KABUL: The United States has removed multimillion-dollar bounties on leaders of Afghanistan’s feared Haqqani militant network, including the current Taliban interior minister, the State Department and the Taliban government said.
The Haqqani network was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks during the decades-long war in Afghanistan.
The men remain on Washington’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” but the bounty price has been scrapped.
Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that Washington had “canceled rewards” for Sirajuddin Haqqani – who also heads the Haqqani network – as well as other key leaders, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.
Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head.
The US State Department said that “the three persons named remain designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a SDGT.”
But while the wanted page remains active, the bounty on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website has been removed.
“It is the policy of the United States to consistently review and refine Rewards for Justice reward offers,” a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The bounty cancelation came days after the first visit by US officials to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the announcement afterwards of the release of a US citizen by Taliban authorities.
US-based Afghan political analyst Abdul Wahed Faqiri said that the bounty removal is likely “largely symbolic” but a way for the United States to “give credit to Sirajuddin Haqqani,” seen as an emerging more moderate “alternative.”
Media reports talk of increasing tensions between the “pragmatic” Haqqani figures and a more hardline circle around Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who vie for influence within the government.
Despite the US bounty and international travel bans, Sirajuddin Haqqani has traveled outside Afghanistan multiple times since the Taliban government swept back to power in 2021.
The government in Kabul is not recognized by any country and has expressed hopes for “a new chapter” with Trump’s administration.
Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban during his first term in office, that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and their return to power.
US drops bounties on top Afghan Taliban officials
https://arab.news/8xp3z
US drops bounties on top Afghan Taliban officials
- Taliban leaders remain on Washington’s list of ‘specially designated global terrorists’ but the bounty price has been scrapped
- Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head
China’s ‘aggressive’ military activities around Taiwan put region’s security at risk, US says
- Washington issued the warning as China conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan to warn the self-ruled democracy against seeking formal independence
- China's latest action has prompted the Philippines' military to prepare to rescue Filipinos working and living in Taiwan if China invades the island
WASHINGTON/TAIPEI: The United States on Wednesday reassured its allies in the Asia-Pacific region of its “enduring commitment” of support amid what it called “China’s intimidation tactics and destabilizing behavior.”
“Once again, China’s aggressive military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s security and the world’s prosperity at risk,” the US State Department said in a statement posted on its website.
“The United States supports peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, including through force or coercion,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, China conducted large-scale drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan that included an aircraft carrier battle group, as it again warned the self-ruled democracy against seeking formal independence.
The exercises involved navy, air ground and rocket forces and were meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command. No operational name for the drills was announced nor previous notice given.
China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de facto independence and democratic status. Any conflict could bring in the US, which maintains alliances in the region and is legally bound to treat threats to Taiwan as a matter of “grave concern.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office posted on X that “China’s blatant military provocations not only threaten peace in the #Taiwan Strait but also undermine security in the entire region, as evidenced by drills near Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Philippines & the SCS. We strongly condemn China’s escalatory behavior.”
The SCS refers to the South China Sea, the strategic and disputed waterway that China claims almost in its entirety. China’s navy also recently held drills near Australia and New Zealand for which it gave no warning, forcing the last-minute rerouting of commercial flights.
Taiwan tracks Chinese navy vessels
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels around the island in a 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. It added that the Shandong aircraft carrier group had entered into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, a self-defined area tracked by the military.
Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a daily basis, andin recent years it has stepped up the scope and scale of these exercises. Taiwanese officials have recently warned that China could launch a sneak attack under the guise of military exercises.
“I want to say these actions amply reflect (China’s) destruction of regional peace and stability,” said Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo.
Taiwan has set up a central response group to monitor the latest exercises, Koo said.
On the streets of Taipei, people said the atmosphere was tense but they were more concerned about the economy and developments surrounding the administration of US President Donald Trump.
“The Chinese Communists spend so much time and effort on these things but most people don’t pay much attention,” said Lin Hui-tsung, a noodle seller in the Tiananmu district.
China’s Xinhua News Agency said the Eastern Theater Command conducted “multi-subject drills in waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island.”
The theater command “organized its vessel and aircraft formations, in coordination with conventional missile troops and long-range rocket launching systems, to conduct drills of air interception, assault on maritime targets, strikes on ground objects, and joint blockade and control,” Xinhua quoted the command as saying.
The exercises were “aimed at testing the troops’ capabilities of carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control and multi-directional precision strikes, the command said.
“The PLA organized naval and air forces to practice subjects such as sea and land strikes, focusing on testing the troops’ ability to carry out precision strikes on some key targets of the Taiwan authorities from multiple directions,” said Zhang Chi, a professor at China’s National Defense University in an interview with Chinese state television.
Beijing sends a message to Taiwan’s president
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the exercises were directed at Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s strongly pro-independence president.
“Lai Ching-te stubbornly insists on a ‘Taiwan independence’ stance, brazenly labeling the mainland as a ‘foreign hostile force,’ and has put forward a so-called ‘17-point strategy’ ... stirring up anti-China sentiments,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement. “We will not tolerate or condone this in any way and must resolutely counter and severely punish these actions.”
In mid-March, Taiwan’s Lai put forward a 17-point strategy aimed at shoring up Taiwan’s security. The points include allowing espionage cases to be tried by military courts and making immigration rules stricter for Chinese citizens applying for permanent residency.
China’s PLA also released a series of videos to publicize their military exercise, including one in which they depict Lai as a green parasite “poisoning” the island by hatching smaller parasites. The video shows Lai’s head on the body of a bulbous green worm, with a pair of chopsticks picking him up and roasting him over a flame set over Taiwan.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war 76 years ago, but tensions have risen since 2016, when China cut off almost all contacts with Taipei.
Philippines should be ready to rescue its citizens
In the Philippines, military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. asked Filipino forces to prepare to rescue Filipinos working and living in Taiwan if China invades the island, speaking during a ceremony marking the founding anniversary of the military command that secures the Philippine region closest to Taiwan.
“If something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved. There are 250,000 overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan and we will have to rescue them,” Brawner said.
Senate confirms Matt Whitaker as Trump’s ambassador to NATO
WASHINGTON: The Senate confirmed Matt Whitaker late Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s US ambassador to NATO, a crucial emissary to the Western alliance at a time of growing concern about the American commitment abroad.
Whitaker, who had served in Trump’s first administration at the Justice Department, brings a law enforcement background rather than deep foreign policy or national security ties. He was confirmed by the Senate on a vote of 52-45.
During a confirmation hearing, Whitaker assured senators that the Trump administration’s commitment to the military alliance was “ironclad.”
Trump has long been skeptical, and often hostile, toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which was formed by the US and other countries in the aftermath of World War II as a deterrent to potential aggression from what was then the Soviet Union.
The US commitment has been called into question due to Trump’s sharp criticism of European allies and his eagerness to build ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has pushed other countries to contribute a greater share of their budgets to their the own defense, rather than relying on the US
Whitaker had been chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions during Trump’s first term, and then was chosen to become acting attorney general when his boss was fired after recusing himself from the department’s investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 election.
He had been considered for the top job in the Justice Department with the president’s return to the White House, but instead was tapped for the ambassadorship.
In nominating him, Trump said in a statement that Whitaker was “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended.”
Costa Rican former President Oscar Arias says US revoked his visa
- “It has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the US government, and even less so, when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do,” he said on social media in February
SAN JOSE: Former Costa Rican President and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias said on Tuesday that the US had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized US President Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like “a Roman emperor.”
Arias, 84, was president between 1986 and 1990 and again between 2006 and 2010. A self-declared pacifist, he won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in brokering peace during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s.
Arias also promoted a free trade agreement with the US during his last term and in 2007 established diplomatic ties with China.
“I received an email from the US government informing me that they have suspended the visa I have in my passport. The communication was very terse, it does not give reasons. One could have conjectures,” Arias told reporters outside his home, without elaborating on his suspicions.
In February, Arias had on social media accused the current government of President Rodrigo Chaves of giving in to US pressure, as the US has sought to oppose China’s influence in the region and deported migrants from third countries into Central America.
“It has never been easy for a small country to disagree with the US government, and even less so, when its president behaves like a Roman emperor, telling the rest of the world what to do,” he said on social media in February.
His statements came after the US withdrew visas from three Costa Rican lawmakers who opposed Chaves’ decision to exclude Chinese firms from participating in the development of 5G in the country, following US demands. On Tuesday, another opposition lawmaker was also stripped of her US visa.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had in early February visited Costa Rica and offered to help Chaves “punish” Costa Rican officials who collaborate with “foreign actors who pose a threat to the country’s cybersecurity.”
Secrets, spy tools and a 110-year-old lemon are on show in an exhibition from Britain’s MI5
- The show includes declassified records held by the National Archives and items loaned from the secret museum inside Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters
LONDON: A desiccated 110-year-old lemon that played a key role in espionage history is one of the star attractions of a London exhibition drawn from the files of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency.
Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder tin and a briefcase abandoned by fleeing Soviet spy Guy Burgess are also part of the show at Britain’s National Archives, which charts the history of a secretive agency that is – slowly – becoming more open.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum told journalists at a preview on Tuesday that the organization’s work “is often different from fiction, whether that fiction is George Smiley or Jackson Lamb” – the brilliant spymaster of John le Carré’s novels and the slovenly supervisor of MI5 rejects in Mick Herron’s “Slow Horses” series.
Many stories told in the exhibition, however, would not be out of place in a thriller.
The lemon, now black and shriveled, helped convict Karl Muller, a German spy in Britain during World War I. It was found by police in his bedside table, along with another in his overcoat pocket. Evidence at his secret trial showed their juice had been used to write invisible-ink letters detailing British troop movements.
Muller was executed by firing squad at the Tower of London in 1915.
In a coda that would not be out of place in “Slow Horses,” MI5 pretended Muller was still alive and wrote to his German handlers to ask for more money.
“The Germans duly sent more funds and MI5 used the funds to purchase a car,” exhibition curator Mark Dunton said. “And they christened the car ‘The Muller.’
“They then were reprimanded by the Treasury for unauthorized use of expenditure,” he added.
The show includes declassified records held by the National Archives and items loaned from the secret museum inside Thames House, MI5’s London headquarters.
It charts the changing role of an agency that was founded in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau with an initial staff of two officers.
There are records of its World War II successes, when the agency used captured Nazi agents to send disinformation back to Germany, deceiving Adolf Hitler about the location of the looming Allied invasion in 1944.
Failures include the years-long betrayal of the upper-crust “Cambridge Spies,” whose members spilled secrets to the Soviet Union from the heart of the UK intelligence establishment. Recently declassified MI5 documents on display include the 1963 confession of Cambridge spy Kim Philby, who denied treachery for years before he was exposed and fled to Moscow.
The exhibition also reveals changing attitudes, not least to women. The exhibition includes a 1945 report by spymaster Maxwell Knight discussing whether women could make good agents.
“It is frequently alleged that women are less discreet than men,” he noted, but declared that it was not so, saying that in “hundreds of cases of ‘loose talk’” most of the offenders were men.
There are admissions of past mistakes. The exhibition notes that MI5 was slow to recognize the threat from fascism in the 1930s, and later spent too much time spying on the small Communist Party of Great Britain. MI5 didn’t need to break into the party’s offices – it had a key, which is on display.
There are only a few items from the past few decades, showing how MI5’s focus has shifted from counterespionage to counterterrorism. Displays include a mortar shell fired by the Irish Republican Army at 10 Downing St. in 1991 while Prime Minister John Major was holding a Cabinet meeting.
MI5 only began releasing records to the UK’s public archives in 1997, generally 50 years after the events have passed. Even now, it controls what to release and what to keep secret.
“It would be a mistake to assume everything is in the exhibition,” said author Ben Macintyre, whose books on the history of intelligence include “Operation Mincemeat” and “Agent Zigzag.” But he said it still marks “a real sea-change in official secrecy.”
“A generation ago, this stuff was totally secret,” he said. “We weren’t even allowed to know that MI5 existed.”
Niger junta frees ministers of overthrown government
- Ousted former president Mohamed Bazoum remains in detention despite international calls for his release
- A “national conference” in February authorized junta leader General Tiani to remain in power for the next five years
NIAMEY: Niger’s junta said Tuesday it had freed around 50 people, including ministers from the government it toppled in July 2023, in line with recommendations of a “national conference” in February.
Those freed include former ministers, a diplomat, a journalist and soldiers accused of a coup bid in 2010. However ousted former president Mohamed Bazoum is still in detention despite international calls for his release.
“These individuals are being released in accordance with the recommendations of the National Forum for Reconstruction,” the government’s general secretariat said in a statement read on public television.
Those released include former oil minister Mahamane Sani Issoufou, the son of ex- president Mahamadou Issoufou who was in power for a decade from 2011, ex-defense minister Kalla Moutari, former finance minister Ahmed Djidoud and former energy minister Ibrahim Yacoubou.
The president of the PNDS former ruling party, Foumakoye Gado, and journalist Ousmane Toudou are also among those freed along with Alat Mogaskia, former ambassador to Nigeria.
They were arrested after the coup that brought General Abdourahamane Tiani, former head of the presidential guard, to power, and were being held in various prisons, notably for “conspiracy to undermine the security and authority of the state.”
Similar charges are pending against former president Bazoum, whose immunity was lifted without a trial date being set.
Soldiers previously convicted of coup bids or “endangering state security” were also released, including general Salou Souleymane, former chief of staff, and three other officers sentenced in 2018 to up to 15 years in prison for trying to overthrow president Issoufou in 2015.
The national conference held in February strengthened the ruling junta by authorizing General Tiani to remain in power in Niger for the next five years.
