After 20 years, US declares end of war in Afghanistan

CONFIRMED: @CENTCOM's Gen. McKenzie announces "the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission" there. That's it. The war in Afghanistan is over.

The United States has completed the frantic and deadly withdrawal of its forces from Kabul, marking the official end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

General Kenneth McKenzie, who leads the US Central Command, announced on Tuesday (AEST) that the last C-17 American military aircraft had departed the international airport in Kabul.

After 20 years, US declares end of war in Afghanistan

The more things change the more they stay the same as back in 1977 I did my two years of compulsory service in the Czechoslovak Socialist Army and we were then on the KGB side of the truths behind the war and reasons Bol Laden was supported … the army taught me too many lessons and human nature and how power combined with money tends to be the root of all evils

‘More harm than good’: Malcolm Turnbull laments Middle East wars after fall of Kabul

The United States says its war in Afghanistan is over, after the last plane carrying US troops left Kabul airport this morning.

• The last flight left just before Joe Biden's August 31 evacuation deadline ticked over
• US Central Command says hundreds of US civilians were left behind
• The Taliban has declared Afghanistan is now an independent country
• United States completes withdrawal from Afghanistan after final plane leaves Kabul
  

 

Army general was the last soldier to leave Afghanistan - NBC News 

The Final American Soldier to Leave Afghanistan

A C-17 Globemaster takes off as Taliban fighters secure the outer perimeter, alongside the American controlled side of of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Sunday. Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

 ‘More harm than good’: Malcolm Turnbull laments Middle East wars after fall of Kabul

• A US drone strike on a vehicle in a Kabul neighbourhood has killed nine people, including, allegedly, a number of children, according to local reports. This figure has not been confirmed. US Central Command has said it is assessing the possibility of civilian casualties. It reported the vehicle was carrying explosives and suicide bombers who were set to target Kabul airport imminently.
  
• Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said the US would continue working with the Taliban to ensure safe passage for those wishing to leave Afghanistan beyond the 31 August deadline. Nearly 100 countries have issued a joint statement saying foreign nationals, Afghans who worked alongside coalition forces, and vulnerable people, would be allowed to leave the country.
• Coalition countries say the Taliban has committed to allowing safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan. “We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country,” a joint statement, from nearly 100 countries, said.
• The Taliban has confirmed its supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never made a public appearance and whose whereabouts have largely remained unknown, is in Afghanistan.
• US president Joe Biden travelled to Dover Airbase for the return to home soil of the bodies of 11 of the 13 American service members killed in the Kabul attack last week which also killed 169 Afghans.
• France and Britain will submit a resolution to an emergency United Nations meeting due Monday on Afghanistan proposing a safe zone in Kabul to protect people trying to leave the country, French president Emmanuel Macron said.

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 ROGER KIMBALL: What We Left Behind in Afghanistan.

MELISSA CHEN:  Inside the Underground Railroad Out of Afghanistan.

Taliban waiting for ‘final nod’ from US to ‘secure full control’ of Kabul airport: official The Hill

 

Nine family members killed in US airstrike in Kabul targeting suspected ISIS-K bomber, relative says CNN

 

‘Once the World Looks Away, We Are All Dead’Rolling Stone

  

Nemesis: Why the west was doomed to lose in Afghanistan Prospect

Sebastian Junger on How the U.S. Corrupted Afghanistan

Four successive American administrations utterly betrayed the public trust—and lost a righteous war.

 

A Complete Guide to Not Getting Hacked Gizmodo

 

Melanie Klein wrote that children go through states of mind comparable to mourning, and that this early mourning is revived when grief is experience in later life.

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk

All roads lead back to China’: One stuck box of fertiliser shows the global supply chain crisis

JobKeeper shame and the collapse of business leadership in Australia

Michael West | August 30, 2021

Unless they disclose who got it, JobKeeper will remain a giant festering stain on the reputation of big business in Australia. Michael West reports on business’s greatest shame.

Let’s step back a moment. Let’s just pause, just for a minute. And think through the implications of our actions today, so that this does not spiral out of control.

Caitlin O’Connor and James Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread(Yale, 2018)

The COVID-19 crisis has helped lift the age at which Sydney’s workers are expected to retire after a slump in migration and the tightening of the labour market encouraged older employees to remain in the workforce.

Workers in the city now aged 45 are expected to retire at 64.5, equalling a temporary peak in Sydney’s expected retirement age when the economy recovered from the 2008-09 global financial crisis, analysis by consultancy firm KPMG shows.

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CRS Report – U.S. Military Withdrawal and Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan: Frequently Asked Questions, August 20, 2021: “On August 15, 2021, the Taliban entered the Afghan capital of Kabul, completing a rapid takeover over the country that surprised many Afghans and Americans alike. The Taliban’s advance came as the United States was completing the military withdrawal to which it agreed in the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban accord. The fall of the elected Afghan government, supported by billions of dollars in U.S. assistance over the course of nearly two decades, raises significant questions about past, present, and future U.S. policy for Members of Congress. This report provides material related to select questions associated with U.S. policy in Afghanistan, including: Background information useful for understanding the current situation in Afghanistan; The Taliban takeover and Afghan government’s collapse; U.S. policy implications of the Taliban takeover; Social and economic implications of the Taliban takeover; Regional reactions to the Taliban’s takeover; U.S. military operations; and  Budgetary implications of the U.S. withdrawal. Some additional lines of inquiry that Congress may wish to explore with the Executive Branch are included alongside specific topics as appropriate. The report concludes with some strategic considerations Congress may wish to contemplate as it assesses the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for the future.With a general U.S. target date for the completion of the military withdrawal and evacuation operation set at August 31, 2021, the situation on the ground remains extremely fluid. This report will be updated to reflect major changes in U.S. policy or developments in Afghanistan that may significantly affect U.S. decisions…”

Lifehacker: “You need to clear your recent browsing history—and fast. Lucky for you, we can help. Whether you use Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Brave, there’s a keyboard shortcut to help you delete your most recent web history as fast as possible, should you need to do so for reasons that are none of our business. Clearing the past hour of history from major web browsers – Most web browsers let you delete the last hour of web browsing. That’s usually the best option for those who want to delete what they were just searching for, but not data older than that. If you’re looking for something with an even tighter time range, we have a solution for you later on. The following keyboard shortcuts will work for Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera…”

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15 Year Binetter Saga: Nudie co-founder tax fraud claims near $250m

 

Nudie co-founder tax fraud claims near $250m

Neil ChenowethSenior writer

Jul 29, 2021 – 8.58am

Australian liquidator John Sheahan has launched new legal action in Israel against members of the Binetter family which if successful would lift the total he has realised from tax fraud claims to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

In two new lawsuits filed on July 11, Mr Sheahan’s lawyers allege that Binetter family members flew out of Australia on January 3, 2013 hours after transferring $22.6 million from Sydney to a bank account in Liechtenstein.

It’s alleged another $4.4 million was later moved to Liechtenstein, taking the total to $27 million which Mr Sheahan is seeking to have returned.

Gary Binetter in 2001. He says his family left Australia after he was told “the Tax Office will always have the advantage while we’re in the jurisdiction”. Nick Moir

Last January, Mr Sheahan of South Australian firm Sheahan Lock Partners settled with Israel Discount Bank and its subsidiary, Mercantile Discount Bank, for $137 million, for their role in enabling a series of back-to-back loans which enabled two brothers, Emil and Erwin Binetter (both now deceased), to claim millions of dollars of interest payments dressed up to look like arms-length bank loans as Australian tax deductions.

The January deal followed a smaller settlement with Bank Hapaolim and a $45 million dealwith two of Erwin’s children and other payments.

Altogether, Mr Sheahan has realised $210 million in tax payments, penalties and interest after replacing the liquidators that the Binetters had appointed to a string of $2 companies with huge tax bills, when they left Australia.

Mr Sheahan, who is liquidator to the trustee company for Emil and Gerda Binetter’s super fund as well as trustee in bankruptcy to Emil’s estate, is laying claim to a luxury apartment building in one of Tel Aviv’s most prestigious streets, Rothschild Boulevarde, worth more than $25 million, which the Binetters bought in 2013 with the funds transferred to Liechtenstein.

A 15-year saga

Mr Sheahan is also claiming $5 million from Gerda which his lawsuit claims was improperly directed to Liechtenstein.

The pursuit of the Binetters is a 15-year saga that began in July 2006 when the Tax Office began auditing companies set up by Emil and Erwin Binetter, who had built a property group as well as co-founding the Nudie Juice business.

A series of legal challenges to tax assessments issued in 2009 and 2010 took more than a decade to resolve.

Emil’s son, Gary, has testified that in 2009 an Israeli bank officer told him his father was “very stressed” and that if they failed to prove that loans taken from the bank were real loans – “they will put us in jail “.

Gary said he flew to Europe with his parents and his sisters, Debbie and Lisa, after an Australian lawyer told him that “the Tax Office will always have the advantage while we’re in the jurisdiction” and so the family decided to leave the country.

Nudie juice was founded by the Binetter family. Natalie Boog

Mr Sheahan formally questioned Gerda and Gary as well as Debbie and Lisa last year during the COVID-19 pandemic and again early this year, after winning court approval to act as a liquidator in Israel.

The family say that they knew nothing of business matters and that all arrangements were made by Emil Binetter, who died in 2014.

Mr Sheahan’s lawyers argue that as a consequence while the assets were not held in Emil’s name, he controlled and effectively owned the assets, which therefore belong to his estate.

The earlier cases have made waves in Israel, with the Inspector General of Banking appointing a retired judge, Hila Gerstel, to review IDB and MDB’s conduct in light of the revelations in the Binetter litigation.

Mr Sheahan told The Australian Financial Review he believed the $210 million raised to date in the Binetter case was “just the tip of the iceberg” of wealthy Australian taxpayers using similar structures to avoid tax.

“There’s no statute of limitations on this because it’s fraud,” he said.

A Perth man could face up to 22 years in jail for impersonating an ATO officer and failing to declare $7 million in income to avoid tax liabilities.

WA man charged over $2.57m tax evasion, ATO impersonation:

Baker Fraud Report – News you can use August 26, 2021 San Diego: Eight arrested on RICO charges for operating a grandparent scam Kentucky :  Romanian man gets 140 months (11 years +) for fraud in selling vehicles on line that were not delivered; also ran two other scams   Good news on bogus debt collectors:  Efforts to fight bogus debt collectors, who often try to collect debts that consumers never owed, have dropped dramatically from 484,220 in 2018, 134,320 in 2019, to 120,190 in 2020.   This was once the top source of fraud complaints to the FTC. So what happened? Was it the result of enforcement?  Let me know what happened.   Review and Recommendation: Darkest Hour.  How in a disastrous situation and against the appeals of the British elite to capitulate, Winston Churchill consulted the regular people of Britain, found them willing to fight on, and saved the British (and much of the French) army at Dunkirk.  Very well done.  A best actor Oscar for Gary Oldham.    BBB Studies. Here are links to some of the study topics: puppy fraud, tech support fraud, romance fraud money mules, apartment rental, crooked movers, government imposters, online vehicle sale scams, rental fraud and gift cards.   Fraud News Around the world Free trial offers use Fox celebrities in advertising CBD products on Facebook Texas: Man pleads guilty to selling phony Forex investments on social media Georgia Police seize $140 million in counterfeit goods EFCC in Nigeria arrests 37 for internet fraud ACCC in Australia warns of surge in scam emails asking people to update passport information Humor Maine man shot by booby trap he set himself Wanted man in Chicago stabs himself to avoid arrest Los Angeles burglar accidentally takes selfie while stealing phone Virus benefit Theft Georgia woman pleads guilty to $7.9 million PPP fraud DC man indicted for fraud; got $17 million from PPP Business Email compromise fraud (read BBB study) New York AG warns of BEC scams asking people to buy gift cards New Hampshire town loses $2.3 million to BEC scam Australia: Woman arrested for BEC scam Ransomware Hits National Treasury of Brazil Takes down Memorial Hospital system in Ohio Nevada hospital system hit; data on 1.3 million affected Hackers post information from Indiana hospital online Data Breaches Hacker pretends to be Apple support to steal 620,000 photos from Cloud services, looking for nude shots Bitcoin and cryptocurrency Over £113 million lost to crypto scams in 2020 Hacker steals $97 million from Crypto exchange Liquid ATM skimming Florida:Two men sentenced to four years prison apiece for ATM skimming Romance Fraud and Sextortion (read BBB romance fraud study) Kentucky: Man gets 51 months (more than four years) for laundering money from romance fraud victims and grant scams Study finds teens falling for romance scams more than older victims Romance frauds surge in Japan during pandemic

 

COLD WAR II: The Chinese Nuclear Breakout and the Biden Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review.

On August 12, 2021, the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command Admiral Charles Richard stated, “We are witnessing a strategic breakout by China….The explosive growth in their nuclear and conventional forces can only be what I described as breathtaking.” He added that “…frankly, that word ‘breathtaking’ may not be enough.” Admiral Richard characterized China as a “peer” nuclear competitor and noted that we now face two nuclear “peer” competitors, Russia and China, compared to one during the Cold War.

Admiral Richard was talking about the massive Chinese silo construction program for the large, multiple warhead DF-41 ICBM, generally reported to be able to carry 10 nuclear warheads. He confirmed the earlier reports of two new ICBM fields and that each had about 120 silos for the large Chinese DF-41 ICBM. On August 12, 2021, Bill Gertz wrote in The Washington Times that a third ICBM field had been discovered and that, “Together, the three new missile bases will house 350 to 400 new long-range nuclear missiles, U.S. officials said. If 10 warheads are deployed on the DF-41s, China‘s warhead level will increase to more than 4,000 warheads on its DF-41s alone.”

We’re still trying to figure out how (or even if) we’re going to replace 400 Minuteman III missiles that date back to the early ’70s.

Complicating things, each Minuteman is limited by treaty with Russia to a single warhead. China is under no such restriction.