Michael Hughes AOPNEWS November 29, 2021 The World Bank is hoping to tap a multi-billion trust fund that had been reportedly abused by the Ghani administration amid poor oversight as a way of bypassing the Taliban and aiding Afghans who are suffering from economic implosion in the face of winter. The UN and other aid
8am: According to information provided to Hasht-e Subh, Afghanistan has signed a new contract “against the principles and procurement policies” with an Emirati company by the order of Mohammad Ashraf Ghani after the cancellation of the contract with Olive Group, which was responsible for securing Afghanistan’s airports. The company had no experience in aviation security
Michael Hughes: Former U.S. diplomat Carter Malkasian in his recent book on the war in Afghanistan says Ashraf Ghani as president had felt “centralized reform” was the strategy to defeat the Taliban and raise the country into modernity. Malkasian also points out what turns out to be quite a prescient passage in Ghani’s own book, Fixing Failed States
8am: The family of journalist Yama Siavash, assassinated in Kabul, has filed a lawsuit, calling on Harvard University to revoke the seat of Ajmal Ahmadi, the former director of Afghanistan’s central bank. He [Ahmadi] is the son-in-law of Ashraf Ghani’s brother. He has reportedly been accused of coercion, illegal recruitment and dismissal, and improper use
BBC News: Afghanistan’s ex-finance minister has blamed the government’s fall on corrupt officials who invented “ghost soldiers” and took payments from the Taliban. Khalid Payenda told the BBC that most of the 300,000 troops and police on the government’s books did not exist. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: On Tuesday, November 9, the Prime Minister of the Taliban Mohammad Hasan Akhund ordered the General Directorate of Taliban Intelligence to precisely inquire into the case of the arrest and beating of the former representative of Parliament Allah Gul Mujahid and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Click here to read more (external link).
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 30, 2021 A U.S. government watchdog on October 29 accused the State Department and Pentagon of withholding information about the collapse of Afghanistan’s government and the true strength of the country’s military forces. John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said the withheld information would have helped lawmakers
8am: “Mr. Khalilzad considers Dr. Ghani’s obstinacy to maintain power as the main obstacle to his so-called peace,” Dr. Spanta, former national security adviser to Hamid Karzai, tweeted on Friday, October 29. “Ghani’s madness in maintaining his illegitimate power and his hostility to peace and the rule of law was evident. But Mr. Khalilzad, weren’t
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News October 27, 2021 ISLAMABAD — Zalmay Khalilzad, the senior U.S. official who led the negotiations with the Taliban, blamed, for the most part, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s “intransigence,” the Afghan elite’s “selfishness” and Afghan soldiers’ lack of will to fight for the rapid Taliban military takeover of the country in August. “We
By Abubakar Siddique RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi October 27, 2021 With Afghanistan in the grips of economic collapse and a devastating humanitarian crisis, many Afghans are pinning their hopes on international aid to stave off soaring hunger and poverty. But Afghans say the limited assistance that is arriving in the war-torn country is being misappropriated by the