The unspeakable betrayal over Afghanistan continues.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
White House Democrats have a history of fighting against terror victims suing Islamic terrorists. The Obama administration battled American terror victims suing the PLO. In 2015, after they won a $218 million judgement against the terror group, Blinken, then only a deputy secretary of state, intervened claiming that the lawsuit threatened “several decades of US foreign policy.”
But now Biden is fighting 9/11 victims on behalf of the Taliban. At stake are billions being held by the Afghan central bank fund in the United States.
A decade ago, 9/11 families sued the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Iran. The court found that the Islamic terrorists were responsible and a judgement of $6 billion was handed down.
The verdict was described as “symbolic” at the time. CBS News commented that “it would be near impossible to collect any damages, especially from the Taliban or al Qaeda.” But that was before Biden turned over Afghanistan to the Taliban. Since Afghanistan has assets in this country, including $7 billion in bank funds, it’s now entirely possible to collect that money.
Or it would be if the guy who let the Taliban take over wasn’t also in the White House.
Biden officially announced that he was splitting the $7 billion between the families of the victims and a “trust fund” to provide “humanitarian aid” for the people of Afghanistan.
But that was just another one of his many lies and double crosses involving Afghanistan.
The $3.5 billion was placed in a separate trust that would be “separate and distinct” from the around $800 million the Biden administration has already spent on aid to Afghanistan. Officials admitted that the money could actually be used for matters other than “humanitarian aid”.
The media headlined it as, “Biden frees frozen Afghan billions for relief, 9/11 victims”. But a Biden official admitted that it was done to stop 9/11 families from getting access to the money.
“Absent action by us, these funds were likely to be tied up in courts for years, while the action we have taken stands the best chance of more quickly freeing up a large portion for humanitarian support,” the official argued. As a Lawfare blog post noted, “the administration’s plan would insulate nearly half of the Afghan assets at issue from these attachment efforts.”
What Biden actually did was take the money off the table for 9/11 victims. And it got worse.
Secretary of State Blinken claimed that the administration “will continue to support these victims and their families, recognizing the enduring pain they have suffered at the hands of terrorists, including those who operated from Afghanistan prior to the September 11 attacks. These victims and their families should have a full opportunity to set forth their arguments in court.”
Blinken, like his boss, lied.
While the 9/11 families would have their claims “heard in court”, neither Biden nor Blinken mentioned that the administration would be advocating against them.
On the same day as Biden’s executive order reserving $3.5 billion for the terrorists, his Justice Department filed a statement of interest in court arguing that the judgement for the victims of terrorism was too large and that actually turning over the money to them would interfere with the Biden administration’s foreign policy in Afghanistan.
Now a magistrate judge has repeated back most of the DOJ’s arguments, ruling against the 9/11 families who were laying claim to the other half of the money. Judge Sarah Netburn’s arguments closely mirror the contradictory positions of Biden and the DOJ. And they reveal the underlying corruption behind the ambiguous status of Afghanistan’s central bank.
Netburn, like the Biden administration, contends that the Afghanistan bank enjoys “sovereign immunity” because the country itself was not sanctioned as a terrorist state, only the Taliban were. And that the Taliban once again control Afghanistan is irrelevant, according to the judge, because Biden hasn’t recognized the reality that this is actually the case.
Banks don’t enjoy “sovereign immunity” and neither do the Taliban. Netburn and Biden act as if there were some entity representing Afghanistan that is not the Taliban. That position might make sense if they were backing a resistance movement to the Taliban. But they’re not.
Instead the Biden administration has maintained a deliberately ambiguous position for Afghanistan’s central bank as being both under and not under Taliban control. This is convenient because it allows the Biden administration to use the financial institution as a vehicle and to restrict its access at the same time. The bank’s leadership, a mixture of terrorists and wonks linked to the former government, maintains that same calculated ambiguity.
The deputy governor of the bank is Noor Ahmad Agha, a Taliban leader listed as a specially designated global terrorist. Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, a member of the board of governors of the bank, lives near Washington D.C. and teaches at Montgomery College, has made his own media tour demanding that the United States release funds to the bank.
Biden is unable to do that until he thoroughly defeats the 9/11 families in court.
If Biden releases the money to the Afghanistan bank before that happens, the 9/11 families will be able to argue that the administration is contradicting its own position. Biden wants to reserve all $7 billion for the terrorists and so he has to hold off long enough to defeat the terror victims.
The level of betrayal here is worse than even the Obama administration.
The Biden administration claims that the money will be used for “humanitarian aid” and will not go to the terrorists. That’s another lie and it’s been disproved by its publicly stated policies.
The Biden administration has issued global licenses authorizing financial transactions with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda allied Haqqani Network that include, in the Treasury Department’s own words, “delivery and provision of humanitarian aid or shipments”, “administrative issues”, “donor coordination meetings”, “sharing descriptions of projects”, “coordination with regard to travel”, “participation in technical working groups” and “sharing of office space”. Not to mention the “payments of taxes, fees, or import duties to, or the purchase or receipt of permits, licenses, or public utility services from, the Taliban, the Haqqani Network.”
While Biden and his corrupt cronies insist that they don’t recognize the Taliban, that’s purely a formality. Not only do they recognize the Taliban as the government, but they’ve been extensively coordinating with the Islamic terrorists and helping to fund them.
At the end of July, Biden’s representative met with “senior Taliban representatives” to discuss “ongoing efforts to enable the $3.5 billion in licensed Afghan central bank reserves to be used for the benefit of the Afghan people”.
Even while the Biden administration and its allies insist that the other $3.5 billion set aside to meet the claims of terror victims can’t be released to them because that would “implictly” mean that the Taliban are being recognized as the government, Biden’s diplomatic representatives can meet with them and conduct negotiations about giving them the other $3.5 billion.
Releasing money to 9/11 terror victims would “implictly” recognize the Taliban, but engaging in sustained diplomatic negotiations with them as the governing authority somehow does not.
The Taliban privately understand that Biden can’t release the $3.5 billion to them until he beats the 9/11 families in court. And then they’ll potentially get access to the whole $7 billion. This corrupt charade is being played out for the benefit of the equally complicit judiciary and media which is cheering the downfall of the 9/11 families and waiting for the cash to go to the Taliban.
Reuters headlined its story, “Afghans outraged as 9/11 families lay claim to frozen billions”. There’s no real ambiguity as to which side Reuters, the media and Joe Biden are on.
In October 2001, Biden proposed that, “this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” He’s managed to send much more money than that to the Islamic terror state since, but now he’s preparing to send a $7 billion check to the Taliban.
All he had to do to get that money was lie and cheat 9/11 families.
Infidel says
That money is not even Afghanistan’s: unlike Iraq, Afghanistan ain’t sitting on a boatload of oil, and has nothing of commercial value (except maybe recently discovered rare earths). That money is money that the US gave the Afghan regimes of Karzai and Ghani to run Afghanistan normally. Once the Taliban took over, that money should automatically have been confiscated
I agree w/ what President Trump said on Saturday: no government can be as stupid: they are doing this deliberately b’cos they hate this country!
Cephas H says
Uncle Kepha has renamed the current POTUS Zhou Baideng (周拜邓–Joe who worships Deng Xiaoping of 06/04/89 infamy) due to his threat to bring out F-q5’s and tanks against his fellow citizens who dare to support a political opponent.
somehistory says
Yes, what good or sane person threatens his neighbors in that manner and then pretends that he is a good and sane person?
What is terrible is that so very many are applauding his screed and are going to be looking for those he targeted with his lies.
gravenimage says
Kepha–good to see you posting again.
somehistory says
This is so disgusting, i can’t complete the reading of it. the whole bunch are “corrupt. there is no one (of them) doing good.”
Evil demonic, satanic. They should all just change their names to Beelzebul, and then it will be plain to everyone who and what they are. As bobiden likes to say, “that’s not who we are,” but this would set it straight. They are children of satan the devil and “doing his desires.”
milo minderbinder says
It seems to me, that whenever the Democrats have controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives for successive years, the American people have been lied to and deceived. The result… bad things have happened to the people of the United States of America.
WW I (Woodrow Wilson), WW II* (FDR), the Korean War (Truman), the Cuban Missile Crisis, the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba, the assassination of JFK, the Vietnam War, (JFK/Johnson) the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the poorly planned and executed rescue attempt of those hostages, (Carter) the debacle in Afghanistan, and now, the situation in Ukraine (Biden).
* “Churchill and the Avoidable War” – by Richard M. Langworth
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/churchill-and-the-avoidable-war/
In addition, it appears that events starting with the Korean War, and those that followed, were designed to pave the way for “The New World Order.” It seems that these actions were intended to weaken the United States of America, and to demoralize both our military, and the American people.
I’m a pessimist, the glass is half empty. When I look at what is taking place, specifically in the USA, and in general, around the world, my pessimism increases exponentially.
To use several analogies: the nuclear doomsday clock: the demise of the United States of America is now at 2 minutes to midnight. Games in the NFL have what is called, a two-minute warning, it seems that the United States of America is in the fourth quarter at the two-minute warning, and finally, the American people are on a cruise, unfortunately, the ship we are on is the Titanic. It doesn’t matter who rearranges the deck chairs or how they are rearranged, the outcome will be the same, it’s not a matter of if the ship is going down, but when.
What could possibly happen to bring about the demise of this once great country?
People who live in areas that experience earthquakes, know full well how destruction is suddenly, and unexpectedly thrust upon them. In some cases, the destruction is irreparable, the buildings must be taken down and the foundation replaced. That seems to be what is happening to this once great country known as United States of America.
Is that what the Great Reset is all about?
Can an avalanche be stopped once it starts? With all the technology available in the 21st century, no one can stop an avalanche once it starts. It seems that the avalanche has started, and in its path is the United States of America.
Nothing happens, absolutely nothing, that the God of the Bible doesn’t allow to happen. Is it possible that God allowed Joe Biden to be fraudulently elected President of the United States of America to bring judgement upon this once great county?
We have gone from a nation that honored the God of the Bible, to a nation that became disobedient to the God of the Bible, to a nation that is in rebellion against the God of the Bible. A nation whose so-called leaders are shaking their fist in God’s face.
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” Psalm 2:1-5
Is this Administration being empowered by the demonic world?
The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 8:12:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Is that what the world saw in Philadelphia on Thursday, September 1, 2022?
“It seems ironic that Biden should spew rhetoric indicating open season on MAGA: traditional patriots, Christians, and all varieties of right-wingers on the first official day of hunting season, September 1st! He may as well have ordered his “civilian security force” to ‘hunt down his opposition, just like the Brownshirts did for Hitler, and the Blackshirts did for Mussolini. Do it for democracy! Biden might have said.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/09/more_questions_swirl_about_bidens_motives_after_his_creepy_speech.html
somehistory says
You write: “Is this Administration being empowered by the demonic world?”
the simple answer is “yes.” Just as Daniel wrote that Michael had to help an angel on his way to Daniel when “the prince of the realm of Persia” was preventing him from getting to the prophet.
Yes, demons are working to bring down the whole of mankind. And as you make clear, Almighty God is allowing it. But as Jesus said, “the days will be cut short or no flesh will be saved.”
gravenimage says
I have my issues with the Democratic Party, but the claim that FDR should have allowed Fascism to take over is just grotesque.
Then you cite the Brownshirts and Blackshirts, surely knowing that these were Fascist–the very Fascists you just demanded Roosevelt and Churchill should have left alone.
The fact is that Churchill said that the West should have acted earlier against Fascist aggression–not to have ignored it completely. And the implication that we should have left all of Korea to Communist aggression is pretty questionable as well–I don’t think that South Koreans living in freedom now would agree.
milo minderbinder says
You and I are looking at the same events from a different perspective, you have your interpretation and I have mine. Let’s agree to disagree, amicably.
The primary issue that I’m making is that we are in a spiritual battle, a battle for the heart, mind and soul of the American people, along with the people of the world. We are losing that battle. The ship is going down, it’s only a matter of how and when.
The USA is the last bastion of freedom and it MUST be taken out in order to pave the way for the “New World Order.” We might be able to delay the implementation of this “One World Government,” but we cannot prevent it from coming to pass.
The events that I mentioned, play a small part in the Cosmic Game of Chess that is taking place. The end game is the creation of a “One World Government” These events were orchestrated by demonic forces, cleverly manipulating man, conditioning man, to accept the coming One World Government and the One World Leader who will be indwelled by Satan himself.
gravenimage says
Biden Fights 9/11 Victims in Court to Protect Taliban Cash
……………………………….
Utterly shameful. That this is American taxpayer money to begin with makes this all the worse.