How U.S. Taxpayers Have Given $2.5 Billion to the Taliban
Did you really think your money was distributed in the right hands?
When the Taliban regained power in August 2021 in Afghanistan, the media’s attention was drawn to an alarming figure: $90 billion is the amount that the United States lost during its 20 years on Afghan soil. Of these $90 billion, “$18.6 billion had been spent to provide the Western-backed Afghan government with weapons and military equipment.”
Let’s repeat the figure: $90 billion. You would then think that the Washington technocrats thought twice before sending more money to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. Think again.
Wasting Money to Feed Terrorists
Since those fatal days of August 2021 when the Biden Administration proved that the U.S. troops’ presence in Afghanistan was a blatant misuse of taxpayers’ funds, the same administration has provided $2.5 billion to the Taliban.
Now, the Washington technocratic clowns will tell you that in fact, they send the money through nonprofit organizations, a safe way to make sure the greenbacks are delivered in the right hands. But this is a naive — and very liberal — way of describing the situation.
According to John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan is diverted by the Taliban. “Many would like to believe we are aiding Afghan people while successfully bypassing the Taliban”, Sopko said. “This can be viewed as a useful fiction, as it ignores the fact that it’s impossible to entirely bypass the Taliban regime.”
It is true that most Western countries that allocate humanitarian aid money to Afghanistan do so through international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies. But all those NGOs and agencies report routine, widespread misappropriation by the terrorist government in Kabul.
“The Taliban pressures the UN and other NGOs to issue contracts to Taliban-affiliated companies, to partner with Taliban-affiliated NGOs, and [not to] partner with other NGOs”, Sopko added. “The Taliban have embedded intelligence officials in UN agencies to supervise their work, facilitate the interference and diversion, and censor reporting about it.” The terrorist regime “also collects taxes and other fees from EU- and U.S.-funded implementing partners.”
Viewed through the prism of justice, the presence of UN agencies in Afghanistan is illegal as a December edict from the Taliban forbids women from working for NGOs. But since the UN welcomes terrorist countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia among its human rights commission, it doesn’t really care that its NGOs operate in a misogynist country. According to a USAID report, many of these NGOs are now even paying women to stay home.
As for the Biden administration, it doesn’t want you to know the truth about this case. “The State Department has basically obfuscated, delayed reports [and] ordered their employees not to talk to us”, John Sopko told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Nov. 14.
Wasted Equipment and Weapons
Since its return to power, the Taliban have been strutting in front of the cameras with its new high-end gear, that is, the military equipment that the U.S. troops left behind. A Department of Defense (DoD) inspector general report estimated that $7.12 billion in military equipment was left behind in Afghanistan for the Taliban.
That includes tactical aircraft and ground vehicles, weapons and ammunition, as well as specialized equipment, such as night-vision goggles and biometric devices. But there’s more.
The DoD assessed that at least 78 aircraft worth $923.3 million, 9,524 air-to-ground weapons valued at $6.54 million, more than 40,000 vehicles, 300,000 weapons and nearly all night vision, surveillance and communications equipment were left behind when the last U.S. forces left Afghanistan.
Sources
Foreign Policy, The Epoch Times #1, #2
