400+ Americans still stranded in Afghanistan, Pentagon confirms

Nearly two months since President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan, hundreds of Americans are still stuck in the now Taliban-controlled Middle Eastern nation, the Pentagon’s top policy official told Congress on Tuesday.

While testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the undersecretary of Defense for policy Colin Kahl said at least 196 Americans are immediately ready and waiting to leave Afghanistan and an additional 243 aren’t ready to leave or want to stay.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) and other GOP lawmakers on the committee said Kahl’s testimony proves that Biden did not live up to his vow to make sure no American citizens were left stranded in Afghanistan.

Kahl rejected the assertion, however, claiming that “nobody was abandoned.”

“We continue to get people out of Afghanistan, including American citizens,” he said, adding that the State Department has helped organize the evacuation of 240 Americans since September, plus another 157 green card holders. When those who arranged their own departures are tallied, at least 314 Americans and 266 lawful permanent residents have left Afghanistan, Kahl noted.

Kahl also pushed back against claims that keeping 2,500 American troops on the ground could have prevented the Taliban takeover.

“The president did not believe that 2,500 troops was a stable equilibrium,” Kahl told Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. “If we had kept at that level, he would have been under pressure to put in more.”

Despite the Taliban recently regaining power in the region as a result of Biden’s withdrawal, Kahl said the militant group is hesitant to allow terrorist activity to grow out of fear of international retaliation.

“The Taliban and ISIS-K are mortal enemies, so the Taliban is highly motivated to go after ISIS-K,” he said. However, the Taliban’s approach to handling al-Qaida is complicated, he continued, largely due to its relationship with the Haqqani network, a militant group based in Pakistan.

Kahl confirmed that the United States is working to establish formal agreements with neighboring nations from which the US military could conduct airborne operations into Afghanistan.

“We are in conversation with Pakistan to keep the air line of communication open,” Kahl said. “We have also had conversations with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.”

Additionally, Kahl said other nations are also worried about the potential increase in terrorist activity.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/10/400-americans-still-stranded-in-afghanistan-pentagon-confirms/

Gladys Berejiklian’s barrister flags going the nuclear option and start naming all NSW politicians who have had undeclared “intimate personal relationships”

Gladys Berejiklian’s barrister Sophie Callan, SC, flagged at the NSW ICAC on Monday (25/10/21) that they will be going the nuclear option and start naming all NSW politicians who have had undeclared “intimate personal relationships”, in a blatant attempt to use the “they did it too” defence, so Gladys Berejiklian’s secret relationship with corrupt former MP Daryl Maguire doesn’t look so bad.

Former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro was on the witness stand at ICAC on Monday and Sophie Callan, SC, didn’t hold back and repeatedly asked Mr Barilaro whether he had declared all “intimate personal relationships” while he was an MP. Mr Barilaro didn’t do himself any favours by ducking and weaving and failing to give a straight answer to the question even though he was asked multiple times as per the below video.

I previously raised John Barilaro’s alleged numerous affairs when he resigned in the article I published on the 5th of October 2021 titled “The real reasons NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro resigned: Fraud, theft, abuse of power and numerous alleged affairs”. (Click here to read the article)

John Barilaro’s week will likely go from bad to worse as per the below video where I pointed out that John Barilaro will be in the witness stand at ICAC on Monday, at mediation for his defamation case against Friendlyjordies in the Federal Court on Tuesday & Barilaro’s former staffer, Siobhan Hamblin, will be in the Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for non-compliance with a subpoena and she is also facing a possible contempt charge.

So, rumours about John Barilaro and female staffers and others are no secret and as I say in the above video there are 2 main benefits for Gladys Berejiklian if she names John Barilaro and possibly other MP’s having undeclared intimate personal relationships. Firstly, Gladys doesn’t look as bad for concealing her relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire if others have done similar.

And secondly, all the witnesses have so far said that Gladys Berejiklian should have declared her relationship with Daryl Maguire and that they would have acted differently in awarding the $5.5 million grant if they had known. But if it can be proven they knew about other conflicts of interests involving others such as John Barilaro having relationships with staffers, and they took no action then their credibility as a witness against Gladys Berejiklian is greatly damaged.

As it stands Gladys Berejiklian has no friends in the Liberal Party and National Party as politicians and staffers from both parties have lined up at ICAC, last week and this week, to throw her under a bus so she has nothing to lose by going the nuclear option and naming other MP’s who have had affairs and failed to declare the affairs when there has been a conflict of interest.

https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2021/10/26/gladys-berejiklians-barrister-flags-going-the-nuclear-option-and-start-naming-all-nsw-politicians-who-have-had-undeclared-intimate-personal-relationships/

Graves discovered under Sydney's Central Station

A 181-year-old burial vault has been uncovered underneath Sydney's Central Station.

The discovery comes during the excavations for the new metro platforms at the site.

A search is now underway for the descendants of two colonial Sydney families buried in the vault.

The vault contains 11 graves.

The NSW Government has urged descendants to get in touch.

"We're inviting any relatives or descendants of the Perry or Ham families to make contact with Sydney Metro team for further information," Mr Stokes said.

This is the second grave with a legible nameplate to be uncovered during construction work on the new Sydney Metro platforms.

A search uncovered the descendants of Joseph Thompson whose 1858 nameplate was also discovered in a grave during Central station excavations in 2019.

Later this year his remains will be reinterred at the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park.

Central Station was once the Devonshire Street Cemetery, which was closed in 1867, explaining the discovery of the graves.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/central-station-family-vault-new-south-wales-grave-discovery/7c1f1c06-52ce-4363-8774-cd332db65bae

AG Garland refuses to retract controversial school board memo during Senate hearing

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to “resign in disgrace” after an intense exchange over Garland’s controversial school board memo during a Wednesday hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Arkansas Republican began his line of questioning by pointing attention to the National Institutes of Health admitting to funding gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at China’s Wuhan lab — despite Fauci repeatedly insisting to Congress that no such thing happened.

“Are you investigating Tony Fauci for lying to Congress?” Cotton asked.

“A long time rule in the Justice Department, not to discuss pending investigations, potential investigations,” Garland responded, before Cotton quickly shifted his inquiries to the memo, which announced that federal law enforcement would be involved in investigations pertaining to parents protesting local school boards.

After asking if the attorney general consulted with senior leadership at the Federal Bureau of Investigation prior to releasing the memo, Cotton asked Garland if anyone at the agency expressed “any doubt, or disagreement, or hesitation.”

“No one expressed that to me, no one to me,” Garland said.

“A lot of FBI officials have contacted my office and said that they oppose this decision right now,” Cotton fired back.

Garland repeated that no one expressed any disagreement directly to him.

Cotton proceeded to blast the attorney general for avoiding simple questions asked throughout the hearing, including why the National Security Division is being included in a task force for the investigation.

“What is the National Security Division — judge the national — these are the people, they’re supposed to be chasing jihadists and Chinese spies, what’s the National Security Division have to do with parents at school boards?” Cotton pressed.

“This is not, again, about parents at school boards. It’s about threats of violence,” Garland said.

“Let me turn to that because you’ve said that phrase repeatedly throughout the morning threats or violence and threats of violence, violence and threats of violence,” Cotton replied.

“We’ve heard it a dozen times this morning. As Senator Lee pointed out, the very first line in your October 4 memorandum refers to harassment and intimidation. Why do you continue to dissemble from this committee that you’re only talking about violence and threats of violence, when your memo says harassment and intimidation?”

“I said it in my testimony that it involved other kinds of criminal conduct. And the — and I explained to Senator Lee that the statutory definitions of those terms and the constitutional definitions of those terms involved threats of violence,” Garland said.

Cotton and Garland continued to spat back and forth over the memo, and eventually began to discuss a sexual assault case that was reportedly covered up by school board members in Loudoun County, Virginia, a case Garland was unable to answer questions about when appearing before the House, saying he wasn’t “familiar” with the case.

This week, the 15-year-old Virginia boy has been found guilty of the sexual assault that led to his victim’s dad being arrested and branded a “domestic terrorist,” while protesting it at a school board meeting.

Cotton asked Garland if he would apologize to the father of the girl involved in the incident.

https://nypost.com/2021/10/27/ag-merrick-garland-refuses-to-retract-controversial-school-board-memo/

HS students gave lap dances to staff — including principal — for school's 'Man Pageant.' Now an investigation is underway.

Students dressed in very little clothing gave lap dances to staff members — including the principal — at a Kentucky public high school while girls dressed as Hooters waitresses during homecoming week activities Tuesday, the Courier-Journal reported.

The paper added that an investigation is underway to figure out what went down as part of Hazard High School's "Man Pageant" and "Costume Day," the paper said, citing the school's Facebook page.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/hs-students-lap-dances-staff-principal-man-pageant

Ted Cruz Grills Merrick Garland Over Alleged Conflict Of Interest Regarding His Son-In-Law’s Education Company

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland on an alleged conflict of interest regarding his son-in-law’s education company during a Wednesday hearing.

During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Garland, Cruz cited reports that Garland’s son-in-law profits from an education company that promotes concepts associated with critical race theory. Garland has denied any conflict of interest between his son-in-law’s business and the NSBA messaging.

Cruz asked the attorney general if he sought and received a decision from an ethics adviser at the Department of Justice (DOJ) before making a decision that could financially benefit his son-in-law.

“Yes or no did you seek an ethics opinion? Did you seek an ethics opinion? General are you refusing to answer if you sought an ethics opinion?” Cruz asked Garland.

Garland was cut off as he was saying that the memorandum directing the FBI to target the growing movement of parents protesting school boards has nothing to do with critical race theory, to which Cruz said: “So you’re saying no!? Just answer it directly. You know how to answer a question directly. Did you seek an ethics opinion?”

“I’m telling you that if I thought there was any reason to believe there was a conflict of interest,” Garland responded.

“Why do you refuse to answer the question? Why don’t you just say no?” Cruz added.

“If critical race theory is taught in more schools does your son-in-law make more money? Yes or no?” Cruz pressed Garland, to which he did not receive a response.

Garland’s son-in-law is reportedly the co-founder of Panorama Education, Inc., a company that reportedly publishes and sells critical race theory materials and works with school districts across the U.S. to obtain and analyze data on students.

Panorama Education reaches 12 million K-12 students in 21,000 schools, its website states. The company conducts student screening surveys that ask questions like, “How confident are you that students at your school can have honest conversations with each other about race?” and “How often do you think about what someone of a different race, ethnicity, or culture experiences?”

“The Biden DOJ has embraced Critical Race Theory. AG Garland’s son-in-law makes big money from a company involved in teaching CRT. So I asked the AG if he sought an ethics opinion. He refused to answer my question. Apparently ethics aren’t a high priority in the Biden admin,” Cruz said in a tweet.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/10/27/ted-cruz-grills-merrick-garland-alleged-conflict-interest-son-in-laws-education-company/

Defendants Charged in Connection with Multi-State Forced Labor Conspiracy Involving the Forced Labor of Minor Victims

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ks/pr/defendants-charged-connection-multi-state-forced-labor-conspiracy-involving-forced-labor

United States Naval Intelligence Software Engineer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances

https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/united-states-naval-intelligence-software-engineer-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-distribute

PEDO BUN 27 October 21

Oakland Oral Surgeon Sentenced To 16 Years In Federal Prison For Multiple Child Sex Crimes

Defendant Attempted To Engage in Child Sex Trafficking, Possessed Voluminous Child Pornography And Attempted To Produce It, And Traveled To Cambodia To Engage in Sex With Children

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/oakland-oral-surgeon-sentenced-16-years-federal-prison-multiple-child-sex-crimes

Former Las Cruces middle school principal sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for child pornography

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/former-las-cruces-middle-school-principal-sentenced-11-years-federal-prison-child

Convicted Child Predator Pleads Guilty To New Child Pornography Charge

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdny/pr/convicted-child-predator-pleads-guilty-new-child-pornography-charge

Navajo man sentenced to 15 years in prison for abusive sexual contact of a minor in Indian Country

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/navajo-man-sentenced-15-years-prison-abusive-sexual-contact-minor-indian-country

Church Rock man pleads guilty to sexually abusing a child

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/church-rock-man-pleads-guilty-sexually-abusing-child

Adrian Man Sentenced to 24 Years in Federal Prison on Child Pornography Charges

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/adrian-man-sentenced-24-years-federal-prison-child-pornography-charges

Mercer County Man Pleads to Child Sexual Exploitation Charges

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/mercer-county-man-pleads-child-sexual-exploitation-charges

Judge sentences St. Louis man for enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/judge-sentences-st-louis-man-enticement-minor-engage-prostitution

McLean Man Convicted of Sexual Exploitation of Minors

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/mclean-man-convicted-sexual-exploitation-minors

Virginia Man Convicted of Sexual Exploitation of Minors

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/virginia-man-convicted-sexual-exploitation-minors

Thousands of Australians with unpaid fines for breaking Covid rules have their homes seized, bank accounts raided and licences cancelled as government chases $5.2million

State Penalties Enforcement Register chasing $5.2m in unpaid Covid-19 fines

Queensland Health is using SPER to crackdown on 3,046 unpaid penalty notices

2,755 fines were from individuals & businesses accused of flouting Covid rules

SPER also to collect $5.7 million in repayments on overdue hotel quarantine bills

Queenslanders who received fines for breaking Covid-19 rules risk having their homes seized and bank accounts frozen in a government crackdown to collect $5.2 million in repayments.

The State Penalties Enforcement Register is expected to collect 3,046 unpaid fines from the pandemic on behalf of Queensland Health.

More than 2,755 fines were from individuals and businesses accused of breaking Covid-19 restrictions and the rest either still under investigation or pending payment.

About 56.4 per cent of fines have already been paid in full or are being paid off on a payment plan.

SPER said enforcement for people who failed to pay their fines 'may include garnishing bank accounts or wages, registering charges over property, or suspending driver licences', according to the Brisbane Times.

The drastic measures would be used to collect 18.4 per cent of outstanding fines, worth a total of $1 million.

Queensland Health also called on SPER to recover more than 2,045 overdue hotel quarantine bills which have racked up a state debt of $5.7 million.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10136275/Unpaid-Covid-fines-taken-bank-accounts-seized-homes-Queensland.html

memefags have some nice batter

Nuclear arms race ‘stupid,’ Beijing will make sure it can destroy US just ‘ONCE’ – Chinese media boss

Matching the number of nuclear weapons with Washington is a fool’s errand, when all it takes for a successful deterrent is having enough to obliterate the US once, said the editor-in-chief of China’s state-run Global Times daily.

“China won’t engage in a nuclear arms race with the US. We think it’s stupid. I know that the US can destroy China 10 times, but we will MAKE SURE we have full capability to destroy the US once,” Hu Xijin tweeted on Wednesday.

Hu was commenting on an opinion piece by Laura Grego, a fellow at the MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy, who warned that the US development of missile defense systems has caused Russia, China and others to develop more dangerous weapons capable of defeating them.

“China’s new missiles hedge against the possibility that the United States may one day believe its technical advances permit it to strike China first while remaining invulnerable to a retaliatory nuclear attack,” wrote Grego, referring to the recent reports of a hypersonic missile test that Beijing has obliquely denied.

This is precisely the point Hu made last week, urging the US to “abandon the crazy idea that it can strike China and Russia, but they can’t strike it” and to remember how the Cold War-era doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) helped defuse nuclear tensions.

Hu has been in charge of Global Times since the English-language daily launched back in 2009, under the auspices of People’s Daily, the principal newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

Wednesday’s tweet is a shorter, sharper version of an argument he’d made ten days prior, saying that China’s development of nuclear deterrence aimed “to ensure that the US abandons the idea of nuclear blackmail against China, or using nuclear forces to fill the gap as US conventional forces cannot crush China.”

Reports earlier this month that the People’s Liberation Army has successfully tested a nuclear-capable intercontinental hypersonic missile have caused alarm in Washington, with US officials saying they were caught by surprise.

https://www.rt.com/news/538638-china-nuclear-race-destroy-us/

Maine police officers, prosecutor accused of covering up MASSIVE drug operation

BANGOR, Maine – (Dept. of Justice / News Release) – A Farmington man pleaded guilty today in federal court to conspiring to possess and distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana and 1,000 marijuana plants, U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee announced.

According to court documents, from about 2016 through July 2020, Randal Cousineau, 69, participated in a conspiracy to illegally cultivate and sell marijuana. Cousineau was the primary financier and 50% partner with a co-conspirator in an illegal marijuana cultivation facility in Farmington. He also held an interest in an illegal marijuana distribution company. Members of the conspiracy cultivated and sold marijuana in violation of Maine’s medical marijuana laws, selling bulk marijuana illicitly to individuals who were not registered as caregivers, and for distribution outside of the state of Maine. Cousineau realized hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from these illegal sales.

Cousineau faces up to life in prison and a $10 million fine. He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

A related 14-count criminal complaint was also filed today in U.S. District Court in Bangor, charging 12 defendants with a variety of offenses, including conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, bank fraud, tampering with proceedings, tampering with documents, conspiracy to defraud the United States and to impede and impair the IRS, tax evasion, and tax fraud.

According to the criminal complaint, Lucas Sirois, 41, of Farmington, was the leader of the criminal organization. He and his coconspirators realized in excess of $13 million over a six-year period through the illicit sale of marijuana. Sirois structured his operations to appear as though they complied with Maine’s medical marijuana regime while he regularly sold bulk marijuana on the illicit market, including more than $1 million worth of marijuana for out-of-state distribution between 2018 and 2019 through codefendant Brandon Dagnese, 27, of Scarborough, a convicted felon who was ineligible to hold a caregiver card in Maine.

https://breaking911.com/breaking-maine-police-officers-prosecutor-accused-of-covering-up-massive-drug-operation/

President Trump Writes into Wall Street Journal on Stolen Election — Points Out the Obvious

Former President Donald Trump wrote in to The Wall Street Journal Wednesday to continue his push for the truth in the greatest crime in American history — The Stolen 2020 Presidential Election.

Nearly a year has gone by and even today a majority of American voters believe the Democrats cheated to win the 2020 election and only 39% believe the election was free and fair.

This is from President Trump’s letter to The Wall Street Journal.

In your editorial “The Election for Pennsylvania’s High Court” (Oct. 25), you state the fact that a court wrongly said mail-in ballots could be counted after Election Day. “This didn’t matter,” you add, “because Mr. Biden won the state by 80,555, but the country is lucky the election wasn’t closer. If the election had hung on a few thousand Pennsylvanians, the next President might have been picked by the U.S. Supreme Court.”…

…“Actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out. Here are just a few examples of how determinative the voter fraud in Pennsylvania was:

* 71,893 mail-in ballots were returned after Nov. 3, 2020, at 8 p.m… None of these should have been counted according to the U.S. Constitution

* 10,515 mail-in votes from people who do not exist on the Pennsylvania voter rolls at all.

* 20,000 excess voters not yet accounted for by the Pennsylvania Department of State—far more votes than voters!

* Hundreds of thousands of votes unlawfully counted in secret… while GOP poll watchers thrown out

* 39,771 people voted who registered after the Oct 19 deadline”

On election night President Trump was ahead of Joe Biden by 785,000 votes.

Democrats worked in locked rooms for the next several days behind closed doors to give Joe Biden the win.

The Supreme Court and Republican Party did nothing to save the republic.

Americans aren’t stupid and know a cheat when they see one.

Trump Spokesman Liz Harrington posted these nuggets from the editorial.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/president-trump-writes-wall-street-journal-stolen-election-points-obvious/