A report detailing how U.S. currency is flowing into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, propping up a regime that U.S. troops have fought for decades, has sparked frustration and anger among prominent veterans.
Late last month, an Afghan government monitoring group released a report concluding that since December 2021, the UN, working with other groups, has helped funnel the equivalent of about $3.8 billion in U.S. dollars into the Taliban-led country.
In some cases, the UN has literally flown American cash into Afghanistan through shipping companies, according to the report.
That money is then typically transferred to UN partners in Afghanistan, but the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that US financial flows are “directly and indirectly” benefiting the Taliban.
“The humanitarian aid facilitated by the shipments indirectly benefits the Taliban by stabilizing and legitimizing them, as the funds allow them to focus on their own priorities and policies instead of providing essential services to the Afghan people.” SIGAR Report Explanation.
SIGAR also concluded that “under the guise of income taxes, the Taliban have targeted some direct cash assistance recipients and extorted money from them.”
in Another report published in MaySIGAR found that at least 38 organizations had paid “$10.9 million worth of U.S. taxpayer money” to the Taliban-controlled government.
SIGAR stressed that “US dollars are difficult to trace” and that “the Taliban have an increasing ability to evade controls of the international banking system aimed at limiting the Taliban’s ability to launder money and fund terrorism.”
In other words, while agencies like the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development have procedures in place to keep American dollars from falling into the hands of groups like the Taliban, there are ways around it.
For many veterans, this revelation came as a shock.
“This must stop now. We are sending billions of dollars to the Taliban while failing to care for our veterans who suffer from physical and psychological wounds every day,” Mark “Oz” Geist, founder of the Shadow Warriors Project, told The Post.
“This is not only an insult to Afghanistan and all the service members who served in the 20-year war against the Taliban, but an even greater insult to the 13 families who lost loved ones in the murder at Abbey Gate,” he added.
Geist also slammed the revelations as “a terrible embarrassment for those who have sacrificed so much to serve.”
In August 2021, just as the US was winding down its operations in Afghanistan and withdrawing its troops, an ISIS-K terrorist carried out a suicide bomb attack at Abiy Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 American soldiers.
Former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Shawn Ryan He hosts his own podcastlikewise listened to Abbey Gate.
“As a veteran who served in Afghanistan during the global war on terror, the idea of the United States funding the Taliban is morally reprehensible and fundamentally contrary to our national security interests, especially as we approach the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate massacre,” Ryan said.
Scott Mann, a former Green Beret and advocate for PTSD veterans, explained that many veterans have received “high-fidelity intelligence” from resistance fighters in Afghanistan that corroborates the SIGAR report.
“US funds nominally intended for humanitarian and counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan are being funneled into the conduct, planning and preparation of terrorist activities against US interests and the homeland,” he told the Post.
Chad Robichaux is Mighty Oaks Foundation The man who spearheaded the largest civilian rescue mission from Afghanistan in 2021 slammed the State Department.
“The State Department has once again failed to properly steward American taxpayer dollars, this time leaving $293 million in the hands of the Taliban terrorist regime and potentially funding future attacks against the United States,” he said.
“When is enough enough and when will this administration take responsibility for the safety and security of our country and its people?” he added.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) The bill was submitted The move was made in June with the aim of preventing the Taliban from benefiting from US funds.
“The Afghanistan withdrawal was one of the Biden administration’s biggest mistakes,” he told The Post. “The administration has since sent millions of taxpayer dollars to the Taliban. I have introduced legislation to prevent the administration from sending any more money to terrorists, but it is ridiculous that I should have had to do so in the first place.”
In March 2023, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is overseeing a broad review of the Afghanistan withdrawal, had asked SIGAR to investigate U.S. spending in Afghanistan.
“The Biden administration must take immediate action to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to the Taliban. I appreciate the ongoing work SIGAR is doing to monitor U.S. funding to Afghanistan,” he said. In a previous statement.
But tightening the flow of U.S. currency into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is not without potential pitfalls.
In a letter to McCaul last month, SIGAR suggested Congress should consider “whether the benefits to the Taliban regime of U.S. currency shipments outweigh the economic and humanitarian benefits.”
Something shipping related.”
It has been widely reported that Afghanistan faces a severe poverty and hunger crisis following the withdrawal of US troops. Approximately 6.5 million Afghan children are estimated to be approaching the hunger crisis level. Non-governmental organization Save the Children.
Of the population, an estimated 15.8 million Afghans are projected to “experience crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity” in 2024. According to the United Nations.a Advance quote The United Nations projects that by 2022, nine in 10 Afghans will live in poverty.
In a July report, SIGAR said Afghanistan was weathering a liquidity crisis that prompted the UN to pump US dollars into the beleaguered country, making them the country’s “primary source of liquidity.”
“SIGAR has determined that because Afghanistan’s economy is dependent on the transit of U.S. currency, reducing or halting these shipments would result in a reversal of economic and humanitarian benefits,” the watchdog wrote.
Controversially, the Afghan Taliban is not on the State Department’s list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, but the Pakistani Taliban Movement is.
Several senators, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Has made laws before It has tried to designate the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization, but so far that effort has been unsuccessful.
