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Son of former Afghan defense minister buys $20 million
Beverly Hills mansion, media reveals
8 Oct, 2021 21:42
© Woods+Dangaran architects
The US government spent $85 billion on the Afghan military, only to see it surrender to the Taliban without a fight. Now the son of a former defense minister is spending millions to buy a luxury mansion with a view of Los Angeles.
A man by the name of Daoud Wardak has recently bought the Trousdale Estates property in Beverly Hills for $20.9 million, Yahoo News reported citing real estate records. He was described as an “ethnic Pashtun refugee” born in 1977, with public records showing him as president of AD Capital Group, based in Miami, Florida.
Wardak already owns a $5.2 million (home?) at the St. Regis Bal Harbour resort in Miami Beach, according to the same sources. His new Beverly Hills mansion, known as the Carla Ridge Residence, was recently redesigned in a “contemporary minimalism” style and offers views of the Los Angeles skyline through its glass walls.
Daoud is the younger son of Abdul Rahim Wardak, who served as defense minister in the US-backed government in Kabul between 2004 and 2012. The former mujahideen fighter was a key player in setting up the Afghan National Army – the same force that collapsed without a fight in August, leaving the Taliban in control of the country even before the US troops had a chance to leave.
The Pentagon expended an estimated $85 billion over the past 20 years on the ANA, including weapons, equipment and paying the soldiers’ salaries. There were persistent allegations over the years that some ANA commanders were falsifying the number of troops under their command (so-called “ghost soldiers”) so they could pocket the difference.
While Wardak toured western capitals to advocate for funding the ANA, he clearly didn’t believe in the future of Afghanistan enough to leave his children there. Both Daoud and his older brother Hamed ended up in the US, where Hamed ran a military contracting company NCL Holdings, getting paid by the Pentagon to secure supply routes in Afghanistan.
Hamed Wardak was also mentioned as CEO of Ludus Athletics, a “lifestyle brand inspired by Miami” with a motto of “LOVE THE WORLD,” which organized a beach volleyball tournament in March 2012. Less than five months later, his father was ousted from his defense ministry perch in a parliamentary no-confidence vote.
Ludus appears to be defunct now, however, and appears nowhere in Hamed Wardak’s LinkedIn biography.
US President Joe Biden announced in March that all US troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September, insisting that the Afghan army was more than capable of holding off the Taliban. Instead, the Taliban captured Kabul without a fight by August 14, leaving the US scrambling to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghan allies via the capital’s civilian airport.
Biden described the airlift that brought out 124,000 people – but left some US citizens and many more Afghan allies behind – as an “extraordinary success,” while the Pentagon leadership rejected calls to resign in the aftermath.
Likewise, no one was disciplined over the deaths of 13 US troops and more than 170 Afghan civilians in the August 26 suicide bombing at the airport – or the retaliatory drone strike two days later, which killed 10 innocents including 7 children, instead of a suspected terrorist.
Austria’s Sebastian Kurz steps down as chancellor amid
new corruption scandal
9 Oct, 2021 17:53 / Updated 2 hours ago
Sebastian Kurz. © Reuters / Leonhard Foeger
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Saturday said he’s resigning amid a corruption probe that threatened to unravel his ruling coalition. Kurz, who’s replaced by his FM, denies the allegations, vowing to fight to clear his name.
Kurz said in a televised statement on Saturday that he is relinquishing his role as chancellor and will become leader of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) in parliament as he works to clear his name of graft allegations. He called for Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg to replace him as chancellor.
The move averts a “no-confidence” vote after Austria’s Greens Party, which had campaigned on a promise of “clean politics” before joining the ÖVP-led ruling coalition last year, called on Kurz to step down. Prosecutors said on Wednesday that they were targeting Kurz and nine others on suspicion of bribery and other corruption offenses.
Given that ÖVP couldn’t pass motions without the support of its junior coalition partner, “I would therefore like to make way in order to end the stalemate, to prevent chaos and to ensure stability,” Kurz said in his Saturday statement.
He added that in the current phase of the Covid-19 pandemic and Austria’s economic recovery, what the nation needs now is “stability and responsibility.”
At the same time, Kurz continued to deny wrongdoing, vowing, “I will, of course, use the opportunity to refute and disprove the accusations that have been made against me.”
Opposition leaders had reportedly planned to introduce a no-confidence motion in Parliament next Tuesday. The Greens said on Friday that Kurz, who had already been under investigation for alleged perjury in a separate case, was no longer fit to lead as chancellor. The environmentalist party added that ÖVP needs to appoint an “irreproachable person” to replace Kurz.
Kurz, 35, was Austria’s chancellor from December 2017 to May 2019 and swept to power again in January 2020, after his conservative party won nine additional National Council seats and came to terms with the Greens on a ruling coalition. He has been a vocal critic of European Union asylum-seeker policies and said in August that Austria wouldn’t accept any more Afghan refugees.
Being a very suspicious person, I can't help but wonder if there is a link between Kurz's attitude toward Muslim migrants and the corruption probe? I really like this young man and hope this is not the end of his brilliant career.
Carl Bildt, co-chairman of the European Council of Foreign Relations, said that with Kurz’s decision to step down, “the immediate crisis in Austria is over.” If the Greens accepts the choice of Schallenberg as chancellor, the ruling coalition will likely hold together.
Czech PM edged out in narrow election, after corruption claims
in wake of Pandora Papers bolster opposition
9 Oct, 2021 17:45 / Updated 3 hours ago
Czech center-right opposition group Together is set to beat Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ ANO party in national elections. Babis was beset by corruption allegations after being named in the Pandora Papers ahead of the vote.
Voting in the Czech Republic took place on Friday through to midday on Saturday, and with 99% of ballots counted that evening, the center-right Together coalition is taking 27.69% of the vote – a hair above the 27.23% taken by Babis’ ANO party. The liberal Pirates/Mayors coalition are coming in third, with 15.5%.
Earlier results showed the ANO in the lead, but even before Together pulled ahead, both opposing coalitions had scored an overall parliamentary majority. At present, Together and the Pirates/Mayors have landed 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house.
President Milos Zeman has promised Babis the first shot at forming a government if the ANO wins the most votes, which it technically did, given that Together is a coalition of three smaller parties. Nevertheless, Together leader Petr Fiala and Pirates/Mayors leader Ivan Bartos have both stated that they will begin talks aimed at forming a government without Babis’ involvement, and it remains unclear whether Zeman will go back on his word. Both Together and the Pirates/Mayors have ruled out working with the ANO, which they see as a populist and fiscally irresponsible party.
Babis was an enormously successful businessman before taking office in 2017, and has an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion. His time in office has been marred by accusations of corruption and conflict of interest, however, as the business empire he controls has received EU funding.
Babis is also one of 300 Czechs mentioned in the Pandora Papers, a trove of recently leaked documents laying out the network of shell companies and offshore banks the rich and powerful use to evade taxes. The investigation alleges Babis transferred nearly 400 million Czech crowns ($18.2 million) through a group of overseas firms to buy an estate on the French Riviera. According to the papers, Babis did not declare the purchase, but he is not accused of breaking any law.
Compounding the Pandora Papers revelations, Babis’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic was also expected to hamper his re-election chances. Last year’s lockdowns were unpopular, and the country has also suffered one of the worst death rates of any European nation, with more than 30,000 people dying of the virus out of a population of 10 million.
However, Babis has promised to raise public sector wages and pensions, and his hardline anti-immigration stance is a popular one, as is his opposition to closer ties with Brussels. In polls taken before the release of the Pandora Papers, Babis’ ANO was the clear favorite to win.
Another anti-migrant leader on the edge of defeat. While it appears to be self-inflicted, I wonder what the possibilities are of Brussels having something to do with how the Pandora Papers scandal was handled in the media?
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