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The Biden administration announced last Monday that it will not release the $3.5 billion it seized belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank after alleging that the Taliban is providing safe harbor for an Al Qaeda leader in Kabul.
President Joe Biden believes that he gets to determine how to spend the $7 billion in Afghan assets frozen in the U.S., half of which he plans on splitting with the families impacted by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The other half would end up in a trust fund for distribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs.
Thomas West, the U.S.’s special representative for Afghanistan, told The Wall Street Journal that the administration does not see the “recapitalization” as a “near-term option” because “we do not have confidence that the institution [Afghanistan’s Central Bank Da Afghanistan Bank] has the safeguards and monitoring in place to manage assets responsibly.”
The Taliban did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Trends Journal. West accused the Taliban of sheltering Ayman al-Zawahri, the Al Qaeda leader, and said their decision justifies the U.S.’s action.
A court will decide if half of the $7 billion will go to the families of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. But about 80 of those families signed a letter calling on the administration to return the funds to Afghanistan, which is one of the poorest countries on Earth and where 95 percent of Afghans are going hungry, according to the UN.
“Any use of the $7 billion to pay off 9/11 family member judgments is legally suspect and morally wrong,” they wrote in the letter addressed to Biden. “Order and affirm that the Afghanistan central bank funds belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone.”
The letter continued, “Victims of terrorism, including 9/11 victims, are entitled to their day in court. But they are not entitled to money that lawfully belongs to the Afghan people.” They wrote that they had no intention of taking the money from starving Afghans.
TRENDPOST: The decision by the Biden administration shows how the U.S. will not hesitate to resort to stealing. Biden has been working on seizing Russian assets as a means to punish Russia over its war with Ukraine. (See “BIDEN WANTS TO STEAL RUSSIAN ASSETS TO FIGHT THE UKRAINE WAR” (3 May 2022) and “UKRAINE URGES WEST TO STEAL RUSSIAN MONEY TO PAY FOR WAR DAMAGE” (14 Jun 2022).
The U.S. Senate is debating a bill that would give the Justice Department authority to open civil forfeiture proceedings against the frozen assets of Russians and use the money to help Ukraine.
“Russia is a mafia state,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the authors of the bill, said, according to Roll Call. “We’re on the verge, if we stay focused, of breaking this mafia state, and the best tool available to us, in many ways, is to go after those who have benefited from the mafia state, have kept Putin propped up. So if you’re out there in the oligarch world, we’re coming for you.”
Alexander Darchiev, the head of the North American Department at the Russian foreign ministry, told TASS that the seizure would end all bilateral relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.
The U.S. seized about $640 billion in Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.
“We warn the Americans of the detrimental consequences of such actions that will permanently damage bilateral relations, which is neither in their nor in our interests,” he said.
TRENDPOST: Earlier this year, Judge Andrew Napolitano spoke with Gerald Celente, publisher of The Trends Journal, about the Biden administration’s decision to seize Russian yachts and the possibility that they would eventually be sold. Napolitano said academics told Biden that he did not have to give back the assets and he did not have to wait for a court’s ruling.
These academics told Biden to liquidate the assets and put the money into the Treasury Department because “they don’t believe in the right to property.”
“Their argument is that because a lot of these properties are owned by the Russian government, and the constitution only protects persons,” Napolitano said. “That’s hogwash. The constitution protects private property. All property is ultimately controlled by some human being.”
He said Biden’s power grab would make Joe Stalin “very happy.”
Trust Fund
The U.S. is working with other countries to establish an international trust fund that would manage the $3.5 billion to make sure that it ends up with Afghans who need the money, The New York Times reported. The paper said the trust fund is vague, despite officials telling the paper that there has been significant progress in the set-up.
Grim Anniversary
Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban after the U.S. spent 20 years and $2 trillion in the war effort. The Trends Journal reported extensively on the U.S.’s chaotic adventure in the country that culminated with a deadly withdrawal.
(See “BIDEN ON AFGHANISTAN: ‘FUCK THAT’” (24 Aug 2021), “WILL TALIBAN CASH IN ON $1 TRILLION WORTH OF AFGHAN MINERAL WEALTH?” (24 Aug 2021) and “AS CELENTE FORECAST: U.S. WOULD LOSE AFGHAN WAR LAUNCHED BY BUSH. THE WORST IS YET TO COME” (17 Aug 2021).
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a 114-page report on the withdrawal from the country and blamed the State Department and National Security Council for failing to properly prepare for “the expected fallout.”
Middle East Eye noted that Biden made his decision to withdraw in April 2021, and the U.S. eventually exited in August. But during that time, the Taliban was sweeping across the country and easily took over Kabul.
McCaul also said that the decision to withdraw was Biden’s alone, because—despite the Doha agreement, made between the U.S. and the Taliban under President Trump—the Taliban did not keep their end of the bargain and the deal could have been voided.
“Their failure to adhere to the agreement nullified the U.S. requirement to withdraw,” he wrote.
Jens Stoltenberg, the head of NATO, called the conditions in Afghanistan since the U.S. retreat a “tragedy” for the alliance.
“What we have seen in the last year is actually a huge setback and a tragedy for Afghanistan, but also for all those allies and partners who worked so hard to create a more peaceful and democratic Afghanistan.”
Stoltenberg insisted that not all was lost and that the alliance did make gains fighting against terrorism. But he said the ultimate goal was to leave a thriving country, which did not happen.
“What we see now in Afghanistan is a tragedy for the Afghan people, in particular for Afghan women. The first anniversary of Taliban’s takeover in Kabul is a bitter occasion where we demonstrate the brutality of the Taliban rule,” he said, according to RT. “And it’s also, of course, bitter for all those who worked for so many years for a democratic, free Afghanistan, respecting human rights, including the rights of women.”
TRENDPOST: It cannot give Ukrainians fighting off Russian invaders confidence that the same military leaders and White House administration that played such an enormous role in the Afghan war is calling the shots in a new conflict. If these officials couldn’t defeat the Taliban, how are they supposed to provide expert guidance on thwarting the advance of a major military power?
A recent report from the Pentagon’s Inspector General found that the Afghan government possessed about $7 billion in U.S. military equipment when it fell to the Taliban and most of it was seized by the group.
AntiWar.com, citing the report, said some of the military equipment left behind included aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and other military equipment.
TREND FORECAST: Gerald Celente had forecast when the Afghan War began, that America would lose: “If Alexander ‘The Great’ couldn’t pull it off, if the British couldn’t beat them and neither could the Russians, there is no way America will win.” Mr. Celente also noted that the U.S. had not won a war since World War II.
As a result of his forecast, Celente, once a popular guest on mainstream media and having appeared twice on Oprah, was blackballed from the press and TV and accused of being anti-American. (See the movie, “ZIZI and HONEYBOY,” starring Doris Roberts).