Iran began delivering money to Afghan President Hamid Karzai as early as 2003, a former Afghan official says.
“It started in a sort of transparent manner when I was the foreign minister,” Abdullah Abdullah, now Afghanistan’s top opposition leader, said in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times.
“So it was during [Iranian] President [Mohammed] Khatami’s time, and President Khatami mentioned it to President Karzai, that ‘from my own office, I have a budget at my discretion. If you agree with it, I would like to give some money for your office.’ So it started that way.”
Mr. Abdullah, who served as foreign minister from 2001 to 2005, recalled the Iranian offer coming in 2003 or 2004. He said Mr. Karzaibriefed his national security council on it and told him that he had “raised the issue” with U.S. officials.
Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition leader in Afghanistan, says he will run again for the Afghan presidency in 2014. (J.M. Eddins Jr./The Washington Times)
“In the first year, it was twice or three times that this happened — each time, perhaps around $1 million,” Mr. Abdullah said of the Iranian payments to Mr. Karzai. Continue…
______________________
Sorry about the break in the story. I got distracted when I read the part about there being a "loya jirga,” in the works. while one of those annoying flash video pop-ups was jirginup my screen trying to sell me some oil of Olay. This is one of my favorite "loya jirga's":
"loya jirga's" always sound like something that should be more fun. Perhaps if Habu or HuDat is passing thru, we can get his comment on "loya jirga."
You wold think that after all the money the US has spent in Afghanistan, we'd gain some influence there. It seems though that the Afghans just will not stay bought.
ReplyDeleteIt's always been said about'em: You can rent'em, but you can't buy'em.
ReplyDeleteSeems pretty clear, st least to me, the US should be leaving Afghanistan as quickly as our planes can be loaded.
ReplyDeleteAfghanistan should be left to the Afghans.
amen.
ReplyDeleteThe Iranians are buying them off for walking around money.
ReplyDeleteCPI (YOY) wasn't too bad. 2.7%. Strip out food and energy 1.0%.
ReplyDeleteIndustrial Production up nicely. 0.8% on the month.
I posted last night how "Exports" really Are surging.
Can all this overcome gasoline prices? hmm
I noticed last night that the Yuan has risen to about 653 to the dollar. That's a move of about 4 1/2% in this latest go-round.
ReplyDeleteThey Are starting to buy quite a bit more from us (they have a long way to go, but, hey, it's a start.)
So, our boobie now wants to be credited with granting to the local government what the Federal government granted to his family.
ReplyDeleteOur welfare king is irritated by the costs of doing business.
While anyone with over $1,000,000 in real assets is not in the "middle of the muddle".
ReplyDeleteNo indeed.
You just can't help yourself, can you? :)
ReplyDeleteYou can rent 'em, but cannot buy 'em.
ReplyDeleteAfter granting the boobie family millions of dollars in assets, he begrudges returning 15% of that value to the Federals upon the sale of those assets.
He tells us that having to return 15% to the Federals, upon the sale of the land, is unfair and keeps him impoverished.
It is just to easy a target to miss.
Phillie Fed President, Plosser:
ReplyDeleteIncreasing Global Demand for Oil, with "Peaking" Supplies . . .
Even after he deducts the costs of the improvements and sale from the capital gains, to return 15% to those that enabled him, just heavy a burden to bear.
ReplyDeleteI gotta admit, you don't have to have a "shotgun" to get one in that bullseye. :)
ReplyDeletejust to heavy a burden to bear.
ReplyDeletePoor old rat, he just seethes with jeolousy.
ReplyDeleteAnd it ain't all that big a deal.
I am proud that my ancestors helped build this place.
It's a nice place to live.
We are still abuilding.
Some things about the local government are a little irritating is all, particularily if one knows the situation as I do.
Take a break rat, go bowling with your buds.
dwr
We built the Law School, ratto.
ReplyDeleteI am just worried about your soul, boobie.
ReplyDeleteAnd we have taught many a wimmin how to fight back and be their own people.
ReplyDeleteNot bad, for some Swedes.
dwr
While allowing a rapist to roam the streets preying upon young women, unreported to law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteThe hypocrisy propagated by the boob is amazing.
Don't worry rat my soul it has taken care of itself all these years, just by itself. I have read, I am satisfied.
ReplyDeletedwr
The Rat is the kinda guy that would read King Lear and applause the two wicked sisters.
ReplyDeleteIf he knows what I mean, which he does not.
dwr
desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteWhile allowing a rapist to roam the streets preying upon young women, unreported to law enforcement.
The hypocrisy propagated by the boob is amazing.
Great Blog, what does the preceding post have to do with Loya Jirga?
A loya jirga (Pashto: لويه جرګه) is a type of jirga regarded as "grand assembly," a phrase in the Pashto language meaning "grand council." A loya jirga is a mass meeting usually prepared for major events such as choosing a new king, adopting a constitution, or discussing important national political or emergency matters as well as disputes in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.[1] In Afghanistan, the loya jirga was originally attended by the Pashtuns, but later included other ethnic groups. It is a forum unique among the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan in which, traditionally, tribal elders meet together.[2]
ReplyDeleteThe words loya (great/grand) and jirga ("council", "assembly", "dispute" or "meeting") are of Pashto origin.
History
ReplyDeleteThe Aryan tribes, which came down in intermittent waves from Central Asia to present Afghanistan and then moved to India (around 1500 BC), tribes practiced a sort of jirga-system with two types of councils – simite and sabha. The simite (the summit) comprised elders and tribal chiefs. The king also joined sessions of the simite. Sabha was a sort of rural council.[3] It was used over time for the selection of rulers and headmen and the airing of matters of principle. From the time of the great Kushan ruler Kanishka to the 1970s there were sixteen national loya jirgas and hundreds of smaller ones.[4] The institution, which is centuries old, is a similar idea to the Islamic "shura", or consultative assembly.[2]
The phrase loya jirga is Pashto and means "grand council". The institution, which is centuries old, is a similar idea to the Islamic "shura", or consultative assembly, BBC world.
In the Afghan (Pashtun) society the Loya Jirga is still maintained and very strongly practiced, mostly in front of tribal chiefs or with them to solve internal and external tribal problems or disputes with other tribes.
When the Afghans took the power they tried to legitimize their power with such a Jirga. While in the beginning only Pashtuns were allowed to participate in the Jirgas, later other ethnic groups like Tajiks and Hazaras were allowed to participate as well, however they were little more than observers. The member of the Jirgas were mostly members of the Royal Family, religious leaders and tribal chiefs of the Afghans. King Amanullah Khan institutionalized the Jirga. From Amanullah until the reign of Mohammed Zahir Shah (1933–1973) and Mohammed Daoud Khan (1973–1978) the Jirga was recognized as a common meeting of regional Pashtun leaders.
The meetings do not have scheduled occurrences, but rather are called for when issues or disputes arise.
There is no time limit for a Loya Jirga to conclude, and the meetings often take a long time because decisions can only be made as a group and arguments can drag out for days. Many different problems are addressed, like foreign policy, declarations of war, the legitimacy of leaders, and the introduction of new ideas and laws.
A 502-delegate loya jirga convened in Kabul, Afghanistan, on December 14, 2003, to consider the proposed Afghan Constitution. Originally planned to last ten days, the assembly did not endorse the charter until January 4, 2004. As has been generally the case with these assemblies, the endorsement came by way of consensus rather than a vote. Afghanistan's last constitution was drafted for the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in November 1987. Because of strife within the assembly, the 2003 Loya jirga was dubbed, by some Afghans, the "loya jagra" ("big fight").
ReplyDeleteSeptember 9th, 2004
ReplyDeleteHell of a Nation
Introduction
About the Film
As Afghanistan struggled to adopt a new constitution, WIDE ANGLE filmed behind the scenes at the December 2003 loya jirga. The documentary profiles two aspiring Afghan delegates who face political opposition and physical intimidation as they literally risk their lives to participate in the future of their country. Both labor to deliver their political messages in communities with no mass media and very little infrastructure. “Hell of a Nation” also examines the frantic preparations of the international and Afghan logistics team as it scrambles to register potential delegates, distribute copies of the newly drafted constitution, and hold elections for delegates. The film provides a rare opportunity to observe the difficulties of defining the role of religion in a new democracy and to witness the practical implementation of nation building in a war-torn country. The broadcast coincides with preparations for the presidential election in October and the legislative elections in the spring.
Women's emancipation is achievable only by themselves!
ReplyDeleteDuring the medieval and tyrannical rule of Taliban, the major international and Western media began and ended with a focus on women's oppression. It seemed as though this country would not have had a problem if all that torture and gradual death were not enforced on women and the Taliban had showed a little mercy! And when the US came out to punish her hirelings, the first and last word was about the abuse of women by Taliban -- even the flyers that were thrown by US military aircraft on cities contained photos that portrayed Taliban barbarism against women.
Of course after the US attack and installation of the interim government, raising women's banner steadily continued: the Women's Ministry and various other commissions were created and a few women became so-called "authorities". And now that two years have passed since these events, who is to deny the fact that the condition of 99 % of women in Afghanistan has not seen fundamental changes? There are no longer Taliban who lash women because their hair or feet came out of the Burqa. But how can women go out unveiled and have normal life without the fear of warlords who like hunting dogs annoy, insult and rape them?
Out of extreme suffocation and terror in Herat, grabbed in the filthy grip of the terrorist "amir" Ismail Khan, hundreds of girls and women have committed suicide by self-immolation in less than a year to free themselves from a painful life under the dagger of a corrupted and freedom-killing regime. The burnt bodies of these innocent victims keep the faces of Ismail Khan and his accomplices in "Northern Alliance" black with shame.
Despite the above dreadful realities, if talking about Afghanistan is confined only to abuse of women then in fact it is throwing dust into the eyes of the world. Regardless of the multitude of oppressions against women, men are also not free. If the Taliban are not in charge, their Jehadi brethren, the "Northern Alliance", embrace the power in the country. Hence if all these atrocities and disasters, i.e. the presence of fundamentalist warlords, are not rooted out from Afghanistan, no serious issues including freedom and prosperity of women and men can be solved even if more ministries and commission are created for women.
The freedom of a nation is to be achieved by itself -- similarly the real emancipation of women can be realized only by themselves. If that freedom is bestowed by others, it may be seized and violated any time.
The fake nature of the constitutional Loya Jirga and freedom of speech were clear to all the people of Afghanistan and the world by the cheap attacks of the assembly speaker, Sibghatullah Mojadadi, Sayyaf and elements of Fahim and Rabanni's forces on the women delegates, Malalai Joya and Anar Kali. Malalai Joya had the courage to call the fundamentalists "criminals", and asked for their national and international trial. But we saw that the treacherous murderers and their elements in the Jirga became so outraged that according to the confession of Sibghatullah Mojadadi, if they were not leashed what would they have done to Malalai Joya?! Our people know that in 1992 the Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif gave 10 million to establish the Mujahadeen government and that Mojadidi distributed this cash to his relatives. Our people and the world also know that Rabanni, Sayyaf, Mansour, Chakari and others are symbols of blood, treason, and aggression. Not only had they occupied the front row of the assembly once more but with the gesture of the $10 million assembly speaker, were posing and speaking so shamelessly that they seemed to be the bride or kingpins of the assembly, not criminals that had infected the whole tent. The rude bullying of Sayyaf proved how much the Loya Jirga and its speaker had been infected by the germ of fundamentalism. What could be expected from such an infected assembly? To approve a democratic constitution that guarantees the elimination of the "Northern Alliance", Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Al_Qaida terrorism? And what happened? We now have a constitution that has nothing to guarantee the trial of warlord criminals, allows the misuse of religion, and has not abolished the various crimes against women in the name of religion and tradition. The Constitution is just a piece of paper that gives legitimacy to the tyrannical rule of warlords.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite natural that the voter registration, particularly of women for the upcoming election may have the lowest possible figure. What value does an election have for the hopeless people who have no bread and no work and are being tormented by criminal fundamentalists? The presence of every woman and man in the future assemblies is meaningful only when they represent the people, and, like Malalai Joya, spit at the fundamentalists in their cage with courage and honor. Otherwise they should be called a cat's-paw of religious fascists and their accomplices. They would compromise and hunger for power, not to be forgiven by the people.
The experience of Iran has made it clear that democratic forces cannot achieve their goals within the framework of a brutal religious regime or relying on a so-called "moderate" regime. People and democratic forces in Iran paid a heavy price for their participation in the bloody game of an Islamic regime. Supporters of democratic forces in Afghanistan should have learned enough from Iran's example and should never make cease-fires or deal with this or that faction of fundamentalists. The only benchmark to measure the loyalty to freedom in a country is the degree of boldness, determination and honesty of a person or group in the struggle against religious fascism.
It is up to our conscious women that organize tens and hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving women and create a great anti-fundamentalism movement for democracy across this terrorism and fundamentalism blighted country. While organizing such a massive movement, we can play an effective role for women's emancipation on the basis of freedom of the country. Now we should no longer talk about a "silent majority", but an uprising, a decisive and aggressive majority, and translate our solidarity to the struggle of all freedom-loving women in the remote places of the world from words into practice.
ReplyDeleteWhile celebrating International Women's Day with all justice-seeking women of the world, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) sends warmest regards to all the freedom-loving women imprisoned in the torturous prison of Iran and Turkey. We wish that the women of Afghanistan celebrate this day in Afghanistan free of the fetters of fundamentalism and on the road to democracy and prosperity.
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
March 8, 2004
Curr, R v (1968) CA
ReplyDeleteFitzmaurice, R v (1983) CA
Higgins (1801)
Invicta Plastics Ltd v Clare (1976) QBD
James and Ashford, R v (1985) CA
Race Relations Board v Applin [1973] HL
Shaw, R v (1994) CA
Whitehouse, R v (1977)
Inchoate offences have been the subject of amendment by the Serious Crime Act 2007
ReplyDeleteSerious Crime Act 2007
Part 2 - Encouraging or Assisting Crime
The Government's policy on the reform of the criminal law on encouraging and assisting crime is based on the Law Commission's Report on Inchoate Liability for Assisting and Encouraging Crime (Law Com No. 300, CM 6878, 2006).
The Act abolishes the common law offence of incitement and in its place creates new offences of intentionally encouraging or assisting crime and encouraging or assisting crime believing that an offence, or one or more offences, will be committed. The Act contains a defence to the offences in Part 2 (where the encouragement or assistance is considered to be reasonable in the circumstances) and an exemption from liability where the offence encouraged or assisted was created in order to protect a category of people (and the person doing the encouragement or assistance falls into that category).
So I guess the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and other women's rights groups believe that WOMAN should deal with oppressive men themselves and NOT RELY on brothers, fathers and uncles to "save" them from evil doer men...
ReplyDeleteIt seems that "Desert Rat" places blame on a fellow named "Boob" for not taking the law into his own hands and killing an "alleged" rapist?
Is that not incitement to commit a felony?
Is that what this Blog stands for?
To incite to murder is a crime. Just reference:
http://sixthformlaw.info/02_cases/mod3a/cases_43_inchoate_incitement.htm
Inchoate offences have been the subject of amendment by the Serious Crime Act 2007
Serious Crime Act 2007
Part 2 - Encouraging or Assisting Crime
The Government's policy on the reform of the criminal law on encouraging and assisting crime is based on the Law Commission's Report on Inchoate Liability for Assisting and Encouraging Crime (Law Com No. 300, CM 6878, 2006).
The Act abolishes the common law offence of incitement and in its place creates new offences of intentionally encouraging or assisting crime and encouraging or assisting crime believing that an offence, or one or more offences, will be committed. The Act contains a defence to the offences in Part 2 (where the encouragement or assistance is considered to be reasonable in the circumstances) and an exemption from liability where the offence encouraged or assisted was created in order to protect a category of people (and the person doing the encouragement or assistance falls into that category).
Interesting point Anon...
ReplyDeleteSo I guess the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and other women's rights groups believe that WOMAN should deal with oppressive men themselves and NOT RELY on brothers, fathers and uncles to "save" them from evil doer men...
It seems that "Desert Rat" places blame on a fellow named "Boob" for not taking the law into his own hands and killing an "alleged" rapist?
Is that not incitement to commit a felony?
Is that what this Blog stands for?
To incite to murder is a crime. Just reference:
http://sixthformlaw.info/02_cases/mod3a/cases_43_inchoate_incitement.htm
Inchoate offences have been the subject of amendment by the Serious Crime Act 2007
Serious Crime Act 2007
Part 2 - Encouraging or Assisting Crime
The Government's policy on the reform of the criminal law on encouraging and assisting crime is based on the Law Commission's Report on Inchoate Liability for Assisting and Encouraging Crime (Law Com No. 300, CM 6878, 2006).
The Act abolishes the common law offence of incitement and in its place creates new offences of intentionally encouraging or assisting crime and encouraging or assisting crime believing that an offence, or one or more offences, will be committed. The Act contains a defence to the offences in Part 2 (where the encouragement or assistance is considered to be reasonable in the circumstances) and an exemption from liability where the offence encouraged or assisted was created in order to protect a category of people (and the person doing the encouragement or assistance falls into that category).
I am not a lawyer... but one who incites one to take the law into his or her own hands could be libel for promoting crime...
ReplyDeleteYo Bob, do not allow the dark side to lead you astray!
But if you do? Blame the Rat!
ReplyDeleteThe Rat made me do it! Could be the NEW line of self defense...
Not very American to advocate the killing of alleged rapists by private citizens...
ReplyDeleteCould lead one to believe thta taking the law into one's own hands to "right a wrong" is justified.
Now if we are talking about self defense or criminal trespass? Not the same issue. That would or could be something a Grand Jury could investigate if for example you shot an armed illegal invading your home in the middle of the night and you felt your life at risk...
Enough fun for the day... I need to go give Obama some cash....
ReplyDeletelol
funny thing? It gets to be more and more worthless everyday!