>The Taliban has previously shown it’s capable and willing to harness the vast data piles we create every day to try and filter out people it believes are detrimental to its way of life, including official government databases. In 2016, Taliban insurgents killed 12 passengers on a bus they stopped after requiring everyone to scan their fingerprints on a biometric machine that cross-checked a database of security force workers, according to an Afghan army commander. “Most of the passengers were not familiar with the machine but we knew it was a biometric device that could identify security force members from amongst civilians,” the commander told Afghan news website TOLOnews at the time.
That is a pretty deep penetration of the former regime which is also evidenced by the speed of the power transfer. Not that it is a surprise in general for anybody who paid attention, and the end game was clear, yet the actual forest-fire like speed is still very impressive - for example the pro-Soviet puppet regime back then fought for 3 years after the Soviet forces had left before finally falling.
It's not clear whether the Taliban will allow Afghans to leave the country. However, for now the Taliban has re-opened the border to Pakistan. The current issue, surprisingly, seems to be Afghans stuck on the Pakistan side who want back into Afghanistan.
No idea how this plays out. The Taliban leadership may just let people leave for a while to eliminate opposition the easy way.
Since the Taliban are now the government they probably have access to the previous military employment databases so even if they erase their online lives, clean up their phone... They might find who they are and punish them (torture, death) for working with the "enemy".
>Guest on msnbc just said the taliban have “our biometric database” of everyone who worked for US and are using it at checkpoints. When / how did that happen? Was that a massive story at the time or wtf? They used AF as a testing ground for biometrics and this is how it ends up?
It is scary, depressing, and also incredible how comprehensively the Taliban is cementing their power and embedding themselves throughout the country. I am shocked they are sophisticated enough to implement biometric verifiable of political adversaries. Here are some other such news stories and social media accounts I read today about how the Taliban is pursuing control, many of which had photos and videos that made this tragedy feel very real to me:
1. The Taliban took over police stations and freed prisoners in virtually every town they captured. Many released were people jailed for terrorist activities or other crimes associated with fundamentalism, while others will simply welcome their liberators and join their ranks.
2. Taliban fighters went door to door confiscating weapons from private citizens, claiming they “don’t need them anymore”. Disarming the public ensures they will not face unexpected resistance.
3. A female journalist noted that overnight the town she was in changed, such that women were nowhere to be seen in the streets. There was also a clip of a female CNN journalist being asked to leave the immediate area because of her gender.
4. In Kabul, Taliban forcefully entered hotel rooms of foreigners, interrogated them, assaulted them if they resisted, examined/confiscated documentation, examined/confiscated electronics, and so on.
5. Taliban have begun questioning people to report on neighbors’ activities to identify US collaborators and members of the Ghani government. One woman tearfully spoke about how she’s afraid she and people she knows will be taken away from their family if people snitch.
6. Taliban have set up checkpoints controlling traffic within, into, and out of all significant towns and on all significant infrastructure.
7. The Taliban are testing out captured military equipment such as humvees, helicopters, and surveillance drones that the US left behind, to incorporate them into their military practice as soon as possible.
8. The Taliban have already begun forcing young girls to be married to their fighters in smaller towns.
Unpopular opinion: You really cannot fight an ideology, the Taliban is so successful because it has some (if not most) support amongst the masses. If there wasn't any, people would've resisted. May be this is a beginning of a long civil war in the nation but I doubt ordinary people will have a voice, they are surely significantly outnumbered.
I don’t think this is an accurate take. The Taliban does not have support of most of the masses. Various surveys consistently show that public support for democracy is more widespread than support for an Islamic emirate (example https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/30/afghans-w...). This makes sense - something like 2/3rds of Afghanis are under 25. They only know a relatively peaceful life without oppression or repression, under elected governments with America’s backing. The women and children in Afghanistan don’t want a society where they can’t get educated or where music and other media are banned. People didn’t resist because the US strategy to exit so quickly left them mentally unprepared and also demoralized them by lending credence to the notion that the Taliban’s threat demanded a hasty exit. America also really didn’t make a great attempt at establishing a professional, sustainable Afghan military (see https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/how-americ...) which is why military generals and various reports recommended against a hasty compete exit of US troops. The first few villages and province capitals to fall made the Afghani people fearful and they are just a poor people looking to survive. It isn’t worth getting killed if they think it is an unwinnable situation. But they’re still hungry for democracy and peace.
Or is this a classical case of rural vs urban (only that in this case the rural people have a ton of firepower and the will to create laws that affect the urban people as well)?
As someone who grew up in Austria and Germany I think we can fight ideologies. In fact we have to. Having strong (intolerant) ideals is not a problem until you force it on people who don't in inhumane ways.
Friendly reminder that when you delete your discord account, they don't delete your statements, just strip the account name from them, similar to how Github is doing it with their ghost account. For Github, I sort of understand it. For discord, it feels very dangerous to me.
Discord will ban you for that, even if you delete your messages with the app on a stock Android without any macros or other tools that reduce the required effort over the naive way (e.g. `from: namibj` search; repeat for each "server").
(Btw; you have a pending email. I lost my old domain, but keybase has other accounts and an encryption key linked. You have 24h before I'll have to reach out harder, due to acute urgency.)
This is the perfect article for the "nothing to hide" crowd. It just shows that whatever we think is fine at the present moment, might become a problem. And if we can't take control over our digital past, this can have serious consequences.
Yeah, China just defines a country as "not another country" when they want to interfere. See Hong Kong, Taiwan, or pretty much every other neighboring country and their territorial waters or exclusive economic zone.
It is important to keep in mind that China is a startup empire. They are still trying to dominate their immediate neighborhood, whereas the US is an established empire, mostly concerned with global matters. Interestingly, Russia is a declined empire and had to turn back to affairs closer to its borders again.
99% of afghanis believe Sharia law should be the law of the land. [0]
Finally they are free from their foreign oppressor, and they can go back to having their country ruled as they please. Anyone who believes in democracy will agree to this
Edit: the Taliban also outlaws the Afghani and Pakistani tradition of Bacha Bazi - the widespread custom of raping young boys, and with this in mind I am not surprised they are overjoyed to yet again be free to punish those who partake in it [1]. Truly a win for democracy and for protecting children from predators.
[+] [-] trhway|4 years ago|reply
That is a pretty deep penetration of the former regime which is also evidenced by the speed of the power transfer. Not that it is a surprise in general for anybody who paid attention, and the end game was clear, yet the actual forest-fire like speed is still very impressive - for example the pro-Soviet puppet regime back then fought for 3 years after the Soviet forces had left before finally falling.
[+] [-] Animats|4 years ago|reply
No idea how this plays out. The Taliban leadership may just let people leave for a while to eliminate opposition the easy way.
[+] [-] kunagi7|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dirtyid|4 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/AmandaMilius/status/1427338941074710533
>Guest on msnbc just said the taliban have “our biometric database” of everyone who worked for US and are using it at checkpoints. When / how did that happen? Was that a massive story at the time or wtf? They used AF as a testing ground for biometrics and this is how it ends up?
[+] [-] throwawaysea|4 years ago|reply
1. The Taliban took over police stations and freed prisoners in virtually every town they captured. Many released were people jailed for terrorist activities or other crimes associated with fundamentalism, while others will simply welcome their liberators and join their ranks.
2. Taliban fighters went door to door confiscating weapons from private citizens, claiming they “don’t need them anymore”. Disarming the public ensures they will not face unexpected resistance.
3. A female journalist noted that overnight the town she was in changed, such that women were nowhere to be seen in the streets. There was also a clip of a female CNN journalist being asked to leave the immediate area because of her gender.
4. In Kabul, Taliban forcefully entered hotel rooms of foreigners, interrogated them, assaulted them if they resisted, examined/confiscated documentation, examined/confiscated electronics, and so on.
5. Taliban have begun questioning people to report on neighbors’ activities to identify US collaborators and members of the Ghani government. One woman tearfully spoke about how she’s afraid she and people she knows will be taken away from their family if people snitch.
6. Taliban have set up checkpoints controlling traffic within, into, and out of all significant towns and on all significant infrastructure.
7. The Taliban are testing out captured military equipment such as humvees, helicopters, and surveillance drones that the US left behind, to incorporate them into their military practice as soon as possible.
8. The Taliban have already begun forcing young girls to be married to their fighters in smaller towns.
[+] [-] hef19898|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newyankee|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwawaysea|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atoav|4 years ago|reply
Or is this a classical case of rural vs urban (only that in this case the rural people have a ton of firepower and the will to create laws that affect the urban people as well)?
As someone who grew up in Austria and Germany I think we can fight ideologies. In fact we have to. Having strong (intolerant) ideals is not a problem until you force it on people who don't in inhumane ways.
[+] [-] est31|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tester34|4 years ago|reply
I haven't used this myself, but maybe this?
https://gist.github.com/victornpb/135f5b346dea4decfc8f63ad7d...
[+] [-] SilverRed|4 years ago|reply
Most platforms do not even let you edit or delete messages at all.
[+] [-] namibj|4 years ago|reply
Discord will ban you for that, even if you delete your messages with the app on a stock Android without any macros or other tools that reduce the required effort over the naive way (e.g. `from: namibj` search; repeat for each "server").
(Btw; you have a pending email. I lost my old domain, but keybase has other accounts and an encryption key linked. You have 24h before I'll have to reach out harder, due to acute urgency.)
[+] [-] voldacar|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jb1991|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vaylian|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonleb4|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] choeger|4 years ago|reply
It is important to keep in mind that China is a startup empire. They are still trying to dominate their immediate neighborhood, whereas the US is an established empire, mostly concerned with global matters. Interestingly, Russia is a declined empire and had to turn back to affairs closer to its borders again.
[+] [-] returnInfinity|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmlnr|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] whoaisme|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeofken|4 years ago|reply
Finally they are free from their foreign oppressor, and they can go back to having their country ruled as they please. Anyone who believes in democracy will agree to this
[0] https://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-relig...
Edit: the Taliban also outlaws the Afghani and Pakistani tradition of Bacha Bazi - the widespread custom of raping young boys, and with this in mind I am not surprised they are overjoyed to yet again be free to punish those who partake in it [1]. Truly a win for democracy and for protecting children from predators.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi
[+] [-] senectus1|4 years ago|reply