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British commandos may have executed 80 Afghan civilians – lawyers

Lawyers have told a UK public inquiry panel that SAS troops targeted any fighting-age males in Afghanistan

British Special Air Services (SAS) troops may have killed dozens of unarmed Afghan civilians as they allegedly carried out a policy of eliminating “all fighting-age males” while raiding homes in the Central Asian country between 2010 and 2013, lawyers for families of the victims have told a UK investigative panel, the Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday. 

London-based law firm Leigh Day submitted fresh claims citing at least 30 suspicious incidents that resulted in the deaths of more than 80 Afghans. A public inquiry into alleged war crimes by UK forces in Afghanistan was launched in December, led by Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, who issued a call for evidence from all interested parties in March.

SAS soldiers allegedly targeted young Afghan males encountered during their raids, “regardless of the threat they posed.” One of the troops “personally killed” 35 Afghans during a six-month deployment to the country, according to Leigh Day’s filing.

The killings were typically justified based on claims that the Afghans were armed, but in some incidents, there were more people shot dead than there were weapons found. Senior officers raised concerns at the time that UK troops were showing “a casual disregard for life,” lawyers for the Afghan families said, but military authorities responded with a “wide ranging, multilayered and years-long cover-up.”

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UK war crimes probe issues call for evidence

The raids of Afghan compounds were carried out in search of Taliban fighters, often at night, during the UK’s deployments to Helmand province, the Guardian said. Earlier reports suggested that there may have been 54 victims murdered by a single SAS unit, but lawyers for the families now claim that more troops were involved over a longer period of time than previously thought. The lawyers claimed to have found “credible evidence of a widespread and systematic pattern of unlawful and extrajudicial killings.”

An investigation by military police ended in 2019, when UK defense officials said no evidence of criminal wrongdoing had been found. However, the lawyers claimed that the special forces headquarters allegedly deleted “an unknown quantity of data” shortly before police arrived to examine possible evidence, despite having been ordered by investigators not to erase any material stored on their servers.

Can You Grow Your Own Food?

Many doom-mongers are predicting a global food shortage with mass starvation. We’ve heard this before, of course, but a combination of the covid lockdowns from which the world has yet to fully recover, freak weather conditions, avian flu, the war in Ukraine, and, not least, the insane antics of the climate lobby including the war against especially Dutch farmers, has caused food prices to surge.

The UK hasn’t been hit as badly as the US, but prices are up in India and many other places. This leads to an obvious question, can you grow your own food to alleviate at least some of the cost?

Obviously, people who have gardens have a big advantage over apartment dwellers. It is possible to grow some food in apartments though clearly most people prefer not to. If you have a really big garden and live in a rural area, keeping chickens is a real option. One person who  has done this is Tim Pool, whose slowly expanding media empire has enabled him to buy a large compound that has its own “Chicken City” which he has even monetised. 

For those without such deep pockets, including city dwellers, there are allotments. According to its website: 

“There are 52 allotment sites in the London Borough of Bromley. Each site is managed independently by a local association or group. Most sites have waiting lists, the cost of hiring a plot is in the region of £30.00 per year.”

Allotments in neighbouring Croydon are run by the Council. The waiting list is currently closed, and for those already on the list, the estimated waiting time is between 18 and 24 months!

New York City has over fifty community gardens, some of which grow vegetables and even keep chickens, but what can you do closer to home?

If you have a cellar, even a damp cellar, you can grow mushrooms. Mushrooms thrive in the dark. The big one though is aquaponics. Hydroponics has been around for hundreds of years and possibly for over two millennia. Mushrooms can be grown hydroponically, but it is more usual to grow capsicum, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, and various herbs, while fruits from strawberries to watermelons can also be grown so. If grown vertically, small hydroponic farms take up less space.

One complaint made frequently about hydroponics is that food grown this way can be tasteless and be less nutritious than food grown in soil. A way to counter this is to add fish to the water, which brings us to aquaponics. Although the Aztecs were said to be using something similar before the Battle of Hastings, it was only really in the 1970s that the craft was developed. including by universities.

If managed properly, aquaponics can provide smallholders with most of their food. Aquaponic farms have been in the news quite a lot recently.

Finally, microgreens can be grown indoors. According to this YouTube channel, they can be grown in ten days. Obviously one cannot live entirely off microgreens, but coupled with a small hydroponic or aquaponic garden and a basementful of mushrooms, they might just get you through the austere times that are sure to come.

CIA sees Ukraine crisis as unique ‘opportunity’

The US spy chief has touted his agency’s efforts to undermine Russian leadership

America’s top intelligence official has openly cheered the alleged internal discord that he claims is rising in Moscow because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying the CIA has been given an historic opportunity to recruit spies and undermine President Vladimir Putin’s government.

CIA director William Burns claimed on Saturday at a Ditchley Foundation lecture in the UK that “disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression.”

“That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service. We’re not letting it go to waste,” he added.

Burns noted that the CIA launched a Telegram channel in May to recruit military officers, government officials and scientists who can provide intelligence on the Russian leadership and economy. “We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business,” he said.

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CIA chief spoke to Moscow about Wagner revolt – WSJ

Moscow insisted at the time that the spy agency was simply “wasting American taxpayers’ dollars” as attempts to divide Russian society from abroad won’t work, according to Ambassador Anatoly Antonov.

Washington is betting that the Ukraine crisis will stir enough division to help turn potential Russian intelligence sources against President Putin. Burns made his speech one week after private military contractor Evgeny Prigozhin ended his brief rebellion against Russia’s top generals. The aborted mutiny was far less “bloody” than US officials had expected, according to CNN.

Burns has insisted that Washington played no part in the uprising, but argued that Prigozhin’s short-lived revolt was “a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of Putin’s war on his own society and his own regime.”

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Key points from Putin’s Wagner mutiny speeches

Putin said last week that the Russian people reacted to the crisis by showing unity, spoiling the hopes of foreign enemies that the nation would be “split asunder and drown in a bloody feud.”

Putin’s approval rating among Russians was little changed at 81% after the aborted insurrection, even according to the independent pollster Levada Center, which had been listed as a foreign agent in Russia since 2016.

Israel launches military operation in West Bank

The IDF claims to have targeted Palestinian “terrorists” in the Jenin refugee camp

The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service launched a large-scale offensive early Monday morning, seeking to “thwart the threat of terrorism” across the West Bank. The joint operation allegedly targeted a militant headquarters in Jenin city’s refugee camp.

The IDF confirmed that it struck “terror infrastructure” in the city around 2am, claiming that the Jenin camp had been turned into a “terrorist stronghold.” The military said it raided a joint headquarters of multiple armed groups which “served as an observation post, a gathering place for armed terrorists before and after terror acts, a cache for munitions and bombs and a communications center.”

“We will not standby idle while terrorists continue to harm civilians using Jenin Camp as a hideout,” the Israeli military added in a brief press release.

“We are acting to dismantle this hornets nest,” an Israeli military spokesman,  Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, said in a tweet, claiming that “operational sites used by terrorists” are “located next to schools, a medical center and civilian houses.”

The Jenin Camp is a terrorist stronghold.

We will not standby idle while terrorists continue to harm civilians using Jenin Camp as a hideout. pic.twitter.com/iDcluNkmVP

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 2, 2023

According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least one citizen was killed and another seriously injured during the raid.

Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Six-Day War and began to build new settlements in the territory. The UN Security Council has declared those actions to have “no legal validity” and to constitute “a flagrant violation under international law.” However, Israel disputes that position.

The remaining Palestinian portion of the West Bank is formally under the control of the President Mahmoud Abbas, but Israel regularly conducts military and police raids into the area under the pretext of fighting extremism and terrorism.

Last month, Israeli helicopters conducted a raid in Jenin, killing seven Palestinians, including two teens. In a separate incident, eight Israeli soldiers were injured by a roadside bomb amid clashes with armed Palestinian militants. Several days later, an Israeli drone struck a car carrying three Palestinians suspected of attacking an army checkpoint, in the first instance of targeted assassination in the West Bank since 2006, according to the Times of Israel.