Tag: afghanistan

Donald Trump Cancels Flights for 1,600 Refugees: Report

President Donald Trump has cancelled flights for 1,660 refugees from Afghanistan who were previously cleared by the government to come to the U.S., according to Reuters.

The 1,660 Afghan refugees who have been taken off flights include family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, unaccompanied minors flying to the U.S. to reunite with family, and those who fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government.

Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs and subsequent cancelling of flights is detailed in a report from Shawn VanDiver, the head of the #AfghanEvac, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, and an anonymous U.S. official.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team for comment via email outside of business hours. Newsweek also reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment via a form on their website outside of working hours.

Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs is significant because he is following through with the immigration crackdowns he mentioned during his presidential campaign.

Further, by cancelling the flights of Afghan refugees, the president is mirroring actions from his first term, as he signed an executive order barring people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days in 2017.

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Here are the 25 Shocking Photos That Expose the True Disaster of Joe Biden’s Presidency

In less than 24 hours, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

Since seizing office in 2021 following a presidential election that was tainted by widespread voter fraud, Joe Biden has overseen rampant inflation, disastrous foreign policy, a rise in poverty, the invasion of over ten million illegal aliens, the persecution and torture of political opponents and an obsession with identity politics, among many other failings.

In addition to his political failings, Biden has also been in a state of constant mental and physical decline that eventually culminated with him being forced to drop out the presidential race and make way for his vice-president Kamala Harris.

Thankfully, the American people recognized Harris’s role in Biden’s disastrous leadership and delivered a landslide election victory to Donald Trump that was too big to rig.

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Joe Biden’s Bizarro World of Foreign Policy “Achievements”

Biden’s farewell boasts ring hollow as his foreign policy missteps—from emboldening Iran and Hamas to the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal—undermine his claims of global achievement.

 Departing President Joe Biden offered a farewell brag this week to his State Department about how his tenure had improved America’s stature abroad. In his now accustomed weird mix of whispering and fiery shouting, Biden apparently felt he had to lie or mislead about almost every one of his “achievements.”

Yet to the extent that anything improved abroad on his watch—the weakening of Iran or the near destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah—it was due despite, not because of, Biden.

Biden, bowing to election year political pressure, did all he could to restrain and block Israeli retaliations to the October 7 massacres. Only after he was repeatedly proven wrong does he now shamelessly take credit for what Israel ironically achieved by ignoring his own threats directed at Israel. Additionally, the Afghanistan withdrawal remains a significant marker of his presidency.

Biden is correct only that Iran is “weaker than it’s been in decades.” But Tehran was aided, not hurt, by Biden’s nonstop efforts to lift sanctions, to allow Iran to make billions in oil revenues, to pay the theocracy billions of dollars in hostage ransom, and to beg the mullahs to reenter the ill-starred Iran deal. Everything Biden did makes it much harder for Israel to survive.

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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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