| Alyssa Milano’s 'facts are wrong': Andrew Yang refutes activist’s allegations of campaign staffer sexual misconduct Posted: 14 Dec 2019 08:58 AM PST  Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang denied allegations made by actress Alyssa Milano that an unnamed campaign engaged in sexual misconduct, saying the matter had been looked at promptly.
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| 9 Dem candidates demand DNC toss out current debate rules Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:07 AM PST  Party officials signaled Saturday that they are unlikely to budge and change the rules.
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| Italian city evacuated as World War Two-era British bomb is defused Posted: 15 Dec 2019 11:09 AM PST  Italian authorities ordered the biggest peacetime evacuation in the country since World War Two on Sunday to defuse a massive unexploded British bomb that was partially damaged when discovered in the southern city of Brindisi. The historic evacuation displaced some 53,000 residents —more than half — of the coastal city on the Adriatic, due to the high risk that the 440-pound ordnance containing 40 kilograms of dynamite could explode. The chances of detonation were increased after the munition was damaged on November 2 by a bulldozer excavating for a remodel of a cinema.. The bomb is believed to have been dropped on the city in a 1941 air raid, during the period of World War Two when Italy was still allied with Germany and Royal Air Force bombers based in Malta were targeting Naples, Brindisi and Bari in order to disrupt Axis shipping lanes. According to the Italian defence department, it is just one of thousands of unexploded ordnances that still lie dormant and undiscovered throughout Italy. Earlier this month more than 10,000 Turin residents were evacuated for the deactivation of a similar British bomb, as were 4000 residents of the northern city of Bolzano in October. In the month and a half since the unexploded bomb was discovered in Brindisi, city officials put into place a strict evacuation plan with a 1,617 metre "red zone" around the damaged bomb, which was reinforced with an external structure last week. The city's airport, train station, hospitals and prison were shut down as part of the operation on Sunday. By mid-morning the bomb had been successfully defused by a team of more than a dozen Italian army explosives experts, who used a special metal key that was carefully turned with remote-controlled technology, as the mayor and other security officials watched drone footage of the operation from a nearby situation room. The bomb is expected to be set off tomorrow in a remote location outside the city.
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| Schiff acknowledges FBI's mistakes in wake of inspector general report, but sticks by probe Posted: 15 Dec 2019 10:15 AM PST ![Schiff acknowledges FBI's mistakes in wake of inspector general report, but sticks by probe]( "Schiff acknowledges FBI's mistakes in wake of inspector general report, but sticks by probe") Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the FBI's 2016 investigation into Russian election interference was a popular topic on Sunday.House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday he understands the report revealed things he wasn't aware of two years ago. And while he agrees with Horowitz's conclusion that the investigation's numerous mishaps signaled the FISA process needed "significant" changes, he still defended the origins of the probe.> .@GStephanopoulos on the inspector general report: "Do you accept that your original judgments were wrong and what can you do about it?" > > "I certainly accept," Rep. Adam Schiff says that "the inspector general found things that we didn't know 2 years ago." https://t.co/fnqM3ihsqa pic.twitter.com/qqFZyHyneF> > -- This Week (@ThisWeekABC) December 15, 2019Schiff told Chris Wallace on Sunday during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that Horowitz "debunked" Trump's claims that the investigation was political in nature and that the bureau was spying on his campaign staffers.Former FBI Director James Comey also spoke with Wallace, admitting he was "overconfident" in the agency's procedures, and slightly walked back some comments he made about how the report vindicated the FBI. But -- like Schiff -- he maintained the report proved the probe wasn't tainted from the start. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), meanwhile, was more critical of the FBI during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union. The former CIA officer isn't sure why more people aren't upset about what the inspector general's report revealed. > "The real question is why were there 17 lies in this report…As a former intelligence officer, that's absolutely outrageous," GOP Rep. Will Hurd says about the IG report. > > "I don't understand why more people are not outraged." https://t.co/pqmqadamir CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/0DAerPbILv> > -- State of the Union (@CNNSotu) December 15, 2019More stories from theweek.com Trump's pathological obsession with being laughed at The most important day of the impeachment inquiry Jerry Falwell Jr.'s false gospel of memes
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| New York Times editorial board calls for Trump's impeachment Posted: 15 Dec 2019 09:10 AM PST  The New York Times has joined a growing list of newspapers and publications that are openly calling for the impeachment of President Trump.
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| Operation Plunder: How 1 Hellish Battle Slowed The Allies' Capture Of Nazi Germany Posted: 14 Dec 2019 06:30 PM PST  The battle was utter hell.
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| NYC paying $625K to mom whose baby was ripped away by police Posted: 14 Dec 2019 09:58 AM PST ![NYC paying $625K to mom whose baby was ripped away by police]( "NYC paying $625K to mom whose baby was ripped away by police") New York City will pay $625,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by a mother whose toddler was yanked from her arms by police in a widely seen online video, the city's Law Department said. Jazmine Headley sued the city in August alleging trauma and humiliation and seeking unspecified damages over the December 2018 incident at a Brooklyn benefits office. On Friday, the Law Department said the city will pay to resolve the lawsuit.
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| Decades on, Soviet bombs still killing people in Afghanistan Posted: 15 Dec 2019 10:54 AM PST  Gholam Mahaiuddin sighs softly as he thinks of his 14-year-old son, who was killed in the spring by a bomb dropped last century in the hills of Bamiyan province in central Afghanistan. "We knew the mountain was dangerous," said Mahaiuddin, who found his son's remains after he didn't come home one day. Forty years after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan -- and three decades since the conflict ended -- the war's legacy continues to claim lives across the country.
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| New Zealand Volcano Victims Identified as Search Continues Posted: 14 Dec 2019 10:58 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Seven more victims of the White Island volcano eruption were identified by New Zealand police as the search for more bodies continues.The names of two teenage U.S. citizens who were permanent residents in Australia, a 24-year-old New Zealander, and four Australians, ages 15 to 53, were released on Sunday. Teams aboard three helicopters searching the volcano-island, also known by its Maori name Whakaari, in the North Island's Bay of Plenty early Sunday failed to locate those still unaccounted for."We have always anticipated recovering all bodies from the island, and we remain deeply committed to that goal, to allow families some closure," Deputy Commissioner John Tims said in a statement. "We are now debriefing, reassessing and coming up with a new plan going forward."The island erupted Monday afternoon in a forceful explosion of scorching steam, gas and ash, causing horrific burns to most of its 47 visitors, 24 of whom were Australian citizens.Sixteen people have been confirmed dead. Fourteen people remain hospitalized in New Zealand and 13 have been transferred to Australia, including one person who died. Three patients have been discharged. Two people remain unaccounted for on or in the vicinity of the island, the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management said Sunday.Police and disaster victim-identification specialists searched a water course on the island believed to be where a body may be located, Tims said in a later statement."While it is most likely that the two remaining bodies are in the water, we need to be sure," he said. "Police will now consider how best to proceed. Weather dependant, the Police National Dive Squad will be out again tomorrow."(Updates number of victims identified in first and second paragraphs.)To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Shamim Adam at sadam2@bloomberg.net, Jason GaleFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Wisconsin judge's ruling could purge 200,000 from voter rolls Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:53 AM PST  * Voters must confirm address within 30 days or lose franchise * Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016A Wisconsin judge's order to boot more than 200,000 people from voter rolls in the battleground state spurred condemnation from Democrats, amid claims of voter suppression.If the decision stands, it could have an impact on the 2020 presidential election. In 2016, Donald Trump won Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes. Subsequent contests have also returned tight margins."I won the race for governor by less than 30,000 votes," tweeted Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat who beat the former Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker last year."This move pushed by Republicans to remove 200,000 Wisconsinites from the voter rolls is just another attempt at overriding the will of the people and stifling the democratic process."Voting is a fundamental right, and we should be making it easier for folks to vote, not harder. It's time for Republicans to move on from the election we had more than a year ago and start working on the pressing issues facing our state."In October, the Wisconsin Elections Commission mailed a letter to 234,000 voters who it thought might have moved, requesting that they update registration information.As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (Will), a conservative group, then filed suit.The lawsuit said the voters contacted should have 30 days to confirm their addresses. If they did not do so, Will said, their registration status should be changed from "eligible" to "ineligible".Will asked county circuit judge Paul Malloy to grant an injunction that would require election authorities to purge the rolls. In his ruling on Friday, Malloy identified a legal obligation to strip the rolls in 30 days."I don't want to see someone deactivated but I don't write the law," said Malloy, who was appointed in 2002 by the then Republican governor, Scott McCallum, and has since been re-elected. "There's no basis for saying 12 to 24 months is a good time frame. It's not that difficult to do it sooner … If you don't like [it], you have to go back to the legislature."In a statement, the elections commission said it would analyze "the judge's oral decision and [consult] with the six members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on next steps".Will's president, Rick Esenberg, said: "This case is about whether a state agency can ignore clearly written state law. Today's court order requires the Wisconsin Elections Commission to follow state law, and we look forward to making the case that they must continue to follow state law."Voting authorities and the League of Women Voters indicated they would fight the decision, which Malloy refused to stay pending appeals.According to the Journal Sentinel, the cities of Milwaukee and Madison – Democratic strongholds – are home to 14% of the state's registered voters but received 23% of letters sent out. Fifty-five percent of the mailings, meanwhile, went to areas where Hillary Clinton beat Trump.Eric Holder, US attorney general under Barack Obama, commented on Twitter."Here they go," he said. "Voter purge in Wisconsin that disproportionately targets Democrats, people of color and those who voted for Hillary in 2016. The expected unfairness. Fight this Wisconsin! Fight for a fair election."Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democratic congressman, wrote: "At a time when voter suppression [and] purging eligible voters from rolls is rampant nationwide, we should do everything in our power to ensure no one wrongfully loses their voice at the ballot box in Wisconsin or anywhere."Ben Wikler, chair of the state Democratic party, criticized the decision and called for action, writing: "A rightwing lawsuit triggered a 200,000-voter purge in Wisconsin yesterday. But we still have same-day registration in this state. So now our job is to organize harder than they can suppress."
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| An exclusive fundraiser reveals Pete Buttigieg is being backed by some of Silicon Valley's wealthiest families Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:05 AM PST  Buttigieg has come under fire from rival Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren for his ties to big tech.
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| Is Congress Set to Open U.S. Banks to Drug Cartels? Posted: 15 Dec 2019 12:04 AM PST  Should we let them?
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| FBI breaks up 2 illegal streaming sites – including iStreamItAll, with more subscribers than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Posted: 15 Dec 2019 04:06 PM PST  Darryl Polo and Luis Villarino, both of Las Vegas, have pleaded guilty to copyright infringement charges for operating iStreamItAll and Jetflix.
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| Mexico: 50 bodies among remains at farm outside Guadalajara Posted: 15 Dec 2019 02:31 PM PST ![Mexico: 50 bodies among remains at farm outside Guadalajara]( "Mexico: 50 bodies among remains at farm outside Guadalajara") Human remains discovered last month at a farm outside the city of Guadalajara have been confirmed as belonging to at least 50 people, authorities in Mexico's west-central state of Jalisco reported. Jalisco state prosecutors said recovery work at the farm in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, which began Nov. 22 after the initial discovery, concluded Friday as experts determined there was no more evidence to be gathered from the scene. The state is home to Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico's bloodiest and most ruthless drug cartels.
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| Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:29 AM PST ![Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering]( "Zimbabwe vice president's wife arrested for suspected fraud, money laundering") Zimbabwean authorities arrested the wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga on charges of money laundering, fraud and violating exchange control regulations, the country's anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) said on Sunday. Marry Mubaiwa was arrested on Saturday evening and will likely appear in court on Monday, ZACC spokesman John Makamure said. Appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa this year, ZACC is under pressure to show that it can tackle high-level graft, which watchdog Transparency International estimates is costing the country $1 billion annually.
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| Pelosi announces U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:30 PM PST  House Democratic leaders announced a deal on a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
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| Malema re-elected as head of SAfrican radical left Posted: 15 Dec 2019 01:55 AM PST  The controversial head of South Africa's far left Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema, was re-elected unopposed as at a party congress in Johannesburg. "For the position of president, it is Mister Julius Malema, may he please come forward," vote organiser Terry Tselane of the Institute of Election Management Services in Africa announced to some 3,000 delegates late on Saturday.
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| Lindsey Graham will 'not pretend to be a fair juror' in impeachment trial Posted: 15 Dec 2019 09:38 AM PST  Lindsey Graham will not try to "pretend to be a fair juror" should President Trump face an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
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| A California Starbucks reportedly denied police officers service, in the latest of several alleged anti-cop acts at the coffee chain this year Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:57 AM PST  In July, police officers were asked to leave an Arizona Starbucks. In November, a Starbucks employee was fired after writing "PIG" on a cop's order.
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| Mortal Enemy? How Does the People's Liberation Army View the United States? Posted: 14 Dec 2019 04:30 PM PST  Enemy or adversary?
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| Kentucky governor pardons killer whose family donated to his campaign days before leaving office Posted: 14 Dec 2019 05:27 AM PST  The outgoing Republican governor of Kentucky has sparked outrage after he pardoned a convicted killer whose family had hosted a fundraiser for the politician and given him money.Matt Bevin, who was defeated in his bid for re-election in November, has issued over 400 pardons in his final days in office.
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| Strong quake kills 1, collapses building in Philippines Posted: 14 Dec 2019 11:48 PM PST  A strong earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least one person and causing a three-story building to collapse, setting off a search for people feared to have been trapped inside, officials said. The magnitude 6.9 quake struck an area about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) northwest of Padada town in Davao del Sur province at a depth of 30 kilometers (18 miles), according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. A child was killed in a village in Davao del Sur's Matanao town when a wall of her house tumbled down as the ground shook and hit her in the head, officials said.
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| Bolivia's interim leader says arrest warrant to be issued against Morales Posted: 14 Dec 2019 07:07 PM PST  Bolivia will issue an arrest warrant in the coming days against former leftist President Evo Morales, accusing him of sedition, interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez said on Saturday. Morales is in Argentina, granted refugee status this week just days after the inauguration of new President Alberto Fernandez. Peronist Fernandez succeeded outgoing conservative Argentine leader Mauricio Macri, who lost his bid for re-election in October.
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| Blowback from U.K. election burns Warren, Sanders Posted: 13 Dec 2019 06:10 PM PST  Centrists warn Corbyn defeat highlights the dangers of a progressive nominee.
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| Delivering the goods: Drones and robots are making their way to your door Posted: 15 Dec 2019 02:47 AM PST  With companies offering free shipping to gain a competitive edge, radical new technologies are being tested to cut the cost of the supply chain's expensive "last mile"
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| Jesus, Mary and Joseph in a cage: Political nativity scenes are causing a stir across the US Posted: 14 Dec 2019 08:13 AM PST  Churches across the country are using Christmas nativity scenes to make political statements about the border crisis, climate change and more.
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| A 29-year-old mayor is giving his city's poorest residents $500 per month. He thinks his policy could work on a national scale. Posted: 15 Dec 2019 05:19 AM PST  Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs doesn't support a basic income program that has strings attached. That's why he is critical of Andrew Yang's plan.
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| NATO Nightmare: A Russian Invasion of Iceland? Posted: 15 Dec 2019 06:22 AM PST  You've got to be kidding (but we're not).
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| Zambia Says Ambassador Should Leave After Defending Gay Couple Posted: 15 Dec 2019 10:16 AM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Zambia's President Edgar Lungu said he wanted the U.S. Ambassador to leave the country after the diplomat criticized the African nation for sentencing a gay couple to 15 years of imprisonment for having a consensual relationship."We have complained officially to the American government, and we are waiting for their response because we don't want such people in our midst," Lungu said Sunday in comments broadcast on state-owned ZNBC TV. "We want him gone."U.S. Ambassador Daniel Foote said last month that he was "personally horrified" after the high court sentenced the two men and called on the government to reconsider laws that punish minority groups.Read More: From Nov. 30, U.S. Rebukes Zambia for Jailing Two Men for HomosexualityTo contact the reporter on this story: Taonga Clifford Mitimingi in Lusaka at tmitimingi@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Sebastian Tong at stong41@bloomberg.net, Nathan CrooksFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Louisiana sues California over alligator ban Posted: 14 Dec 2019 06:28 AM PST  Louisiana is suing the state of California over its decision to ban the import and sale of alligator products, saying the ban will hurt an important Louisiana industry and ultimately could hurt the state's wetlands. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Louisiana said the economy surrounding alligators has played a key role in bringing back the American alligator population and is an important factor in protecting wetlands and other species besides alligators that depend on the wetlands. "California has nevertheless attempted to destroy the market for American alligator products notwithstanding the fact that no such alligators live in California," the lawsuit says.
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| Jeremy Corbyn's humiliating defeat a 'canary in the coal mine' for Democrats warns Mike Bloomberg Posted: 14 Dec 2019 09:19 AM PST  Presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg has described Jeremy Corbyn's crushing defeat as a "canary in the coal mine" for the Democrats as the party gears up for 2020 election. With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary only a couple of months away, Democrat centrists have seized upon the UK election results as evidence of the danger the party faces if it drifts too far to the left. In recent weeks divisions between the centrist and radical wings have been laid bare, particularly over health care. Leading left-winger Elizabeth Warren, who had been polling strongly, has come under attack for her blueprint which would eventually see America's private health insurance system replaced by a state-run Medicare system. Moderates have warned that her radical policies would make her unelectable. Speaking in Alexandria, Virginia, Mr Bloomberg, a former New York mayor and late entrant to the Democrat race, said the party should learn the lessons of Mr Corbyn's disastrous campaign. Democrat candidates "I think it's sort of a catastrophic warning to the Democratic Party to have somebody that can beat Donald Trump and that is not going to be easy. Americans want to change, but I think they don't want revolutionary change — they want evolutionary change." Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who is now leading in Iowa and New Hampshire, has emerged as the main hope of the centrists as Joe Biden's campaign shows signs of faltering. He also suggested there were lessons to be learned from the UK. "It means that you've got to be ready to build a coalition and gather that majority," Mr Buttigieg said. Another moderate Democratic candidate, John Delaney, urged the party to take on board what had happened in the UK election. "Despite the turmoil caused by Brexit, Boris Johnson just won a massive victory with the British electorate, which should be a wake-up call to Democrats," he said. "Johnson proved that mainstream voters will not embrace an extreme economic plan that will cause upheaval, just because they are not fans of the conservative leader." Meanwhile, Mr Biden, whose main pitch to has been his ability to beat Donald Trump, will rely on a bastion of states in the US South to see him to the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination - and potentially the White House. Although the former vice president is faltering in New Hampshire and Iowa, the latest polls show him building seemingly impregnable leads in the South. Mr Biden leads easily in South Carolina, which will the fourth state to vote. He is also comfortably ahead in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee - in some cases by over 20 points. Mr Biden's base in the southern states relies on his support from black voters. In South Carolina two-thirds of the Democrat primary electorate is black. A Quinnipiac poll this week showed Mr Biden with 51 per cent support from black voters in the state, with his nearest rival Mr Sanders on 13 per cent.
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| US trade negotiator hails 'remarkable' deal with China Posted: 15 Dec 2019 04:41 PM PST  China committed to a minimum of $200 billion in increased purchases over the next two years from US manufacturers, farmers, energy producers and providers of services over the next two years, according to Lighthizer. US exports to China will double in the next year, and nearly triple the year after if the agreement is in place. In 2017, before the US-China trade war was unleashed, the United States exported some $120 billion in goods to the Asian giant.
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| Justin Trudeau moves forward with ban on LGBT+ conversion therapy across Canada Posted: 14 Dec 2019 10:18 AM PST  LGBT+ conversion therapy could soon be banned across Canada after Justin Trudeau made this one of the priorities for his new government.In a letter to the country's justice secretary on Friday, the prime minister stated that banning the controversial practice of attempting to forcibly change people's gender or sexuality must be a "top priority".
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| Fox News poll on impeachment contradicts President Trump Posted: 15 Dec 2019 10:20 AM PST  A new Fox News poll on voter support for impeachment contradicted President Trump, who recently boasted major support in favor of "No Impeachment."
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| Kentucky's new Democratic governor hits the ground running Posted: 14 Dec 2019 05:05 AM PST  Just days into his term as Kentucky's governor, Democrat Andy Beshear already has checked off some big priorities from his to-do list: a new state school board installed; the education commissioner gone; more than 140,000 nonviolent felons' voting rights restored. "This week's actions are pieces of cake compared to what he faces in terms of building a budget and getting a program through the legislature," longtime Kentucky political commentator Al Cross said. Beshear's aggressive start as governor was possible because he did most of it with executive orders, fulfilling promises he had made during the campaign.
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| China suspends planned tariffs scheduled for Dec. 15 on some U.S. goods Posted: 14 Dec 2019 08:29 PM PST  China has suspended additional tariffs on some U.S. goods that were meant to be implemented on Dec. 15, the State Council's customs tariff commission said on Sunday, after the world's two largest economies agreed a "phase one" trade deal on Friday. The deal, rumours and leaks over which have gyrated world markets for months, reduces some U.S. tariffs in exchange for what U.S. officials said would be a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods. China's retaliatory tariffs, which were due to take effect on Dec. 15, were meant to target goods ranging from corn and wheat to U.S. made vehicles and auto parts.
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| Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S. Posted: 15 Dec 2019 08:34 AM PST ![Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S.]( "Switzerland Plans to Send Its Old Fighter Jets Back to the U.S.") (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is expected to buy 22 aging fighter jets from Switzerland, a country that's struggling to modernize its own air force.U.S. Navy representatives and the Swiss defense procurement agency, known as Armasuisse, discussed the deal in July, an agency spokesman said by email on Sunday. The contract is expected to be signed once U.S. lawmakers approve the fiscal 2020 defense budget, he said.President Donald Trump is seeking $718 billion in Pentagon funding for 2020, including $39.7 million for the F-5s, an aircraft first delivered to Switzerland in 1978. Nowadays, the U.S. uses the F-5 to simulate enemy planes in aerial combat training.Switzerland has been trying to buy new warplanes for years. Voters in 2014 rejected a 3.1 billion-franc ($3.2 billion) order for Saab AB Gripen fighter jets. Switzerland now plans to spend about 6 billion francs on new fighter jets, according to SonntagsZeitung newspaper and previous Swiss media reports."If the Americans want to take over the scrap iron, they should do it," Beat Flach, a Green Liberal lawmaker, told SonntagsZeitung, which reported on the planned sale on Sunday. "It's better than having the Tigers rot in a parking lot."To contact the reporter on this story: Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at atorsoli@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Beth Mellor at bmellor@bloomberg.net, Tony Czuczka, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Afghanistan papers detail US dysfunction: 'We did not know what we were doing' Posted: 14 Dec 2019 02:55 AM PST  A key theme of the trove of documents published this week was the lack of coherence in Washington's approach to Afghanistan from the outsetIn the midst of Barack Obama's much-vaunted military surge against the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2010, Hayam Mohammed, an elder from Panjwai near the Pakistani border confronted an officer from the US 101st Airborne who had come into his village."You walk here during the day," the elder told the soldier bitterly as the Observer listened. "But at night [the Taliban] come bringing night letters" – threats targeting those collaborating with foreign forces.That surge, which like so many other initiatives in Afghanistan's long war was celebrated as a huge success, today serves only as a grim reminder of the deception and failure revealed in the explosive Afghanistan papers published by the Washington Post this week.Comprising more than 600 interviews with key insiders collected confidentially by the Office of Special Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan [Sigar], and published after a three-year court battle, the trove has been compared in significance to the Pentagon Papers, the secret Department of Defense history of the Vietnam war leaked in 1971.Graphic: US bases in AfghanistanLike that secret history, the Afghanistan Papers' accumulated oral history depicts a war mired in failure – in sharp contrast to the "misleading" story told to the US and British publics by officials in massaged figures and over-optimistic assessments.But even if that deception has been the main focus of reporting, the hundreds of interviews – with senior generals and Afghan governors, with ambassadors, aid officials and policy advisers – also tell another story: how successive presidents from Bush through Obama to Donald Trump, publicly rejected "nation-building" but created a violent, corrupt and dysfunctional state only barely propped up by US arms.They detail too how – like the Soviet Union before them – the US and its allies came so badly unstuck in Afghanistan through a combination of hubris and ignorance, and with a political leadership – both under Obama and Bush – more concerned with domestic politics than the impact of their decisions on Afghanistan.Reading at times like an extended exercise in blame, the interviews trace a widespread desire among participants to nail down an original sin for the failures in Afghanistan; even to seek an exculpation for a conflict that has cost $1tn and the lives of tens of thousands over almost 20 years.From the shortcomings of the US military's newly rewritten counter-insurgency doctrine – described by one interviewee as "colonial" in its conceit – to a tolerance of widespread corruption and "warlordism" blamed for fueling the resurgence of the Taliban, a key theme of many of those who spoke to Sigar was the lack of coherence in Washington's approach to Afghanistan from the outset.From the very beginning, as Richard Haas – the former US government policy coordinator for Afghanistan – confided in his interview, there was little enthusiasm in George W Bush's White House for the country once the Taliban was driven out in 2001."I remember that we were around the table and there was the president [George W Bush]. The feeling was that you could put a lot into it and you wouldn't get a lot out of it. I would not call it cynical, I would call it pessimistic about what the relationship [was] between investment and return in Afghanistan."Other interviewee subjects, however, place the initial failure even further back: with the original decision to elide the Taliban with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida in the wake of the September 11 attacks.Among people like Jeffrey Eggers, a former US Navy Seal and staffer on the National Security Council in the George Bush and Obama administrations, this the key point."Why did we make the Taliban the enemy when we were attacked by al-Qaida? Why did we want to defeat the Taliban? Why did we think it was necessary to build a hyper-function[al] state to forgo the return of the Taliban?"For Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs between 2006 and 2009, the contradictions in the aims framed a mission that appeared founded on impossibility."If we think our exit strategy is to either beat the Taliban – which can't be done given the local, regional, and cross border circumstances – or to establish an Afghan government that is capable of delivering good government to its citizens using American tools and methods, then we do not have an exit strategy because both of those are impossible."His summation, however, was even more scathing: "We did not know what we were doing."The lack of vision at the war's start, which left the US and its allies racing to catch up as US attention turned quickly to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, was only exacerbated by the decisions that would belatedly get made in response to the rapidly resurgent Taliban in the middle of the last decade.Among the handful of Britons identified by name in the papers is Gen David Richards, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007. "There was no coherent long-term strategy," Richards told the Sigar interviewers, adding that the countries involved in the International Stabilisation Force [Isaf], under Nato command, had insufficient troops to do the job."Every nation was in charge of protecting an area larger than they had forces to do so with, and if you don't have enough forces to protect what you're trying to do, stabilization can't be done.""No individual is to blame," he added bleakly: "The system let everyone down."But if there is one issue with the Afghanistan papers, however, it is that they represent the views of a selection of insiders who were at one time or another invested in the success of the war, often unable to step outside the sometimes arcane disagreements they were steeped in.Austin Wright, an academic who specialises in Afghanistan at the University of Chicago, and has made a study of the declassified military records of the war, offers an outsider's perspective from his reading of the interviews.Wright notes that many in the media have picked up on the acknowledgment by the head of Sigar, John J Sopko, asserting the US public was "misled" consistently by official accounting of progress of the war. But he believes that focus misses the fact that many in leadership positions also misinterpreted their own data concerning the nature, intentions and capabilities of the Taliban at key points in the conflict in their desire to see signs of victory.Wright points to US military and Nato surveys that indicated that at key points, including after their initial defeat, the Taliban simply withdrew either to regroup or instill a false sense of progress, echoing the observation made by village elder Hayam Mohammed at the height of the 2010 surge."The Taliban are strategic and patient," says Wright. "They are also skillful at manipulating the information being seen in the field to maximise any political process."What you see – during the Obama era handover of leadership to Afghan forces for example – is a significant reduction in violence across large areas where there are foreign forces. But what the survey data also showed was a continuing Taliban presence, not necessarily fighting but not going away."Then, when you see the actual physical withdrawal of US troops, you see an increase in violence again. What that tells you is that they have been sitting it out to until the cost of re-intervention becomes too high."The sense of overdue re-evaluation is not confined to just those interviewed by Sigar but shared by many who served in senior roles in Afghanistan."I remember thinking at the time I was running around Helmand that we should be able to do this, whatever that thing was," a former British diplomat who served in the region told the Observer."But in retrospect, it was not realistic because while we were pissing into sand in Helmand you have to look at bigger picture."Looking back, [then-Afghan president Hamid] Karzai had already given up on the west when Bush went into Iraq."And by the time people realised that the Taliban were coming back it was too late."A very reasonable question was what would have happened if the international community had delivered the investment and committed the resources in 2003-04 that were delivered 2008-10.The diplomat responds to a point made by Gen Dan McNeill, the former US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, Dan McNeill, who in his interview with Sigar complained that even before his first deployment in 2002 he could not find anyone able to give him a definition of what "winning meant"."If you can't define 'winnable' how do you define if the war is lost. What is clear," he added looking to the future, "is that there is going to be an ongoing low level of commitment for a long time to come in terms training and in terms of trying to prevent Afghanistan becoming a serious problem again."You can argue that you are preventing Afghanistan being used as an operational base for the really bad guys, but then there are plenty of other options for them. In terms of what we were trying to achieve does that mean loss?" He thinks for a moment."It probably does. Certainly we took a bloody nose."
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