KABUL,
Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban met U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in
the Pakistan capital for the first time since President Donald Trump
declared a seemingly imminent peace deal to end Afghanistan’s 18-year
war ‘dead’ a month ago, a Taliban official said early Saturday.
He
offered few details of Friday’s meeting between Khalilzad and the
Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of
the movement that was ousted in 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition. The
official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to speak to the media.
U.S. officials however have been keen to say there is no resumption of peace talks, at least not now in Islamabad.
Still, the meeting is significant as the United States seeks an exit from Afghanistan’s 18-year war.
Khalilzad
has been in Islamabad for much of the week meeting with senior
government officials in what the U.S. State Department described as
follow-up meetings he held in New York during last month’s U.N. General
Assembly session. At the time he met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran
Khan, who has been calling for a resumption of peace talks.
The
Taliban delegation led by Mullah Baradar __one of its more powerful
members __ arrived separately in the Pakistani capital for meetings with
government officials they said were being held to discuss a wide range
of political issues relating to the more than 1.5 million Afghans still
living as refugees in Pakistan.
Baradar was
arrested in Pakistan in 2010 in a joint Pakistani-CIA operation after he
secretly opened peace talks with the then-Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, attempting to sideline Pakistan and against the U.S. strategy at
the time, which did not support talks with the Taliban.
In
2018, Baradar was released from jail to facilitate peace talks after
Khalilzad was appointed U.S. peace as Washington sought a way to exit
America’s longest military engagement.
More
than 14,000 U.S. troops are still in Afghanistan and Trump has
repeatedly expressed his frustration with their continued deployment,
complaining they have taken on the duties of policing the country, a job
he said the Afghan government needed to do.
During
the past year, Khalilzad held nine rounds of talks with the Taliban in
the Middle eastern State of Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a
political office.
In early September a deal
seemed imminent, but a fresh round of violence and the death of a U.S.
soldier caused Trump to suddenly tweet the end to talks, including the
cancellation of an agreement signing ceremony in Camp David, about which
few had been aware.
There were no details about the Pakistani meetings Friday.
During
the Doha talks, Khalilzad and Baradar held one-on one meetings and in
recent weeks the Taliban had travelled to China, Russia and Iran to drum
up support for a return to talks.
But in Afghanistan, the country is still awaiting the results of presidential polls held on Sept. 28.
The
leading contenders are President Ashraf Ghani and his current partner
in the unity government, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.
Abdullah
has already said he believes he has won while Ghani’s supporters are
declaring he has the necessary votes, causing many to fear political
chaos. Preliminary results are not expected before Oct. 17 and the final
results until Nov. 7. If there is no clear winner with 51% of the vote,
a second round will be held within two weeks of the final vote
announcement.
Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo missed Friday’s deadline to comply with a subpoena issued
by three Democrat-led House committees last week to hand over documents
related to the department’s dealings with Ukraine and President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Fox News has confirmed.
The
subpoena came as Congress conducts a probe into a whistleblower’s
complaint to the national intelligence community over Trump’s July 25
phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky -- the incident
that has since touched off the Trump impeachment inquiry.
The president is under fire for urging Zelensky, during that call, to investigate Democratic 2020 presidential frontrunner Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and the Ukrainian firm Burisma, where Hunter Biden held a board position.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens during an event hosted
by the Department of State's Energy Resources Governance Initiative in
New York, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (Associated Press)
Last week, the chairmen of the three House panels -- Reps. Adam Schiff,
D-Calif., of the Intelligence Committee; Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., of the
Foreign Affairs Committee; and Elijah Cummings, D-Md., of the Oversight
and Reform Committee -- demanded a list of State Department officials
who might have been involved with the Ukraine conversation. The chairmen
additionally requested any State Department records about Giuliani, and
any records relating to U.S. military aid to Ukraine. (Giuliani had
traveled to Ukraine on business on behalf of the president, he told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday.)
Fox
News confirmed the State Department is in touch with the three House
panels regarding the deadline breach. Trump told reporters he would send
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
a letter Friday, saying the White House would not comply with the
impeachment inquiry until it is made official by a vote before the
entire chamber. It was unclear if the State Department failed to comply
with the subpoena at Trump's request.
Pompeo confirmed Wednesday
-- while in Rome -- that he was on the July 25 call, describing his
involvement as appropriate, and within the purview of his role as
secretary of state. As a stand-off between the executive branch and
Congress escalated, he also said he would fight a request from the
Democratic chairmen for depositions from five State Department
officials. He accused the lawmakers of not giving department employees
enough time to prepare and voiced concern that the committee was trying
to prevent State Department counsel from participating.
"What we
objected to was the demands that were put that deeply violate
fundamental principles of the separation of powers," Pompeo said. "They
contacted State Department employees directly and told them not to
contact legal counsel at the State Department.”
"What
we objected to was the demands that were put that deeply violate
fundamental principles of the separation of powers. They contacted State
Department employees directly and told them not to contact legal
counsel at the State Department.” — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
Lawmakers
from the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees moved
forward with testimony from their first key witness Thursday --- former
U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last week after
receiving word his name had surfaced in the whistleblower complaint.
Text messages released by Volker to Congress show U.S. officials
involved with Ukraine arguing internally last month over whether Trump
was engaged in a quid pro quo. Fox News on Friday also obtained Volker’s
prepared testimony, in which he details his interactions with Trump
lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was probing whether Burisma had sought to
garner influence with Biden by paying high fees to his son.
A
memorandum of the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky released last
month showed that while Trump sought a Ukrainian probe into the Biden
family, he did not explicitly use the $400 million in military aid as
leverage. Trump tweeted Thursday that he had an "absolute right, perhaps
even a duty, to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that
would include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out!"
Joe
Biden has acknowledged on camera that in spring 2016, when he was vice
president and spearheading the Obama administration's Ukraine policy, he
successfully pressured Ukraine to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At
the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings — where Hunter had a
lucrative role on the board despite limited relevant expertise. Biden
allies maintain his intervention was driven by corruption concerns.
Michael
Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community, gave
testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Friday, as he was
the first to receive the whistleblower complaint. The complaint was
eventually declassified by the Trump administration and a redacted
versions sent to Congress. House Democrats are scheduled to hear
testimony from several other officials next week. Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman, Alex Pappas and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.
Former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy blasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., saying Schiff made himself a "fact witness" with the revelation that his office had contact with the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower.
"Right now he's made himself a fact witness," Gowdy told "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on
Friday. "He is in the evidentiary chain for what happened with this
whistleblower and I hope the Republicans make him testify."
Gowdy
also mocked Schiff for being awarded “Four Pinocchios” by the
Washington Post on Friday, claiming he hadn't told the truth about his
knowledge of the whistleblower.
Schiff has played a leading role
in investigating the Trump-Ukraine scandal but hasn’t been truthful in
the process, according to Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.
"I
think you got four [Pinocchios] only because you can't get five," Gowdy
joked. "He got the maximum sentence you could get from the Washington
Post fact checker -- and don't you know how hard that was for the
Washington Post to give Adam Schiff four Pinocchios?"
"He
got the maximum sentence you could get from the Washington Post fact
checker -- and don't you know how hard that was for the Washington Post
to give Adam Schiff four Pinocchios?" — Trey Gowdy, former congressman from South Carolina
The
former congressman from South Carolina called Schiff a "career
offender" when it came to the truth and asked how long House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would put up with Schiff.
"The
same guy that had the parody a week or so ago, the same guy that says
he has evidence that even [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller
couldn't find," Gowdy said. "The question I had is, How long is Speaker
Pelosi going to put up with Adam mishandling this investigation?" Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
Former Vice President Joe Biden snapped at a reporter Friday after being asked whether his son Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine -- while the elder Biden was diplomatically involved with the country as vice president -- represented a conflict of interest.
“It’s
not a conflict of interest. There’s been no indication of any conflict
of interest,” Biden said while at a Service Employees International
Union forum in Los Angeles.
The
reporter then asked if Biden's son's work created the appearance of a
conflict of interest -- prompting Biden to attempt to shift the focus to
President Trump.
“I’m
not going to respond to that,” Biden said. “Focus on this man. What
he’s doing that no president has ever done. No president.”
“I’m not going to respond to that. Focus on this man. What he’s doing that no president has ever done. No president.” — Joe Biden
Biden
told reporters he and his son had not discussed Hunter Biden's business
in Ukraine when reporters asked about a photo of the two Bidens taken
at a golf course with one of Hunter Biden's former Ukrainian business
partners. Again, Biden turned the conversation to Trump.
“This is
the guy that's unhinged,” Biden said about the president. “He is
unhinged. I worry about what he's going to do -- not about me or my
family. I'm worried about what he'll do in the next year in the
presidency, as this thing continues to rot on his watch."
"The American people know me, and they know him," he added.
"He is unhinged. I worry about what he's going to do -- not about me or my family." — Joe Biden
Hunter
Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company while his
father was vice president. Trump and fellow Republicans have questioned
Biden's role pushing for the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who had
been looking into corruption at the company (though the prosecutor was
viewed by officials in several countries as being corrupt himself).
There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son in Ukraine.
Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry
last week regarding a July phone call between Trump and the president
of Ukraine during which Trump asked him to investigate Biden and his
son's ties to the country.
Biden has slipped in the polls recently but is still one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
QUEENS,
New York — A seemingly troubled woman at a town hall hosted by
Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her district stood up to demand the congresswoman support drastic measures to combat climate change, such as "eating babies."
“We’re
not going to be here for much longer, because of the climate crisis,"
the woman pleaded. "We only have a few months left. I love that you
support the Green Deal, but it’s not gonna get rid of fossil fuel. It’s
not going to solve the problem fast enough. A Swedish professor said we can eat dead people, but it’s not fast enough! So, I think your next campaign slogan needs to be this: We’ve got to start eating babies."
Many of Ocasio-Cortez’s constituents appeared confused by the woman’s declarations.
Removing
her jacket to reveal a T-shirt with the phrase “Save the planet Eat the
Children,” the woman continued, “We don’t have a enough time. There’s
too much Co2."
"All of you!" she went on, turning to those around
her, "You’re a pollutant! Too much Co2. We have to start now. Please —
you are so great. I’m so happy that you are supporting a Green New Deal,
but it’s not enough. Even if we were to bomb Russia, it’s not enough.
There’s too many people, too much pollution. So, we have to get rid of
the babies. That’s a big problem. Just stopping having babies just isn’t
enough. We need to eat the babies. This is very serious. Please give a
response.”
Staffers of the New York congresswoman approached the
woman toward the end of her remarks, as attendees in the room became
increasingly uncomfortable.
An
atheist group that has counted Ron Reagan Jr. among its members says it
was inappropriate for a judge to give a Bible to Amber Guyger, the
former Dallas police officer who convicted this week of murdering a neighbor last year.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) – the atheist group for which the 61-year-old son of former President Ronald Reagan has appeared in television ads – filed a formal complaint Thursday with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, FOX 4 of Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
The Wisconsin-based group objected to Judge Tammy Kemp giving one of her Bibles to Guyger after the former officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for the shooting death of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant.
“You
just need a tiny mustard seed of faith,” Kemp said to a tearful Guyger,
handing the Bible to her before the convicted former officer left the
courtroom. “You start with this.”
Kemp also hugged Guyger – as did
a brother of the murder victim, in actions that some observers said
showed compassion for the newly convicted defendant.
State District Judge Tammy Kemp gives former Dallas Police Officer
Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger leaves for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2,
2019, in Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)
But in a letter Thursday to the Texas commission, the
atheist group objected to what it termed the judge’s “proselytizing
actions,” saying they “overstepped judicial authority,” and were
“inappropriate” and “unconstitutional.”
“It is perfectly
acceptable for private citizens to express their religious beliefs in
court,” the letter states later, “but the rules are different for those
acting in a governmental role.”
In a separate Twitter message, FFRF attorney Andrew L. Seidel further explained the group’s position.
“We
need more compassion in our criminal justice system,” Seidel wrote,
“but here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot
impose their personal religion on others.”
“We need
more compassion in our criminal justice system, but here, compassion
crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot impose their personal
religion on others.” — Andrew L. Seidel, attorney, Freedom from Religion Foundation
Seidel is the author of “The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American.”
Neither
the group nor Seidel appeared to demand punishment for the judge. Their
messages seemed aimed only at drawing attention to a “possible
violation” of rules of judicial conduct.
However, another group –
the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, which supports religious
freedom – came to the judge’s defense.
“We should all be thankful
the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions,” said Hiram Sasser, legal counsel
for the First Liberty Institute. “We stand with her and will gladly lead
the charge in defending her noble and legal actions.”
“We
should all be thankful the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions. We stand
with her and will gladly lead the charge in defending her noble and
legal actions.” — Hiram Sasser, legal counsel for the First Liberty Institute
Guyger
claimed she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment, one floor above hers,
thinking it was her own home, and shot Jean because she believed he was
an intruder in her apartment.
But
on Tuesday, a jury decided that Guyger, 31, was guilty of murder.
Guyger had been a member of the Dallas force for nearly five years.
Also
on Thursday, the atheist group posted a Twitter message objecting to
Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s support of “Bring Your Bible to School Day,”
saying the Republican governor’s stand was “narrow-minded and totally
inappropriate.”
The White House will send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter on Friday "daring" her to hold a vote on Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Fox News has confirmed.
The
letter will say the White House won't comply with the Democrats'
investigation because Pelosi hasn't codified the probe with a formal
vote on the House floor. Its tone will be consistent with that of the
letter House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent to the speaker on Thursday, Fox learned.
In his letter, McCarthy called on Pelosi to end the impeachment inquiry until “equitable rules and procedures” are set up.
“Unfortunately,
you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry
will proceed -- including whether key historical precedents or basic
standards of due process will be observed,” McCarthy wrote. “In
addition, the swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded
[have] already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority
participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the
integrity of such an inquiry.”
McCarthy referred to reports that
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was
limiting Republicans' ability to ask questions during Thursday’s
testimony by former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last
week.
Pelosi shot back at McCarthy, saying that "existing rules
of the House provide House committees with full authority to conduct
investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction."
She
later tweeted: "The fact that the [House Republicans'] loyalty is to
Trump and not to the Constitution is not going to slow down or impair
our ability to keep the republic of our founders envisioned."
The
letter prompted a response from President Trump, who tweeted Thursday:
"Leader McCarthy, we look forward to you soon becoming Speaker of the
House. The Do Nothing Dems don’t have a chance!"
House Democrats
launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump after a whistleblower
complaint suggested the president took part in a quid pro quo scheme
during a July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, using $400
million in military aid as leverage to induce officials there to
investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, his son Hunter
and their business dealings in that country.
Trump
has said his call with President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect." On
Thursday, he repeated his contention that the Democrats' investigation
"the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country."
Trump
said there "wasn't anything said wrong" in his phone call with Zelensky
and called the impeachment probe a "Democrat scam."
He later
tweeted that, as president, he has an "absolute right, perhaps even a
duty, to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that would
include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out!"
Schiff made a formal request on Sept. 10 to transmit the whistleblower complaint to Congress. Trump has said Schiff is a "lowlife" who should resign. Fox News' Chad Pergram and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens during an event hosted
by the Department of State's Energy Resources Governance Initiative in
New York, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. (Associated Press)
State District Judge Tammy Kemp gives former Dallas Police Officer
Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger leaves for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2,
2019, in Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)
