Japan's Suga sides with Hiroshima 'black rain' victims, ending long legal battle


Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said previously unrecognized atomic bomb survivors need to be “saved” in response to a high court ruling that recognized 84 Hiroshima victims. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

July 26 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Monday his office will not challenge a high court ruling that recognizes 84 Hiroshima victims of radioactive "black rain" as state beneficiaries.

"In light of the principles of the atomic bomb survivors' assistance law, I feel that we need to save them," Suga said, according to Kyodo News.

The prime minister also said Tokyo wants to "issue certificates for hibakusha atomic bomb survivors immediately to all plaintiffs," Jiji Press reported.

"We want to consider a remedy also for other people who are in a similar situation."

Suga's statement comes after a long legal battle for the victims.

The plaintiffs have said they fell ill as a result of the atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945, but had for decades been ineligible for free health checkups unlike other officially recognized victims.

Black rain victims were outside government-recognized parameters at the time of the bombing, or northwest of the designated area running 12 miles in length and 7 miles in width, according to Jiji Press.

Japanese politicians hailed the prime minister's decision.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, a second-generation victim of the atomic bombing, said Suga had arrived at a "wise choice." Matsui said he would accelerate the registration process for victims.

"The survivors don't have much time left," the Japanese politician said, in reference to the average age of 84 among the survivors.

The Hiroshima High Court on July 14 upheld a lower court decision that recognized the plaintiffs as beneficiaries. In July of last year, Hiroshima District Court ruled the 84 victims of radioactive "black rain" did get sick as a result of the atomic bombing.

The plaintiffs first sued the city of Hiroshima and relevant prefectures in 2015. Regional governments initially pushed back against the suit, claiming there was no proof black rain had been a factor in the failing health of the victims.

The U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima killed 140,000 people.

Sardinia fires damage homes, business as Italy pleads for help


Fires burn in the Scano di Montiferro commune, in the province of Oristano, Sardinia Island, Italy, on Saturday. Photo by Manuele Scordo/EPA-EFE

July 26 (UPI) -- Italy received assistance from the rest of Europe on Monday as wildfires spread over 50,000 acres in the southwest of the island of Sardinia.

The European Union sent four aircraft to the area to assist in the efforts, The Guardian reported.

Officials on the island, located northwest of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, have been fighting fires since Saturday amid a heatwave. More than 7,000 firefighters were working to put out the blazes.

"The fires continue to be active on different fronts. All the available teams are there," the Oristano firefighting unit said in a statement.

Sardinian officials issued an emergency declaration Sunday.

Christian Solinas, who serves as president to the Sardinia region, described the fire as "an unprecedented disaster."

Some 1,500 people have been evacuated from the fires which have encroached on 13 towns.

"I put my family in the car and we escaped," Carlo Inzis told La Nuova Sardegna newspaper. "First we went to Sennariolo, then Macomer and then Bosa ... In essence, we spent the whole night fleeing."

Officials evacuated the village of Scano di Montiferro over the weekend along with several other nearby towns and villages.

The island similarly suffered from wildfires in 1983 and 1994.

In 2013, 20,000 acres burned on the island before coming under control.

U.S. charges Chinese prosecutor for harassing N.J. resident under Operation Fox Hunt

July 23 (UPI) -- The Justice Department has charged a Chinese prosecutor of traveling to the United States to lead a sprawling harassment campaign involving at least eight others to force a New Jersey resident to return to the Asian nation.

The new indictment announced Thursday adds 50-year-old Tu Lan, a prosecutor with the Hanyang People's Procuratorate, and another Chinese national to an indictment charging nine people, including a former New York City Police officer, of surveilling, harassing, stalking and threatening a U.S. resident and his family to force their repatriation to China.

The U.S. prosecutors accuse the nine defendants with others unnamed of acting in concert at the direction of the Chinese government under "Operation Fox Hunt," which seeks to force the return of Chinese nationals living abroad to face supposed charges.

"Unregistered, roving aents of a foreign power are not permitted to engage in secret surveillance of U.S. residents on American soil, and their illegal conduct will be met with the full force of U.S. law," Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said in a statement.

The conspiracy began in at least September of 2016 when the Chinese conspirators hired defendant Michael McMahon, the former New York City Police officer, to investigate and surveil John Doe and his family.

Following months of surveillance, the co-conspirators planned to force John Doe's repatriation "through psychological coercion" by bringing his elderly father from China to the United States where he'd tell his son that if he doesn't return with him his family who still reside in the Asian nation "would suffer serious harm, including imprisonment," the document said.

As part of this plan, Tu flew to the United States to oversee the operation a few days prior to the arrival of the target's father, who was instructed to lie to customs officials in order to enter the United States. According to the document, Tu returned to China a few days later but continued to oversee the plan.

Several days later, the target did not return to China with his father, who on the flight home was "very hostile" to his handler, Zhu Feng, who reported to Tu that the elderly man repeatedly talked to flight attendants and that he was concerned "there is informant on this flight," the court document said, adding that Tu then instructed Feng to "delete all the chat content."

The indictment states that several months later two defendants pounded on the front door of the target's New Jersey home and attempted to force their way inside before leaving a note at the residence that said: "If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That's the end of this matter!"

All of the defendants have been charged with acting as agents of China and conspiring to act as agents of China as well as with interstate stalking and conspiring to engage interstate stalking. Tu and Zhu have also been separately charged with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice

NATIONALIZE IT UNDER WORKERS CONTROL

Biden wants to bolster the pharma supply chain. A major generic plant closing may make that harder

By Ed Silverman

July 27, 2021

If you think bolstering the pharmaceutical supply chain in the U.S. is a national priority, you could be wrong.

Just take a look at the sorry situation in Morgantown, W. Va.

A decades-old generic-drug manufacturing plant run by Viatris — which was created last fall through a merger of Mylan and Pfizer’s Upjohn unit — will close this week, eliminating more than 1,200 jobs. Another 200 or so will go next year. The production work is being sent overseas, mostly to India, where Mylan already operates several facilities.

This is causing a political firestorm in a state that desperately needs jobs. The layoffs will remove $403 million in wages from the local economy in the next year and cut $62.8 million in state and local tax receipts, according to an analysis commissioned by The Democracy Collaborative, a nonprofit think tank that opposes the plant closing.

But it’s not just West Virginia that is losing out. So is the U.S., where 89% of all prescriptions written are for lower-cost generics.

A Viatris spokesperson says the plant made about three billion doses last year, although she declined to say how many were earmarked for the U.S. market. The drug maker has previously said that 20 billion doses were made in 2016, which was before a companywide restructuring began, production was gradually shifted elsewhere, and serious quality control problems had to be fixed.

Still, three billion doses is a lot. Yet the Biden administration has said nothing publicly about the closing or shown any sign of intervening. And the seeming lack of action is puzzling, to say the least.

Just last month, the White House issued a report warning about reliance on foreign pharmaceutical production, calling it a “key vulnerability” for the U.S. supply chain. One number jumped out: 63% of all plants that make finished generic doses are located outside the U.S. (see page 216). The takeaway, the report said, is that the U.S. needs “increased domestic production capacity for key drugs.”

The backdrop to this alarm is the Covid-19 pandemic, which underscored a need to bolster domestic production, for both for active pharmaceutical ingredients that are mostly made in China and finished medicines, including generics. At times, there also has been tumult in the generic market over shrinking competition and quality control lapses, which have contributed to both short and long-term shortages.

Related:
Dozens of generic makers and pharmacies won’t face lawsuits over Zantac and cancer risks

But building infrastructure — even with a solid vision — takes time. So why let the plant close?

Last April, West Virginia legislators offered a reasonable idea. They passed a resolution calling for Gov. Jim Justice to create a task force to urge the Biden administration to use the Defense Production Act to keep the plant open. “He has yet to do that,” State Sen. Mike Caputo told me. I asked the governor’s office for an explanation and will pass along any reply.

Last week, numerous patient advocacy groups and other organizations made the same plea in a letter to Biden. “We view this plant as a critical resource to ensure generic access for our patients,” Reshma Ramachandran, co-chair of the drug affordability action team at Doctors For America, wrote me.

I asked a White House spokesperson why the administration hasn’t taken this step and was referred to the Department of Health and Human Services, which hadn’t responded at the time this article published. I also asked the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency whether it will designate the plant as critical infrastructure, a step taken after an antibiotics maker planned to close a Tennessee plant. No word yet.

“This seems like an easy issue to be loud about,” says Ira Loss of Washington Analysis, who tracks how lawmakers and regulators view the pharmaceutical industry for investors. “And it’s a very important issue because most drugs used in this country are generic. I’m surprised the administration is asleep on this one.”

Related:
Teva agrees to pay $925,000 to Mississippi to settle generic price-fixing charges

Meanwhile, union officials, who represent Viatris workers, have their own theory: They believe Biden may be avoiding the issue because he needs to keep Sen. Joe Manchin on his side.

The West Virginia Democrat has become something of a power broker in a closely divided and highly partisan U.S. Senate, where his centrist views have made his vote critical to White House initiatives.

This may explain why his wife, Gayle Conelly Manchin, was recently appointed co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, a partnership between the federal and state governments to promote economic development. The job pays $163,000.

Then there’s Manchin’s daughter, Heather Bresch, who was Mylan’s chief executive officer until the merger closed. She was a controversial figure who alienated union members, inaccurately claimed to have completed an MBA, and angered millions of consumers over the price for EpiPen.

But here’s another important detail: Bresch was rewarded with nearly $31 million after the merger was completed last fall. Some of her former Mylan colleagues, who now run Viatris and decided to close the plant, also made out well.

Of course, if she has already collected her money, why risk angering Manchin by pushing him to jawbone Viatris management or directors? After all, it’s only one manufacturing plant and production has already dropped.

“The bottom line is they need Joe Manchin for his swing vote,” says Joe Gouzd, president of United Steelworkers Union Local 8-957, which represents 855 Viatris employees. “How much do you think they want to get involved in this when they need his assistance for their agenda on the Senate floor? His daughter gets $30 million and his wife gets a job. How can people not connect these dots?”

Related:
Most clinical trials failed to meet U.S. transparency requirements for recently approved drugs

For some, this line of thinking may be a stretch. But Manchin has done little to quell the speculation.

When I asked about his efforts to save the plant, I received a statement saying he has spent months talking to the drug maker and local and state officials “to find a solution that protects every single job.” But there was no response when asked why he didn’t push the White House to use the Defense Production Act.

The Viatris spokesperson maintained the company “worked diligently” to find viable alternatives for the plant and “communicated with all potential prospects” in hopes of obtaining a proposal to maintain the site. “This work continues and the process is ongoing,” she wrote me.

The plant, however, closes in a few days.

Maybe the Biden administration will somehow find a way to revive the facility at a later date. But that hardly speaks to the sense of urgency in its own report.

As my father taught me: actions speak louder than words.

About the Author


Ed Silverman
Pharmalot Columnist, Senior Writer
Ed covers the pharmaceutical industry.
ed.silverman@statnews.com

Time for international rule of law in the Israel-Palestine conflict - Omar Grech

The illegalities are indisputable and at the root of this human catastrophe

Opinion 

Comment

 Middle East 

Rule of Law
May 21, 2021|

Omar Grech|

TIMES OF MALTA

Palestinian man walks past the destroyed Al-Shuruq building in Gaza City on May 20, 2021. Photo: Shutterstock


International law is not an area of law that the mainstream media engages with or refers to frequently. When international law does feature in the media, it often gets bad press. The current situation in Israel-Palestine is a case in point. It is not just that international law has been flouted by the parties to the present violence. The root cause of the violence may be traced to a consistent breach of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to live in their own state, rather than living as refugees in their own country.

As the ceasefire was announced the conflict left 12 Israelis and 230 Palestinians dead. Moreover, the Israeli strikes also caused many more injured and wounded as well a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. No one came out well from this latest escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israel government once again has breached international humanitarian law rules on proportionality and attacking civilian infrastructure. The destruction of the building which housed Al Jazeera and Associated Press being a case in point. Hamas was also breaching international law by firing rockets indiscriminately into the south of Israel.

The US administration under President Biden proved for the umpteenth time that when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US cannot act as a mediator. The US administration blocked several United Nations Security Council statements on Gaza as well as a resolution drafted by France. The US’ unwavering support for Israel even when it breaches international law remains a major obstacle to a durable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The European Union has, as usual, been ineffective when it comes to foreign policy. It will doubtless (once again) foot a substantial part of the costs for rebuilding Gaza, but it is unable to take the lead and be a forceful foreign policy player in its near neighbourhood.

Palestinians celebrate in Ramallah city centre in support of the resistance in Gaza, after the ceasefire. Photo: Shutterstock

In order to understand the current escalation of violence, it is essential to examine the root causes of the conflict. The immediate trigger of the recent violence was the eviction of Palestinian from the East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah where they have lived for generations. However, these evictions are simply a manifestation of the constant and continuous erosion of the right of Palestinians to live in their homes. For decades they have been harassed and hounded out of their homes increasingly encroached upon by Israeli settlements.

That settlements are illegal in international law is indisputable. That international law through UN Security Council resolution 242 has mandated the complete withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory is equally indisputable. And yet the settlements are still there and the evictions of Palestinians continue. The two-state solution, which a large portion of the international community (including the EU) support, would provide Palestinians with the dignity they are entitled to and with a state able to ensure the recognition of their rights. However, the viability of this solution has persistently been eroded through the expansion of Israeli settlements.


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This failure to uphold the international rule of law has left Palestinians frustrated and helpless. Hamas have taken advantage of this helplessness in Gaza by offering the false promise of violence. The Israeli government has taken advantage of Hamas’ pointless attacks on Israel to inflict further punishment on the people of Gaza destroying the little infrastructure that remains and swelling the ranks of the dispossessed and the desperate.

We have been hearing much about the importance of the rule of law in domestic affairs. It is time that the international community, including the USA, recalls that the international rule of law is equally fundamental and that unless its tenets are respected in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the root causes of this conflict will remain unaddressed.

Omar Grech is a senior lecturer in international law and director of the Centre for the Study and Practice of Conflict Resolution at the University of Malta.

 

Israel Strikes Gaza and Reduces Palestinian Fishing Zone

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  Smoke rising from sites bombed by Israel in Gaza, July 26, 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @PeriodistaMarco

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Published 26 July 2021

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Once again, Israel violates ceasefire and sends its fighter jets to bomb Palestinian territories.

In retaliation for the launching of incendiary balloons from Palestinian territory over the weekend, Israel reduced the fishing zone authorized to Palestinian people and bombed Gaza early Monday morning.

RELATED:

Palestine Welcomes Decision To Investigate Israeli Violations

"Army fighter jets struck a Hamas military base that contained infrastructure and means used for terrorist activities," an Israeli military spokesman said and admitted that the target attacked was next to a school and other civilian buildings.

"The attacks were carried out in response to incendiary balloons fired into Israeli territory," the military argued to justify the aggression.

Palestinian security sources in the enclave and eyewitnesses detailed that the shelling took place in the northern and southern areas of the Strip and caused no injuries.

This incident comes hours after Israel reduced the fishing zone in Gaza from twelve to six nautical miles. This additional retaliation reversed the previous decision to extend this zone, which was taken when the Israeli military escalation against Gaza culminated in May leaving 260 Palestinians dead.

#Israel broke the ceasefire agreed and bombed #Gaza
If HAMAS bomb Tal Aviv now, The world will say Hamas who's the one break ceasefire agrred.#IsraeliTerrorism #FreePalestine#SaveSheikhJarrah pic.twitter.com/kq14gbY3NJ

— Bello Zia (@BelloZia) July 26, 2021

Following the attack, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned that a tightening of the Israeli blockade against the enclave could generate more tension and violence.

"More Israeli restrictions and an increased siege on Gaza will only generate an explosion," Hamas spokesman Abdullatif al-Kanoua said and urged Israel to abide by the cease-fire and ease transit through the border crossings.

On Sunday, Hamas also denounced that Israel blocked the entry of 25 trucks loaded with fuel from Qatar, with which Gaza planned to supply the only existing power plant in the Palestinian territory.

CYBERWAR
Disruptions from Cyber Attack Force

S. Africa Port Operator to Declare ‘Force Majeure’
By Felix Njini and John Viljoen | July 27, 2021


Transnet SOC Ltd., South Africa’s state-owned ports and freight-rail company, declared force majeure at the country’s key container terminals after disruptions caused by a cyber attack five days ago.

The measure covers the Durban, Ngqura, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town harbors because of the effects of the July 22 attack, according to a notice Transnet sent to customers and seen by Bloomberg News. The issues “continue to persist,” it said. Force majeure is an unanticipated or uncontrollable event that releases a company from fulfilling contractual obligations.

“Transnet, including Transnet Port Terminals, experienced an act of cyber-attack, security intrusion and sabotage, which resulted in the disruption of TPT normal processes and functions or the destruction or damage of equipment or information,” it said. “Investigators are currently determining the exact source of the cause of compromise and extent of the ICT data security breach or sabotage.”

Read more: Cyber Attack Disrupts Container Operations at Major South African Port

The disruption threatens to have a ripple effect on Africa’s most-industrialized economy, particularly as Transnet’s Durban port handles 60% of the nation’s shipments. The ports are also key to shippers from landlocked African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A prolonged impact on container terminal operations looms as a further blow to South Africa’s fragile recovery from the pandemic and a series of lockdowns, after the destruction caused by deadly riots that shuttered businesses in two provinces earlier this month.

Transnet is taking “all available and reasonable mitigation measures” to limit the impact from the disruption. Container terminals are operating, but at a slower place pace, while a manual system for moving containers has been adopted.

The company didn’t immediately respond to calls, an email and text messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Photograph: A loading crane near shipping containers at City Deep inland port in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo credit: Karel Prinsloo/Bloomberg.

CYBERWAR

Urgent need to escape the surveillance technology jungle

ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

ORGANISATION
RSF_en
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for strict international regulation of spyware in the wake of the “Pegasus Project” revelations about the scale of the use of surveillance technology, including against journalists, which have confirmed the urgency of the need for a moratorium on the sale of this technology.

The “Pegasus Project” investigation has shown that the Pegasus spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO Group is systematically used for surveillance that violates the most fundamental human rights safeguards. Just the number of journalists targeted by this technology – nearly 200 – confirms the degree to which the surveillance technology sector is escaping regulation.

The Wassenaar Arrangement – which is the main multilateral agreement for controlling the exportation of dual-use products and technology and which dates back to 1996 – has once again proved largely inadequate and inoperative.

There are many reasons for this, starting with its area of application, which is not limited to surveillance technology and covers all types of dual-use products and technology, and its purpose, which is to regulate them in their entirety, treating them all as one, rather than treating each type separately. Its legal scope is limited and it lacks any independent control mechanism. It groups only 40 countries, which don’t include two dual-use exporting countries, Israel and Cyprus. And it functions by consensus, giving each participating government a right of veto, which encourages minimal regulation.

The European Union’s 2009 Dual-Use Regulation was finally updated in a laborious process completed in March and is due to take effect in September. Inspired by the Wassenaar Arrangement, and without any influence on exporting states that are not parties to the regulation, it will not suffice to fill the gaps.

“The law of the jungle cannot prevail any longer,” said Iris de Villars, the head of RSF’s Tech Desk. “The Pegasus affair must serve as the trigger for adopting a general moratorium on the surveillance technology exports and for starting work on an international regulation worthy of the name.”

On 19 July, RSF asked democratic governments to impose an immediate moratorium on the sale of surveillance technology until safeguards have been established to prevent its oppressive use. And on 21 July, RSF urged the Israeli Prime Minister to impose an immediate moratorium on surveillance technology exports until a protective regulatory framework has been established.

The announcement by the head of the Knesset’s foreign affairs and defence committee on 23 July that a panel was being set up to review export licences was a step in the right direction but nothing indicates that this unilateral review will lead to guarantees that the same will not happen again in the future.

RSF recommends the development of a global legal framework for regulating surveillance technology based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and providing for adaptation to national legislation.

Legislative reforms are needed in all the countries concerned in order to impose a due diligence requirement as regards human rights on companies that produce and export this technology.

Companies should be required to identify, prevent and mitigate the potential and actual negative effects of their activities and value chain on human rights, and to report publicly and regularly on the obstacles encountered and the measures taken, with the possibility of being held criminally liable if they fail to do so.

Governments should be required to publish at least quarterly information on the surveillance technology export licences they have approved or denied, and to include information about the nature of the equipment, a description of the product, the country of destination, the end user and the final use.

Governments must also improve their capacity to investigate the circumvention of export controls when there are serious grounds for suspecting that human rights violations have been committed using exported surveillance technology.

RSF will join initiatives calling for a moratorium and aimed at beginning work on drafting international regulations of this kind.

https://rsf.org/en/news/

EXPLAINER: 

US pays $4B to Afghan forces; 

Who is watching? NO ONE

By KATHY GANNON

1 of 6
FILE - In this July 17, 2021 file photo, masked Afghan Army Special Forces attend their graduation ceremony after a three-month training program at the Kabul Military Training Center, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The US and NATO have promised to pay $4 billion a year until 2024 to finance Afghanistan’s military and security forces, which are struggling to contain an advancing Taliban. Already since 2001, the U.S. has spent nearly $89 billion to build, equip and train the forces. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)


ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. and NATO have promised to pay $4 billion a year until 2024 to finance Afghanistan’s military and security forces, which are struggling to contain an advancing Taliban. Already, the U.S. has spent nearly $89 billion over the past 20 years to build, equip and train Afghan forces.

Yet America’s own government watchdog says oversight of the money has been poor, hundreds of millions of dollars have been misspent and corruption is rife in the security apparatus.

Monitoring where the future funding goes will become virtually impossible after Aug. 31, when the last coalition troops leave. Here is a look at some of the issues:

U.S. SPENDING SINCE 2001

Nearly $83 billion has been spent to build, equip, train and sustain Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces, which include the military, national police and the elite special forces.

That figure covers wide range of items. For example, the U.S. spent nearly $10 billion for vehicles and aircraft. It spent $3.75 billion on fuel for the Afghan military between 2010-2020.

Separately, another $5.8 billion went into economic and government development and infrastructure since 2001, with the expressed goal of winning public support and blunting the Taliban insurgency. The figures are from reports by John Sopko, the Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, tasked with monitoring how U.S. taxpayer dollars are spent.

The U.S. allocation for 2022 is $3.3 billion. It will include $1 billion to support the Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing, $1 billion for fuel, ammunition and spare parts, and $700 million to pay salaries for Afghan soldiers.

It is difficult to see how the Afghan government will be able to pay to keep its military running after 2024.

More than 80% of the Afghan government budget is paid by the U.S. and its allies, according to SIGAR. Economic projections suggesting Kabul could carry more of the financial burden have been either wrong or vastly exaggerated, Sopko reported. Afghanistan’s growth rate was to be 3.4% in 2021 but instead shrunk by 2%. In the last 4 of 7 years, Afghanistan has missed its economic growth targets.

WASTE AND CORRUPTION

Much of the billions injected into Afghanistan the past two decades has gone largely unmonitored, leading to runaway corruption by both Afghans and foreign contractors.

Sopko has issued dozens of reports identifying waste, mismanagement and outright corruption.

In one instance, the U.S. spent $547 million to buy and refurbish 20 G222 military transport aircraft for the Afghan Air Force. Sixteen of them were later sold as junk to Afghan scrap dealers for $40,257 because the American refurbishers delivered flawed and unsafe aircraft.

A retired U.S. air force general, contrary to retirement rules, had links to the firm that refurbished the planes, according to a report by Sopko earlier this year. The report said the Justice Department informed the watchdog agency in May 2020 that it would not prosecute any criminal or civil cases connected to the G222 program.

Of $7.8 billion provided since 2008 to Afghan civilian authorities for buildings and vehicles, only $1.2 billion went to buildings and vehicles that were used as intended. Only $343.2 million worth of what was acquired was maintained in good condition, Sopko said earlier this year.

The Afghan army and police force officially have around 320,000 members, but SIGAR says the number is closer to 280,000. The discrepancy is attributed to the presence of so-called ghost soldiers, where corrupt officials pad the personnel numbers to collect money, reported SIGAR.

Sopko said in one of his reports that lack of oversight allowed bribery, fraud, extortion and nepotism, “as well as the empowerment of abusive warlords and their militias.”

“Corruption significantly undermined the U.S. mission in Afghanistan by damaging the legitimacy of the Afghan government, strengthening popular support for the insurgency, and channeling material resources to insurgent groups.”

WHAT KIND OF MILITARY IS LEFT?

For all the time, training and money funneled by the U.S. into the Afghan military as a whole, the small, elite commando forces appear to be the only units capable of standing as a bulwark against the Taliban.

As Taliban swept through districts in recent weeks, regular army and police have in many instances either negotiated their surrender to Taliban or simply walked off their bases.

 Often, their superiors left them without resupplies of ammunition, troops and sometimes even food as they faced the advancing insurgents.

Throughout the war, U.S. air support has been a crucial edge for Afghan forces on the battlefield. So building Afghan capabilities to carry out the role was vital, and the U.S. spent more than $8.5 billion to support and develop the Afghan Air Force and the Special Mission Wing.

However, the Afghan air force risks being largely grounded once the coalition leaves. The Afghans’ fleet of fighter jets is serviced by U.S. contractors, who are leaving along with the troops. Afghan officials say the coalition never gave them the training or infrastructure to carry out maintenance themselves.

The same holds for much of the arsenal of armored vehicles and heavy weapons the Americans have left for the Afghan military.

Several Afghan officials who spoke to The Associated Press were deeply critical of the U.S. and NATO failure to invest in factories to make spare parts, manufacturing plants to produce ammunition and training to produce skilled Afghan mechanics.

“Every bullet had to come from America,” said Gen. Dawlat Waziri a former Afghan Defense Ministry official. “Why weren’t we making them here?”

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the coalition failed the Afghan government and military by making them overdependent on Western support.

More broadly, “the U.S. trained the wrong kind of army — a Western-styled army — when it needed to train an army capable of fighting the Taliban,” said Roggio, who is also senior editor of The Long War Journal.

“The commandos, Special Forces and Air Force have performed well, but the regular Afghan Army, which make up a bulk of the fighting force, is not up to task,” he said.

MONITORING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

It’s been several years since U.S. officials have been able to physically monitor U.S.-funded projects, because deteriorating security countrywide drastically restricted U.S. Embassy personnel’s movements.

By 2016, U.S. advisers couldn’t even meet Afghan security officials at their Kabul offices without heavily armored convoys, and later they could only go by helicopter, said Sopko’s July report.

Staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul has been reduced to mostly essential personnel since mid-April. An embassy official told the AP that 1,400 Americans remain at the embassy, mostly restricted to the compound.

Roggio said the U.S. and NATO had a hard enough time monitoring aid when they were in Afghanistan; it will be virtually impossible once they leave.

“And with the Taliban rampaging across the country,” he added, “the incentive for Afghan officials to plunder the cash only increases.”

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PERMANENT+ARMS+ECONOMY

 

Blinken Pull Out Statement on Cuba, “US Isolated,” Cuba Notice

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  Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not replied to any of the challenges posed by the Cuban Foreign Minister regarding the US role in July 11 protests. | Photo: Twitter/@timesofindia

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Published 26 July 2021 (12 hours 42 minutes ago)

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On Monday Rodríguez Parilla rejected the statement noticing that "the U.S. is now isolated for it could only impose clumsy declaration vs Cuba on 19 governments as compared to the 184 that reject US blockade." 

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed on Monday that Joe Biden´s administration will continue its belligerent policy against Cuba. This, as the U.S. put out a statement alongside another 19 countries condemning the island in the aftermath of the July 11 protests.

RELATED:

Let Cuba Live!, Progressive Leaders Around the World Demand

"The United States and the international community (19 countries) will continue to provide support for the Cuban people in their effort to exercise human rights and universal freedoms to which all individuals are entitled," the statement remarks.

Last the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla revealed a draft created in the State Department, by which the U.S. would pressure country members of the Organization of American States (OAS) to condemn Cuba. The Cuban official challenged US authorities but they did not reply.

On Monday Rodríguez Parilla rejected the statement noticing that "the U.S. is now isolated for it could only impose clumsy declaration vs Cuba on 19 governments as compared to the 184 that reject US blockade."