The Taliban may not believe in Christmas but they got a huge gift. The totalitarian government of Afghanistan left their latest pallet of cash sitting on the airport tarmac long enough to snag some photos of it. The $40 million cash gift is designated as “humanitarian aid.” Nobody wants to claim responsibility for the “U.S. $100 notes bound in plastic, boxed and bagged in an airport.”
Taliban gets pallets of cash
The Taliban are grinning from ear to ear. As reported by Fox News on December 12, “a large package containing around $40 million in cash for ‘humanitarian aid‘ was seen on an airport tarmac in Afghanistan,” citing “officials there last week.”
The money “was handed over to the Da Bank of Afghanistan.” All the markings are in English.
The Taliban controlled central bank was so thrilled with their holiday gift that they “tweeted several images of the cash.” Thank you Joe Biden, they didn’t post. “Another package of humanitarian aid worth $40 million dollars arrived in Afghanistan and was handed over to a commercial bank in Kabul.”
Afghanistan's Taliban displays pallets of cash received for 'humanitarian aid' https://t.co/OWvha2bby6
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 13, 2022
“This is the second package that has arrived in Afghanistan this week.” So that means at least $80 million in U.S. cash. Probably more, a lot more.
The bank is being particularly cagey about “where the money came from.” They did confirm that the “bank has received several separate shipments of millions of dollars in recent weeks, according to several identical tweets it posted last month.”
The Taliban is all set to order new whips for their religious thought police. Along with a whole bunch of weaponry. All for “humanitarian” use, of course.
The bank ‘appreciates’ it
The Taliban really doesn’t care where the cash comes from, as long as it gets delivered. “Any principled action that leads to the transfer of reserves to the country and helps the needy people of the society, the Da Afghanistan Bank appreciates it, and this bank will continue its efforts in strengthening the banking sector.”
While Joe Biden won’t set down his dish of ice cream long enough to take responsibility, back in September, “the Biden administration announced the creation of a fund to assist the people of Afghanistan, apart from the country’s central bank.” This looks to be what he was talking about.
“The Afghan Fund will help mitigate the economic challenges facing Afghanistan while protecting and preserving $3.5 billion in reserves from Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), Afghanistan’s central bank, for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan,” assured Wally Adeyemo, U.S. deputy secretary of the Treasury. So what if the Taliban are the ones who get to decide how it’s spent?
“The Taliban’s repression and economic mismanagement have exacerbated longstanding economic challenges for Afghanistan, including through actions that have diminished the capacity of key Afghan economic institutions and made the return of these funds to Afghanistan untenable.” They gave them the money anyway. That means “untenable” does not mean “impossible.” It just means they have to do it quietly and wipe the fingerprints off.
Every single penny of foreign aid was chopped off like the hand of an Afghani thief “when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021. World governments piled on sanctions, halted bank transfers and froze billions more in Afghanistan’s currency reserves.”
We can’t leave the oppressive regime to starve. The money is meant for the average citizens but the chance of anyone except the favored radicals seeing any of it are slim.
