When Taliban fighters seized control of Kabul two weeks ago, the invading units made a beeline for two critical targets: the headquarters of the National Security Directorate and the Ministry of Communications.
Their aim — recounted by two Afghan officials who had been briefed separately on the raid — was to secure the files of intelligence officers and their informers, and to obtain the means of tracking the telephone numbers of Afghan citizens. That could be disastrous for hundreds of thousands of people who had been working to counter the Taliban threat.
NYT
“They should also have thought of securing it”
But it also contains details on the individuals’ military specialty and career trajectory, as well as sensitive relational data such as the names of their father, uncles, and grandfathers, as well as the names of the two tribal elders per recruit who served as guarantors for their enlistment. This turns what was a simple digital catalogue into something far more dangerous, according to Ranjit Singh, a postdoctoral scholar at the nonprofit research group Data & Society who studies data infrastructures and public policy. He calls it a sort of “genealogy” of “community connections” that is “putting all of these people at risk.”
MIT Technology Review
There are 500. Will you take 5?
On Saturday night I had just sat down to have a drink with a friend when he got a call. He apologized for having to take it, but it was urgent: it was about the Afghan women’s orchestra. They were stuck in Kabul and desperate to get out. He was involved in the effort to extract them.
Bari Weiss
The horizon goes both ways
Joe Biden “will remember” British comments about his mental acuity
Joe Biden “will remember” comments about his mental acuity emanating from senior figures in the UK, and will “bear a grudge” against Britain, sources told the Telegraph
Telegraph
Joe Biden ‘holds grudges’ and will punish Britain for Afghanistan criticism, allies say
British Cabinet insiders were quoted as suggesting the US president ‘looked gaga’ and described him as ‘doolally’
Biden says China still withholding ‘critical information’ on Covid origins
President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon — but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.
Yahoo
Biden says China still withholding ‘critical information’ on Covid origins
President Joe Biden said Friday that China was withholding “critical information” on the origins of Covid-19 after the US intelligence community said it did not believe the virus was a bioweapon — but remained split on whether it escaped from a lab.
Pakistan won Afghanistan
Pakistan, nominally a U.S. partner in the war, was the Afghan Taliban’s main patron, and sees the Taliban’s victory as its own. But now what does it do with its prize?
NYT
The Real Winner of the Afghan War? It’s Not Who You Think.
Pakistan, nominally a U.S. partner in the war, was the Afghan Taliban’s main patron, and sees the Taliban’s victory as its own. But now what does it do with its prize?
Biden vows revenge — and to leave by Aug 31
The US president has also reaffirmed the 31 August deadline for troops to leave Afghanistan and says forces will fly out as many people as possible before that date.
SBS
Biden covid origin deadline ends with bupkis
But with no “smoking gun” and limited access to raw data, discussion of the science has played out in a haze of circumstantial evidence … international scientists tasked with studying the virus’ origins warned Wednesday that another crucial window is “closing fast”: the shrinking opportunity for any thorough scientific study to be completed. As time wears on, potential evidence wanes, and tracing back biologic breadcrumbs will yield diminishing returns, said more than ten of the authors of a World Health Organization-led report that is urging action to “fast-track the follow-up scientific work required” for better answers by the WHO.
ABC News
‘Making Neville Chamberlain look competent.’
Kentucky’s Republican congressmen are asking President Joe Biden to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan until all Americans and Afghan allies have been evacuated.
McClatchy
Empty evacuation flights, empty promise
A failure of leadership threatening national security
The Biden administration has exposed itself as incapable of making basic prudential decisions, and then compounding it with outrageous statements by the president, Pentagon brass, and the State Department that have many Americans asking, “What were you thinking?”
The Hill
Academy takes back Cuomo’s Emmy
“in light of the New York Attorney General’s report, and Andrew Cuomo’s subsequent resignation as Governor, it is rescinding his special 2020 International Emmy Award. His name and any reference to his receiving the award will be eliminated from International Academy materials going forward.”
Variety
Intel can’t say where covid originated after China hides data
“It was a deep dive, but you can only go so deep as the situation allows,” one U.S. official said. “If China’s not going to give access to certain data sets, you’re never really going to know.”
WSJ
US military gives Biden a deadline to decide on extending Afghanistan evacuations
Military advisers have told the White House that the decision must be made by Tuesday in order to have enough time to withdraw the 5,800 troops currently on the ground, as well as their equipment and weapons. If the President agrees, the military anticipates “a few more days” of trying to evacuate as many people as possible before the drawdown of US forces begins, possibly at the end of this week.
CNN
US military gives Biden a deadline to decide on extending Afghanistan evacuations
The US military is advising President Joe Biden that he must decide by Tuesday whether to extend the evacuation in Afghanistan beyond August 31, according to a defense official directly familiar with the discussions, though Biden has yet to make a decision.
Wapo reporter rescued by Brits through officially nonexistent Taliban lines
Her difficult journey contradicts President Biden’s assertion that anyone with an American passports would be allowed through checkpoints.
Daily Mail
Failing the test of events
Biden doesn’t trust the Taliban but he’ll count on them
Biden makes a potentially huge and elementary mistake in the full view of America’s enemies. He is basing his extraction actions on his estimate of the Taliban’s intentions and what he perceives to be “their self-interest” rather than US capability. Time is working against him and for the enemy, and he seems not to appreciate the significance.
Next time lower the lifeboat before abandoning ship
He [Biden] wanted all American troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
In the Oval Office, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wanted to make certain. “I take what you said as a decision, sir,” General Milley said, according to officials with knowledge of the meeting. “Is that correct, Mr. President?”
It was.
NYT
Debating Exit From Afghanistan, Biden Rejected Generals’ Views
Over two decades of war, the Pentagon had fended off the political instincts of elected leaders frustrated with the grind of Afghanistan. But President Biden refused to be persuaded.
Joe Biden is going down, taking America with him
He makes a blunder, denies it and doubles down. Some enormous character flaw and dysfunction is driving him to destruction.
His current strategy, incredibly, is that people will forget all about it. That the media will cover for him. But it can’t. He’s causing real damage now to powerful interests. His insurance, the incompetence of Harris, may not save him indefinitely.