The Biden administration, working with international figures, is preparing to release $3.5 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets, which experts report will likely end up in the hands of ruling Taliban terrorists.
The White House, working with Swiss and Afghan officials, is releasing the assets into something called the โAfghan Fund.โ
It is the first release of cash in a plan by Biden to send $7 billion in cash to the named state sponsor of terrorism.
The fund is reported to be run by four trustees, one American, one Swiss and two Afghans, tasked with making sure the funds only benefit โthe Afghan people.โ (RELATED: American-Made Weapons Flood Afghan Gun Shops)
But Senate leaders reveal there are no actual safeguards to prevent the ruling Taliban from pocketing the loot and using it to fund terrorism.
โBy releasing $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank reserves, the Biden administration has significantly weakened its ability to ensure that these funds do not end up in the hands of the Taliban,โ said Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).
โWhile the administration maintains there will be safeguards put in place to prevent the funds from being used for terrorist financing, in reality, the future of these funds rests in the hands of four individualsโonly one of whom is a U.S. government official,โ said Toomey.
โGiven that the Taliban was just caught harboring the leader of al-Qaeda, the last thing the Biden administration should be doing is opening the door to billions of dollars potentially flowing to a terrorist organization,โ Toomey added. (RELATED: Sources: US Airstrike Killed al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahri)
Experts call Biden's plan a โwindfallโ for Taliban terrorists, even if they cannot divert all the cash directly to themselves.
โOmar Joya, an economist formerly with the World Bank and Afghanistan's central bank, described the Afghan Fund as a โwindfall' for the Taliban, saying it effectively pays their bills while relieving them of responsibility for managing an economy suffering from the political shock of the republic's fall as well as natural disasters that have disrupted agricultural production and supply chains,โ Foreign Policy magazine reports.
โTransferring part of the reserves to a fund to finance humanitarian projects and reduce the fiscal pressures from the Taliban will not help much with the ongoing economic recession and crisis,โ Joya tells Foreign Policy.
โOn the contrary, it will further support the Taliban leaders by easing fiscal pressures and providing them with windfall gains. Nothing will change for the poor. They will continue to cope with lack of jobs, no source of income, deprivation, soaring food prices,โ Joya added.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions ofย American Liberty News.
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5 Comments
Loves giving somebody else’s money away and don’t even consult the people.
Maybe Afghanistan has a basement somewhere there for Emperor Bidet after we throw him out of the White House.
I would like to see biden physically and literally catapulted out of the white house.
Sounds like the chief terrorist is none other than Yusuf Abu Baiden. When does Yusuf get his Taliban membership card?
Why??? To aid China