Taliban Could Abscond With Hundreds of Millions in US Aid to Afghanistan, Watchdog Finds
A new report says there is an “increased” risk that the Taliban could gain access to at least $293,000,000 in U.S. Aid disbursed in Afghanistan by the State Department between March and Novembre 2022.
The report states that two sub-agencies of State Department – the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs – provided incomplete documentation and could not prove they had met the requirements for counterterrorism screening.
The Office of the Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) prepared the report.
Since the U.S. designated terrorist group took control of Afghanistan again in August 2021, members of the Taliban have tried to steal U.S. aid funds intended for the people of Afghanistan.
|
The report states that “the risk that NGOs founded by Taliban or other groups who could funnel money to terrorists, would benefit from U.S. tax payer funds highlights the importance for [the State Department] to comply with its own vetting requirements and document retention requirement.”
It says: “As the U.S. Government continues to provide aid to the people in Afghanistan, it’s vital that State adheres to its partner-vetting requirement to prevent it from awarding U.S. tax payer funds to individuals or entities with ties with terrorism.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development informed SIGAR that they had received reports that over 1,000 nongovernmental organizations were registering with the Taliban, and that a number of these groups are linked to terrorists.
State Department officials must perform risk assessments prior to awarding funds to Afghan organizations, using a variety of public and private information to determine the likelihood that potential partners are linked to terrorist groups.
According to the State Department, its two subagencies did not retain certain documents related to this vetting process and therefore, these documents could not be provided to investigators. According to the report, noncompliance with State Department counterterrorism partner vetting protocols increases the risk that American tax dollars will end up in Taliban hands.
SIGAR recommended the State Department immediately take action to ensure that its subagencies comply with antiterrorism vetting standards.
Since the United States left Afghanistan, there is evidence that some taxpayer funds may have ended up in the Taliban’s hands. SIGAR revealed in May that $1.3 Million was transferred to the terror group by the State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement. Terrorists have also interfered with American humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, detaining individuals who were linked to USAID’s $102 million “Democracy, Gender and Rights Program” in Afghanistan.
Three years after leaving Afghanistan, terrorist groups such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and ISIS have proliferated, causing famine and eroding women’s rights.
Simone Ledeen (former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East) told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “Afghanistan is not back to the pre-9/11 condition. In many ways, it’s worse, because our disastrous withdrawal has fuelled a renewed global enthusiasm for Islamic extremism.”
Ledeen stated that “the Biden administration’s denials of the real and increasing threat from Afghanistan are consistent” with their reality-denying claims that their withdrawal had been a success, and that no American soldiers were killed under their watch (a false statement made by President Joe Biden in June). “The warning light is flashing red.”
In 2008, Congress created SIGAR to track government spending in Afghanistan for the War on Terror. It now tracks post-withdrawal expenditures by the United States.
The State Department, as well as the two sub-agencies involved, did not respond immediately to a comment request.
