By The Post Millennial
The Biden administration has given over $2.35 billion in taxpayer money to Afghanistan since President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from the country which handed control over to the Taliban.The figures were revealed in a report released Tuesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a federal watchdog organization that documents abuse, fraud, and waste related to US expenditures in the country.
According to the report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, approximately $1.7 billion “remained available for possible disbursement” for non-profit groups and other organizations working on reconstruction projects in war-torn Afghanistan, even as the Taliban holds control over almost every aspect of the country’s infrastructure—including the NGO community. As a result, it is likely that many of the US taxpayer dollars will end up in the hands of the terrorist organization.
The report also stated that in the two years since the Taliban were handed control of Afghanistan after Biden’s botched pullout of US forces from the country in 2021, during which 13 service members lost their lives, the Taliban have viewed international assistance as a “revenue stream.”
This is in addition to the billions of dollars in US war material, arms and munitions left behind during the withdrawal that was seized by the Taliban.
According to SIGAR, the Taliban is “comfortable accepting foreign support insofar as they can closely monitor the organizations, including restricting and controlling them, and claim some credit for the provision of the benefits.”
Additionally, “Despite Taliban promises made since gaining power in August 2021 to be more inclusive, counter terrorism, respect human rights, and not pose a security threat to the region, the UN says that the Taliban shows no signs of bending to pressure for reform or compromise.'”
The report also noted that “Taliban interference with NGO work escalated, leading to a steady decline in humanitarian access in 2023, with a 32 percent increase in incidents between January and May 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022.”
John Sopko, the head of the organization that authored the report, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in April that he “cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban,” and accused the White House of blocking SIGAR’s investigation by refusing to hand over documents.
He added, “the Department of State, USAID, the UN, and other agencies are refusing to give us basic information that we or any other oversight body would need to ensure safe stewardship of tax dollars.”
“More troubling,” he continued, “State and USAID (US Agency for International Development) have instructed their employees not to talk to SIGAR, and in one recent instance, State told one of its contractors not to participate in a SIGAR audit.”
The Washington Free Beacon reported that the United States Institute of Peace has cautioned USAID, which is used by the US for spending in Afghanistan, that the Taliban is “pushing for ever-increasing degrees of credit and control over the delivery of aid,” and that according to United Nations officials, “the Taliban have effectively infiltrated and influenced most UN-managed assistance programming.”
USAID told SIGAR that “Taliban interference in humanitarian assistance is the main barrier to beneficiaries accessing aid in 2023.”