Biden administration has given $2.35 BILLION to the Taliban since the withdrawal: Damning report reveals huge waste in taxpayers' funds after 20 years in Afghanistan | Daily Mail Online
Since the fall of Afghanistan, the U.S. has forked over funds to groups under the brutal Taliban regime to the tune of $2.35 billion.
That's according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), released to the public on Tuesday.
Another $1.7 billion 'remained available for possible disbursement' at the time of the report, dated July 30.
The report was made public as the U.S. approaches the two-year anniversary of the frenzied withdrawal.
The total amount of money appropriated for 'reconstruction and related activities' since 2002 dwarfs the figure from fiscal year 2022 and 2023. Over the past two decades, $147.06 billion in US funding has been appropriated to the war-torn Middle Eastern nation.
The funds that have been appropriated since the Taliban takeover in 2021 flow through non-governmental organizations and other groups working on reconstruction projects. But with the Taliban wielding control over nearly every sector of the economy, it's more than likely a portion of those coffers have ended up in their hands.
In April SIGAR head John Sopko told the House Foreign Affairs Committee he 'cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban.'
Sopko also said the Biden administration had stonewalled his probe and refused to hand over documents to track the flow of cash under the Taliban.
The report cited another analysis from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that found the Taliban views aid, particularly that from the United Nations (UN), as a 'revenue stream.'