Declassified video shows US drone strike on civilians

The botched US air raid killed 10 civilians in Kabul, most of them children

Declassified surveillance footage shows the moment a US drone bombed an innocent family in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 29, 2021. ©  US Department of Defense / New York Times

The Pentagon has released surveillance videos showing a US air strike that killed 10 civilians in the Afghan capital last year, one of the final American combat missions in the country as Washington ended its two-decade war.

Published by the New York Times on Wednesday, the declassified 25-minute video shows the moment an Afghan aid worker and nine other non-combatants, including seven children, were killed in the US strike, all captured by two drones flying over Kabul during the August 29, 2021 bombing raid.

While the military initially claimed the strike targeted members of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) who were transporting explosives – with one senior official deeming the operation “righteous” – it was later forced to backtrack and acknowledge that only civilians were killed in the attack. 

Ahead of the strike, two MQ-9 Reaper drones trailed a white Toyota Corolla driven by a man later identified as Zemari Ahmadi, an aid worker with the US-based Nutrition and Education International. After following him for some time, Ahmadi’s car was struck as he pulled into the driveway of his home, seen around eight minutes into the footage. The blast engulfed the property, instantly killing Ahmadi and several children who rushed out to greet him, as well as other family members nearby.

READ MORE: Pentagon names alleged ‘ISIS-K facilitator’ killed in Afghanistan drone strike, after admitting Kabul op killed 10 civilians

A probe by the Air Force concluded that the operation did not violate any laws and recommended no disciplinary action. Though the investigation did find that surveillance footage showed the presence of at least one child near the site of the strike about two minutes before it was launched, the Pentagon said that would have been easy to miss in real-time.  

“[In] two independent reviews that I conducted, the physical evidence of a child was apparent at the two-minute point. But it is 100 percent not obvious; you have to be looking for it,” Air Force Inspector General Sami Said told reporters in November following the inquiry, insisting the massacre was a “mistake” and not an act of “negligence.”

The declassified footage was obtained in a months-long Freedom of Information Act suit led by the Times, which was the first to uncover evidence the drone strike may not have killed any IS terrorists as the military initially claimed. The Pentagon also attempted to pin the loss of innocent life on a “secondary explosion” near Ahmadi’s home – suggesting he was indeed carrying a bomb in his car – but later said the fireball was likely caused by a propane tank, effectively abandoning any notion that he was a militant.

READ MORE: Pentagon offers unspecified ‘condolence payments’ for 7 Afghan children & aid worker murdered in botched drone strike

PLEASANTLY STICKY
CHINA'S YUTU-2 ROVER: 3 DISCOVERIES FROM THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
The findings reveal mysterious soil and build the groundwork for future missions.

JON KELVEY
1.19.2022 

-/AFP/Getty Images

ALTHOUGH IT TURNED OUT CHINA’S YUTU-2 LUNAR ROVER did not discover an alien monolith on the Moon, but rather a small boulder that appeared bizarrely square from a distance, the lunar robot has still made other significant discoveries about the far side of the Moon.

In a new paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotics, researchers from the Yutu-2 rover team detailed their findings from two years of robotic explorations of the far side of the Moon (the side always facing away from us since the Moon is tidally locked with Earth).

The far side of the Moon as imaged by the Clementine spacecraft in 1998. NASA


While missions like NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have provided detailed maps of the entire lunar surface, Yutu-2 has yielded information about the subsurface structure of the Moon’s far side and details about the lunar regolith that you can only learn by physically stirring up the dirt. The results could help guide further lunar exploration by both China and the US.

Yutu-2 made three critical discoveries by playing in the lunar dirt, all of which could have implications for future robotic and human exploration of the far side of the Moon and our satellite’s southern polar region.
3. THE FAR SIDE TERRAIN IS RELATIVELY FLAT AND FREE OF ROCKS

In the first 25 lunar days (around 738 Earth days) of Yutu-2’s mission, the rover crawled over more than 2,700 feet across the 110-mile diameter Von Kármán impact crater within the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s southern polar region.

The Yutu-2 rover found the terrain to be relatively flat and free of rocks compared with areas on the side of the Moon facing Earth, such as the Mare Imbrium explored by the first Yutu rover from 2013 to 2015, and by Luna 17 and Apollo 15 in the early 1970s. “Rocks along the traverse route (Fig. 6) are relatively rare in comparison with those scattered around the [Yutu-1] landing site,” the story authors write. Larger rocks like those seen at Mare Imbrium “are absent from observations.”

At least we now know what the small boulder responsible for the “mystery hut” mirage, now dubbed “Jade Rabbit,” stood out so well at the rim of a crater. And speaking of craters …
2. THE LUNAR FAR SIDE IS CRATER-STREWN

There are 88 impact craters within 50 meters of the path Yutu-2 has taken across the Moon, with an average diameter of almost 12 meters. The vast majority come in at less than 10 meters diameters. Planetary scientists believe the craters to be largely secondary impact craters from ejecta thrown from the impact that created the Zhinyu crater west of the rover’s landing site.


It was in the bottom of a 2-meter diameter crater that Yutu-2 discovered another compelling mystery, a “dark greenish, glistening material” originally described as gel-like, which may be rock melted together by the heat of an impact.
1. THE FAR SIDE LUNAR REGOLITH HAS THE CONSISTENCY OF STICKY SAND

By observing how lunar regolith stuck to the Yutu-2 rover’s wire mesh wheels and measuring how the wheels occasionally slipped in the regolith, the researchers were able to calculate its consistency and load-bearing properties. “The regolith resembles dry sand and sandy loam on Earth,” they write, “demonstrating greater bearing strength than that identified during the Apollo missions.”

The somewhat sticky property of the lunar regolith was observed across multiple lunar days, suggesting it is a regional characteristic rather than a site-specific property of a patch of regolith, the researchers write, and they theorize the property may result from greater and more prolonged exposure to space weathering than lunar near-side regions.

HOW THEY DID IT — The Yutu-2 rover is a relatively lightweight (77 pounds), six-wheeled, semi-autonomous rover equipped with a panoramic camera, near-infrared spectrometer, and ground-penetrating radar, among other scientific instruments. The rover landed on the Moon on January 3, 2019, as a component of the Chang’e 4 mission, the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon. Together, the Chang’e 4 lander and Yutu-2 rover are the successors to the Chang’e 2 lander and original Yutu rover mission, which made the first soft landing in the Mare Imbrium on the Moon since Luna 24 in 1976.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT ABOUT THE YUTU-2 FINDINGS?— The Yutu-2 rover findings could help guide the design of future robotic missions to the southern polar region on the far side of the Moon.

The more-supportive-than-expected soil could support larger-scale robots, the researchers note, while the cratered surface could necessitate “legged robots, hybrid wheel-legged robots, or tethered rovers'' for future exploration — Yutu-2 wasn’t able to get up close and personal with the greenish gel-like substance because researchers feared it wouldn’t be able to climb back out of the crater.


And given that the sticky regolith adhered to the lugs on Yutu-2’s wheels rather than the wire mesh, future missions might consider “coating the lugs’ surface with a special anti-adhesion material.”

Both the China National Space Administration and NASA plan to explore the Moon’s southern polar — China as part of the International Lunar Research Station program it is pursuing with Russia, and NASA as part of the Artemis program and its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

WHAT’S NEXT?— Yutu-2 will continue exploring the far side of the Moon, and the researchers hope to make better use of the tools the rover makes available to learn even more about the environment. And they’re not just considering the dedicated science instruments.

“For instance,” they write, “trenching experiments can be conducted using one of the rover’s wheels to expose the near-subsurface soil.”
Abstract — The lunar nearside has been investigated by many uncrewed and crewed missions, but the farside of the Moon remains poorly known. Lunar farside exploration is challenging because maneuvering rovers with efficient locomotion in harsh extraterrestrial environment is necessary to explore geological characteristics of scientific interest. Chang’E-4 mission successfully targeted the Moon’s farside and deployed a teleoperated rover (Yutu-2) to explore inside the Von Kármán crater, conveying rich information regarding regolith, craters, and rocks. Here, we report mobile exploration on the lunar farside with Yutu-2 over the initial 2 years. During its journey, Yutu-2 has experienced varying degrees of mild slip and skid, indicating that the terrain is relatively flat at large scales but scattered with local gentle slopes. Cloddy soil sticking on its wheels implies a greater cohesion of the lunar soil than encountered at other lunar landing sites. Further identification results indicate that the regolith resembles dry sand and sandy loam on Earth in bearing properties, demonstrating greater bearing strength than that identified during the Apollo missions. In sharp contrast to the sparsity of rocks along the traverse route, small fresh craters with unilateral moldable ejecta are abundant, and some of them contain high-reflectance materials at the bottom, suggestive of secondary impact events. These findings hint at notable differences in the surface geology between the lunar farside and nearside. Experience gained with Yutu-2 improves the understanding of the farside of the Moon, which, in return, may lead to locomotion with improved efficiency and larger range.

Former Pope Benedict named in report over Church's handling of child sex abuse in Germany

FORMER HEAD OF THE DOGS OF GOD;

THE INQUISITION

Agence France-Presse
January 20, 2022


Former pope Benedict critical of German Catholics - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI arrives at the airport for his return flight to the Vatican. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lashed out at Germany's Catholic Church in published comments on Monday, perhaps signalling a new fight between the church's conservative and liberal wings. - Sven Hoppe/dpa-Pool/dpa

A potentially explosive report into the handling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church will on Thursday be published in Germany, with former pope Benedict XVI among those in the spotlight.

The report by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) will analyze how abuse cases were dealt with in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising between 1945 and 2019.

The Munich archdiocese, which commissioned the report, said it will examine "whether those responsible complied with legal requirements... and acted appropriately in dealing with suspected cases and possible perpetrators".

Ex-pope Benedict -- whose civilian name is Josef Ratzinger -- was the archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.

During this time, a now notorious pedophile priest named Peter Hullermann was transferred to Munich from Essen in western Germany where he had been accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy.

Hullermann was reassigned to pastoral duties despite his history.

In 1986, by which time Ratzinger had been transferred to the Vatican, he was convicted of molesting more children and given a suspended prison sentence.

Even after the conviction, he continued to work with children for many years and his case is regarded as a pertinent example of the mishandling of abuse by the Church.

Benedict has denied knowing about the priest's history.

82-page statement

The ex-pope has provided an 82-page statement in response to questions from WSW, according to German media reports.

The pope emeritus "takes the fates of the abuse victims very much to heart" and is fully "in favor of the publication of the Munich report", his spokesman Georg Gaenswein told the Bild daily.

Benedict, 94, in 2013 became the first pope ever to step down from the role in 600 years and now lives a secluded life in a former convent inside the grounds of the Vatican.

The reformist Catholic group "Wir sind Kirche" (We are Church) called on the ex-pontiff to take responsibility for what happened while he was in charge of the Munich diocese.


"An admission by Ratzinger that through his actions or inactions, knowledge or ignorance, he was personally and professionally complicit in the suffering of many young people would be... an example for many other bishops and responsible persons," it said in a statement.

Germany's Catholic Church has been rocked by a string of reports in recent years that have exposed widespread abuse of children by clergymen.

A study commissioned by the German Bishops' Conference in 2018 concluded that 1,670 clergymen in the country had committed some form of sexual attack against 3,677 minors between 1946 and 2014.

'Systemic failure'

However, the real number of victims is thought to be much higher.


Another report published last year exposed the scope of abuse committed by priests in Germany's top diocese of Cologne.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the current archbishop of Munich and Freising, last year offered Pope Francis his resignation over the church's "institutional and systemic failure" in its handling of child sex abuse scandals.

However, Pope Francis rejected his offer, urging the cardinal known for his reforms to stay and help shape change in the Catholic Church.

As archbishop in Munich since 2007, Marx could also find himself under scrutiny in the WSW report.

Friedrich Wetter, who held the role from 1982 to 2007, is also still alive.

The abuse scandal has thwarted the Catholic Church's efforts to spearhead broad reforms in Germany.

It counted 22.2 million members in 2020 and is still the largest religion in the country, but the number is 2.5 million fewer than in 2010 when the first major wave of pedophile abuse cases came to light.

Payouts for victims of abuse were increased in 2020 to up to 50,000 euros ($56,700), from around 5,000 euros previously, but campaigners say the sum is still inadequate.

Ahead of the publication of the Munich report, the Eckiger Tisch victims' group called for "compensation instead of hollow words".

"Far too many children and young people have fallen victim" to a system "shaped by abuse of power, intransparency and despotism", said Matthias Katsch, a spokesman for the group.

(AFP)

Polish researchers invent anti-smog sound cannon
Agence France-Presse
January 20, 2022

The experimental sound "cannon", which Polish researchers say can blast toxic particles hundreds of meters into the sky BARTOSZ SIEDLIK AFP

In a battle against Poland's constant smog, scientists are testing out a new "cannon" that uses sound waves to push toxic particles higher into the atmosphere to allow residents to breathe.

Installed on top of a metal container, the experimental device consists of a large upside-down cone that makes a loud sound every six seconds.

The aim is to chase the smog from Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, which like many Polish towns and cities faces the problem every winter when residents fire up highly polluting heating systems.

When the sun goes down, a heavy smog descends on the town as chimneys belch out thick smoke.

Poland is one of the most polluted countries in Europe, breaching EU norms by hundreds of percentage points at the worst times of year.

By creating sound waves, researchers say that the "cannon" helps reduce the concentration of harmful PM2.5 and PM10 particles in the town's air.

"We are using a vertical shockwave that is created by the combustion of acetylene and air," said Dominik Grybos from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow, one of the inventors.

"The wave projects the polluted air higher," he told AFP.

The toxic particles are sent up several hundred meters (yards) higher, making them harmless for residents.

"We have found that if we use the cannon for between half an hour and an hour, the pollution is reduced by 15-30 percent within a perimeter of two-three kilometers (1.2-1.9 miles) from the cannon," Grybos said, adding that the effects last for "between one and three hours".

Researchers are trying to work out the required frequency of the blasts, as well as the duration and the time needed for the entire procedure.

The price is estimated at 1,000-1,500 zloty ($250-$375) for one hour of use.

Grybos said he hopes the invention could find a commercial use, particularly in Poland.

Residents of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska are broadly in favor of the idea despite the sound.

"The smog is very heavy here. We can't air our flats because it stinks so much. So, if it can help, let them do the tests," said Jolanta Walkowicz, a 43-year-old accountant.

"We can barely hear the sound -- it's like fireworks going off," she added.

© 2022 AFP

Monster iceberg released 'billions of tonnes' of fresh water into ocean
Agence France-Presse
January 20, 2022

The A-68 iceberg was one of the largest ever observed HO NASA/AFP/File

A giant iceberg that detached from Antarctica in 2017 released the equivalent of 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of fresh water as it melted, according to research published Thursday, raising questions over the impact on the marine ecosystem.

The monstrous iceberg was twice the size of Luxembourg when it separated from the Larsen ice shelf, which has warmed faster than any other part of Earth's southernmost continent.

At 5,719 square kilometres (2,200 square miles) it was the biggest iceberg on Earth when it formed and the sixth-largest on record, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

For two years, the trillion-tonne giant known as A-68, drifted close to home in the cold waters of the Weddell Sea before traveling northwards and menacing the British island of South Georgia, some 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from its starting point.

The iceberg, by then known as A-68a after a piece snapped off, came dangerously close to the island in late 2020, raising fears that it would become stuck on the seabed, block ocean currents and obstruct the passage of thousands of penguins and seals.

But the new study found that while it did briefly graze the seabed, the iceberg melted quickly once in the warmer region around South Georgia and had already lost a significant amount of its bulk by the time it reached shallower waters.

Researchers who tracked its journey via satellites calculated that from late 2020 until it melted away in 2021, A-68 released an estimated total of 152 billion tonnes of nutrient-rich fresh water into the sea.

That is equivalent to 20 times the water in Scotland's Loch Ness, or 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, said the BAS in a press release, adding it was "a disturbance that could have a profound impact on the island's marine habitat".

"This is a huge amount of melt water," said Anne Braakmann-Folgmann, a researcher at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), who led the research published in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.

"The next thing we want to learn is whether it had a positive or negative impact on the ecosystem" around South Georgia, she said.

© 2022 AFP

THOSE 'OTHER' AMERICANS

'Craven' Mitch McConnell condemned for 'shockingly racist' remarks about Black voters
Travis Gettys
January 20, 2022

McConnell

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell was widely criticized for suggesting Black Americans were not fully American.

The Kentucky Republican spoke to reporters Wednesday after two Democratic senators refused to go along with a plan to change Senate rule to overcome a GOP filibuster of voting rights legislation, and he was asked what he would say to voters of color who are concerned about their access to the polls before November's midterm elections.

"Well, the concern is misplaced," McConnell said. "Because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

McConnell's remarks were quickly condemned online.

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00:1801:38

DEFINITION OF A FIFTH COLUMN

GOP Texas governor candidate: It would be 'cancel culture' to fire campaign staffer with white nationalist ties

Brad Reed
January 19, 2022


Don Huffines, a Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate who is running a primary challenge against incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, is refusing to fire a campaign staffer who has in the past been allied with avowed white nationalists.

As Huffington Post reports, Huffines is standing by right-wing activist Jake Lloyd Colglazier, who was once a featured speaker at an America First conference organized by Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, and who once claimed that the white "race is dying."

In an interview with Huffington Post, Huffines said that he wouldn't give in to "cancel culture" by firing Colglazier.

“He has done fieldwork for my campaign," the Texas Republican explained. "I have 12 field offices across Texas and over 70 people on payroll with my campaign. If I were to go through the social media history of any young Texan I would find something I disagree with. My campaign will not participate in cancel culture.”

As Huffington Post explains, however, Colglizier's ties to white nationalists go beyond a few problematic tweets.

In a January 2020 livestream, for example, he explicitly said his goal was to infiltrate the Republican Party to make it more friendly toward white nationalist views.

“We need to get into positions of authority, or within close proximity of positions of authority,” he said. “We need to get into positions of institutional power so that we can enact policies that can prevent or stymie demographic change, so that we can continue to gain institutional power, so that we can restore historical America.”

Fifth column

A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine. Forces gathered in secret can mobilize openly to assist an external attack. This term is also extended to organised actions by military personnel. Clandestine fifth column activities can involve acts of sabotage, disinformation, or espionage executed within defense lines by secret sympathizers with an external force.

• 
  Wikipedia

WATCH: Former Trump advisor struggles to explain why his 'free speech' platform booted a white nationalist

Bob Brigham
January 20, 2022

Screengrab.

Longtime Donald Trump advisor Jason Miller is struggling to explain why his new social media platform, Gettr, banned prominent white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes.

Gettr bills itself as a "brand new social media platform founded on the principles of free speech, independent thought and rejecting political censorship and 'cancel culture.'"

But Fuentes, who was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, was banned.

“What is the point of a free-speech alternative to Twitter...that doesn’t even honor free speech?” Fuentes asked.

Podcaster Tim Pool this week asked Miller about how his company is enforcing its free speech standards.

"Bro, I don't think you've got an argument here, man," Pool said.

"It sounds like complete bullsh*t," he explained. "So it's really difficult for me to like, to understand exactly what he did wrong. The issue for me is that when I asked you, you don't seem to know either."