed in #Afghanistan last week. These valiant men and women will never be forgotten. https://t.co/voOU2yZuko— Representative Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) August 31, 2021

It was detailed in her press release that the legislation would award the Congressional Gold Medal to Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Sgt. Nicole Gee, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan Page, Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, Cpl. David Lee Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, Hospitalman Maxton Soviak and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss.

“These heroic men and women are gone far too soon, and we must honor them for their bravery in helping U.S. citizens and Afghan allies safely evacuate Afghanistan,” Rep. McClain said. “My heart aches for the families and loved ones of our servicemembers. We will always remember their service and pay tribute to their sacrifice.”

Pelosi blocked legislators from reading names of slain US troops: GOP reps | The Post Millennial

How does a leader decide what to do?

The most logical response is: “Cui bono?”—”Who benefits?”—from the decision.

If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it.

If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it.

I’d be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan—conservative or liberal—would give to the question, “Cui bono?”

I can say that until this moment, I have not read or heard a single cogent argument from proponents of American withdrawal as to how exactly it benefits America.

“Twenty years is too long,” or its variant, “we have to end these endless wars,” the most commonly offered argument for withdrawal, has nothing to do with benefiting America.

It is an emotional sentiment, not a rational argument.

The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members’ lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago.

The number of American servicemen killed in Afghanistan per year from 2015 to 2020 is respectively 22, 9, 14, 14, 21, and 11. No one can seriously argue that we are leaving Afghanistan because of high American casualties.

So, while America doesn’t benefit at all from leaving Afghanistan, it does get hurt.

The damage to the reputation of America—as an ally and as a strong country—is not easily overstated.

The damage done to NATO, whose members President Joe Biden didn’t bother to consult, is greater than any damage former President Donald Trump—whom the left-wing mainstream media constantly attacked for damaging NATO—was alleged to have done.

On the other hand, “Cui bono?” has some very clear answers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, every Islamic terror group in the world and every other anti-American regime and movement.

In the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro compiled a list of recent Western weakness in the face of tyrants and the commensurate strengthening of those tyrants:

“The West’s abandonment of Hong Kong in the face of Chinese aggression last year.

“The West’s continuing desire for a rapprochement with the Iranian mullahcracy.

“The West’s routine appeasement of Russia.

“All speak to the unwillingness of the West—and the West’s leader, the United States—to stand up for allies anywhere on earth.

“Afghanistan is simply the latest, and by far the most stunning, example of abandonment of an American ally …

“China’s Global Times, a Communist Party mouthpiece, chortled, ‘From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and U.S. military won’t come to help. As a result (Taiwan) will quickly surrender.’

“Indeed, given the window presented by the Biden administration, it would be somewhat of a surprise if China didn’t attempt some sort of action against Taiwan in the next few years …

“Foreign policy abhors vacuums, and the United States has now created one. That means that erstwhile American allies will begin to play footsie with countries like Russia and China, believing that American commitments mean little. They have reason for such suspicions, obviously.”

The effects on Americans’ perceptions of the military constitute another terrible price paid by leaving Afghanistan. More and more Americans see the military as more concerned with fighting white supremacy in America and transphobia in the military than with fighting for the supremacy of freedom on earth. This is new. And it will have a devastating effect on both America and the military. One obvious consequence: Who will want to enlist in a woke military? (Perhaps that’s the goal.)

It seems that every generation has to relearn the basic laws of life, such as this one: There are many bad people and many bad countries in the world, and only a fear of good countries prevents them from conquering other countries.

There is less fear of good countries in the world today than at any time since World War II. And that is especially so because the good countries are preoccupied with their own alleged evils rather than with the world’s real evils.

Cui Bono? Who Benefits From the Afghanistan Withdrawal? (theepochtimes.com)

State Department official ‘haunted’ by failure to assist special immigrant visa applicants

The majority of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants who aided U.S. forces did not safely exit Afghanistan before the Biden administration withdrew, the State Department said on Wednesday.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Politico he and his team are “haunted” by the failure to assist applicants, many of whom were translators and aides for U.S. forces for decades in Afghanistan, often in life-or-death situations. The United States opened up 34,500 slots for SIV applicants, but an estimated 50,000 Afghans were interested in applying.

“There were days it did not work well,” a State Department official said. “We had a couple of instances where buses were a mix of foreign nationals and Afghan local employees of other missions, and the Talibs would only let pass the foreign nationals, and they turned away or they held at that location the Afghan citizens who were on that particular movement.”

Taliban checkpoints at the Kabul airport and nearby—as well as brutal killings of Afghans suspected of working with the United States—hindered the evacuation of some translators.

One Afghan interpreter who was left behind had rescued President Joe Biden during a 2008 visit to Afghanistan. Biden and former senators Chuck Hagel (R.) and John Kerry (D.) landed in a dangerous valley during a snowstorm and required evacuation with the assistance of the translator. He is now hiding out in Afghanistan with his wife and four children.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” the translator told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “Don’t forget me here.”

Another translator who was unable to secure a safe exit from Afghanistan expressed fear to the Washington Free Beacon that he would be killed if spotted by the Taliban. Up to 200 Americans, including dozens of children, also remain in the Taliban-controlled country.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) ripped the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal in a Tuesday statement.

“President Biden prioritized political considerations over American lives and national security,” Cruz said. “He imposed an artificial deadline untethered from conditions on the ground, and refused to adjust or adapt even as the Taliban swept across Afghanistan and catastrophes mounted. He met his artificial deadline but broke all the promises he made to the American people. … And he dragged our nation into a crippling, humiliating defeat that has shaken our allies and emboldened our enemies.”

Majority of Afghan Allies Not Out of Afghanistan, State Department Says (freebeacon.com)

Facebook and Instagram removed Shana Chappell’s posts criticizing Biden

A Republican congresswoman is pushing Facebook and Instagram to explain why they censored posts critical of President Biden by the mother of a Marine killed in Afghanistan, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri to explain why the social media sites removed posts by Shana Chappell that criticized Biden for the debacle in Afghanistan and his allegedly callous behavior at the transfer of her son’s remains.

Chappell’s Instagram account was suspended and one of her Facebook posts was hidden, although both were later restored. Facebook, which owns Instagram, said Chappell’s Instagram account was “incorrectly deleted.” When asked for clarification on why Chappell’s Instagram account was removed, a spokesman said the platform does not “comment on how enforcements occurred.”

Tenney wants the companies to explain their behavior. “Our Gold Star families and the American public deserve better than this,” she wrote. “After sacrificing so much for the safety and security of our Nation, their speech should not be stifled by faceless Silicon Valley censors.”

Facebook and Instagram have come under fire for unclear or partisan content moderation. Facebook has “downranked” articles that argued COVID-19 escaped a Chinese lab. Tenney serves on the House GOP’s “Tech Task Force,” which is preparing a legislative package to tackle the power of major tech companies.

In the letter, Tenney expressed concerns about politically motivated censorship. “I am aware that the White House acknowledged it would be flagging for Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, posts it deemed ‘problematic.’ Weaponizing the power of the Executive Branch against an open public discourse is wholly un-American, and it would be a crucial error for Instagram to assist in this.”

Biden has not shied away from exerting leverage over Facebook. In June, he accused the platform of “killing people” by allowing “misinformation” about COVID on the site. Multiple former Facebook executives serve in the Biden White House.

According to a Facebook spokesman, Chappell’s “tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies.” Chappell said that after she posted about her son, Instagram began flagging her older posts and warned that her account would be deleted if she continued posting. It is unclear what triggered the warnings on older posts.

GOP Congresswoman Asks Facebook To Explain Suspension of Gold Star Mother (freebeacon.com)

Sen. Hagerty: ‘We have someone not even qualified for a security clearance at the center of Biden’s incompetently planned withdrawal”

Pentagon strategy chief Colin Kahl is in the hot seat over his role in the Biden administration’s bungled Afghanistan withdrawal, four months after Senate Republicans unanimously opposed his nomination and warned that his appointment would be disastrous for national defense policy.

Kahl, the civilian head of policy planning at the Department of Defense and third highest ranking department official, has been a key player in planning for the Afghanistan withdrawal and the day-to-day policy decisions on the ground. While several Biden administration officials have been publicly defending the president’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, Republican foreign policy leaders say Kahl is the behind-the-scenes player largely responsible for the botched evacuation of Afghanistan and decision to leave Americans stranded in the country. The GOP lawmakers, who also have criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, now say their fears about Kahl’s lack of fitness for the role are coming to pass.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon that Kahl “should never have been nominated by the president or confirmed by the Senate” and should be held responsible for the Biden administration’s failures in Afghanistan, including for the hundreds of Americans who have reportedly been left behind. “In Kahl, we have someone not even qualified for a security clearance at the center of President Biden’s incompetently planned and disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), another member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon that Kahl and Pentagon leadership “are more worried about woke messaging than combat readiness. And the entire White House national security team is being bullied by a band of medieval terrorists. They are overseeing America’s decline, and it is an absolute disgrace.”

The criticism of Kahl comes as lawmakers are demanding the resignation of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley over the handling of the Afghanistan exit, which led to a Taliban takeover of the country and a chaotic and deadly evacuation effort. While senior State Department and Pentagon officials have come under the microscope in the wake of the Biden administration’s evacuation from Afghanistan, Kahl has largely avoided public scrutiny. Leading GOP foreign policy voices and national security establishment insiders, however, say that Kahl was not prepared for a senior Pentagon job and that this lack of preparation contributed to the administration’s failure to plan for the Taliban’s rise. The Biden administration rammed Kahl’s appointment through Congress this year, even in the face of significant Republican opposition. As Afghanistan fell apart in the past several weeks, Kahl’s opponents began to lay blame for the crisis on his office, which is tasked with providing day-to-day policy advice to the Pentagon’s military leaders.

As undersecretary of defense for policy, Kahl has played a leading role in crafting the withdrawal strategy. During a strategy call last week, military commanders warned Kahl and other Pentagon leaders about an imminent “mass casualty” attack expected to take place near Abbey Gate last week, according to notes from the classified session obtained by Politico. Kahl and the other officials reportedly declined to close the gate due to concerns that it would impede the evacuation process. The next day, a suicide bomber killed 13 service members in the same location.

On the call, Kahl and other officials were also reportedly told that the United States would not be able to evacuate every American from the country, an outcome that the Biden administration had promised to prevent. Kahl expressed concern about the optics, reportedly worrying that “history will judge us by those final images.”

Kahl “owns the [Department of Defense’s] failure to plan and implement a withdrawal that wouldn’t dishonor our veterans, our military, and our values,” said Josh Block, a foreign policy scholar at the Hudson Institute and former Clinton administration State Department official.

Block said Kahl is “unqualified for his job, a liability to American national security” and “needs to be removed or made to resign.”

Calls for Kahl’s resignation come just months after his bruising confirmation battle, during which he faced scrutiny for his Twitter attacks on Republicans, his advocacy for the Iran nuclear deal, and his record of inaccurate foreign policy predictions.

Kahl was confirmed in a divisive, party-line vote after he apologized for his years of inflammatory tweets, including blasting the GOP as the “party of ethnic cleansing” and a “clown show.”

Kahl, who served in the State Department under President Obama, was a top advocate of the nuclear deal with Iran and has spoken at multiple events hosted by the National Iranian American Council, a pro-Iranian regime lobbying group.

He opposed a 2017 bill to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the nexus for Iran’s global terrorism operations. Kahl also protested the Trump administration’s assassination of Iranian terror chief Qassem Soleimani, which he described as “the equivalent of another country taking out the director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and shadow secretary of state all rolled into one.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), in a speech he made this spring in opposition to Kahl’s nomination, said the nominee was “wrong about nearly every important foreign policy decision of the last decade.”

Cotton noted that Kahl in 2010 dismissed concerns about a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, which he said was “very unlikely to trigger a dramatic uptick in violence”—a prediction that was proven wrong after terrorists seized a large portion of Iraq. Kahl also predicted that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would prompt a third intifada and that Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and later assassination of Soleimani would spark a war with Tehran.

“Mr. Kahl’s inability to accurately assess these events almost defies probability,” said Cotton.

Republicans Blame Pentagon Planner Colin Kahl for Bungled Afghanistan Strategy (freebeacon.com)

A reconfigured global elite are shaping up around a new kind of vision for transforming our world. They’ve called their neo-socialist and multilateral vision the Green New Deal.

Joe Biden’s White House team are core players in this vision, as they seek to reinvent Roosevelt’s original 1930s New Deal into a contemporary twenty-first century Democratic Party platform.

But there are also other important players pushing this neo-socialist dream.

One has been the European Union’s large and well-organised green lobby. Another has been Klaus Schwab (economist and founder of the World Economic Forum), who has used Davos to push his vision of a “Great Reset” of the global economy.

Those getting on board with the Green New Deal are the usual advocates of state interventionism, big government, and multilateral globalism. But surprisingly this new elite is a mix of left-liberals, socialists, Greens, bureaucrats, and university researchers/experts. More surprising is that sections of the business elite are also climbing on board what they believe will be a gravy train.

It appears business is motivated by two factors. First, they are afraid of activist pressure. Second, their marketing departments are telling them there are great public relations kudos to be had in signing up to the now fashionable narratives of saving victims, saving the planet, and distancing themselves from left-leaning stereotypes of greedy uncaring capitalists.

So now we have woke businesses greenwashing their brands plus learning to make profits out of the Green New Deal’s neo-socialist strategy to tear up our old infrastructure and replace them with new ones at great expense to the taxpayer. Who knew socialism could be profitable.

But one of the most fascinating features of this trend is how enthralled legacy media journalists are with the green narratives underpinning this emergent global elite.

Journalists who would normally ask questions about self-interest, crooked narratives, and obvious propaganda now meekly buy into the trendy narratives. Indeed journalists are now being told that applying the journalistic principle of balance is a bad thing when reporting on issues like climate change.

Instead, journalists are being taught that it is fine to advocate for green climate change messages. We even have global media like the BBC instructing their journalists not to be balanced on climate change.

In a climate when green activism is now normalised in media newsrooms, it is hardly surprising that we see journalists treating green experts as media darlings, and as a result, those same green experts are no longer challenged by probing journalistic questions.

Instead, what emerges is a de facto partnership between the media, climate change scientists, and activists wherein journalists start to construct pro-green (propaganda-like) stories.

One way of explaining this partnership is to see it as part of the phenomenon of an emergent global elite for whom left-wing “progressivism” has become a kind of secularised religion, built around saving the many kinds of victims we apparently have today.

These victims can be those conventionally beloved by socialists—the poor. They can also be the new victims beloved by identity politics—LGBTQI, Indigenous or ethnic minorities. Or victims beloved by feminists—women persecuted by the patriarchy. Or the victims can now even be non-human—whales, polar bears, coral reefs, nature, or the planet.

What binds all these victims is that they need to be saved by a self-selecting elite of people who have married elements of the narratives of left-liberalism and neo-Marxism.

This elite first emerged in the United States and then spread to the rest of the western world. And now, like a virus, it is also spreading to places like the European Union (EU).

It is an elite who have proven highly susceptible to catching the green virus. Significantly, enormous progress has been made in capturing western universities, the global media, the education system, and the many bureaucracies across the Anglo world and EU.

The result has been the growth of an alliance between left-liberal, progressive politicians; academics; journalists; and bureaucrats.

Once the universities were captured by this progressive-left, universities were used to teach a new “way of seeing” and a “new way of speaking about” the world.

Thus, universities become the source of what is termed ‘woke’ and green narratives; while the media and internet are used to disseminate their tales. In addition, as universities produced more of these progressive and Green “experts,” journalists rely on them to justify their own work—creating an ongoing cycle.

Importantly, since universities teach journalism, public relations and marketing the communication industries are filled with those taught the woke discourses beloved by the globalised elite.

Not surprisingly, the resultant spread of progressivism within the communications industry means progressives are also becoming well placed—and more skilled—at spreading their own ideologies, while shutting down opposing views.

Indeed the Left are so successful that much of the world in the Biden era is starting to feel a bit like a mixture of the hard authoritarianism of George Orwell’s 1984 and the soft authoritarianism of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”

The proliferation of both discourse around the Green New Deal, and the expanding power of a medical autocracy calling the shots over COVID-19, are two indicators of the way the global elite are becoming successful at promoting only their views while undercutting all others.

The universities have also given birth to “experts” who believe that secular science can fix everything thereby removing the need for religion or traditional knowledge.

At a deeper level, German existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche saw this rot beginning when Western thinkers “killed God” in the 19th century, and from that wrong turn has evolved the secularist, social engineers of today.

But at a more institutional level, I think American conservative philosopher Paul Gottfried was correct that the problem lies in today’s overly interventionist governments imposing social therapy measures upon their citizens.

His argument was that this began during the post-second World War era in the United States—specifically with Paul Lazarsfeld’s Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University in the 1940s to 1950—and in the growth of the 1960s U.S. government-led social engineering policies (for example, affirmative action new migration laws).

And today, we see the modern manifestation of such a long-running trend in state-run welfare systems, the Green New Deal, and the COVID-19 medical autocracy.

Significantly, Lazarsfeld’s behavioural science was built on the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School’s idea of an “Authoritarian Personality”—a personality type that is submissive and obedient to authority—as well as the notion that experts should learn to manage and control the population better (using psychology, behavioural sciences, public opinion research, public relations, and spin-doctoring). This, in turn, can help stop the re-emergence of “bad ideas” like nationalism or traditionalism.

Lazarsfeld founded an American tradition of academic thinking about how the media could be used to promote “good” (progressive) ideas and shut down “bad” ideas.

Lazarsfeld’s centre employed many Frankfurt School members and so opened the door to the merging of left-liberal and neo-Marxist ideas, which has further contributed to the growth of the progressive elite.

With Biden in office, this elite now has a great base to work from to disseminate their preferred ideological narratives including the virtues of big government, green activism, and multilateral interventionism to save its so-called “victims.”

And because the 2000 anti-Trump crusade helped cement the alliance between left-leaning politicians, activists, mainstream liberal media journalists, U.S.-owned tech giants; and the university sector, we can now expect to see a period of intensified dissemination of “progressive” narratives plus simultaneous attempts at discourse closure aimed at closing-down and disrupting narratives that the Left loves to hate.

Global Elite Latches Onto Neo-Socialist Vision: The Green New Deal (theepochtimes.com)

With the United States completely withdrawn militarily from Afghanistan since the nation’s involvement after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and with the Taliban terrorist group having seized troves of U.S. weapons, Afghans living in New York hope that by force of miracle, stabilization can come to their home country.

The Epoch Times reached out to members of the Afghan community in New York to get their thoughts on the situation.

Fakhrudin Fakhrudin works in an Indian beauty salon, owned by his wife, who is originally from India.

His family cannot come to the United States, they have told him over the phone that the situation is “very bad.”

“One hundred percent bad. because you can’t find f0od, you can’t find anything. They’re scared of Taiban because they work with the government,” he told The Epoch Times.

His sister’s husband and son worked for the now overthrown Afghan government.

Fakhrudin said that the Taliban are systematically looking for people that worked for the government.

“Now they are looking [for the people who worked for the government] door to door,” Fakhrudin said.

“One girl worked with the police. She’s a neighbor of my sister. They took her eyes off with a knife, twice. The Taliban, I swear to God.”

Fakhrudin has been in the United States for 50 years. He wants to tell the U.S. government as a citizen that the Afghan people need help.

“[Afghan] people need help, they need help very badly because a lot of them worked with the government, and now they are hiding.”

“There’s nothing that we can do, people are just suffering over there,” he concluded.

Karimullah Faizy’s parents were born and grew up in Afghanistan and moved to the United States in the 90s. He runs a restaurant that is owned by his father in Long Island, New York.

“The U.S. government, the way they just left and they left everybody and they left their weapons, just for the Taliban to use it. And now they’re obviously using it against us,” said Faizy.

“Twelve soldiers just died. And it was a very bad decision for [America] just to leave, leave all their Blackhawk Hawk helicopters … And now we just left.”

Faizy’s father is gathering some money to send to his uncle in Afghanistan, whose house was bombed two weeks ago and only half of it remains.

He shared a video with The Epoch Times that shows the ruins of the home.

“They just surrendered, and now the Taliban are taking over the soldiers and using our own equipment. And sooner or later, they’re going to have to go back,” said Faizy.

“People and soldiers dying, and all the money being spent on this … is just very sad and tragic, especially for the people living there, the innocent civilians, and you can see they’re just leaving in helicopters … it’s sad [in] our hearts and we’re praying for them.”

Salimi Popal, originally from Kandahar, Afghanistan, has been living in the United States for 13 years, working 12 hours a day in his food cart in Flushing, Queens.

It was reported recently that the Taliban banned female voices and music from airing on the radio in Kandahar.

His brother, cousin, grandfather, and children all live in the United States. Any extra money he has, he sends to his family in Afghanistan.

He believes in peace and says all the people of Afghanistan are his family, and hopes that the situation can be stable in his home country.

“So bad,” he said, of his family’s situation, “there are no more doctors available.”

Nevertheless, he has hope that things might not go downhill.

“Now it’s too early, because I don’t know what will happen with this new regime,” Popal said.

He emphasized that “maybe,” gradually it would be ok.

“[Let’s] wait. He [the leader] said that ‘I don’t want to kill anybody, free everybody,’ everybody is ok now, the country is ok now, the cities are ok now, everybody is quiet, people are very happy now, because [people] like that nobody dies.”

“Afghanistan people are not terrorists, they are people like you, like me,” Popal asserted. “Taliban speak the same language, how could I think they are different people.”

“Let’s wait, everybody says ‘wait,’” he said. “Everybody, different countries are waiting to see what will happen—later.”

‘They’re Looking for Them Door to Door’: Afghans in New York React to Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

Former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Charles spoke with Sean Hannity Tuesday night on the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan, saying he has never seen a President or administration turn its back on the American people like Joe Biden’s White House.

“In my history of government service, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a constellation of officials from the National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, President, and Vice President who have turned their backs on Americans,” said Charles.

“Some resignations are in line,” he added.

Charles’ assessment is not un-common. New polls show sagging support for Joe Biden and his administration.

A new survey from Morning Consult spells more bad news for Joe Biden, with roughly 6 in 10 saying the country has “seriously gone off on the wrong track.”

“The study, conducted from Saturday to Monday, found that 61 percent of respondents believe the country is on the wrong track, compared to just 39 percent who say the country is ‘going in the right direction,’” reports The Hill.

“The survey also found a record-low overall approval rating for Biden at 47 percent, with 49 percent saying they disapproved of the president’s job performance overall,” adds the website.

6 in 10 say US has “seriously gone off on the wrong track”: poll https://t.co/nX5L22jmkL pic.twitter.com/d3bahrBc88

— The Hill (@thehill) September 1, 2021

The poll reflects a series of scandals, mistakes, and outright failures of the Biden administration in recent months.

Watch the former officials’ comments above.

EX STATE DEPT OFFICIAL: I’ve Never Seen an Entire Admin ‘Turn Their Backs on Americans’ | Sean Hannity

One small business owner in Florida has had enough with the Biden Administration and its supporters, posting an emotional message on the door just hours after more than a dozen US troops were murdered in Afghanistan.

Angie Ugarte, owner of the DeBary Diner, said felt compelled to make the statement after the deadly terror attack and President’s inept response.

“If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless, inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House that is complicit in the death of our servicemen and women in Afghanistan, please take your business elsewhere,” stated the signage.

“God bless America and God bless our soldiers,” concluded the note.

The message was added to the door the same day a suicide blast killed 13 US Service Members at Kabul’s International Airport.

The owner of DeBary Diner, posted the sign.

“If you voted for and continue to support and stand behind the worthless , inept and corrupt administration currently inhabiting the White House… please take your business elsewhere.”https://t.co/rogEyWFo7Q

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 31, 2021

“I was just angry. I was just let down. I felt like one of those mothers, or wives, or sisters who were gonna get that knock on the door,” said Ugarte.

“If you really, really still stand behind what’s allowed this to happen and the way it happened – which was unnecessary then I really don’t want to be associated with you in any way and I certainly don’t want your business,” she added.

‘TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE’: Diner Posts Fiery Message to Biden Supporters After Kabul Terror Strike | Sean Hannity

The White House issued a major clarification in the transcript from Joe Biden’s address on Afghanistan Tuesday afternoon; stating the actual number of Americans that got out of the country was 98%, not 90% as said by the President during the speech.

“Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.  Most of those who remain are dual citizens, long-time residents who had earlier decided to stay because of their family roots in Afghanistan,” said Biden.

“The bottom line: Ninety [Ninety-eight] percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave,” states the transcript on the official White House webpage.

President Biden defended his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan during the address, labeling the effort an “extraordinary success.”

“No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will to do it, and we did it today. The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill and bravery and selflessness courage of the United States Military,” said the President.

The US Embassy in Afghanistan posted a dire message on its official webpage Tuesday, saying the office has “suspended operations” and Americans can no longer rely on “United States government assistance.”

“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar,” states the memo.

“The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here,” adds the warning.

“Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance,” warns the message.

Read the full report at the NY Post.

CLUELESS JOE? White House ‘Corrects’ Biden’s Claim 90% of Americans Got Out of Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

Biden pressured Ghani to ‘project a different picture’

President Biden stressed the need for changing the “perception” of the Taliban’s progress in Afghanistan, “whether it is true or not,” during a phone call with former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani less than four weeks before Kabul collapsed, according to a new report.

According to a transcript of the July 23 presidential call reviewed by Reuters, Biden didn’t anticipate the Taliban’s rapid advance across Afghanistan, which ended when they stormed Kabul on Aug. 15 and Ghani fled the presidential palace. Instead, Biden focused much of the 14-minute call on the Afghan government’s “perception” problem, Reuters reported.

BIDEN BREAKS PROMISE TO ‘STAY’ IN AFGHANISTAN UNTIL EVERY AMERICAN EVACUATED

“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

At the time of the call, the Taliban controlled about half of Afghanistan’s district centers. Biden urged Ghani to hold a press conference with other prominent Afghan leaders to outline a new military strategy, which he argued would “change perception, and that will change an awful lot I think,” Reuters reported.

“We are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows,” Biden said.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed similar concerns in a follow-up call with Ghani later that day, which did not include Biden, Reuters reported.

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“The perception in the United States, in Europe and the media sort of thing is a narrative of Taliban momentum, and a narrative of Taliban victory,” Milley reportedly said. “And we need to collectively demonstrate and try to turn that perception, that narrative around.”

The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on the call when reached by Reuters. 

Biden pressed Afghan president to change ‘perception’ that Taliban was winning, ‘whether true or not’ | Fox News

Throughout his long political career, President Joe Biden has interacted with countless people both at home and abroad. It would be impossible to remember each and every one of them, especially given his declining cognitive abilities.

However, you would think that a man who rescued him from a snowy valley 13 years ago might stick in his mind. If Biden does remember, his actions certainly don’t show it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, an Afghan interpreter named Mohammed assisted in the rescue of then-Sens. Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel and John Kerry in February 2008. Now Biden has stranded him in Afghanistan.

Mohammed, his wife and his four children have been trying unsuccessfully for years to safely leave the country.

When the last United States plane left Afghanistan on Monday, he and his family were left behind.

The family is now hiding from the Taliban as they hope to be rescued even after the U.S. effectively handed the country over to the radical extremist group.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” Mohammed, who did not use his full name due to safety concerns, told The Wall Street Journal. “Don’t forget me here.”

Mohammed was 36 years old in 2008 and was working as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. During a trip to Afghanistan that year, two Black Hawk helicopters carrying Biden, Kerry and Hagel were forced to make an emergency landing due to a severe snowstorm.

“As a private security team with the former firm Blackwater and U.S. Army soldiers monitored for any nearby Taliban fighters, the crew sent out an urgent call for help,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

“At Bagram Air Field, Mohammed jumped in a Humvee with a Quick Reaction Force from the Arizona National Guard working with the 82nd Airborne Division and drove hours into the nearby mountains to rescue them.”

Thanks to Mohammed, the three U.S. senators escaped. One of them is now the president of the United States, and another serves in his administration. But when it came time for the American politicians to return the favor, they failed to do so.

Mohammed was trying to get out of Afghanistan well before the Taliban takeover. According to The Wall Street Journal, he originally applied for a special immigrant visa in June.

“His selfless service to our military men and women is just the kind of service I wish more Americans displayed,” Lt. Col. Andrew R. Till wrote in support of Mohammed at the time.

However, when the defense contractor who employed Mohammed lost necessary records, Mohammed’s visa application became one of many stuck in limbo.

Once the Taliban took over, Mohammed made his way to the Kabul airport to try to escape that way. U.S. forces then told him he could be allowed in the airport, but his wife and children could not.

“If you can only help one Afghan, choose [Mohammed],” said Shawn O’Brien, an Army combat veteran who served with him in 2008. “He earned it.”

Biden himself has attempted to use the 2008 incident as a political talking point.

“If you want to know where al-Qaida lives, you want to know where [Osama] bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me,” he said on the campaign trail in October of that year.

“Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down … in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.”

While Biden did not hesitate to reference the incident for political gain, he has conveniently forgotten about one of his rescuers in that hero’s darkest hour. It’s just another example of the utter lack of compassion in Biden’s heart.

Afghan Interpreter Who Rescued Biden from Snowy Afghanistan Valley in 2008 Gets Left Behind by US (westernjournal.com)

In Washington, things have gone off the rails in a hurry. Many blame an invigorated unthinking progressive agenda for broken government. And they are correct. Think about it.

How else would you characterize the utterly failed “Let’s get out of Afghanistan overnight” move by a president who seemingly had little interest in the advice of his generals or diplomats?

Speaking of which, who made the call to shut down the contractors who maintained American-made Afghan air assets?

You do not have to be a West Point graduate to question why we would give away our dominant advantage (air power) and leave the critical airbase at Bagram on a battlefield populated by seventh-century religious warriors. Or why we would leave so many military assets (vehicles, weapons, helicopters, night-vision goggles, etc.) to the Taliban. Or why our soldiers were ordered to abandon the country before every last U.S. citizen was accounted for and safe.

This last question is, of course, the most important and the most baffling.

Today, the president’s press flack won’t even admit Americans are “stranded,” but the anguished calls for help by trapped Americans and our Afghan allies in and around the Kabul airport (and Thursday’s horrific bomb attacks) speak to a terribly broken policy.

How else would one characterize the chaos at our southern border as an estimated two million people will have migrated by the end of the year?

To make matters worse, an understaffed Border Patrol and a declawed ICE are in no position to stop the tons of fentanyl, COVID-positive migrants and sex traffickers that are the tangible results of a broken policy.

Note that the person allegedly in charge of border security has been on her second foreign junket to Southeast Asia.

How else would you characterize the historic level of violence in cities that have indulged the ludicrous crime-producing “defund the police” movement?

A glance at murder and other violent crime statistics from any of these progressive cities reminds us that the suspension of enforcement against so-called minor crimes and the pro-offender mindset of so many big-city (Soros-sponsored) prosecutors has made life significantly worse off for the good and law-abiding people living in deteriorating marginal neighborhoods.

Whatever did happen to that “let’s replace the police with social workers” initiative?

How else would you characterize a president who just last week begged OPEC to increase its (fossil fuel) oil production in the face of rapidly spiking gasoline prices and increasing world demand?

This pitiful picture is juxtaposed against the greatest accomplishment of the Trump administration: an American natural gas revolution. America’s vast supply of natural gas and modern drilling techniques helped achieve independence (production of more domestic energy than we consume) by Trump’s third year in office. And all during a time greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline.Related:Dennis Prager: Who Benefits from Biden Deserting Afghanistan? America’s Enemies, That’s Who

How else would you characterize school systems that no longer care to teach the three “Rs” and no longer engage in objective measures of academic performance?

You can blame social justice warriors (and their compatriots in the teachers unions) who have infiltrated our local public school boards in order to indoctrinate our kids (as young as kindergarten age) with their unique curriculum of sex- and race-based instruction.

That their campaign is playing out against a backdrop of consistently underperforming (what used to be called “failing”) public schools in our most marginal neighborhoods is not lost on the commonsense majority.

Hence, a newly invigorated parent-teacher resistance to the woke mob’s agenda is born, as well as a new front in America’s culture wars.

How else would you characterize voting “reforms” that eliminate photo identification, scrubbing of voter rolls, signature matches on the inside and outside of mail-in ballots, and vote-counting transparency requirements?

Mistrust of our voting processes ran high among Democrats in 2016 and even higher among Republicans in 2020. Why in the world would either the states or the federal government want to further complicate the way we cast and count votes in our country?

How else would you characterize our out-of-control federal spending and the sudden re-emergence of inflation — that terrible debilitating tax on our nation’s poor that so many in Washington are soft-peddling?

There is a method to the madness, however, as today’s spiking inflation numbers bring back memories of the bad ‘ol days of the 1970s.

A bottom line emerges: What had been working during the Trump era had to be broken (such was the principle and all-consuming commitment of Biden 2020) regardless of consequence.

Indeed, from an incremental, secure withdrawal in Afghanistan to “Stay in Mexico” at the border to re-funding the police in our cities to real American energy independence from the gas fields to school choice in our classrooms, America was heading in the right direction. And then there was a worldwide pandemic — and an election. And now there are predictable short and long-term consequences.

Today, the breaking of Trump-era initiatives proceeds apace. This is what happens under single-party government. It is not a pretty sight. Broken never is.

Bob Ehrlich: We’re Suffering Because Biden Had to Reverse Every Trump Decision, Especially the Successful Ones (westernjournal.com)

On the heels of what sounded like a disastrous meeting between President Joe Biden and family members of those killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul last week, GOP members of Congress said that one of their Democratic colleagues blocked the names of the 13 deceased service members from being read on the floor Tuesday.

While members of one Gold Star family walked out of a meeting with President Joe Biden before he even got a chance to speak with them, one Democrat shut down Republican veterans who wanted to read off the names of those lost.

This is all terrible.

During a pro forma session, a group of Republicans gathered on the House floor to introduce a bill to demand accountability from the Biden administration over its handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

On Monday, the last troops pulled out of the country, ending the 20-year war in which several of the GOP members served. The Taliban appeared to mark the occasion by hanging a person by the neck from one of the Black Hawk helicopters that Biden left behind.

Trending:Biden Sounds Like He Has a Bout of Dementia When Trying to Talk: ‘I’m Here, Uh, Uh, Uh, Eh’

The GOP contingent of Republican veterans said House leadership refused to recognize their attempt to read the names of the 12 Marines and one Navy corpsman who lost their lives in an ISIS-K suicide bomb attack outside an entrance to the Kabul airport on Thursday in the final days of the chaotic evacuation.

“We gaveled in, had a prayer, said the Pledge of Allegiance, took a moment of silence with pretty much all Republican veterans, then asked to be recognized to read names and bring up Afghanistan legislation. They did not acknowledge us and just closed the House down,” Florida Rep. Brian Mast, himself a combat veteran who was wounded in Afghanistan, told The Floridian on Tuesday.

Fox News reported that the bill was introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and would have required the Biden administration to establish a plan to bring the Americans still trapped in Afghanistan safely home. The State Department said Monday the number of Americans left behind when troops withdrew is in the “low hundreds.”

Yet when the group of roughly 30 Republicans tried to get recognition to introduce their bill and read the names of the deceased service members, they were gaveled out by Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, who was presiding over the chamber.

“How can you not read the names?” one member shouted, according to the Washington Examiner. “Turn your back on our country,” another yelled.

Illinois Rep. Mary Miller called Dingell’s move “shameful” on Twitter.

Democrats just shut down the House Floor when Afghanistan veterans stood up to speak.

Shameful.

— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) August 31, 2021

“Don’t you think our military deserves better?” Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida tweeted.

How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle?

They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week.

Don’t you think our military deserves better?

— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) August 31, 2021

Related:‘Blood on Your Hands’: Biden Slammed by Furious Relatives of Abandoned Afghans in WH Protest

“We had hoped to have an opportunity to be recognized to move a bill by veteran Mike Gallagher. It’s very simple what we’re requesting,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said at a news conference later in the day, according to Fox. “What is the plan to bring Americans home safely? Not some, but every single American?”

“Speaker Pelosi, now is not the time to act like you could not see us on the floor,” he added. “Now is not the time to hide. We are a co-equal branch.”

The Examiner noted that while Republicans had expected their bill to be blocked on the floor, they “hope that bipartisan support can grow for the bill as they start on a variety of actions to hold the Biden administration accountable for the chaotic withdrawal” and they have something else up their sleeve.

“The next opportunity is a committee markup session for the annual spending bill that funds the U.S. Military, the National Defense Authorization Act. Proposed Republican amendments include requiring an accounting of what equipment was left behind, an explanation for why Bagram Air Base was abandoned, and regular congressional briefings on the groups that will form because of the withdrawal,” the outlet explained.

These are all certainly pressing issues — and it doesn’t bode well for the Washington Democratic establishment that Pelosi’s cohorts in the House responded to this demand for accountability by not only ignoring the members who wished to speak, including veterans who served in the very war that Biden so disastrously ended, but also ignoring a request to read the names of those last 13 lives lost in the conflict.

It’s unthinkable that Americans were abandoned to the hands of a murderous terrorist regime, and you’d think that there would easily be bipartisan support for a bill demanding the Biden administration come up with a plan to recover them.

Will the Democrats just ignore the names of American civilians killed when the harrowing stories of what the Taliban has done to them start trickling in, like they ignored the names of our honorable service members on the House floor?

Dem Congresswoman Blocks Names of 13 Dead Service Members from Being Read on House Floor (westernjournal.com)

On Saturday, The Washington Post published a detailed account of events that occurred on Aug. 15, the day the city of Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Six writers collaborated on the article, which they inform readers is the result of “nearly two dozen interviews with U.S. and Afghan officials, a Taliban commander and residents of the city.” Most of these sources wished to remain anonymous.

Buried deep down in the lengthy piece came this startling revelation: “In a hastily arranged in-person meeting, senior U.S. military leaders in Doha — including [Gen. Kenneth] McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command — spoke with Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political wing.”

According to the U.S. official, Baradar said, “We have a problem. We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul or you have to allow us to do it.”

“Throughout the day, Biden had remained resolute in his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan. The collapse of the Afghan government hadn’t changed his mind,” the Post reported.Trending:Biden Sounds Like He Has a Bout of Dementia When Trying to Talk: ‘I’m Here, Uh, Uh, Uh, Eh’

“McKenzie, aware of those orders, told Baradar that the U.S. mission was only to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and others at risk. The United States, he told Baradar, needed the airport to do that.

“On the spot, an understanding was reached, according to two other U.S. officials: The United States could have the airport until Aug. 31. But the Taliban would control the city.”

So, according to three U.S. officials, the Taliban offered U.S. military leaders the chance to secure the Kabul airport as they evacuated Americans and Afghan allies, and they declined. This is remarkable.

Although the Post did not report that President Joe Biden made this decision, I can’t imagine that McKenzie would have signed off on something so monumental without the authorization of the commander in chief.Do you think the Biden administration should have accepted the Taliban’s offer to control the airport during the evacuation?Yes No
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Given the opportunity to bring in the additional troops that would be necessary to control the city during the evacuation period, the Biden administration chose to rely upon terrorists to provide protection.

The gravity of this miscalculation cannot be overstated.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, fearing a grisly execution at the hands of the Taliban, had already fled the presidential palace, and lawlessness was spreading throughout the city when this fateful meeting took place. The unthinkable had happened. The U.S.-backed Afghan government, which the Biden administration had expected to hold on for at least six months, had surrendered to the terrorists without a single shot being fired.

Afghanistan was engulfed in crisis, and thousands of American lives were in danger — and an even larger number of Afghan lives.

Still, the arrogant, stubborn and senile U.S. president chose the easier, softer way — the path of least resistance.Related:Dem Congresswoman Blocks Names of 13 Dead Service Members from Being Read on House Floor

When historians look back on pivotal events, they identify crucial decisions made at key moments that changed everything. This will be one of those.

The Biden administration’s previous blunders, such as withdrawing troops before evacuating U.S. and Afghan citizens and abandoning Bagram Airfield, had brought us to this point. The administration was fully aware the evacuation was going to be dangerous and messy, yet it foolishly turned down the chance to take control of the city.

Thirteen U.S. service members lost their lives Thursday after the Taliban allowed an ISIS-K suicide bomber through a checkpoint outside the airport, something that likely wouldn’t have happened if U.S. troops had controlled the city.

Retired U.S. Army General Don Bolduc joined Fox News’ Steve Hilton on his Sunday night show, “The Next Revolution.”

https://video.foxnews.com/v/video-embed.html?video_id=6270115931001&loc=westernjournal.com&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fbiden-turned-offer-taliban-allow-us-control-kabul-airport-aug-31-report%2F&_xcf=

Hilton asked Bolduc to weigh in on this story. Bolduc said, “It’s complete and utter incompetence. … What a difference it would have made for us to have Kabul. They wouldn’t have been able to get close to the airfield. We wouldn’t have had this explosion. We wouldn’t have had these 13 deaths. We wouldn’t have Kabul, a city that was thriving, now is an utter cesspool.”

“If that was offered and the decision was not to accept that, then that is not only incompetence, but it’s absolute bad military judgment.”

Biden Turned Down Offer from Taliban to Allow US to Control Kabul Airport Until Aug. 31: Report (westernjournal.com)

The United States shared lists of names with the Taliban, U.S. officials confirmed on Aug. 29, as they disputed accusations that the terrorist group was given the identity of many Americans and Afghans trying to flee Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed the information was shared with the Taliban.

Blinken said there were certain times when the Taliban was given lists of people on buses that were en route to the U.S.-held airport in Kabul and needed to get through Taliban checkpoints.

“You’ll share names on a list of people on the bus so they can be assured that those are people that we’re looking to bring in,” Blinken told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“And by definition, that’s exactly what happened.”

Sullivan disputed a report that the United States gave a list of names to the Taliban but indicated that some identities were shared.

“We have given no list of all of the American SIV holders to the Taliban or any other kind of big list,” he said, referring to Special Immigrant Visas, which are given to Afghans.

But he didn’t deny that other lists were handed over and appeared to suggest that, in some cases, they had been.

Sullivan spoke about situations in which buses of Afghans and others were headed to the airport but had to go through Taliban checkpoints.

“That is the type of coordination we’ve done with the Taliban. That has resulted in journalists and women and pilots and other SIVs being able to get through and get on planes and out of the country,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

President Joe Biden last week didn’t deny that his administration shared lists of American names with the Taliban, telling reporters: “There have been occasions where our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said: ‘This bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through.’”

Biden also said he couldn’t confirm whether there’s been a list.

“There may have been, but I know of no circumstance. It doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, that, ‘Here’s the names of 12 people; they’re coming. Let them through.’ It could very well have happened.”

Asked about those remarks on Aug. 30, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said there may be cases in which commanders on the ground are sharing names with the Taliban.

“I think we can all agree there’s a big difference between providing the list of people who want to depart proactively and working at the moment on the ground in a coordinated tactical way to get people out and evacuated and save their lives,” she said.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), on ABC’s “This Week,” denounced the sharing of names with the Taliban.

“They passed a list of American citizens and America’s closest allies, people who fought alongside us, they passed those lists to the Taliban, relying on them, thinking they could trust on them. It was stupid then. It’s insane now. And their plan still seems to be ‘Let’s rely on the Taliban,’” Sasse said.

The U.S. military is leading an effort to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans and nationals from various countries from Afghanistan before the military withdraws, a pullout currently slated to take place on Aug. 31.

U.S. troops hold the airport in Kabul, but the Taliban controls everywhere else in the city, making it a necessity to pass through Taliban checkpoints to reach the facility.

Asked if the United States would continue coordinating with the Taliban after the withdrawal, with an eye toward combating ISIS, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to answer on Aug. 30.

“I don’t think it’s useful to get into hypothetical operations, future operations one way or the other,” he said.

US Officials: Lists of Names Were Shared With Taliban (theepochtimes.com)

On August 18th 2021, The National Pulse exclusively reported that President Biden’s State Department had killed off plans for a “Crisis and Contingency Response” bureau which may have had “profound consequences,” according to a stunning new report by Vanity Fair published Monday.

“In July, at Antony Blinken’s State Department, bureaucratic decisions affecting the Afghan withdrawal, one insider said, were ‘slightly more organized than a Choose Your Own Adventure novel’,” the article begins, before detailing how newly minted Crisis and Contingency Response (CCR) bureau director Dr. William Walters had resigned on July 9th of this year.

Crisis and Contingency Response.

As the Taliban took Kabul, The National Pulse reported that a bureau green-lit by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Trump administration had been canceled by Biden’s pick for the role, Anthony Blinken.

Following our reporting, a number of left-wing outfits such as Politifact and Media Matters sought to discredit our reporting.

Now, a new report from Vanity Fair sheds more light on the “turf wars” inside the State Department that led to the rushed and botched evacuation from Afghanistan at departmental and political levels.

The Vanity Fair report also notes that while Biden’s State Department is claiming the CCR never existed, it is also making moves to inform Congress of the bureau’s abolition, as required by U.S. law:

A week later, on August 19, State’s Ned Price would tell reporters, in a sort of semantic jujitsu, that CCR was never actually created, which begs the question: Why have Price’s colleagues at State been preparing to notify Congress of a decision to “abolish” something that never existed?

The academic debate over CCR’s existence, however, obscures a far more elemental issue, which, at this date, remains unresolved: Why did Antony Blinken and his lieutenants rejigger and possibly degrade State’s in-house crisis planning and response capabilities on the eve of ending the longest war in American history?

Profound Consequences.

While publicly refuting the claims that the CCR had been canceled, and simultaneously claiming no competencies were lost in the move, Antony Blinken lauded Dr. Walters’s work in running CCR’s predecessor and his team known as “Op-Med”. In May, while setting up to destroy the Trump-era plans for a formal response unit inside the State Department, Blinken told Vanity Fair the unit was a “lifeline for the Department of State and the American people. Though perhaps lesser known outside of the Department, it’s vital to our operations. That’s because OpMed provides the platform and personnel to save American lives around the world, especially in times of crisis.”

Shortly after, “Blinken approved a recommendation against upgrading OpMed into a bureau. A unit distinguished by its ability to blow through bureaucratic wickets would instead be forced to play ‘Mother May I,’ answering to a series of administrators: a director, an acting undersecretary, and on up to the deputy secretary for management and resources (DMR). To outsiders, this might seem like a low-stakes game of Jenga in reverse. But the move, which blindsided many, appeared to have profound consequences.”MUST READ:  Joe Biden Must Resign.

It was at this point Walters chose to step down.

“I am resigning,” he told Blinken, face-to-face, explaining that the destruction of CCR bureau would “marginalize” his team and hinder State’s ability to respond to threats to U.S. citizens abroad.

“Sir, you deserve to have leaders who can get behind the decisions you make. I can’t do that. So I’m leaving,” he said.

Meta-Ignorance.

One source told Vanity Fair‘s Adam Ciralsky that the State Department was plagued by “pathologic optimism.” Other State Department sources said the problem was hubris.

Eliminating CCR and degrading OpMed, without clearly defined alternatives, was evidence, they said, of meta-ignorance (known in psychology circles as the Dunning-Kruger effect); America’s diplomats, in the view of these insiders, were ignorant of their own ignorance.

So while the Taliban captured city upon city, and Team Biden began plans for the evacuation of U.S. troops, civilians, diplomats, and those eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), his State Department was hindering a potential response.

Never-Trumpism Kills.

“Though it was founded during Obama’s second term, OpMed found its footing during the pandemic, much of which coincided with Trump’s frenzied final year in office,” Vanity Fair asserts.

In fact, President Trump explicitly stated in a comment to The National Pulse:

“My Administration prioritized keeping Americans safe, Biden leaves them behind. Canceling this successful Trump Administration program before the withdrawal that would have helped tens of thousands Americans reach home is beyond disgraceful. Our withdrawal was conditions-based and perfect, it would have been flawlessly executed and nobody would have even known we left. The Biden execution and withdrawal is perhaps the greatest embarrassment to our Country in History, both as a military and humanitarian operation.”

By September 2020, Secretary Pompeo had advanced the plans for a dedicated bureau to “synchronize Department capabilities including aviation, logistics, and medical support to disasters abroad, both natural and man-made, including the outbreak of infectious disease.”

Never-Trumpism inside the State Department, coupled with Team Biden’s skepticism of anything Trump-related appear to have been the concoction that brought down the CCR:

The move to make OpMed a bureau continued right up until Trump left office. An Executive Resources Board met and approved establishing the position of CCR coordinator as well as Doc Walters’s promotion to the civil service’s senior executive ranks. An action memo, which Pompeo approved on January 15, describes Walters’s new role as follows, “The CCR coordinator is an assistant secretary-equivalent position responsible for the development, resourcing, deployment, maintenance, and oversight of the Department’s medical, aviation, and logistics support capabilities to address contingency planning and crisis preparedness and response in accordance with applicable laws and Presidential policy in those instances where traditional mechanisms are not available or cannot address the need.

Another source close to Pompeo put it this way, “We needed to have a world-class organization that was ‘fit for purpose.’ What we had been doing previously was playing pickup games. What the secretary recognized is [that] if we’re going to be agile and have the ability to proactively respond…we’ve got to have a unit that could do operational planning and contingency scenarios and have the right capabilities and skill set, all in one, so that we can go to them when the decision is made and they can execute the hell out of it and we we can do it well.” Pompeo, said the source, wanted to eliminate silos and create an outfit with “a clear chain of command on who’s got the operational execution.”

In discussions shortly after the Biden inauguration, Trump-era official Brian Bulatao would even warn his Biden-era counterpart Brian McKeon: “CCR needs to endure… There are those in the building that are going to tell you that it’s not necessary, that it’s redundant because they’re envious of [OpMed’s] capabilities and they want to protect their turf. But they don’t know how to do it [themselves].”MUST READ:  CORTES: Mass Migration Was Never Part of America’s $2 Trillion Afghan Debacle.

The warning was not heeded, and neither Blinken nor McKeon have yet answered for, let alone resigned because of this decision.

‘Choose Your Own Adventure’.

A call hosted on July 14th 2021 saw Larry Padget, director of the Bureau of Medical Services, break the news that CCR would not be proceeding as planned by the Trump administration.

Tiffany Reeser, a senior policy official, explained: “I think there was an impression, given [Blinken’s] decision, with [McKeon’s] recommendation… that there was going to be a 25-point plan dropped on all of us for how this decision was going to be implemented. That’s not the case. This is, I would say, slightly more organized than a Choose Your Own Adventure novel.”

Manmeet Thind, an OpMed-adjacent attorney, warned: “Now, suddenly, you have more layers of bureaucracy, and as we all know, that’s going to slow response. And at the end of the day, that’s going to affect lives.”

It did.

The whole debacle led Texas Congressman Michael McCaul to tell Vanity Fair: “Call it OpMed, or CCR, or whatever you want… the point is the Department had these people, and their experience was a huge asset. We chose not to draw upon them until it was almost too late—after the Taliban had overrun the country, and tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated in a matter of days. We should have started sooner, and we should have used our A-team. The tragedy we’ve seen unfold—people stranded, American lives lost—reflects…disorganization, mismanagement, and, worst of all, utter neglect.”

‘Meta-Ignorance’ with ‘Profound Consequences’ – U.S. Govt’s Crisis Response Director Resigned After Biden’s State Dept Canceled ‘Lifeline’ Group Over Trump Links. (thenationalpulse.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.31.21

A recent interview with Joe Biden went viral on social media Tuesday showing the Commander-in-Chief vowing to keep troops in Afghanistan until all Americans can be evacuated from the country.

Despite the pledge, hundreds of Americans remain in the country after the President removed all US forces.

“Are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to get out, gets out?” asked ABC News George Stephanopoulos two weeks ago.

“Yes, yes!” insisted Biden. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out!”

Flashback … from two weeks ago:

Biden pledges to stay in Afghanistan until every American is out; “we’re going to stay to get them all out.” pic.twitter.com/94IKhNGMHR

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 31, 2021

The US Embassy in Afghanistan posted a dire message on its official webpage Tuesday, saying the office has “suspended operations” and Americans can no longer rely on “United States government assistance.”

“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar,” states the memo.

“The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here,” adds the warning.

“Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance,” warns the message.

Latest security alert on US Embassy In Afghanistan website: “Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.” pic.twitter.com/d2DujvpSZ2

— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) August 31, 2021

Read the full memo below:

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended operations on August 31, 2021.  While the U.S. government has withdrawn its personnel from Kabul, we will continue to assist U.S. citizens and their families in Afghanistan from Doha, Qatar.

The Embassy will continue to provide information via the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), the Embassy web page, Travel.State.Gov, and Facebook and Twitter.  Consular services remain available outside Afghanistan.  To locate the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate click here.

The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.  U.S. citizens still in country should:

• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)

to receive security updates and ensure you can be located in an emergency.

• Review your personal security plans.
• Be aware of your surroundings and local security developments at all times.
• Keep a low profile.
• Notify a trusted person of your travel and movement plans.
• Make contingency plans to leave when it is safe to do so that do not rely on U.S. government assistance.
• Monitor local media.
• Please review, “What the Department of State Can and Can’t Do in a Crisis.”

Resources for U.S. citizens in Afghanistan:

• State Department – Consular Affairs Afghanistan Call Center
  833-741-2777 or 606-260-4379
• AfghanistanACS@state.gov
• Embassy Citizens’ Services Page
• Afghanistan Country Information
• Afghanistan Travel Advisory
• Visit the Department of Homeland Security’s website on the latest travel restrictions to the United States.
• Refer to our website for the latest Alerts and Messages for U.S. citizens.
• Consult the CDC website for the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19.
• Visit our Embassy webpage on COVID-19 for information on conditions in Afghanistan.
• Visit the COVID-19 crisis page on travel.state.gov for the latest information.
• Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to ensure you receive Alerts and other information

FLASHBACK 2 WEEKS: Biden Says ‘We’re Going to Stay’ Until All Citizens Are Out of Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

Almost 100 generals and admirals wrote a letter calling for the resignations of Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley after the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The hasty retreat has left initial estimates at ~15,000 Americans stranded in dangerous areas controlled by a brutal enemy along with ~25,000 Afghan citizens who supported American forces,” the letter said. “What should have happened upon learning of the Commander in Chief’s (President Biden’s) plan to quickly withdraw our forces and close the important power projection base Bagram, without adequate plans and forces in place to conduct the entire operation in an orderly fashion?”

“As principal military advisors to the CINC/President, the SECDEF and CJCS should have recommended against this dangerous withdrawal in the strongest possible terms,” the letter continued. “If they did not do everything within their authority to stop the hasty withdrawal, they should resign. Conversely, if they did do everything within their ability to persuade the CINC/President to not hastily exit the country without ensuring the safety of our citizens and Afghans loyal to America, then they should have resigned in protest as a matter of conscience and public statement.”

“The consequences of this disaster are enormous and will reverberate for decades beginning with the safety of Americans and Afghans who are unable to move safely to evacuation points; therefore, being de facto hostages of the Taliban at this time,” the letter added. “The death and torture of Afghans has already begun and will result in a human tragedy of major proportions. The loss of billions of dollars in advanced military equipment and supplies falling into the hands of our enemies is catastrophic. The damage to the reputation of the United States is indescribable. We are now seen, and will be seen for many years, as an unreliable partner in any multinational agreement or operation. Trust in the United States is irreparably damaged.”

The letter warned that America’s primary adversaries would be strengthened by the withdrawal. “China benefits the most followed by Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and others,” the letter said. “Terrorists around the world are emboldened and able to pass freely into our country through our open border with Mexico.”

Generals And Admirals Call For Resignations Of Milley And Austin | The Jeffrey Lord

The deletion of an Instagram account belonging to a mother whose Marine son was killed in Afghanistan last week was a mistake, parent company Facebook said Tuesday.

Shana Chappell raised an alarm on Facebook on Monday after she said her account was removed.

Chappell said she believed the deletion was “because [I] gained so many followers over my [son’s] death due to Biden’s negligence, ignorance and him being a traitor!”

She was referring to President Joe Biden.

The post in question described “my heart break [sic] over my son,” according to Chappell.

Facebook acknowledged the account was deleted but said it has now been restored.

“We express our deepest condolences to Ms. Chappell and her family. Her tribute to her heroic son does not violate any of our policies,” a Facebook spokesperson told news outlets.

“While the post was not removed, her account was incorrectly deleted and we have since restored it,” the spokesperson added.

Chappell did not respond to a request for comment and had not posted about the development as of Tuesday afternoon.

Chappell is the mother of Kareem Nikoui, who was one of 13 U.S. service members who were killed in the suicide bombing attack on the Kabul airport on Aug. 26.

Steve Nikoui, the father of Kareem Nikoui, 20, also blamed Biden for the death.

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui told The Daily Beast. “I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

Read the remarks during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that there were “no words that I can say, that I think anyone can say, to assuage the grief that a parent is feeling at the loss of their child—nothing.”

“And if I were in his shoes, probably I would feel exactly the same way,” he added.

Facebook: Deletion of Marine Mother’s Account a Mistake (theepochtimes.com)

Afghan man who helped the US on the ground: ‘I have no idea how to leave’

Horrifying audio of distant gunshots appears to confirm reports of “house-to-house executions” as the Taliban asserts control of Kabul and Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s departure on Monday evening. 

An Afghan man who worked with Americans on the ground provided Fox News with the chilling audio featuring distant gunshots.

“I think there’s a conflict between the Taliban, I have no idea where I’m located. From everywhere I hear the sounds of shooting, gunfire. I have no idea how to leave,” the Afghan man said in the audio clip, recorded around the time the final U.S. plane left Kabul.

Distant gunshots rang in the background in the audio clip.

TALIBAN BRAGS: US TROOPS LEFT KABUL, AFGHANISTAN ‘GAINED FULL INDEPENDENCE

Taliban militants were carrying out “house-to-house executions in Kabul” after the U.S. departure, a senior U.S. source told Fox News Investigative journalist Lara Logan.

President Biden did not deny a Politico report, confirmed by Fox News, that U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of American citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies in an effort to grant them entry to the airport which resulted in outrage from military officials behind the scenes. The president said “there may have been” such a list. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” one defense official told Politico.

Hours after the departure of U.S. troops, the official Taliban Twitter account celebrated the withdrawal. 

“The last American soldier left Kabul airport at 9pm Afghan time tonight and our country gained full independence. Thank God and blessings,” the Taliban account tweeted. 

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Vincent Boles told Fox News that the Taliban should not get too comfortable. 

“Be careful what you ask for,” Boles said. “Now they have to show they can govern a nation and people that are very different than when they left power. Will the Taliban go forward to the future or pull Afghanistan back to the past? The answer will be in their behavior… behavior is believable.”

“From everywhere I hear the sounds of shooting, gunfire. I have no idea how to leave.”— Afghan source who worked with Americans on the ground.

Last Wednesday, a former translator for a high-ranking U.S. Army Ranger told Fox News the Taliban had started executing allies of the U.S. in public, in provinces away from the media attention of Kabul.

“They are not doing really bad stuff in Kabul right now because there’s a lot of media focus on Kabul, but they already started public execution in other provinces where a lot of media is not available or covering it,” the interpreter said.

What’s more, in holding to his Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline, President Biden appears to have broken his promise to stay in Afghanistan until every American has been evacuated.

“We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out,” Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central Command, admitted Monday evening.

On Aug. 18, Biden had told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the U.S. military’s objective in Afghanistan was to get “everyone” out, including Americans, Afghan allies and their families.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“That’s what we’re doing now, that’s the path we’re on. And I think we’ll get there,” he said. “If there’s American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out.”

Yet a senior State Department official told Fox News that a “small number” of Americans remained in Afghanistan, putting the number at “below 250.”

Taliban commit ‘house-to-house executions’ in Kabul after US exit as chilling audio demonstrates Afghans’ fear | Fox News

During an event in which Joe Biden presided over the bodies of fallen US Marines during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, the President appeared to check his watch, drawing national outrage as many viewed the move as inconsiderate and selfish given the circumstance and setting.

In the middle of a dignified transfer ceremony for the fallen US Marines that were recently killed in Afghanistan, Joe Biden appeared to check the time on his wrist watch, drawing outrage from many who viewed the move as incentive, inconsiderate, and selfish.

BIDEN APPEARS TO CHECK HIS WATCH DURING THE DIGNIFIED TRANSFER CEREMONY AT DOVER AIR FORCE BASE. PIC.TWITTER.COM/OMSBEFNMFS

— BENNY (@BENNYJOHNSON) AUGUST 29, 2021

THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL, WHAT A SELFISH BASTARD. PIC.TWITTER.COM/0EQ0X9EWRW

— ALEX JONES WAS RIGHT (@ALEXJONESWS) AUGUST 29, 2021

“Biden checking his watch at the ceremony of our fallen heroes is the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen. Are they an inconvenience to you POTUS? I want an explanation,” tweeted one Twitter user. “Joe Biden checking his watch after removing his hand over his heart so disgusting…our government hates us,” tweeted another. “Utter disrespect. He looks at his watch during the ceremony of 13 fallen American heroes killed in Afghanistan. Their ages were less than half of Biden’s time in politics! Biden voters will call this “edited video” because they are brainless. #BidenMustGo,” tweeted third Twitter user.

This would not be the first time Americans slammed Biden over his apparent lack of sympathy with regards to his Afghanistan Disaster. Just one day before the 13 Marines were killed, Biden smirked when reporters asked him about the situation in Afghanistan. The smirk outraged the heartbroken mother of Rylee McCollum, a fallen US Marine who tragically died as a result of the bombing in Afghanistan, who ultimately condemned Biden and Democrat voters over the death of her son on a radio show hosted by Andrew Wilkow, as National File previously reported.

“MY SON IS GONE, AND I JUST WANT ALL YOU DEMOCRATS WHO CHEATED IN THE ELECTION, OR WHO VOTED FOR [BIDEN] LEGITIMATELY, YOU JUST KILLED MY SON…WITH A DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE, HE STILL THINKS HE’S A SENATOR,” SAID MCCOLLUM, WHO LATER NOTED THAT “I WANTED MY SON TO REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY, TO FIGHT FOR MY COUNTRY, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT THAT A FECKLESS PIECE OF CRAP WOULD SEND HIM TO HIS DEATH AND SMIRK ON TELEVISION WHILE HE’S TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE DYING, WITH HIS NASTY SMIRK. THE DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE. IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP.”

(VIDEO: Joe Biden Slumps Over, Appears To Fall Asleep During Meeting With Israeli PM)

In related news, the US military has relieved Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller from duty after he released a heartfelt video critiquing the tragic Afghanistan withdrawal following the Kabul bombings that killed up to 13 American service members. “My chain of command is doing exactly what I would do…if I were in their shoes. I appreciate the opportunities AITB command provided. To all the news agencies asking for interviews…I will not be making any statements other than what’s on my social platforms until I exit the Marine Corps,” explained Scheller. However, Scheller appears to be optimistic about his future aspirations, despite being relieved of duty.

NO RUSH: Biden Checks His Watch While Receiving Bodies Of Slain Marines At Dover Air Force Base – Conservative War – Breaking Political News

The suicide attack that killed 170 people including 13 U.S. troops provides the crowning disgrace for President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the military leadership going all the way up to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This disaster in Afghanistan is worse than Benghazi, worse than Jimmy Carter’s hostage crisis, because those were inept responses to an external situation. By contrast, this is a disaster that Biden and his inept team themselves created.

I remember well how Carter’s hostage crisis ended. It ended on the very day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. Reagan had pledged that he would take very strong action against Iran, without specifying what that action might be. Evidently the terrorists, who had the backing of the Khomeini regime, decided it was not a good idea to test Reagan’s resolve. They let the hostages go.

The current catastrophe in Afghanistan seems to have proceeded in reverse. While Donald Trump was in office, the Taliban continued its war, but neither they nor other Islamic radical groups, from al Qaeda to ISIS, had the capacity to inflict massive damage on U.S. forces. The moment Biden got into office, however, the Taliban and the other terrorists all realized it was time to get going. They exploited their opportunity to seize Kabul. They were emboldened to launch a suicide attack that was the most successful strike against America since 9/11.

The blame, of course, starts with Biden. He’s primarily responsible for this self-inflicted wound. Yet Biden has done his best to shift the blame to his predecessor, Trump. Biden’s position seems to be that he was merely carrying out a withdrawal that Trump agreed to. Yet Biden has reversed Trump’s policies in innumerable areas, so he was hardly obliged to follow in Trump’s tracks here. Moreover, there’s a huge difference between a decision to withdraw and the manner of the withdrawal. The responsibility for the latter lies wholly with Biden.

In a recent interview, retired Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who was former head of U.S. forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, disputed Biden’s claim that Trump is responsible for the current mess. Petraeus pointed out that there were merely 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and they were not doing front-line fighting. Rather, their responsibility was to provide intelligence and logistical support for the Afghan army, and moreover, to help carry out air strikes to provide the Afghan army with cover during clashes with the Taliban.

This, Petraeus says, the Afghan army counted on. They were never trained to fight exclusively on their own. They were trained to fight with U.S. coordination and support, and when this coordination was precipitously halted, and the U.S. just got up and ran, well, the Afghan army decided to get up and run also. This, Petraeus concludes, is why Afghanistan fell so quickly into Taliban hands.

Biden’s blunders have continued beyond the fall of Kabul. That loss was disastrous enough, because it left a huge cachet of guns and matériel for the Taliban to use itself or put on the international market for other terrorist groups and also for China and Russia. Moreover, thousands of Americans were left stranded, not to mention tens of thousands of Afghan allies who were assured the United States would stick with them but now found themselves vulnerable to imprisonment, torture, and death.

But even after leaving Americans behind—creating a vast potential hostage situation of his own—Biden compounded the problem by giving the Taliban a list of names of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies. The ostensible purpose was for the Taliban to grant these people access to the outer perimeter of the city’s airport, so that they could get out. It’s not clear whether Biden himself made this decision, but his administration clearly approved it.

The danger here should be obvious. The Taliban have been fighting against the United States and its Afghan allies for 20 years. Wouldn’t it make sense that they would grab the list, thank Allah for this incredible gift, and then put all these people on a kill list? Is there any doubt that Islamic radicals hardened by privation and guerilla war would be willing to execute people whom they view as enemies of Allah and the very people they have been trying to kill for two decades?

Yet the Biden administration seems willing to trust the Taliban to protect and help evacuate the people on this list. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the Taliban would want to do this to secure its reputation in the international community, as if the Taliban cares what people at the United Nations or the European Union think about its actions. Equally absurd, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said that the United States and the Taliban “share a common purpose,” which raises the question of why the two groups were trying to kill each other since 2001.

The U.S. media, for its part, has provided relatively little honest critical scrutiny of Biden’s actions, evidently owing to its ideological sympathies with the current administration. There have been several articles instructing Americans not to confuse the Taliban with the ISIS-K group that claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The underlying premise is that the Taliban and ISIS-K have several disagreements, there have been reported clashes between the two, and therefore it’s not unreasonable to expect the Taliban to assist the United States after an attack mounted by the terrorists of ISIS-K.

These articles have all the persuasiveness of someone who argues that there are two types of snakes in the garden, rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes, and humans should not hastily confuse the two. This may very well be true, and it might also be that rattlesnakes and copperheads don’t get along, since they compete for the same types of food. But it does not follow that humans can count on the rattlesnakes to be our allies when faced with a threat from a copperhead. The wiser course of action is for humans to recognize they are in a snake pit and take action to destroy as many snakes as we can.

Some Republicans are already calling for resignations, but not enough of them, and not loudly enough. It’s not enough to stop at Biden. The Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence agencies all share the blame for this unmitigated disaster. They all put Americans last, they all betrayed their countrymen and women, and they all should face the consequences.

A Self-Inflicted Catastrophe (theepochtimes.com)

Thursday’s suicide bombings in Kabul, which claimed the lives of at least 13 American servicemen, marked the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. President Joe Biden’s low energy press conference in response to the attacks was widely panned for failing to inspire confidence as the situation spirals out of control.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden touted himself as the only candidate with the experience necessary to successfully handle an international crisis. “To be commander in chief, there’s no time for on-the-job training,” he said during a primary debate in November 2019. “I’ve spent more time in the Situation Room, more time abroad, more time than anybody up here. I know every major world leader. They know me, and they know when I speak, if I’m the president of the United States, who we’re for, who we’re against, and what we’ll do, and we’ll keep our word.”

Former president Barack Obama tried to warn us. He urged Biden not to run for president in 2016, reportedly out of concern that his former running mate “would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.” Obama did not mince words during the primary campaign, telling one fellow Democrat: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” We should have listened.

When Biden introduced his top foreign policy advisers in February 2021, he touted their “unmatched experience and accomplishments,” as well as their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Biden went on to imply, without evidence, that he had compiled a team “that will keep our country and our people safe and secure.”

“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values,” Biden said.

The events of the past several weeks suggest otherwise.

FLASHBACK: Biden Said His Foreign Policy Team of Geniuses Would ‘Stand Up for Our Values’ and ‘Keep Our People Safe’ (freebeacon.com)

What’s Happening:

There are many mistakes made by the Biden administration in the unfolding Afghanistan crisis.

Far too many to count in just one article.

But it seems, over the last few days, the administration has gone out of its way to make matters worse.

We learned that Biden caved to the Taliban’s demands to leave by August 31^st.

Now, we discovered that Biden gave the murderous regime a list of American names.

Um… is Joe that much of an idiot? The administration claim this was to aid getting Americans out.

But Rep. Dan Crenshaw has a different take on this.

From Twitter:

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison. https://t.co/WTkeRytHmN

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 26, 2021

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison.

Republican lawmaker Dan Crenshaw hammered the Biden administration over their handling of American names to the Taliban. He said this was “borderline treason” and those responsible “need to go to prison.”

The administration claims they did this to help Americans get to the airport.

But reports from the ground revealed that the Taliban was in no way trying to help Americans.

Some stories say that they have been detaining Americans along the road. They have been stealing passports and phones.

One story claims Americans have been beaten.

So, why would Biden give a list of names of Americans stuck overseas to our enemy?

Remember, we are trying to evacuate Americans because they are in danger if they stay. The Taliban are not our friends.

They want us gone—because God knows what they’d do if Americans stick around.

It didn’t occur to Biden that handing over American names to these terrorists would be a bad idea?

Is Biden working for the Taliban? He gave them billions of dollars worth of weapons and gear.

And he is making it easier for the Taliban to hunt down those Americans Biden is leaving behind.

If it does constitute treason, Biden could be in very big trouble.

Key Takeaways:

• Dan Crenshaw blasted Biden over handing American names to the Taliban.
• The Republican said this is “borderline treason.”
• He called for those who did it to be sent to prison.

Dan Crenshaw Drops Accusation On Biden’s Team – He Claims Handing Out American Names “Qualifies As Borderline Treason” (thepatriotjournal.com)

Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is wasting no time taking sides in the school mask wars. Even before taking the top job, she told NBC’s “Today” that she intends to mandate masks for all public school students in the state.

She’s got President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on her side, but the science is against her. There are no studies that demonstrate forcing young kids to wear masks reduces the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Mandating masks also ignores the fundamental fact that not all masks are created equal. That should be the basis for a truce in the mask wars breaking out all over the nation. Mandates that settle for cloth masks with cartoon characters on them are a joke.

Most of the masks kids are wearing are laughably ineffective. A cloth mask blocks only 3% of viral particles from reaching the wearer, according to a study in the British Medical Journal. For such a minuscule difference, who would force kids to struggle with masks all day?

Instead of mandating masks, school districts should hand out effective masks, such as N95 or KN95 masks, at the beginning of the school day to kids whose parents request them. These masks block 95% of incoming viral particles. The masks were in short supply at the beginning of the pandemic, but no longer.

Flat surgical masks made from nonwoven polypropylene would be an improvement over what most kids wear. They block out 56% of virus particles, according to the same British study. But note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns a surgical mask “does NOT provide the wearer with a reliable level of protection from inhaling smaller airborne particles and is not considered respiratory protection” in a health care setting.

Helping families who favor masking is smarter than producing classrooms full of kids with soiled, ineffective masks and many outraged parents.

The delta variant accounts for 98% of U.S. cases now and appears to be more dangerous to children. But would masks at school make a difference?

Not according to a CDC study of 169 Georgia elementary schools last winter. CDC researchers found that schools requiring staff and teachers to mask up had 37% fewer cases of COVID, and schools that improved air quality and ventilation had 39% fewer cases. Those approaches work. But mandating that students wear masks had no statistically significant impact on the spread of COVID. Mandating masks and letting masks be optional produced the same results. Not surprising considering the kinds of masks most kids wear.

Yet a week after releasing the Georgia study, the agency reversed course and recommended universal masking in school without offering new findings to justify that 180-degree flip. Perhaps the agency looked at the rising cases among children and panicked.

No surprise. Over the course of the pandemic, the CDC has earned a reputation as the “Centers for Disease Confusion.” The agency should have been guided by its own research.

Instead, it kowtowed to political correctness. Only a minority of Republicans support mandating masks, while 92% of Democrats agree, according to an Aug. 17 Axios/Ipsos poll.

Ten states — mostly blue states like Connecticut, New Jersey and California — mandate masks. Other states leave it up to local school boards. And eight red states, including Florida, ban local school boards from mandating masks, insisting parents get to decide.

Last week, Biden escalated the mask wars by threatening federal Department of Education lawsuits against the seven states. The New York Times followed with a full-throated endorsement of Biden’s maneuver, calling mandatory masking a “common-sense public health” policy.

Sorry. The science doesn’t support it.

Hochul argues that the New York Health Department has the authority to require masking in the state. According to the letter of the law, she’s right. But the Health Department has lost credibility after forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-positive patients and covering up the deadly results. The Health Department can’t be trusted.

Instead, Hochul should put parents in charge and provide effective masks for families who want them.

That’s good advice for governors in every state. Mandating masks that don’t work is a farce.

The Mask Mandate Farce :: Right & Free (rightandfree.com)