A reader argues that a brief point in today’s Morning Jolt deserves greater attention. Earlier today I noted, “Biden assured America that al-Qaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda is in fact “back and thriving” in Afghanistan, profiting from its deals with the ruling Taliban.”
What I didn’t mention is that one of the big reasons that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are thriving is because they’re getting their mitts on chunks of roughly $40 million per week that the United Nations is sending to keep the Afghan economy going, and the largest donor to those U.N. efforts is… you, the U.S. taxpayer.
From a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report in January:
As the largest donor to the Afghan people, the United States remains deeply engaged in Afghanistan despite the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. Since then, the United States has appropriated or otherwise made available over $8 billion in assistance to Afghanistan and Afghan refugees. This includes more than $2 billion, primarily for humanitarian and development aid in Afghanistan, and $3.5 billion transferred to a newly created Afghan Fund to recapitalize the Afghan central bank and for related purposes.
The United States is also the largest donor to the United Nations humanitarian aid effort for Afghanistan. Humanitarian operations in the country rely on a UN cash pipeline that delivers regular shipments of $40 million flown into Kabul from New York to pay UN staff and implementing partners.
…It is SIGAR’s judgment that the Taliban regime’s institutionalized abuse of women raises the important question of whether the United States can continue providing aid to Afghanistan without benefiting or propping up the Taliban.
…The Taliban regime derives revenue from this aid in the form of “licenses,” “taxes,” and “administrative fees” imposed on NGOs and their employees as a condition for operating in Afghanistan.
…SIGAR found that the Taliban likely gained access to approximately $57.6 million in funds that DOD, State, and USAID provided to the former Afghan government.
…Although DOD reported that it left at least $7.1 billion in U.S.-funded defense articles and equipment in Afghanistan when the U.S. departed, State provided SIGAR limited, inaccurate, and untimely information about the equipment and funds it left behind. The three agencies do not have plans to recover any of the funds or equipment identified.
There is a small silver lining to this, as so far the deadliest threat to the Taliban Air Force has been the Taliban Air Force pilots, who have crashed at least five helicopters as of May 2023.
“We will continue to provide civilian and humanitarian assistance, including speaking out for the rights of women and girls,” Biden said on July 8, 2021.
The SIGAR report concluded, “the Taliban have so far not faced any significant consequences from the international community in response to their expanding bans on women’s education, vocational training, and professional participation.”
Back in 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki insisted, “We have enormous leverage over the Taliban, including access to the global marketplace.” Either the Biden administration as chosen to not use that “enormous leverage,” or it never had that leverage.
New video evidence uncovered by CNN significantly undermines two Pentagon investigations, the latest of which was released last week, into an ISIS-K suicide attack outside Kabul airport, during the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The incident was a gruesome coda to America’s longest war, leaving dead 13 United States military service members and about 170 Afghans who were desperately seeking US help to flee the Taliban takeover of Kabul. For two years, the US military has insisted that the loss of life was caused by a single explosion, and that troops who reported coming under fire and returning it were likely confused in the chaotic aftermath, some suffering from the effects of blast concussion.
But video captured by a Marine’s GoPro camera that has not been seen publicly in full before shows there was far more gunfire than the Pentagon has ever admitted. A dozen US military personnel, who were on the scene and spoke to CNN anonymously for fear of reprisals, have described the gunfire in detail. One told CNN he heard the first large burst of shooting come from where US Marines were standing, near the blast site. “It wasn’t onesies and twosies,” the Marine said. “It was a mass volume of gunfire.”
An Afghan doctor who spoke to CNN on the record for the first time said he personally pulled bullets from the wounded, and with his hospital staff counted dozens of Afghans who died from gunshot wounds.
Combined, the new evidence challenges the credibility of the two US military investigations and raises serious questions for the Pentagon, which has continued to dismiss mounting evidence that civilians were shot dead.
Remember, Biden is withholding U.S. arms from Israel because he believes the Israel government hasn’t done enough to prevent civilian casualties.
In the aftermath of the Kabul airport bombing attack, the U.S. launched a drone strike against an alleged terrorist target. Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley explained days later:
We had very good intelligence that ISIS-K was preparing a specific type vehicle at a specific type location. We monitored that through various means and all of the engagement criteria were being met. We went through the same level of rigor that we’ve done for years and we took a strike. So that we did.
Secondly is we know that there was secondary explosions. Because there was secondary explosions, there’s a reasonable conclusion to be made that there was explosives in that vehicle.
The third thing, as we know from a variety of other means, that at least one of those people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator.
But the targeted vehicle was not that of an ISIS-K terrorist. The strike killed “Zemari Ahmadi, an Afghan aid worker, and nine members of his family, including seven children. Mr. Ahmadi was employed by Nutrition and Education International (NEI), a U.S.-based humanitarian organization. Those killed in addition to Zemari Ahmadi were three of his children, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10; Emal and Royeena Ahmadi’s daughter, Malika, 6; Romal and Arezo Ahmadi’s three children, Arwin, 7, Benyamen, 6, and Ayat, 2; Jamshid and Soma Yousufi’s daughter, Sumaya, 2; and Mr. Ahmadi’s nephew Naser Haidari, 30.”