Tag: afghanistan

CNN liable for defaming Navy veteran in Jake Tapper segment, $5 million awarded

On Friday, a Florida jury found CNN guilty of defamation in a case brought forth by US Navy veteran Zachary Young against Jake Tapper and the network. Young alleged that Tapper had defamed him on his show. The verdict came after eight hours of deliberation.

Young was working to evacuate Afghans during the Biden administration’s chaotic military withdrawal from that nation in August 2021. Tapper misrepresented Young and his work and Young stated that he hasn’t been able to work since.

CNN was ordered to pay compensatory damages, with jurors still needing to decide how much the outlet will pay in punitive damages. The damages will be at least $5 million, Law & Crime said. “In sum,” they write, “jurors awarded Young $4 million for lost employment and $1 million for pain and suffering, and said that CNN should also be subject to punitive damages.”

According to the Free Beacon, Young alleged that a segment which aired in November 2021 on The Lead with Jake Tapper singled him out and portrayed him as an “illegal profiteer” who operated in a “black market.” Young, who said the segment irreparably destroyed his business, Nemex Enterprises, and reputation, worked to evacuate Afghans during the Biden-Harris administration’s deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. He testified that since the segment ran. he hasn’t worked or made money. 

During closing arguments, CNN attorney David Axelrod claimed that the story was “accurate” and “tough but fair” and that Young should have gone out of his way to convince journalists with the outlet that he wasn’t “shady.”

“Mr. Young put himself in the story, not CNN. He inserted himself into it to make a buck,” Axelrod told the jury. He added, “Use your common sense. Do you see a conspiracy or do you see people just doing their best?”

Devin Freedman, Young’s lead attorney, told jurors, “This is supposed to be the most trusted name in news. CNN is so arrogant, they are so used to getting whatever they want.”

“But they stand up here and they talk down to us with bold-faced lies about what the segment’s gist really is, and they expect you to believe it,” he continued. “I mean, do they think we’re all stupid?”

During opening statements, Freedman said that they were able to confirm that 1.6 million people viewed the broadcast, with high-range estimates hitting 2.7 million. “The correction was seen by 942,000 people. But let’s be honest, the correction didn’t do anything. Doesn’t matter. The man can’t get hired. It doesn’t matter how many people saw it. They issued a correction because they were trying to get out of a lawsuit.”

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Now It Can Be Told… After All the Harm Has Been Done

This week, the New York Times reported that the U.S. government made war in Afghanistan while helping to “recruit, train and pay for lawless bands of militias that pillaged homes and laid waste to entire communities.” Those militias “tortured civilians, kidnapped for ransom, massacred dozens in vendetta killings and razed entire villages, sowing more than a decade of hatred toward the Afghan government and its American allies.”

Written by a former Kabul bureau chief for the Times, the article appeared under a headline saying that “U.S.-backed militias” in Afghanistan were “worse than the Taliban.”

Now they tell us.

The new reporting made me think of a chapter in my book War Made Invisible titled “Now It Can Be Told.” Here’s an excerpt:

Timing is crucial in media and politics — and never more so than when war is at stake. It’s completely unsatisfactory for journalists to toe the war line for years and then finally report, in effect: Now it can be told — years too late.

Virtually the entire U.S. media establishment gave full-throated support to the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in early October 2001. Twenty years later, many of the same outlets were saying the war was ill-conceived and doomed from the start.

Immediately after the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, with very few exceptions, even the mainstream news organizations that had been expressing trepidation or opposition swung into line to support the war effort. Two decades later, many of the same media outlets were calling the invasion of Iraq the worst U.S. foreign-policy blunder in history.

But such framing evades the structural mendacity that remains built into the military-industrial complex, with its corporate media and political wings. War is so normalized that its casualties, as if struck by acts of God, are routinely viewed as victims without victimizers, perhaps no more aggrieved than people suffering the consequences of bad weather.

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New Report: Joe Biden Left Grieving Families Waiting for Three Hours Prior to Dignified Transfer of Kabul Bombing Victims — While He Napped on the Plane

Joe Biden met with the families of the fallen US service members killed by a suicide bomber at Kabul Airport during their dignified transfer at Dover airbase.

During the ceremony, Joe Biden famously checked the time on his watch before the bodies were brought out.

Because of Joe Biden’s incompetence, 13 US service members were killed in a suicide blast in Kabul by a terrorist who was released from Bagram prison weeks earlier.

Biden would not allow any media present while he met with the gold star families.

Joe Biden met the pregnant widow of one of the fallen Marines and it didn’t go well, according to the Washington Post.

20-year-old Rylee McCollum was a Marine from Bondurant, Wyoming, and only three weeks into his first deployment when he was killed in the Kabul blast.

McCollum graduated high school two years ago and was three weeks away from becoming a father.

McCollum’s grief-stricken mother went off on Joe Biden and blamed him for her son’s death.

But now we know there is more to the story.

The grieving families accuse Joe Biden of napping for three hours before meeting with the families.

Now they are speaking out.

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Report: Trump Team Putting Together List of Military Officers Involved in Afghanistan Withdrawal

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is putting together a list of United States military officers who were involved in the Biden Administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a recent report.

Two people familiar with the plan told NBC News that Trump’s transition team is reportedly in talks about whether to establish “a commission to investigate” the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left 13 American service members dead.

The commission would reportedly also gather “information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military,” and how the plan “was carried out,” among other things.

“They’re taking it very seriously,” one person with the plan explained to the outlet.

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DHS Sec. Mayorkas Bristles at Reporters Asking How CIA-Linked Afghan ISIS Terror Suspect Was Allowed Into U.S.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lashed out at reporters for asking him how his agency allowed an Afghan terror suspect into the U.S. without proper vetting.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a former CIA security contractor, was arrested by the FBI in Oklahoma City Monday for plotting a terrorist attack against large crowds on Election Day.

According to the DOJ’s charging documents, Tawhedi was brought into the U.S. on a Special Immigrant Visa, which are given to Afghans who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan after they pass DHS screening.

But State Department sources familiar with Tawhedi’s arrest contend that the DOJ’s charging document is incorrect, and that Tawhedi entered the U.S. on humanitarian parole. 

During a White House press briefing a reporter asked Mayorkas, who appeared remotely from North Carolina, to clarify the discrepancy between his agency and the DOJ.

“How was this man brought into the U.S.? What screening did he undergo? What did he apply for to get here?” the reporter asked.

A visibly irritated Mayorkas snapped at the reporter and tried to pivot to FEMA’s response to the Hurricane Helene aftermath.

“I’m here in North Carolina, we’re communicating with the individuals who are still conducting search and rescue operations,” Mayorkas responded. “Over 200 people lost their lives in Hurricane Helene. We have reports that at least 10 individuals have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Milton. I’d be very pleased to answer your question in a different setting, but we’re here to talk about emergencies and the support that we can deliver to people in desperate need. Thank you.”

But the reporter pressed him again to clarify conflicting answers between the DHS and DOJ’s reason for bringing suspected terrorist Tawhedi into the U.S.

“I understand that Mr. Secretary, but we’re getting conflicting answers from your agency and the State Department about a man who arrested for an Election Day terror plot. How do you not have those answers prepared?” the reporter asked.

Mayorkas snapped, “Jackie, that’s not what I said. What I said is I’d be pleased to discuss, uh, this issue at a different time, but I am here to speak about disasters that have impacted people’s lives in real time, and that is the subject that I’m addressing today.”

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REVEALED: Afghan Terrorist Arrested For Plotting Election Day Attack Was CIA Security Guard

As previously reported, the FBI arrested an Afghan national who was plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terrorist attack.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi was arrested in Oklahoma City on Monday after federal law enforcement sent a confidential human source (CHS) to secretly communicate with him and his co-conspirators.

According to federal prosecutors, Tawhedi said he purchased two kalashnikov rifles and ordered 500 bullets.

“What do you think, brother? Is it enough or should we increase it,” the Telegram message said, according to CBS News.

“In subsequent messages, Tawhedi said his father-in-law’s house had sold for $185,000, and they would receive the funds by Oct. 15. He also asked for help in resettling his family, which included his mother in law, wife, their young daughter, and five of his wife’s siblings, in Afghanistan. Tawhedi purchased one-way plane tickets for the family to travel to Kabul on Oct. 17,” CBS News reported.

“After that we will begin our duty, God willing, with the help of God, we will get ready for the election day,” Tawhedi wrote.

Tawhedi was ferried into the US by the Biden-Harris Regime after their botched Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 on a Special Immigrant Visa.

Now this…

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi worked as a security guard for the CIA in Afghanistan.

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DOJ Arrests Afghan Refugee and ISIS Supporter for Conspiring to Conduct Election Day Attack – Arrived with Tens of Thousands of Unvetted Afghans During Joe Biden’s Botched Withdrawal from Afghanistan

The Merrick Garland Department of Justice arrested Afghan refugee Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi from Oklahoma City for conspiring to conduct an Election Day attack in November.

As reported earlier, Tawhedi planned the attack on behalf of ISIS.

According to the DOJ:

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack on U.S. soil in the name of ISIS.

As part of the plot, the defendant allegedly took steps to liquidate his family’s assets, resettle members of his family overseas, acquire AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, and commit a terrorist attack in the United States.

“As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of ISIS on U.S. soil on Election Day,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

“We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people.

The FBI set him up.

While liquidating their family’s assets prior to the attack, Tawhedi and his co-conspirator, who is a juvenile, advertised the sale of the family’s personal property on Facebook.

At the FBI’s direction, a confidential human source responded to inquire if a computer was still for sale. The FBI source noted that he needed the computer for a new gun business he was starting, which ultimately led Tawhedi and the juvenile to meet with the source and other FBI assets at a rural location to test firearms. Tawhedi expressed interest in purchasing two AK-47 assault rifles, magazines, and ammunition from the source.

According to the criminal complaint, on Oct. 7, Tawhedi and the juvenile met with the FBI assets at a rural location in the Western District of Oklahoma and purchased, received, and took possession of two AK-47 assault rifles, ten magazines, and 500 rounds of ammunition.

Upon receipt of the rifles and ammunition, Tawhedi and the juvenile were arrested.

Tawhedi entered the US on September 9, 2021, as one of Joe Biden’s unvetted refugees from Afghanistan.

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US Provoked the 1979 Russian Invasion of Afghanistan: Parallel to the Ukraine War?

The December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan was a watershed event, one that definitively ended “détente” between the global superpowers, the United States and the USSR, and inaugurated a new and more intense phase of tension. The invasion was a clearcut violation of international law and was widely condemned. At the time, it appeared that the Soviet invasion was completely unprovoked, either by the Afghans themselves or by the United States.

In the nearly half century that that has elapsed since the invasion, a large amount of new information has emerged that casts doubt on the benign image of the US government, as a bystander in the Afghan calamity, and suggests that US officials deliberately provoked the invasion; and then, after the invasion occurred, some US officials actively welcomed its occurrence.

A reexamination of the 1979 Afghan case seems especially relevant today, given the obvious parallels to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the US response to the invasion of Afghanistan offers a model of what US officials should seek to achieve in Ukraine. The similarities between the two historical cases are indeed striking: Above all, the 1979 Afghan invasion was widely viewed at the time as being an unprovoked act of aggression, very much the way that the Ukraine invasion is being viewed now. We will see that such claims are contradicted by the historical record. It was US provocation that triggered both conflicts.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was widely presented as a major threat to Western security, but this was largely a propaganda invention. If one surveys the record of declassified documents from 1945 all the way to the late 1970s, one finds little US interest in Afghanistan, which was regarded as a strategic backwater, due to its exceptionally rugged geography and lack of access to the sea. The overarching US perspective was succinctly stated by a 1973 article in the Wall Street Journal, which was entitled: “Do the Russians Covet Afghanistan? If So, it is Hard to Figure Why.” The article went on to characterize Afghanistan as “a vast expanse of desert waste.” From the US National Security Council, a 1974 document stated: “Afghanistan is of no major importance to us.”

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SHAMEFUL: Biden Admin’s John Kirby Said to Ignore Afghanistan Veterans Because They Don’t Vote Democrat

John Kirby of the Biden administration has just been caught saying something truly shameful about American veterans.

He did not realize that he had hit ‘reply all’ on an email inquiry sent to his office by FOX News seeking comment on veterans and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Kirby’s response stated that there was ‘no use in responding’ because these veterans are not Harris voters.

FOX News reported:

Kirby: ‘No use in responding’ to a ‘handful of vets’ on Biden’s botched Afghan withdrawal

On the anniversary of 9/11, White House National Security Council communications adviser John Kirby dismissed the concerns of military veterans critical of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, writing in response to a Fox News Digital press inquiry that there’s “no use” weighing in on the veterans’ views.

“Obviously no use in responding. A ‘handful’ of vets indeed and all of one stripe,” Kirby said in a “reply all” email chain Wednesday afternoon that appeared to be intended for White House staffers, but which also included Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital had reached out to the White House earlier Wednesday afternoon regarding critical comments from four veterans, including Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who blasted Kirby for his Monday press conference that they said provided “cover” for the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal…

Kirby’s message was sent in error, with him following up with a Fox News Digital reporter, “Clearly, I didn’t realize you were on the chain.” Kirby sent the email while traveling with President Biden on the anniversary of 9/11.

People are really angry about this and rightfully so.

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Harris Blames Trump for Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal in Blistering Statement

In a new twist to the 2024 presidential race, vice president Kamala Harris’s campaign has blamed President Donald Trump for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

The one that took place seven months after Trump left office. 

Breitbart News reported that the withdrawal, which resulted in the rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, remains a point of contention for both parties.

The outlet further noted that on Friday, the Harris-Walz campaign issued a statement claiming, “Trump left the Biden-Harris Administration with zero plans for an orderly withdrawal — only a dangerous, costly mess.” 

The statement comes in response to Trump’s recent public appearances honoring the 13 U.S. service members killed during the chaotic evacuation at Kabul International Airport.

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