Greetings!
The decision of President Biden to not object to 50% of the $ 7 billion owned by Afghan people and its former government going to families of 9-11 victims prompted this newsletter. I planned to let you know we now have 36 Afghan families receiving $100 a month for a year and will have another 10 by the end of the month.
Mujeeb, our program director in Kabul, wrote letting me know that it takes 10 interviews to find two families who are deserving and willing to let their pictures be taken. Nine of you are on a list waiting for us to send a profile. We expect to send you a profile for your approval within a week. I’m not sure why I built in the need to approve a family. We have yet to send a profile to a sponsor who didn’t approve. Many have written telling me that they don’t need to approve. They “trust our judgment”.
— Biden’s Executive Order —
In 1979 the United States began arming the mujahideen (“freedom fighters”) in Pakistan to wage war inside Afghanistan. Very few know that our clandestine support began before the Russians invaded Afghanistan. The purpose in providing support to the mujahideen was, according to Zbigniew Brezezinski, national security advisor to President Carter, to draw the Russians in “so Russia could get its Viet Nam”. Our motive was to bring the Russians down. It was not to help the Afghans.
Ten years later, in 1989, the Russians were driven out of Afghanistan. The Berlin wall came down shortly thereafter. The Soviet Union “disintegrated and dissolved into fifteen separate countries”.Three years later in 1992 we discontinued all humanitarian aid. “Mission accomplished”, time to get out.
During the decade of war following the Soviet invasion, 1.8 million Afghans were killed, 1.5 million were disabled (among whom were more than 300,000 children), and 7.5 million fled the country. More than 14,000 villages were destroyed.
Civil war followed Russia’s withdrawal. The warlords we had armed fought for control of the country. In 1996, the Taliban gained control and imposed their interpretation of sharia law.
“During their rule from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban committed massacres against Afghan civilians, denied UN food supplies to 160,000 starving civilians, and conducted a policy of scorched earth, burning vast areas of fertile land and destroying tens of thousands of homes.
The Taliban prevented girls and young women from attending school, banned women from working jobs outside of healthcare (male doctors were prohibited from treating women), and required that women be accompanied by a male relative and wear a burqa at all times when in public. Women were banned from appearing on radio, TV or at public gatherings.
Books, other than the Koran were banned as were paintings, photography and movies that depicted people or other living things. Violators of the rules were publicly whipped, beaten, and executed.
Within a month following 9-11, in 2001 we invaded Afghanistan to “get Bin Laden” and began “nation building”. Twenty years later we, like the Russians before us, were driven out, abruptly abandoning tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for us and been promised a chance of obtaining a US visas. I have submitted 10 visas applications so far. I and they have had no communication from the state department other than their application will not be processed until they move to another country and processing could take 14 – 16 months.
We also froze Afghan’s central government’s assets totaling $9.4 billion.The United Nations has warned that the country’s banking system is at risk of a “colossal” failure that would lead to a 30 percent contraction of the Afghan economy. UNICEF has estimated as many as 1 million children could die of “severe acute malnutrition” as the country’s economy deteriorates.
President Biden's executive order essentially states that our government will not oppose an order by a US court that would set aside $3.5 billion in a fund to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghans $3.5 billion to be distributed to the families of victims of 9-11.
150 families of 9-11 victims, known as the Havish plaintiffs, obtained a default judgment against the Taliban in 2012 and want the money we froze. A default judgment is obtained where no one appears to defend against a lawsuit. Essentially they have an uncontested judgment against the Taliban. Other families of 9-11 victims are now coming forward asserting a claim against what's been frozen.They will also be able to get uncontested judgments in their favor.
I understand not turning the money over to the Taliban government. I do not understand how we can possibly justify taking money owned by Afghans having deposits in Afghan banks and the former Afghan government and give it to families of 9-11 victims with uncontested judgments. It’s not our money and it certainly does not belong to the current Taliban currently in power. We don’t even recognize the Taliban in power as a legitimate government. How can anyone argue it’s “their money”. You can’t attach what someone doesn't own. Biden's order makes that possible.
Osama Bin Laden,leader of al Queda and master of 9-11 was from Saudia Arabia, as were 15 of the 19 hijackers.Similar lawsuits have been filed against the Saudi government attempting to hold it responsible for 9-11. None have been successful.
A lawsuit was filed against the Iranian government seeking to hold it responsible. An uncontested judgment was obtained against the Iranian government in 2018 granting $8.5 million per parent, $8.5 million per child, and $4.25 million per sibling. Of course, nothing has been collected or paid on this judgment.
A solution that can be justified is using what was frozen to provide direct humanitarian aid to Afghans inside Afghanistan and return some if not all the money to the families who have deposits in Afghan banks. The money was either owned by depositors or the Afghan government in place before the Taliban took control. The return of deposits is likely to be impossible to administer, particularly in a country where corruption is pervasive. Providing direct humanitarian aid inside Afghanistan is the solution. That's what the Afghan people would want and what we should want for them.
Whether the money should be withheld and for how long, as leverage against the Taliban currently in power, are questions that need to be resolved. Withholding money may influence the sharia rules they decide to impose. But, Afghan families starve, need medical attention and its economy continues to spiral down while their money is frozen.
Afghanistan’s forty-one year decline, since the Russians invaded, is directly traceable back to the day we decided to “give Russia it’s Vietnam”. When questioned about the ethicality of our arming the mujahideen Brezenski’s response was. What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War? The "stirred-up Muslims" ,after twenty years, drove us out of the country and we now plan to take $3.5 billion dollars from the Afghan people.
I know we are not solely responsible for what transpired. However, we played chess with the Russians during the “cold war”. Afghanistan was the checkerboard and millions of Afghans were sacrificed pawns. We must not ignore the role we played nor abandon them again.
Budd
