According to media reports, U.S President Joe Biden is moving to split $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets between 9/11 victims’ families and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
The President intends to use the assets of the Afghan Central Bank, around $7 billion, which it has frozen, to meet the needs of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and to compensate the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Initiating the process, Mr. Biden issued an executive order Friday morning requesting emergency powers to consolidate and freeze Afghanistan’s $7 billion of the Afghan Central Bank’s total assets in New York.
Press Release of Da Afghanistan Bank on the Decision of United States of America Regarding the Foreign Exchange Reserves of Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/ur2u1pvKVl
— Da Afghanistan Bank- Afghanistan (@AFGCentralbank) February 12, 2022
The administration said it would ask the judge for permission to transfer $3.5 billion to a trust fund it would set up, to ‘meet the needs of the Afghan people’.
U.S Government Commission Report
The Commission Report by the U.S govt on 9/11 has a section entitled ‘Dissent within the Al-Qaeda leadership’ where it’s mentioned that Mullah Omar categorically opposed attacks against the US.
The Taliban govt led by Mullah Omar was one of the first to condemn the 9/11 attack. They denied involvement, demanded proof and an independent court to assess claims on OBL’s involvement.
But President George Bush was intransigent and launched Operation Jawbreaker without hesitancy.
This action, as a result, has led to only 2% of Afghans having enough food to sustain themselves and 9 million people, being one step to famine.
It’s important to remember that Afghanistan was not involved in the 9/11 attack.
Afghans Money and Modern-day Terrorism
Around 90% of Afghans live in poverty. The $7 billion that the U.S is trying to use is Afghan money. Can the U.S or anyone remind us, if Saudi Arabia paid compensation to the victims of 9/11? Why has it failed to hold Saudi Arabia responsible?
We can only surmise that the United States is stealing this money from a country they bombed, occupied, and committed war crimes, while the children of that country starve to death, or are sold by their parents in exchange for food; this is the literal definition of terrorism.
The U.S is one of richest nations on earth, and an action such as this is tantamount to holding one of the poorest countries’ money hostage.
It’s not “highly unusual”, it’s disgusting. Osama Bin Laden was Saudi. 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi. The Saudi government has immunity from 9/11 lawsuits. Why is starving Afghanistan having to paying the price?
False Impression
The impression that the United States government has given, is that the $7 billion dollars that belong to Afghani people, in a bank in New York, is being given to Afghanistan by the United States and Europe as aid; so logically, the money ‘belongs’ to the American people, and the U.S government has a right to use them; but in fact, both the U.S & NATO bear responsibility to have brought Afghanistan to this critical and crucial point, where it occupied Afghanistan after 9/11 and plunged it into a long civil war, causing the after effects that we are currently witnessing.
The Afghan people needed help
Large-scale food shortages have plagued most parts of the country since the Taliban took over. Workers in Kabul measure food for Afghans from the World Food Program to keep up with demand.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s economy has collapsed, leading to widespread starvation and a huge unstable new wave of refugees. The country is in dire need of help.
Saudi Arabia off the hook? U.S using Afghan money
President Biden is beginning to clear a legal path for the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, to secure the 3.5 $ billion that the Central Bank of Afghanistan deposited in New York before the Taliban took over, and at the same time, they are trying to move towards an almost equal amount.
When the Afghan government dissolved in August – top officials, including its president and the acting governor of its central bank – fled the country – it accumulated $ 7 billion in central bank assets accumulated at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
The Taliban, who now running Afghanistan, immediately claimed the money.
But a group of relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, one of the many who had won pre-determined verdicts against the group in seemingly bizarre cases years ago, demanded that the debt be confiscated to pay it off.
It is not right for the United States government to command the assets of a foreign country on its territory. It should hand over the country’s assets back to that country and if need be help in managing them correctly.
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