1. OFAC database says the Taliban is still a Specially Designated Global Terrorist org. That cuts the Taliban off from lawful banking commerce except by persons willing to risk US sanctions. #AfgTaliban is not presently listed as Foreign Terrorist Organization ("FTO").
2. #PakTaliban (#TPP) is a listed FTO and there are reports is embedded with #AfgTaliban that has become a front for it. If this established I would expect AfgTaliban to be listed. Who ever thought they were going to make money on this deal is likely to find they were mistaken.
3. I have been reviewing the propaganda battle for Kabul in retrospect and I'm starting to conclude much of what happened was disinformation driven. Clever theater. Lesson? Always kill the cell phones first. @DefenseIntel
4. I've reported on Russian propaganda since the 2014 Ukraine invasion. July 2016 I reported spotting them in Trump's campaign. Since July I thought something seemed odd but accounts reporting the operation were from OSINT ecosystem. Accurate in the past so went unchallenged.
5. I should have noticed the lack of KIA evidence in the posts. I don't think I saw much of anything. A date limited search of Twitter should be easy to verify.
6. The reason this matters going forward is because estimates of Taliban force size may have been overstated .
7. I was thinking about DCIA Burns meeting with Taliban head & former Gitmo detainee. I think Burns' background gives him a unique understanding of the soft levers of geopolitical power like sanctions. He could explain just how bad it could be while still keeping the door open.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
1. US Tax policy will be future historian's Rosetta Stone for tracing the cause of the end of the American experiment. From 1940 to 1964 US income tax rates on incomes ranging from over 200k to 400k were over 80%. Most of the time over 90%. The rates started to fall in 1964
2. that I presume was the deal that made the Civil Rights Acts pass. Then the decline increased with Nixon and finally the massive Reagan tax cuts turned American economic life on its head. That massive lowering of top tax rates was accomplished by in large part by a determined
3. group of conspiracy theorists who claimed the reds were going to take over and destroy us all the while the guy who ran the group made his money workding for the Reds. The big lie we are witnssing devour our society was and remains the stock and trade of the
1. @MSNBC hosts like @NicolleDWallace keep saying things like they don't get why the GOP leaders and members don't speak out against the ongoing anti-democratic actions of #45 cultists, when the reason is the same they don't speak out. The GOP and @MSNBC are controlled by Koch
2. who will lose power if we have a democracy. Every @HouseGOP@SenateGOP is controlled by Koch. They don't have to raise money and they only have to give total obedience in exchange for financial support. If @maddow wants to save the world, she will cut it with @MSNBC.
3. Create a platform for news and comment that is not controlled by any anti-American cult/bribery conspiracy. And the Democrats are also to blame because they have yet to subpoena Koch and his minions like McGahn to an open hearing on their maligned influence in US politics.
1. I don't think this is Baradar. Not even close. This is a younger voice. In addition, Baradar has a protruding right incisor that makes his speech distinct. Meter and breath is all wrong. This is not Baradar IMO. #Taliban#Haqqani#PanjshirGenocide#Panjshir
2. Here's the real one. I don't think it's even close. So IMO he's dead or severely injured. At least it's a reasonable conclusion. @DefenseIntel
Taliban leader Mullah Video Abdul Ghani Baradar's message to Afghans via @YouTube
3. If that assessment is accurate, then what are the Haqqani going to do now? The charade can't last. What's their plan? I would think that may be the reason that Zabiullah Mujahid flew to Mazar-e-Sharif. Designated survivor, while Haqqani and the Pak ISI complete the coup.
1. Taliban exposed as Pakistani agents plus the FTO Haqqani network voiding the Feb 29, 2020 agreement, may have dashed Pakistan's hopes of a tidy de facto Afgh. annexation. With Paks embedded with Taliban now branded foreign invaders, it might make sense for a Taliban leader
2. to cut ties and take the nationalist high ground, well-separated from Pakistan affiliated TB leaders. Only Pakistan, Qatar, and Turkey support the Taliban govt. But with Russia and US blocking, money is not likely to come. Tajikistan govt appears firmly on
3. the anti-Taliban team and with that border available to support an insurgency. China and Iran both turned their backs on the Taliban leaving Taliban's Pakistani benefactors isolated and exposed to sanctions. Plan is at a point where people start looking for the exists.
1. In wars fought through propaganda, it's difficult to discern what's really happening. This video posted less than 24 hours ago purports to be from #Bamyan. That is due west of Kabul. If the reports of Taliban being forced out of most of #Panjshir are
2. accurate the other reports of #AfghanResistance gains in the area west of Panjshir combined with this and other reports of advances can give hope to areas of Afghanistan that could be expected to resist a Pakistani invasion to install a Pak controlled al-Qaeda junta.
3. My review of the government controlled media from China, Russia and the Stans surrounding Afghanistan evidence a consensus may be forming against the Taliban. Pakistan's denials of involvement have likely frozen the Pak air force along with the Turks who IMO
1. Wishing the war on terror was over won't make it so. I didn't lose anyone close on 9/11, but I'm going to wake up tomorrow and do what I try to do every day. Raise an alarm about the terrorist threat and do what I can to address it. Want to honor the dead? Stop the terrorists.
2. That means dealing with conditions that encourage recruitment. Pakistan's madrases are terrorist factories. Paks hid Bin Laden. Now that they combined with a Specially Designated Global Terrorist org to overthrow the Afghan govt.
3. The Taliban breached the agreement by attacking and not negotiating. Choosing not to shoot it out with the US Army and Marines does not equate to performance of the agreement, and should have no bearing on how we approach them. That should be driven by what's in our interest.