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Thursday, 13 July

02:13

Rep. Massie Promises Vote to Establish Audit Overseeing Ukraine War Money "IndyWatch Feed War"

The SIGUA office is opposed by President Biden but may be forced by a congressional vote

BY LEE FANG | JULY 12, 2023

The United States has allocated around $113 billion to Ukraine over the last seventeen months, soon to surpass the money spent on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II and quickly approaching the cost of twenty years of war and reconstruction in Afghanistan.

Despite this unprecedented spending, there is no overarching Special Inspector General to oversee the Ukraine funds to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

Change may be on the horizon. There will also be a vote this week, Rep. Tom Massey, R-Ky., tweeted this morning, on establishing the IG for Ukraine.

The push for a Special Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance (SIGUA) has unfortunately become a partisan issue, another casualty of the negative polarization cycle in Washington, D.C. Last March, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., attempted to establish the audit office as an amendment. The bill splintered the Republican caucus in half, while every Democratic Senator, except Sens. Jon Tester, D-Montana, and Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, voted against it.

Surprisingly, notable opposition to establishing the office came from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Warren, before her rise to the Senate, became a national figure as an oversight official working alongside the SIGTARP, the auditor that oversaw the 2008 bank bailout funds. As Warren has touted in the past, SIGTARP, with relatively limited investigative resources, brought criminal charges against 144 individuals, obtained criminal convictions of 107 defendants, and obtained civil judgments and restitution totaling $4.3 billion.

The Afghanistan auditor, known as SIGAR, discovered even more breathtaking fraud and contractor abuse. The auditor found that U.S. Agency for International Development wasted $335 billion on a diesel power plant in the country that was over-budget and barely used, over $90 million on a program to place only 55 Afghan women in government jobs, and over $1 billion on ghost schools to build classrooms that were never utilized and left empty and dilapidated. The Pentagon reportedly spent $6 million on a project that imported nine Italian goats to boost Afghanistans cashmere market and $43 mil...

Wednesday, 12 July

18:58

Those Who Burned the Quran [in Swedish Capital] Most Likely Did So to Express Contempt and Inflame Anger UN Human Rights Chief "IndyWatch Feed War"

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* The UNs top human rights official urged respect for religious tolerance on Tuesday [11 July 2023] as Member States gathered in Geneva in response to the recent burning of the holy Quran in the Swedish capital.

UNAMA/Barat Ali Batoor | Men pray at a mosque in Afghanistan.

...

10:13

How the Taliban Crushed the CIAs Heroin Bonanza in Afghanistan "IndyWatch Feed Nthamerica"

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The post How the Taliban Crushed the CIAs Heroin Bonanza in Afghanistan appeared first on Global Research.

05:54

US needs 'official presence' on ground in Afghanistan, says ex-CIA official "IndyWatch Feed War"

US needs 'official presence' on ground in Afghanistan, says ex-CIA official

Presence in Afghanistan may not be possible without recognition of Taliban, says former CIA officer Douglas London

MEE staff Tue, 07/11/2023 - 20:54

A Taliban fighter prepares to close the entrance gate of the US embassy in Kabul, on 15 August 2022 (AFP)

The United States should have an official presence in Afghanistan and engage with Taliban leadership, a former CIA official said on Tuesday.

In a panel discussing US policy on Afghanistan, hosted by the Washington-based think tank, the Middle East Institute, Douglas London said the US needs to be in conversation with the Taliban leadership on issues like counterterrorism and fighting the Islamic State (IS) group.

"As an intelligence professional or former intelligence professional, I would like to see the United States have an official presence on the ground, not just in Kabul, but particularly in Kandahar, where leadership decisions are being made," London said during the MEI panel discussion.

"Washington speaks at the White House [about] over-the-horizon. Over-the-horizon gets you something, it's largely remote in terms of intelligence. But it's not the same as having a presence on the ground, an official presence on the ground."

Over-the-horizon capabilities refer to the use of drone strikes and aerial surveillance, and have been touted by the Biden administration as a key pillar of US counterintelligence since the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

02:04

Barbie: AI-generated images of 'every country' portrayals spark criticism from Mena region "IndyWatch Feed War"

Barbie: AI-generated images of 'every country' portrayals spark criticism from Mena region

Social media users say generative AI produced stereotypical and "racist" caricatures

Mera Aladam Tue, 07/11/2023 - 17:04

Many have called out the AI-generated photos for perpetuating racist tropes (AFP)

A gallery of AI-generated images depicting Barbies from countries in the Middle East and around the globe has caught the attention of many - for all the wrong reasons.

In a now-viral article, media company Buzzfeed used generative AI to produce pictures of what the world-renowned doll would look like from 194 different countries.

While the pictures were lauded by some, many people took to social media to call the images culturally inappropriate, white-washed and perpetuating racist tropes.

5000 years of civilization and all the tourism hype, the only image AI could generate was a Lebanese Barbie standing over the rubble? Even AI is not buying the economic recovery narrative, tweeted one user.

Still insensitive of @buzzfeedusa to publish such a tone-deaf image of our August 4 trauma [sic]," said another, referencing the 2020 blast that destroyed much of Beirut and left hundreds dead.

Tuesday, 11 July

05:45

Need more cannon fodder: Ukraine stepping up mercenary recruitment effort "IndyWatch Feed World"

Ukrainian units formed from foreign mercenaries have suffered high battlefield casualties, forcing Kiev to change its approach to finding hired fighters, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday. In a statement, the ministry alleged that the Ukrainian military command views foreign fighters as cannon fodder, sending them into the riskiest missions and placing them at the back of the line when it comes to the evacuation of injured troops. This has made recruiting fighters in European countries such as Poland much harder for Kiev, the assessment claimed. Ukraine has consequently ramped up efforts to find candidates in other parts of the world, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which stated that a recruitment drive is underway in Argentina, Brazil, Afghanistan, Iraq, and areas of Syria that are "under American control."