Whoever bought Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and other US defense stocks made a literal killing
By Pepe Escobar, posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times
After 20 years and a staggering US$2.23 trillion spent in a “forever war” persistently spun as promoting democracy and benefiting the “Afghan people,” it’s legitimate to ask what the Empire of Chaos has to show for it.
The numbers are dire. Afghanistan remains the world’s 7th poorest nation: 47% of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the Asian Development Bank. No less than 75% of the – dissolved – Kabul government’s budget was coming from international aid. According to the World Bank, that aid was responsible for the turnover of 43% of the economy – one that was mired in massive government corruption.
According to the terms of the Washington-Taliban agreement signed in Doha in February 2020, the US should continue to fund Afghanistan during and after its withdrawal.
Now, with the Fall of Kabul and the imminent return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it’s becoming clear that applying financial soft power tactics may be even more deadly than a mere NATO occupation.
Washington has frozen $9.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank reserves and the International Monetary Fund has canceled its lending to Afghanistan, including $460 million that’s part of a Covid-19 relief program.
These dollars pay for government salaries and imports. Their absence will lead to the “Afghan people” hurting even more, a direct consequence of inevitable currency depreciation, rising food prices and inflation.
A corollary to this economic tragedy is a classic “take the money and run” caper: Former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country after allegedly packing four cars with $169 million in cash, and leaving $5 million on the tarmac of Kabul airport.
That’s according to two witnesses: one of his own bodyguards and the Afghan ambassador in Tajikistan; Ghani has denied the looting allegations.
Ghani’s plane was denied landing in Tajikistan and also Uzbekistan, proceeding to Oman until Ghani was welcomed in the UAE – very close to Dubai, a global Mecca of smuggling, money laundering and racketeering.
The Taliban have already stated that a new government and a new political and economic framework will be announced only after NATO troops are definitively out of the country next month.
The complex negotiations to form an “inclusive” government, as repeatedly promised by Taliban spokesmen, are de facto led on the non-Taliban side by two members of a council of three: former President Hamid Karzai and Ghani’s eternal rival, the leader of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah. The third member, acting in the shadows, is warlord-turned-politician and two-time prime minister Hekmatyar. Gulbuddin
Karzai and Abdullah, both vastly experienced, are regarded by the Americans as “acceptable,” so that may go a long way in terms of facilitating future, official Western recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and restored multilateral institution funding.
Yet there are myriad problems including the very active role of Khalil Haqqani, who leads the Taliban Peace Council Commission while on a “terror watch list” and under UN sanctions. Not only is Haqqani in charge of Kabul’s security; he’s also side by side with Karzai and Abdullah in the discussions to form an inclusive government.
What makes the Taliban run
The Taliban have been operating outside of the Western banking system for two decades now. The bulk of their income comes from transit tax on trade routes (for instance, from Iran) and fuel levies. Profits from opium and heroin exports (domestic consumption not permitted) reportedly account for less than 10% of their income.
In countless villages across the deep Afghan countryside, the economy revolves around petty cash transactions and barter.
I received a copy of a high-level Pakistani academia-intelligence paper examining the challenges facing the new Afghan government.
The paper notes that “the standard route of development to be followed will be very pro-people. Taliban’s Islam is socialist. It has an aversion towards wealth being accumulated in fewer hands” – and, crucially, also an aversion to usury.
On the initial steps towards development projects, the paper expects them to come from Russian, Chinese, Turkish, Iranian and Pakistani companies – as well as a few government sectors. The Islamic Emirate “expects infrastructure development packages” at costs that are “affordable by the country’s existing GDP.”
Afghanistan’s nominal GDP in 2020 was $19.8 billion, according to World Bank figures.
New aid and investment packages are expected to come from Shanghai Cooperation Organization member nations (Russia, China, Pakistan) or SCO observers (Turkey and currently Iran – scheduled to become a full member at the SCO summit next month in Tajikistan). Inbuilt is the notion that Western recognition will be a Sisyphean task.
The paper admits that the Taliban have not had time to evaluate how the economy will be the key vector deciding Afghanistan’s future independence.
But this passage of the paper may hold the key: “In their consultations with the Chinese, they were advised to go slow and not rock the boat of the Western world system by talking too soon about state control of capitalism, interest-free economy, and de-linking from the IMF-based financial system. However, since the West has pulled back all the money from the Afghan exchequer, Afghanistan is likely to apply for short-term aid packages against their resource base.”
IMF-NATO as brothers in arms
I asked Michael Hudson, an economics professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City and Peking University, how he would recommend the new government to act. He answered, “For one thing, embarrass the hell out of the IMF for acting as an arm of NATO.”
Hudson referred to a Wall Street Journal article written by a former IMF advisor now with the Atlantic Council as saying that “now, since recognition is frozen, banks all over the world will hesitate to do business with Kabul. This move provides the US with leverage to negotiate with the Taliban.”
So this may be going the Venezuela way – with the IMF not “recognizing” a new government for months and even years. And on the seizure of Afghan gold by the New York Fed – actually a collection of private banks – we see echoes of the looting of Libya’s and seizure of Venezuela’s gold.
Hudson sees all of the above as “an abuse of the international monetary system – which is supposed to be a public utility – as an arm of NATO run by the US. IMF behavior, especially regarding the new drawing rights, should be presented as a litmus test” for the viability of a Taliban-led Afghanistan.
Hudson is now working on a book about the collapse of antiquity. His research led him to find Cicero, in In Favor of the Manilian Law (Pro Lege Manilia), writing about Pompeus’s military campaign in Asia and its effects on the provinces in a passage that perfectly applies to the “forever war” in Afghanistan:
“Words cannot express, gentlemen, how bitterly hated we are among foreign nations because of the wanton and outrageous conduct of the men whom in recent years we have sent to govern them. For, in those countries, what temple do you suppose had been held sacred by our officers, what state inviolable, what home sufficiently guarded by its closed doors? Why, they look about for rich and flourishing cities that they may find an occasion for a war against them to satisfy their lust for plunder.”
Switching from the classics to a more pedestrian level, WikiLeaks has been replaying a sort of Afghanistan Greatest Hits , reminding public opinion, for instance, that as far back as 2008 there was already “no pre-defined end date” for the “forever war.”
Yet the most concise assessment may have come from Julian Assange himself:
“The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.”
The “forever war” may have been a disaster for the bombed, invaded and impoverished “Afghan people,” but it was an unmitigated success for what Ray McGovern so memorably defines as the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Counter-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank) complex. Anyone who bought stocks of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and the rest of that crowd made – literally – a killing.
Facts are indeed dire. Barack Obama – who presided over a hefty Afghan “kill list” – throws a birthday party and invites the woke nouveaux riches. Julian Assange suffers psychological torture imprisoned in Belmarsh. And Ashraf Ghani mulls how to spend $169 million in the Dubai rackets, funds some say were duly stolen from the “Afghan people.”
Don’t forget Geo H W Bush was a major investor in the Carlyle Group, which was heavily invested in Defense stocks. The Bush family did quite well out of the war. Generals Mattis, Patreous and Sec Def Austin in their post military careers made lots of money out of the Defense-financial sector. Our Generals are not very good at winning wars but they do know how to make money for themselves.
John, thanks for your insights –something tells me “our” generals must laugh themselves silly when some well meaning citizen thanks them for their “service”!
Follow the money, indeed! Yesterday Aaron Mate interviewed two Agh/Iraq veterans for an inside look into the careerism, cronyism, and corruption that drives the War Machine.
Highly recommend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bo7P_podIk
Thank you, Jurgen for recommending the discussion at “Grayzone.” Very informative, especially for American viewers.
For we few in the US, who use critical-thinking skills, we know NEVER to believe what any of the MSM is telling us.
You should make friends with Russians who were already adults in the Soviet Union. They will tell you similar stories of their experiences with TASS, Izvestia et al…..
Insight “The ability to discern the true nature of a situation”
American Heritage Dictionary
I think the Pakistani academia-intelligence paper referenced in Pepe’s submission offers some very good insights. After being raped and terrorized by NATO and its local quislings for all these years, Russia/China/Iran (to hell with bloody Erdogan and the garbage Turks), will turn Afghanistan from a country in ruins to a moderately prosperous and modern society. Chechnya shows it can be done. Of course, with Afghanistan being backed by the above-mentioned resistance countries, the West is bound to refuse any recognition of its legitimate government. Big % # @ deal. The West stuck to this absolutely pathetic, infantile approach for 22 long years against the GDR (1949 – 1971) to no avail. The GDR’s borders were duly fortified, and so she started to prosper immensely. Also, please keep in mind here that in 1949, both the USSR and the GDR were badly ravaged by WW2 and could not count on any US largesse. In 1949, it was the West that boasted an industrial/scientific/technological/military prowess which was second to none, but not anymore. Its angry noises and posturing have nothing to show for them today, and Afghanistan can dismiss them out of hand, courtesy of the SCO.
@Nussiminen
“,,, will turn Afghanistan from a country in ruins to a moderately prosperous and modern society.”
Absolutely.
Having sufficient resources (Lithium, rare earths), and support of big countries, Kabul could easily look like Dubai or Seoul. In 10 – 20 years.
Or much faster, taking insane Chinese builders into account.
Seoul ~1960.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aphs.worldnomads.com/amy_palfreyman/20853/IMG_2065.jpg
@Blackring
Yes, it’s absolutely certain. Thank you for the link showing Seoul circa 1960. Pyongyang’s transformation is even more impressive as the US barbarians had razed everything to rubble there.
I mentioned Chechnya in my previous post. Here are some pictures showing Grozny in the mid-90s and its stunning recovery after Putin’s ascendancy to power:
https://www.alamy.com/war-ravaged-city-of-grozny-damaged-buildings-in-central-grozny-where-image65329883.html
https://russiatrek.org/blog/cities/the-rebuilt-center-of-grozny-from-above/
Watching how the US Elites toss away “friends” and abuse “allies”, the King of Jordan must be having sleepless nights, wondering if Putin can save his nation before he and his is sacrificed, too.
His economy is heavily dependent on the US. A recent coup attempt by his brother was a close call, but stern signal that he is on the Next Target list. He is burdened with millions of Syrian refugees, training camps for AQ fighters, pressure from the Israelis, and manipulations domestically by US CIA and Military.
Jordan is the perfect fall guy whose fall would help the US create more chaos for Lebanon and Syria, and thus, for Russia.
Maybe the intent is to re-activate the so-called “Jordan option”- to rename Jordan “Palestine” and deport all the Palestinians currently elsewhere into their new homeland.
“Washington has frozen $9.5 billion in Afghan Central Bank reserves and the International Monetary Fund has canceled its lending to Afghanistan, including $460 million that’s part of a Covid-19 relief program.”
Since Afghanistan can no longer count on the dollar (or euro), perhaps now is an excellent time to build the Afghanistan upon the yuan and digital yuan.
I am not an Islamic scholar but I think if the Taliban truly wishes to be an Islamic country ruled by Sharia they will use the gold dinar and the silver dirham as the form of currency. They will outlaw Riba (usury) both Riba an-nasiya and Riba al-Fadl.
They will not allow the IMF, the UN, the WHO, western NGOs and other such organizations.
I think trade can be done with China, Russia, Iran, and others on such a basis.
I am very interested in how Islamic the Taliban government is going to be. Perhaps there is a real Islamic scholar that reads these comment sections that can fully explain true Sharia economics.
All my “westener” superficial understanding of Sharia Law can fit in a teardrop, none of it is about Sharia economics, does such a thing exist?.
A very interesting curiosity Greifenberg!, perhaps M. Hudson, who has a way of explaining big picture economics that I can understand, has some insights if no Sharia economist comes forward.
I am at a loss as to the thinking here, if any, on seizure/frozen funds while expecting cooperation from the Taliban.
It seems that a potential hostage situation exists here in spades; seizure of funds belonging to Afghan govt does not argue for expectation for cooperation to continue.
More shock and awe from the buy den clusterflock.
@Mathew
“…perhaps now is an excellent time to build the Afghanistan upon the yuan and digital yuan.”
Maybe Afghanistan’s “graveyard curse” affects financial empires too.
End of empires always go with a mass theft by the so called “elites”, the wall of assets they build against the world will not stop their fall, it never does.
Meanwhile back in the USA, the federal reserve continue to create money on their computer, now in the $trillions, to buy US corporate stocks and bonds. There is no requirement to pay money back to anyone, but the federal reserve and its exclusive clique of owners will own everything there is to own, and we the people will have to pay them fees and rent in order to exist. One might call this neofeudalism.
I asked Michael Hudson, an economics professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City and Peking University, how he would recommend the new government to act. He answered, “For one thing, embarrass the hell out of the IMF for acting as an arm of NATO.”
All due respect to Michael Hudson, I had to laugh when I read that statement. Surely he doesn’t think that any of the globalist elite who serves in or are served by such institutions are capable of such a basic human emotion as embarrassment? Have the past twenty years taught us nothing?
The way forward is clearly total dissolution of the current US-based “international monetary system” and its replacement with a totally subversive, yet likewise totally honest and transparent alternative. In other words, all roads forward lead through China and Russia. Let’s just hope that the usual suspects haven’t made inroads into that already too.
my take on that was that pepe can call michael hudson, like 100s of other sources, & request their take…i can’t, perhaps you can…me, it’s one of the many delights peppered throughout pepe’s posts.
Was there anything about this war that was above board? Seems like the phony pretext for invading Afghanistan in the first place precluded any legitimate prosecution of the war for all these years. It was always going to be a war of aggression. It was always going to be a brutally destructive war against a civilian population. It was always going to be a war that we had no hope of winning in any real sense of the word.
As always, Mr Escobar is bang on with his assessment and reporting. Thank you.
“Taliban’s Islam is socialist. It has an aversion towards wealth being accumulated in fewer hands” – and, crucially, also an aversion to usury.”
Yet another Iranian fingerprint on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. I say this because of what I learnt elsewhere in Saker Vineyard. A couple of readers pointed to a lot of Iranian assistance coming from Iran rather than from the much-cited Pakistan; and Ramin Mazaheri wrote several articles on socialism in the Islamic Republic of Iran. That would tie in nicely with Afghanistan now doing deals with Communist China rather than with usurious Anglo Zio Capitalist countries.
Now that the U$ and UK have gone and taken their backwoods Saudi AlQaida headchoppers with them, I expect Afghanistan will take up from where it was 20 years ago and rejoin the positive developments in East EurAsia. Instant membership of SCO is already a good sign.
I love the way you connect the dots; it feels like red poetics to me.
Here’s an insightfull summary of the history of the Afghan war.
https://annebonnypirate.org/2021/08/17/afghanistan-the-end-of-the-occupation/
Yes…..and also a very very interesting up to date documentary by rt today…in Uk…following the “career” of a local police chief? In the south east.. Afghan….Gitmo..found to be innocent..back to Afghanistan in context of USA activities occupation etc eg losing family to USA bombing.. only on this morning. Sadly rest of todays documentary schedules seem to be about nicotine. Cannot find any reference to above doc on youtube etc. Crazy.
Ah here it is
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_P_VBWLGs
US prison in Afghanistan
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/8/24/iran-resumes-a-crucial-lifeline-to-afghanistan-fuel
“Iran resumed fuel exports to Afghanistan a few days ago following a request from the new Afghan government, which feels empowered by the US withdrawal to buy the sanctioned nation’s oil more openly, an Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency.”
And where is the American people on this? No where to be found. No thoughts on how Ghani stole all that money. No outrage on how hundreds of millions of dollars of military equipment was just left to the wind. Nothing on how democracy was to evolve there, the results being corruption that is far worse than was every had there. The American people are acting now as if the US should have never left there. They want us to go back there and give the Taliban a lesson they’ll never forget. It just leaves me speechless.
There is a theme the Saker and others have highlighted of infighting between different US agencies – CIA/military/State/WH etc. – and having conflicting foreign policies, depending on who that faction serves.
There are signs this continues in Afghanistan. Sec Def Austin of the BiDon admin may not be getting cooperation from the US military. They should have sufficient airlift capabilities, yet Austin activated civilian planes to evacuate while US military has its own priorities?!
https://mobile.twitter.com/SecDef/status/1429433762367131658
Also where are the US troops (and more importantly the 10,000s of private contractors) from Afghanistan being sent? That should clue us into intentions behind rushed evacuation, if it was not organic.
Possible signs of breakdown in alliances: the British are going crazy, starting to treat BiDon like the original Don. They have been hysterical in last week, with their Sec Def nearly weeping on live TV, gargoyles like Blair being wheeled back out, parliament having hissy fits, etc. This may be huge, as its core the Empire has a Brit brain and American muscle/wallet, so what does the brain know of current events.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tony-blair-attacks-joe-bidens-imbecilic-afghanistan-retreat-as-kabul-chaos-deepens-jw782ghxr
(if you enter https://archive.is/ and enter the above URL you can access the full article behind its paywall)
Key statements:
‘Raab intervened amid evidence of bad feeling between Britain and the US. A minister denounced American “isolationism” and said that the government would have to “revisit” the recent review on defence and foreign policy because the US was no longer a reliable ally.
“America has just signalled to the world that they are not that keen on playing a global role,” the minister said. “The implications of that are absolutely huge. We need to get the integrated review out and reread it. We are going to have to do a hard-nosed revisit on all our assumptions and policies.’
@A.H.H.
“Possible signs of breakdown in alliances: the British are going crazy…”
British(Anglo) crypto-feudal faction is about to be dethroned in their most precious teritory – USA.
The other ruling factions seem disapointed with series of humiliating losses.
Noone knows for sure how many of factions (Houses, families) there are, but number of inteligence agencies could be good clue. Nobody shares spies with somebody else. Being ally or not.
Zionists are in particulary painfull position, since they have roots on both side of the chasm.
It suposed to be “End of the HIstory”… Damn you Fukuyama!
When something is absurd on its face it is important to check the pen name.
““America has just signalled to the world that they are not that keen on playing a global role,” the minister said…”
That just suggests they see an upcoming “limit to growth” of their fiat-funny-money scam just around the corner.
There is no way they could run an ’empire’ on real taxation revenues and stay in government.
Free lunchtime ‘meal deal’ is over in the play ground soon, imo.
The usual story of gangsterism, usury, theft, banks acting as politicians and yet another chance for a non-US nation to basically say: ‘If we have to be your slaves or else, then or else means no opportunities for your nation, your companies, for the whole of the 21st century’.
No wars, no violence, just make sure that all future business opportunities exclude the USA and their satrapies.
It would take military support from more powerful allies, but it’s not a declaration of war, is it? It’s just deciding not to do business.
It’s entirely equivalent to a woman saying that she doesn’t want sex with you, ever.
That’s not a crime, is it?
The esteemed Sr. Escobar mistakes the extent of governmental war mongering by marking out “congressional” as “counter.”
I don’t count too much on Taliban’s assurances. Bardar has met the CIA Director in Kabul reportedly to discuss ‘evacuations’. But these secret talks may have included more than that.
Bardar has formerly been released from CIA custody. Given the notoriety of the CIA to its genuine enemies, it raises the question why Bardar was released.
Maybe, Russia and China should be more cautious in dealing with the Taliban because they might be doing the bidding of the US to destabilize the entire Central Asia.
I think you’re spot on about the Taliban being a potential Trojan Horse! I wrote something similar to Pepe, asking him to weight the evidence and tell me again why he thinks Bardar, a former CIA prisoner, who was miraculously released (never happens) can be trusted.
I have no faith in Bardar as his profile fits that of a CIA plant better than any and the profile is consistent with many other such henchmen”leaders” who rose with CIA aid and then did the UD’s bidding.
Here are the facts.
1. CIA prisoner
2. Released
3. Likely next President
4. Negotiating with CIA
5. US doesn’t defend cities and capitol, despite heavy armed presence.
6. 10,000 + mercenaries stand down
7. All military equipment “aborted and left for Taliban, now well-armed
8. Taliban allows airlift from Kabul
9. Taliban takes no hostages
10. CIA director flies to Kabul to negotiate (ostensibly for time to evacuate US and US friendlies), and gets immediate audience.
Seriously? The “withdrawal” may seem “chaotic” but if the Taliban is in fact the new ISIS to threaten Eurasia Economic Integration, then this was hardly a withdrawal or chaotic. Seems more like a well-executed plan to me, with no fear for western lives in Afghanistan, as the Taliban are under control.
I do not see the US giving up on the crossroads of South and Central Asia so meekly. I suspect Uncle Sam has another plan to disrupt the integration of the BRI, SCO and the stans with South Asia, and he is not “turning inward” because Empires rarely fade into the sunset. They die.
The game’s afoot.
I am certain that the Balochistan rebels are a part of the CIA’s plan as well as the Uighurs of Xinjiang. But, this “withdrawal” and a very co-operative Taliban, who walked into Kabul with hardly a shot being fired beggars belief.
Something is rotten in the State of Afghanistan, and methinks it could be rotting horse meat from Yanks bearing gifts.
I see what you’re saying Golden man and I am a bit suspicious as well. I’m waiting to see how Islamic the Taliban government is going to be.
My main problem with a CIA plan of this nature would be their mechanisms for control. For example, if the Taliban did cut a deal with the CIA and decide to flip and double cross, how does the CIA control the situation? Reinvading Afghanistan seems to be out of the question, no?
Pepe Escobar:
🇦🇫🇺🇲 Full list of weapons US left behind
-2,000 Armored Vehicles Including Humvees and MRAP’s
-75,989 Total Vehicles: FMTV, M35, Ford Rangers, Ford F350, Ford Vans, Toyota Pickups, Armored Security Vehicles etc
-45 UH-60 Blachhawk Helicopters
-50 MD530G Scout Attack Choppers
-ScanEagle Military Drones
-30 Military Version Cessnas
-4 C-130’s
-29 Brazilian made A-29 Super Tocano Ground Attack Aircraft
=208+ Aircraft Total!!
-At least 600,000+ Small arms M16, M249 SAWs, M24 Sniper Systems, 50 Calibers, 1,394 M203 Grenade Launchers, M134 Mini Gun, 20mm Gatling Guns and Ammunition
-61,000 M203 Rounds
-20,040 Grenades
-Howitzers
-Mortars +1,000’s of Rounds
-162,000 pieces of Encrypted Military Comunications Gear
-16,000+ Night Vision Goggles
-Newest Technology Night Vision Scopes
-Thermal Scopes and Thermal Mono Googles
-10,000 2.75 inch Air to Ground Rockets
-Recconaissance Equipment (ISR)
-Laser Aiming Units
-Explosives Ordnance C-4, Semtex, Detonators, Shaped Charges, Thermite, Incendiaries, AP/API/APIT
-2,520 Bombs
-Administration Encrypted Cell Phones and Laptops ALL operational
-Pallets with Millions of Dollars in US Currency
-Millions of Rounds of Ammunition including but not limited to 20,150,600 rounds of 7.62mm, 9,000,000 rounds of 50.caliber
-Large Stockpile of Plate Carriers and Body Armor
-US Military HIIDE, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment Biometrics
-Lots of Heavy Equipment Including Bull Dozers, Backhoes, Dump Trucks, Excavators
The full list of Empire of Chaos weapons left behind (see previous post) is mind-boggling – and turns a former peasant guerrilla army into a mega-weaponized Highway to Hell entity. Blackhawk UP!
Pepe just posted a list of the weapons the US left behind in Afghanistan from “Intel Slava”. If this is not an attempt to arm a small army under cover of a “chaotic withdrawal” than the incompetence, lack of planning and downright disregard for the US taxpayer funding this is of gargantuan, epic proportion. Heads should roll. But they won’t. I am leaning toward the Taliban becoming the new US proxy army. Russia and China beware.
The weapons were for sure left for some kinda “stay behind” op.
Are you familiar with Operation Gladio?
The best links/sources have been memory holed by search engines.
But have this as a taster:
Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance
Between the Vatican, the CIA and the Mafia: Overview of the book by Paul L. Williams
Extract:
The moniker ‘Gladio’ (after the two-edged sword used in classical Rome) was eventually broadened to include a bewildering host of related deep state terrorist structures including: ‘P2’ In Italy, ‘P26’ in Switzerland, ‘Sveaborg’ in Sweden, ‘Counter-Guerrilla’ in Turkey and ‘Sheepskin’ in Greece.
This (hardly definitive) European list was then found to have connections not only to virtually every US sponsored secret state terrorist organization the world over (including the likes of Operation Condor in Latin America), but also to many of the global drug cartels that provided the secretive wealth needed to fund and otherwise lubricate the whole rotting, corrupt shebang.
You give them too much credit. Most or all those weapons were ANA equipment that the Taliban captured or was just left for them to take by fleeing ANA forces. When you give your minions almost a $100 billion in weapons,there is quite a haul when the minions give up.
Here’s the link
https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/06/operation-gladio-the-unholy-alliance/
Excellent read.
Enjoyed the last par:
Paul Williams has made a fine contribution here.
Certainly, if the day ever comes when, seated across from some smug establishment interlocutor, you are taken to task for being a ‘conspiracy monger’ – well, you need only lean back, smile gently, and utter but two words….’Operation Gladio’.
@Greifenberg
//if the Taliban did cut a deal with the CIA and decide to flip and double cross, how does the CIA control the situation?//
Many analysts including Pepe think that the opium money source of the CIA would ‘instantly vanish’ because the Taliban would ban it. What are the assurances for that claim?
If the Taliban or at least its high echelons such as Bardar can earn a huge profit by selling opium with or without a share to the CIA, that’s a win-win for both parties. CIA can destabilize Central Asia while the Taliban earns a profit through opium trade while supporting all terrorist, separatist movements in the region. Besides, they’d be able to export terrorism also to South Asia just like Soudi Arabia does.
Imagine the Taliban being able to gain international recognition with Russian and Chinese support, and afterward turning on those two with terrorist attacks, support to other terrorist groups in C. Asia? That would be a total victory for the CIA. Beating your enemy with no bullets spent!
I read recently on this blog that Iran’s IRGC has infiltrated the Taliban and that they’re working on removing extremist elements from the outfit. Hopefully, they’d be able to remove those who are trying to the bidding of the AngloZionists in disrupting the Eurasian integration.
I agree with Golden Man and Greifenberg and Man With No Name.
Yes, you’re right tk be suspicious. There’s more than one Talib leader fitting that ex-prisoner profile.
And dont forget the huge amount of weapons left behind. Memories of Daesh and the total collapse of the Iraqi army, with all their weapons falling into terrorist hands plus Syrua, and how the “moderate” rebels got supplied by US military, then suddenly these “moderates” transferred these new weapons straight to AQ.
@man with no name.
Well I suppose there is the historical declaration that that the Taliban supposedly banned the Opium crop last time they were in charge of Afghanistan and perhaps with the rise of Fentanyl the market isn’t what it used to be for the junk. Absolutely no evidence they’ll not profit from it now though. We shall see.
As far as terrorism goes, nobody is likely to challenge Saudi Arabia in this regard. Hopefully it will just be Arabia again in the near future. The Saudi family has been a disaster for the entire region for quite some time and getting worse. People really don’t talk about the atrocities committed against the Yemenese people as much as they should. Never mind all the other violent pies the house of Saud has their dirty little fingers in. The Zionists couldn’t ask for better allies.
My impression is that by following money we can outline a picture for the future that is in many ways even more terrifying than the one that involved the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Afghanistan from 2001 to today.
“The “forever war” may have been a disaster for the bombed, invaded and impoverished “Afghan people,” but it was an unmitigated success for what Ray McGovern so memorably defines as the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Counter-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think Tank) complex. Anyone who bought stocks of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and the rest of that crowd made – literally – a killing.” Pepe Escobar
“Today’s new Cold War is a fight to internationalize this rentier capitalism by globally privatizing and financializing transportation, education, health care, prisons and policing, the post office and communications, and other sectors that formerly were kept in the public domain. In Western economies, such privatizations have reversed the drive of industrial capitalism. In addition to monopoly prices for privatized services, financial managers are cannibalizing industry by leveraging debt and high-dividend payouts to increase stock prices.” Michael Hudson
“The mainstream media are divided between two ways of interpreting the fall of Kabul. For some, the Democrats are cowards and the departure from Afghanistan discourages the allies. For others, they have played well and placed a thorn in the side of the Russians and the Chinese. These two views correspond to the traditional paradigm of the American Empire. But for Thierry Meyssan, Washington is, since September 11, 2001, in the hands of the followers of the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski doctrine. The United States is now behaving like a racketeer. The chaos will continue in Afghanistan for a long time. Russian, Chinese and European companies who wish to do so will be able to mine in Afghanistan, but only if they entrust their security to the US forces. Those who refuse this protection will be eliminated.” Thierry Meyssan
https://www.voltairenet.org/article213820.html
/finance-capitalism-versus-industrial-capitalism-the-rentier-resurgence-and-takeover/
If there is ever prosperity in Afghanistan it will be despite the best efforts of NATO to kill it. It is default for the western elite they can do nothing else. How painfully predictable they have become. The victims must in order to move on get the perpetrator out of their minds and lives. Afghanistan must not spend a lot of time bickering with either the IMF or the wall street. Make your statements make sure they are correct and stick to them keep it simple and correct. They need to realize they have a future and the resources to see it through. Make friends and keep them there at this point is nothing to say to NATO members. They will always be looking to destroy the nation. Always be vigilant and suspicious of anything that is coming from the west.
So I’ve heard the positions in the Taliban government are starting to be filled. I am very surprised to see Gul Agha Sherzai as finance minister. I don’t think this will be a very Islamic government at all. Probably just more corruption and graft for the poor Afghan people.