Tag: afghanistan

Special Forces officer who oversaw secret SAS missions ‘doctored damning document on possible war crimes’

A senior Special Forces officer responsible for overseeing secret SAS missions doctored a document about possible war crimes.

The commander deleted the most damning sentence from a report into night raids that resulted in scores of suspicious deaths.

His disturbing intervention was included in files released last night by a High Court inquiry into suspected Extra Judicial Killings.

The judge-led probe is exploring claims Special Forces executed captives in Afghanistan and destroyed evidence of wrongdoing.

At the time, the officer was working in a supervisory role at Special Forces headquarters in London.

In April 2011 he was sent a statistical analysis of SAS detention operations including, numbers of Enemies Killed in Action (EKIA) and weapons recovered.

The glaring disparity between EKIA and rifles and pistols found in suspected Taliban compounds gave rise to allegations that unarmed Afghans were being shot dead.

The analysis was due to be studied by a Senior Legal Advisor at the London HQ and the overall commander, the Director Special Forces (DSF).

It was then the officer removed the concluding paragraph that read: ‘In my view there is enough here to convince me that we are getting some things wrong right now.’ 

In a witness statement N1788 admitted deleting the sentence before the document was passed on. He said he was not ‘just gonna pass that on in an email’.

At the time the document was of vital significance as the DSF was deciding whether to alert military police to the suspicious shootings thereby triggering a murder inquiry.

In testimony, N1788 said he was not concerned that Special Forces soldiers were abandoning their Rules of Engagement and eliminating detainees.

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The BBC wants to Make the Taliban Great Again

This week the British Broadcasting Corporation flew halfway around the world to find a sad story that it could blame on (1) America and (2) climate change.

Their drama opens in Afghanistan’s Ghor province, where fathers line up before dawn at a dusty square hoping to find a day’s work. One man weeps that he is preparing to sell his seven-year-old daughter to feed the rest of his children.

The reporter then explains how nearly five million Afghans are food deprived; she goes on to describe graveyards of dead infants, and then tells the story of another man who already sold his five-year-old daughter for about $3,200.

It is all genuinely terrible. But when the BBC starts explaining WHY any of this is happening— is where the journalism ends and the propaganda begins.

Famine, in almost every modern case, is not a weather event. It is a political outcome.

Afghanistan has fertile river valleys and enough arable land to feed several times its current population. Whenever a country is starving, it is due to bad policy— not bad soil.

It was the same issue when Venezuela ran out of food a few years ago. People were starving. Supermarkets were stripped bare. Zoo animals turned up on dinner plates.

Yet Venezuela has a tropical climate, a year-round growing season, abundant water, and some of the most productive farmland on the planet.

It really takes a special kind of incompetence to starve citizens in a place like that. And the same kind of incompetence is at work in Kabul at the hands of the Taliban overlords.

The BBC mentions none of this. Instead it points the finger at the legacy media’s two favorite villains: Donald Trump and climate change.

To make the case, the reporter sits down with a senior Taliban official, who insists that their regime “inherited poverty, hardship, unemployment and other problems”.

These “problems” were entirely due to the US presence, he explains, which had built “an artificial economy due to the influx of US dollars.”

In other words, the men who reconquered the country, kicked girls out of school, and locked half the workforce in their homes, are blaming their economic problems on the US investing too much money in Afghanistan.

Yet the BBC nods along enthusiastically.

Ironically, despite blaming America’s substantial investments in Afghanistan for the country’s problems, the Taliban’s solution is for America to give them more money.

“Humanitarian assistance should not be politicized,” said the Taliban spokesman, parroting the exact talking that point Western NGOs use to demand more no-strings cash for regimes that whip women in public.

The BBC nods along enthusiastically again.

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Democrat Senate Hopeful Graham Platner Admitted Taliban-Compromised Network Was Used for ‘Phone Sex’

Things keep getting more problematic for the Democrats, who have hitched their Senate hopes on Graham Platner, the candidate running to oust Susan Collins in Maine. Platner has a deeply troubling history of attacking police officers, dismissing rural Americans as racist, and blaming women for being victims of sexual assault, telling them to ‘grow up.’

Earlier, we learned that Platner had even more troubling Reddit posts, where he admitted to committing lewd acts in portable toilets. Here’s some of what Fox News Digital reported on that:

In one March 2017 post on Reddit’s r/Military forum, Platner responded to a discussion about nostalgic military smells by writing: “I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portas—-er … that blue water smell conditioned me.” 

But Platner’s depravity goes far beyond the porta-potty. In fact, his sexual proclivities risked the safety of his fellow service members. 

In reporting exclusively to Townhall, additional unearthed Reddit posts reveal that Platner used a cell phone network infiltrated by the Taliban to have phone sex. 

Platner made the comments under the username P-Hustle, and he confirmed in October of last year that the account belonged to him. In January 2020, Platner posted that he used Roshan, an Afghan cell phone network, to have ‘phone sex’ with his girlfriend:

In 2010-2011, I was in Afghanistan as a rifle squad leader with the Army and I was blown away that everyone had cell phones and the command didn’t seem to remotely care. Hell, the unit I replaced gave me a Roshan phone with some minutes on it, which I totally used to have phone sex with my girl.

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DEBUNKED: The Left Falsely Blames Trump for the Afghan Refugee Mess Created by Biden’s Disastrous Withdrawal

Left-wing media is once again scrambling to rewrite recent history—this time over Afghan refugees still stranded overseas after Joe Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

During a recent segment, MSNOW attempted to frame President Donald Trump as “targeting” Afghan allies who assisted the United States during the war. 

The claim centers around reports that some Afghan nationals currently living in Qatar may be given relocation options outside the United States, including possible resettlement in other countries.

But the outrage narrative leaves out the most important facts.

First, these individuals were not universally promised permanent resettlement in the United States—certainly not under the Trump administration. 

The idea that every Afghan who assisted U.S. efforts was guaranteed entry into the U.S. is simply false. Immigration and refugee policy has always involved a structured vetting process, prioritization, and logistical constraints.

The current situation exists because of Biden’s 2021 withdrawal—an operation widely criticized across the political spectrum for its execution.

When the Taliban rapidly took over Afghanistan following Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces, thousands of Afghan allies were left in limbo. Many were relocated to temporary holding locations, including a former U.S. military base in Qatar. 

Years later, many remain there, waiting for final decisions on resettlement.

That is the context MSNOW conveniently ignored.

Instead, the segment leaned heavily on emotional framing, highlighting interpreters, special forces affiliates, and families—including hundreds of children—while suggesting the Trump administration is abandoning them. 

The reporting relied in part on claims from outlets like The New York Times, which often shape the initial narrative before it spreads across legacy media.

What is actually being discussed is policy—not abandonment.

Any proposal to relocate individuals to third countries is part of a broader effort to manage a complex backlog created by the rushed withdrawal. 

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Rep. Burchett Reveals Gov’t Giving $40 Million per Week to the Taliban and Dems Oppose Ending It

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) did not mince words when he pulled back the curtain on where some American tax dollars are going this past week.

In an interview with radio host Jesse Kelly, the Tennessee Republican described a system that sounds less like foreign aid and more like a revolving door of wasted cash and fraud.

Burchett said billions are flowing through so-called non-government organizations and international bodies with little to no transparency.

He pointed directly to the United Nations and a sprawling network of NGOs as conduits for that money.

According to Burchett, the total is staggering and still growing, and the spending has the total support of Democrats in the Senate.

He cited a State Department memo estimating that more than $5 billion has been sent out.

Burchett’s most striking claim should evoke concern if not anger.

He said roughly $40 million per week is effectively making its way into Taliban-controlled territory.

That is American money, collected from working taxpayers, ending up in the hands of people who openly despise them and want them dead.

The congressman tied this issue to his own bill, the No Tax Dollars For Terrorists Act, which has been sitting dormant in the Senate for about a year.

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One of Australia’s Most Decorated Soldiers Charged With 5 Alleged War Crime Murders

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have arrested the country’s most decorated soldier Ben Roberts-Smith for five counts of the war crime of murder.

The arrest comes after Roberts-Smith was accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan in a series of investigative media pieces, which he responded to by suing the related outlets for defamation—cases he ultimately loss.

In the latest development, the 47-year-old was taken into custody at Sydney Airport on April 7 morning and is expected to appear in a New South Wales court later on the same day.

AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett confirmed the charges were related to murder committed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

The offences include multiple counts of murder, as well as allegations of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the killing of five individuals in Uruzgan Province.

“The maximum penalty for the offence of war crime—murder is life imprisonment,” she said.

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Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of killing 400 in hospital strike

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of conducting an airstrike on a drug rehabilitation facility in Kabul, which Taliban officials say killed at least 400 people.

Pakistan has been striking alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan since February, accusing the Taliban government of supporting attacks on Pakistani soil. The Taliban has denied any involvement in the string of terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Taliban government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the strike on Monday evening destroyed large sections of the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital.

“Unfortunately, the death toll has so far reached 400, while around 250 others have been reported injured,” Fitrat wrote on X.

Afghan media published a video showing a building engulfed in flames.

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“Open War” Breaks Out Between Afghanistan and Pakistan

Pakistan has declared it is in “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban government following a gradual escalation of tensions and cross-border clashes along the disputed Durand Line. Under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq (“Righteous Fury”), Pakistan launched airstrikes in response to what it called “unprovoked firing” from across the border.

Pakistani forces targeted at least 22 locations, including Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia, Nangarhar, Khost, and Paktika, saying they struck Taliban headquarters, ammunition depots, logistics bases, and other key military installations. Explosions were reported in Kabul.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan forces had launched “large-scale offensive operations” against Pakistani military positions in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes. Afghan officials said they attacked Pakistani border troops in retaliation and claimed their drones successfully hit military targets inside Pakistan, though Islamabad said any drones were intercepted by anti-drone systems without damage.

Casualty figures are sharply disputed. Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said at least 274 Taliban fighters were killed and more than 400 injured since the operation began, while 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 wounded. Pakistan’s information minister gave a lower Taliban death toll of 133 and said two Pakistani soldiers were killed.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government claims 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed, eight Taliban fighters died, and 11 were injured. Kabul also said 13 civilians were wounded in a reported Pakistani strike on a refugee camp in Nangarhar and claimed to have captured Pakistani soldiers, which Islamabad denies.

Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Islamabad had exhausted diplomatic options and would now take “decisive action,” blaming the Taliban for instability and terrorism. Asif accused the Taliban of turning Afghanistan into an Indian “colony,” exporting terrorism, and aligning with India, framing the conflict as a response to security threats and India’s growing ties with Kabul.

Mujahid said Afghanistan wants the fighting resolved through dialogue but warned it would respond to further Pakistani actions. Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan would defend itself and urged Pakistan to change its policies and pursue good neighborly relations.

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For years the Taliban told women to cover up in public. Now they’re cracking down

In stop-start efforts since November, Taliban officials have cracked down on women and girls in the western city of Herat who have been ignoring the hardline group’s rules by showing their faces. Enforcement agents are preventing them from entering hospitals and seminaries and pulling them out of public transport.

Initially, women and girls were punished for not wearing a burka — the Afghan burka is typically blue, has a netted opening for the eyes and drapes down around the body, largely constraining the woman wearing it. Later, after what residents described as pushback, officials enforcing the rules relented and allowed women to wear the typical conservative dress in this part of Afghanistan, a voluminous cloak known as a chaddar, along with a face mask.

At the main hospital in the Western city of Herat, one health worker described female staff milling outside the entryway for hours, waiting for colleagues on the night shift to hand over their burkas so they could enter — like a token that allowed them “entry permission,” the worker said. In another incident, Human Rights Watch reported on a female surgeon, who was detained for several hours for not donning the burka.

Forcing women to don burkas, to cover their faces or even to wear a hijab, or head covering, “is part of the Taliban’s policy of controlling women’s bodies to make women invisible,” said Sahar Fetrat, a researcher in the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. She said in a statement: “Afghan women and United Nations human rights experts have called this “gender apartheid.”

In interviews conducted since November, more than a dozen Herat residents described different incidents to NPR. They all requested anonymity, or that we only use an initial of their first names, fearing reprisal from Taliban officials. The crackdown was run by officials of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which is tasked with the implementation of the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law.

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How MI6 backed ‘right-wing religious fanatics’ in Afghanistan

In 1980, journalist John Fullerton sat down for lunch in London with members of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6. The spooks asked the restless reporter to name five cities where he would like to work. He scrawled the answers unhesitatingly on a paper napkin.

“The top one was Peshawar in Pakistan,” he told Declassified, explaining his desire to move near the turbulent Afghan border. “The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan but I couldn’t find ways to be a freelancer out there. There were no journalists covering it. Everyone had left Kabul. So I wanted to cover the war and that’s how SIS employed me.”

He had been on good terms with SIS for many years already, after a chance encounter with Nicholas Elliott, one of the agency’s high fliers. Elliott, who famously confronted the KGB double agent Kim Philby, had just retired as an SIS director when he spotted an article by Fullerton exposing a power struggle between the police and military in apartheid South Africa.

Fullerton grew up in Cape Town, rising to night news editor on the Cape Times before migrating back to the UK, the country of his birth. After checking he was not a mole for the apartheid regime’s Bureau of State Security, British intelligence eventually took him on as a “contract labourer”, a cheaper option than a permanent SIS officer position.

“They employed quite a lot of these contract labourers, many from military backgrounds,” Fullerton commented. “SIS had gone through a period of retrenchment in the 1970s and early 80s and it had shrunk. From having three fully staffed stations in Latin America it went to having none.”

This all changed under Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who received informal advice on espionage from Elliott. “She took a great interest in foreign affairs and intelligence and she tried to beef it all up,” Fullerton remarked, adding that her Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington was eager to get “scenes of Afghans fighting communists onto television screens.”

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