Afghan president has Exiled himself in the UAE

[vlad]

So the Afghan president has Exiled himself in The UAE I would imagine in Dubai. I hope the ( Taliban ) Al Quida don't retaliate and decide to punish UAE for allowing him to live there. 

[MrStretch]

 

The title of the thread has now been changed and Mrstretch harmless question removed

[vlad]

Its obvious Mr Stretch pure and simple a punishment to anyone collaborating with the Taliban. Specially the now ex President. What better way of letting how serious they are by damaging the UAE and sending out a clear message to others who collaborate against them wherever they are.   

[kerryd]

The Taliban are not going to do anything to the UAE.

The UAE was one of the 3 countries that recognized the Taliban as the legitimate gov't of Afghanistan the last time they seized power back in 1996. (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were the other 2 countries.)

As well, it has long been known that the Taliban (and other terrorist organizations) use UAE banks to hold and transfer their money.

In a letter to the UN Security Council (dated June 2019) the "Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1988 (2011)" outlined the situation in Afghanistan up to that time.

In the Letter, they note:
"The Taliban continue to rely on opium poppy for revenue, supplemented by illicit mining, extortion, illegal sales and donations from abroad. Partly because of drought and partly as a result of reduced areas of cultivation, poppy production in 2018 fell from its record high level of 2017, but remained higher than in earlier years.
Annual Taliban income from all aspects of the illegal narcotics trade remains in the hundreds of millions of dollars. These sources of income bring the Taliban into systematic engagement and partnership with Afghan organized criminals.
The continuing partial reliance on donations from abroad is serviced by travel, especially to the Gulf countries, and contacts between representatives of the Taliban and private individuals and entities in those countries."
(My bolding and underlining.)
Further in the (22 page) Letter, it notes they estimate the Taliban were making $400 million a year but that revenues were probably higher as the Taliban now controlled all aspects of the drug trade. It also notes they were making meth as well but that was mostly for domestic consumption.

I guarantee you they aren't keeping those "hundreds of millions" in Afghanistan banks !

[Rain]

A President, in theory.

But a principle puppet in practice. 

Just as corrupt and criminal as those who made way for 'im.

[kerryd]

I highlighted the "donations from abroad" part to note that the Taliban, like Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, get a lot of funding through Muslim "charities" set up in Western countries.

There is an outcry in Canada right now as the gov't has investigated and shut down a number of charities, many of them Muslim charities. They aren't too happy about that.

A relevant example is the charities set up (in Canada) by Ahmed Khadr, father of Omar Khadr (the boy the Americans caught after a firefight in Afghanistan and sent to Guantanamo).

Ahmed had immigrated to Canada and got that all important Canadian passport. He also set up a number of "charities" to collect money "for the poor children in Afghanistan".

He was living in Pakistan with his family in 1995, including his daughter (Zaynab) and his future son-in-law. That son-in-law was an Egyptian terrorist who blew up the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan. The bombing was financed with money Ahmed had collected from the charities he'd set up in Canada.

Ahmed was arrested and imprisoned but Canada's (Liberal) Prime Minister intervened with Pakistan's President and suddenly, all the evidence against Ahmed "disappeared" and he was deported to Canada.

He was so grateful that as soon as he got back to Canada he packed up his family and moved them to Afghanistan. 
They spent over  year living in the same compound as Osama bin Laden.

During a battle between rival warlords, Ahmed was injured and, naturally, flew back to Canada for some of that great (free) healthcare (that I wouldn't get if I went back to Canada as I would be expected to pay for it).

While recuperating, Ahmed used his time to set up even more "charities". When he was well enough, he returned to Afghanistan.
(Every time his wife got pregnant, they'd come back to Canada to use the healthcare and better hospitals - and to make sure the kids qualified for a Canadian passport - but his wife did not want to raise her kids in Canada because she was scared they'd turn into "drug dealers and homosexuals".)

Money collected by Ahmed from those charities was used to finance Al Qaeda activities right up to 9/11.

When the US invaded Afghanistan, Ahmed was high on the list of priority targets, listed as a "Senior Al Qaeda Financier".
Shortly after 9/11, the Egyptians found Khadr hiding in Peshawar. They contacted the Pakistani Intelligence service (the ISI) to arrest him.
While the Egyptians were surveilling the residence, a car bearing diplomatic plates and full of "Taliban" members pulled up to the house, loaded Khadr into the car and drove him to safety in Afghanistan.
Apparently the ISI told the Egyptians afterwards that he'd "slipped" through their fingers.

(In 2003, Khadr was killed, along with about a dozen Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, in a shoot out with Pakistani Security forces along the Afghanistan border.)
 

[JamesE]

UAE??? Is that where all the deposed leaders go?

[gummy]

11 minutes ago, JamesE said:

UAE??? Is that where all the deposed leaders go?

Only when they have embezzled millions or even billions of US $ from their countries

[billywillyjones]

The usa seems unable to insert non corrupt or corruptible leaders in the countries it invades.  One of the reasons Vietnam fell was because the South Vietnamese leader was corrupt and did not have the backing of the people.  

[kerryd]

1 hour ago, JamesE said:

UAE??? Is that where all the deposed leaders go?

1 hour ago, gummy said:

Only when they have embezzled millions or even billions of US $ from their countries

Pretty much.
Thaksin and Yingluck are there along with Spain's former king (wanted on "financial charges").
Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was there for awhile before she returned to Pakistan (and was assassinated by her own bodyguards).
President Musharraf is still there. He was sentence to death in Pakistan although that was later changed. Little doubt what would happen to him if he ever went back.

The son of the former leader of Yemen (who was also assassinated) is there as well as a top Palestinian official (Mohammed Dahlan) who was a senior member of the Fatah party until it's former president accused him of being involved in Yasser Arafat's assassination. (He allegedly siphoned off 10s of millions of dollars into his personal bank accounts as well.)

Not to forget, senior Taliban leaders have been living in neighbouring Qatar for years, completely safe.

Qatar houses a large US military presence, but also supports various terrorist organizations. They were supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood before and after they were a terrorist organization and still support other offshoots of them in the Sinai.

They also have their fingers in the sticky knot that is Syria, and not necessarily backing the "West". 
(Think about it. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Russia, America and others are all supporting factions in Syria but it's not "us against them" as some of them are allies outside of Syria but support different sides inside of Syria. It's a real mess.)

When Obama made the deal with the Taliban to get that soldier back from them (Bergdahl) the 5 Taliban prisoners he was exchanged for were sent to Qatar.
Some of them were senior members of the Taliban and immediately resumed working on their behalf while in Qatar and some just recently went back to Afghanistan.

 

[Rain]

10 hours ago, gummy said:

Only when they have embezzled millions or even billions of US $ from their countries

Which makes perfectly good sense.

Why would they be anything less?

Birds of a feather.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Rain

[Benroon]

11 hours ago, JamesE said:

UAE??? Is that where all the deposed leaders go?

The ones that have just stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from their own people do ! Not a bad place to be stinking rich.

I wouldn't worry about the taliban getting him, I reckon there will be one or two rogue aghans he left in the shit that might get to the coward first!

[Guest]

12 hours ago, kerryd said:

When he was well enough, he returned to Afghanistan.
(Every time his wife got pregnant, they'd come back to Canada to use the healthcare and better hospitals - and to make sure the kids qualified for a Canadian passport - but his wife did not want to raise her kids in Canada because she was scared they'd turn into "drug dealers and homosexuals".)

Very sad to see the way Canada has been heading under PM Blackface I've been on exercise in CFB Wainwright 3 times and CBF Suffield once over the years Alberta great place to train and good for R&R in Edmonton and Calgary lots off Silk taxi drivers and Lebanese immigrants there then but they were really good Proud Canadians.

Now under PM Blackface its Somalian Iraqi Iranian and Syrians  how times have changed. 

[9S_]

Gotta thank our “allies”, you know the ones who helped Osama escape Afghanistan and helped shelter him: Pakistan, for pulling this whole thing off

Lara Logan, 16-year Afghan War Journalist, summarized it perfectly it’s the Pakistanis who control the Taliban. And they wouldn’t move without Pakistan’s blessing. 
 

It was known during the initial Afghan war, that Pakistani Intelligence airlifted a lot of Taliban fighters during the end of the war not to mention launched attacks from Pakistan-Afghanistan border. 

[9S_]

13 hours ago, Rain said:

A President, in theory.

But a principle puppet in practice. 

Just as corrupt and criminal as those who made way for 'im.

The “legitimate” Afghan president is Amrullah Saleh, Vice President to former President Ghani. Who is resurrecting “The Northern Alliance”

 

Unfortunately the Taliban is equipped with sophisticated weaponry and controls all of Afghanistan. 
 

Also sadly, Twitter deleted his account