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[Link] US military kills Islamic State leader in Syria airstrike

Read: 12/7/2022 www.theguardian.com

The US military killed a leader of the Islamic State on Tuesday in an airstrike in Syria, Joe Biden said.

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[Link] 'America's Army,' the Pentagon’s Video Game, Shuts Down After 20 Years

Read: 8/2/2022 www.vice.com

America’s Army: Proving Grounds, a game used as a recruitment tool by the United States government, is shutting down its servers on March 5, 2022 after existing in various iterations for 20 years. After that date, the game will be delisted on Steam and removed from the PSN store.

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[Link] Trump attacks media and Mark Milley in foul-mouthed Mar-a-Lago speech

Read: 6/12/2021 www.theguardian.com

In remarks to diners at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday night, Donald Trump called the American media “crooked bastards” and Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, a “fucking idiot”.

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[Link] Air Force Spent Millions on Encrypted App Wickr

Read: 29/11/2021 www.vice.com

The U.S. Air Force has spent millions of dollars on licenses from encrypted chat platform Wickr, according to Air Force documents and public procurement records reviewed by Motherboard. The documents further solidify Wickr’s position as a preferred tool of the U.S. government and military.

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[Link] US confirms 2019 airstrike hit crowd of Syrian women and children

Read: 15/11/2021 www.theguardian.com

The US military has confirmed for the first time a 2019 air strike in Syria that killed up to 80 people, mostly women and children, but claimed the strike was justified as it killed Islamic State fighters who were attacking coalition forces.

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[Link] A US nuclear-powered attack submarine hit something underwater – now its two senior officers have been fired

Read: 7/11/2021 www.abc.net.au

The US Navy has fired the two senior officers of a nuclear-powered attack submarine that was damaged in an underwater collision last month in the South China Sea. The actions were taken by Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the US 7th Fleet, based in Japan.

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[Link] ‘Honest mistake’: US strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians was legal, says Pentagon

Read: 4/11/2021 www.theguardian.com

A US drone strike in Kabul in August that killed 10 Afghan civilians was a tragic mistake but did not violate any laws, a Pentagon inspector general said after an investigation.

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[Link] Climate change is a national security issue, but not in the way Scott Morrison imagines

Read: 19/10/2021 www.theguardian.com

Scott Morrison describes climate change as a national security issue. He’s right – but not in the way he imagines. If global heating exacerbates conflict, conflict also exacerbates heating, in a dialectic that fundamentally links decarbonisation to the struggle for peace.

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[Link] China Denies Secretly Testing a Missile That Could Drop Nukes at Any Point in the World

Read: 18/10/2021 www.vice.com

On July 19, China announced its 77th launch of the Long March 2C rocket, carrying three satellite sensors to orbit. The next month, the same rocket was used to put three telecommunications satellites in space. What happened next confounded observers. China said the second launch, on Aug.

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[Link] With No U.S. Support, Leaders of Afghan Resistance Flee the Country

Read: 22/9/2021 theintercept.com

Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, fled to Tajikistan shortly after the Taliban seized control of the Panjshir Valley on September 6, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, a Pentagon consultant, and two former senior Afghan government officials.

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[Link] Biden sets himself apart by placing Afghanistan blame at predecessors’ feet

Read: 1/9/2021 www.theguardian.com

Victory speeches are easy; conceding defeat is much harder. On Tuesday, Joe Biden tacitly blamed his predecessors for the failure of America’s longest war but implied that, against all odds, one winner had emerged: him.

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[Link] Taliban Carry Coffins Draped With US Flag in Celebration of Their Victory

Read: 1/9/2021 www.vice.com

August 31 has been declared “Freedom Day” in Afghanistan by members of the Taliban, who celebrated the final departure of the United States by parading through the streets with coffins draped in American and NATO flags.

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[Link] QAnon’s Biggest Conference Is in Complete Shambles Right Now

Read: 1/9/2021 www.vice.com

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here. QAnon John has had a difficult week. First he was kicked out of QAnon’s biggest influencer group for calling on U.S.

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[Link] The Taliban Captured Lots of Very Expensive Aircraft in Kabul. None of Them Work.

Read: 31/8/2021 www.vice.com

America’s longest war is over after 20 years following the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

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[Link] US Marines officer relieved of duties after video seeking ‘accountability’ over Afghanistan

Read: 28/8/2021 www.theguardian.com

A US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who posted a video demanding accountability from military leaders over the evacuation of Afghanistan has been relieved of his duties and will leave US service, the Marines and the officer involved said on Friday.

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[Link] ‘We Will Hunt You Down’: Biden Promises U.S. Retaliation for ISIS Attacks in Kabul

Read: 27/8/2021 www.vice.com

President Joe Biden has indicated that the United States will retaliate against the ISIS-affiliated suicide bomb attacks at Kabul’s international airport on Thursday afternoon – promising to “hunt down” the terrorists responsible. At least 90 Afghans and 12 U.S. Service Members – 11 U.S.

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[Link] Who is ISIS-K, the Islamic State offshoot in Afghanistan that has the Taliban worried?

Read: 27/8/2021 www.abc.net.au

Deadly explosions have rocked the edge Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport overnight killing and injuring locals wanting to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban's takeover, as well as US military personnel trying to help the evacuation effort.

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[Link] Afghan Soldier Killed As Unknown Sniper Opens Fire at Kabul Airport

Read: 26/8/2021 www.vice.com

An unknown sniper opened fire on US and German troops guarding the entrances to Kabul airport killing an Afghan soldier and wounding three others on Monday.

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[Link] We Were With Afghan Soldiers as the Taliban Took Kandahar

Read: 26/8/2021 www.vice.com

Since the Taliban took control of Kabul earlier this month, a lot of the focus has been on the failures of the U.S.-trained Afghan military—why they seemed to put up little resistance to the Islamist extremists in some of the provinces, and then, finally, in the capital.

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[Link] Nosedive in UK-US relations is another casualty of Afghanistan’s fall

Read: 23/8/2021 www.theguardian.com

So much for the special relationship. As the Afghanistan crisis has unfolded, it has precipitated a high-speed deterioration in Anglo-American relations.

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[Link] Monsters, Inc: The Taliban as Empire’s bogeyman

Read: 22/8/2021 www.aljazeera.com

The dominant narrative on the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan erases the decades of imperial violence Afghans suffered.

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[Link] Biden Assured Allies in June U.S. Would Ensure Kabul’s Stability

Read: 22/8/2021 www.bloomberg.com

President Joe Biden told key allies in June that he would maintain enough of a security presence in Afghanistan to ensure they could continue to operate in the capital following the main U.S.

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[Link] The Taliban Have Seized U.S. Military Biometrics Devices

Read: 22/8/2021 static-theintercept-com.cdn.ampproject.org

The Taliban have seized U.S. military biometrics devices that could aid in the identification of Afghans who assisted coalition forces, current and former military officials have told The Intercept.

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[Link] Swift Taliban takeover proves US and UK analysis badly wrong

Read: 17/8/2021 www.theguardian.com

Joe Biden could not have been clearer: a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “not inevitable”, the US president said on 8 July.

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[Link] Joe Biden says he stands by US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Read: 17/8/2021 www.abc.net.au

US President Joe Biden says he stands squarely behind his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, after the Taliban seized power in just over a week. Mr Biden said the collapse of the Afghan armed forces was quicker than anticipated, but insisted contingency plans were in place.

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[Link] Taliban seize symbolic victory with capture of Kunduz

Read: 9/8/2021 www.theguardian.com

The Taliban have claimed a huge symbolic victory after their fighters seized a large city for the first time in northern Afghanistan as part of a seemingly unstoppable offensive in which they have captured four provincial capitals in just three days.

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[Link] ‘It Failed Miserably’: After Wargaming Loss, Joint Chiefs Are Overhauling How the US Military Will Fight

Read: 8/8/2021 www.defenseone.com

A brutal loss in a wargaming exercise last October convinced the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John Hyten to scrap joint warfighting concepts that had guided U.S. military operations for decades. “Without overstating the issue, it failed miserably.

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[Link] Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Is a Truth-Teller in a Time of Systemic Deceit and Lethal Secrecy

Read: 7/8/2021 theintercept.com

Since the arrest and indictment of Daniel Hale on charges that he leaked the documents that formed the basis for The Intercept’s series “The Drone Papers,” as well as documents about the government’s secret watchlisting system, I have wanted to speak publicly about this unjust prosecution.

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[Link] Pentagon Wrongly Admitted Killing 21 Civilians in Iraq and Syria