Tag Archive for: Afghanistan

‘He Needs To Resign’: Gold Star Families Call On Biden To Admit Mistakes In Afghanistan Withdrawal

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On the two-year anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Gold Star parents are calling for the Biden administration to admit its mistakes and to honor the fallen.

The Daily Caller spoke to the parents of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui — five of the service members who were killed in the Abbey Gate terror attack at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26 of 2021.

The Gold Star families called for President Joe Biden to resign and expressed frustration at the president’s lack of accountability for the chaotic withdrawal. They also requested for the 13 service members killed in the Abbey Gate terror bombing to be honored at the White House, and for Biden to finally say their names.

‘Biden Never Said The 13 Names’

The frustration at the lack of a sufficient response from Biden is greater on the second anniversary than the first, the parents told the Caller.

“This year is so different … I’m so frustrated, I’m so mad. I can’t believe that they did that to our kids,” said Carol Briseno, the mother of Cpl. Sanchez. Sanchez was 22 years old and had been reassigned to the Kabul airport after serving as an Embassy Guard in Jordan.

“Nobody’s paying for what they did. Nobody is saying ‘yes we messed up’ and ‘I’m sorry,’” Briseno added. “Biden never said the 13 names. He didn’t say the names because he knows that he failed. That he actually failed our kids and failed our families and messed up.”

Around the one year anniversary, Biden put out a statement with the 13 names. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she had “nothing to share” about what the president would do to commemorate the deadly withdrawal.

Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Staff Sgt. Hoover, said the two year anniversary of the withdrawal is especially frustrating given that Biden still hasn’t “acknowledged our kids.”

“Biden hasn’t said our kids’ names once. Not a single time,” he told the Caller. “These kids need to be celebrated. They need to be thanked … They need to have their names said, have them be remembered.”

Darin Taylor Hoover was on his third tour of Afghanistan and had served in the Marines for 11 years when he was killed.

Steven Nikoui, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Nikoui, said he was surprised at the lack of sympathy from the Biden administration over the loss of the 13 service members. His son Kareem was 20 years old and had joined JROTC before becoming a Marine.

“As far as any sympathy from the administration in the last two years, there has been none. That was very surprising to me,” Nikoui said. “I thought, you know, they would have reached out at some point … but that hasn’t happened. As far as learning more information about how everything had played out … we have an enormous amount of information, of steps  of just careless steps that were taken.”

“This administration needs to honor them at the White House on the lawn. There needs to be 13 pictures of these service people on that lawn — and this president, this administration needs to honor it,” Nikoui added. “I think maybe he’s trying to hide, you know, like, out of sight out of mind when you’re a kid and you’re scared. You put your covers over your head. There’s no boogeyman in the closet, right? It’s kinda like this all happened, and by not acknowledging them, I will acknowledge that this bad never happened.”

Christy Shamblin, the mother of Marine Sgt. Gee, also called on the president to host the families at the White House to honor those fallen in the withdrawal. Nicole Gee had joined the Marines in 2017 and was 23 years old when she died.

“I would love to meet with President Biden and have him outline the successes because I don’t see them,” Shamblin told the Caller. “I know that there are successes and families that are vetted and the ones who are making lives here but you know to celebrate a few victories in the middle of a catastrophe is not really rational.”

‘And I Left Weeping’

Paula Knauss Selph, the mother of Army Staff Sgt. Knauss, said she was invited to meet Biden during a Memorial Day breakfast in 2022, but that she left weeping after the president refused to take a picture near the grave of her son. Ryan Knauss had joined the U.S. Army in 2016 and was 23 years old.

“He looked me directly in the eyes as I approached him, and he said, ‘I can understand if you’re angry,’” Knauss Selph said, describing walking up to Biden in the Oval Office.

“I looked him in the eye, and with grief in my face, I said, weeping, ‘It should have never happened. We should have never lost our children,’” Knauss Selph continued. “And I was weeping and I leaned into him thinking that he might hug me or say something, like ‘I’m so sorry. I feel awful about this’ or ‘I’m so sorry about the loss of your son.’ Or something — something in condolence or anything to justify that moment of time where you share your heart with somebody. He spoke a few words with me and then he looked at me and said… ‘Would you like to get a photo with me?’”

“And I said, ‘Sir, I tell you what — if you want me to go over to hear you speak at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, then when you finish, I’d like you to walk down the hill with me, beside my son’s graveside, at his tombstone and take that photo,’” the mother said.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Oh, I can’t do that. Can’t do that. Secret Service won’t let me do that.’ And I said, ‘Well then, sir, I can’t take that photo.’ And I left weeping,” she continued.

“I’ve already met him in person and know his character. I personally know his character. So when I said to those who were interested in meeting with him, I said, ‘Well, when he decides he wants to meet with us, just let me know if he still wants to take that photo with Ryan,’” Knauss Selph said.

Biden Should Resign

Briseno and Hoover directly called on Biden to resign over his actions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“I would say he needs to resign. Because something else is going to happen and he’s not there 100 percent to take decisions and he needs to resign. Two years ago it was the 13 kids. Maybe next month it’s going to be some other parents losing kids or any other stupid decision that he’s not capable to take,” Briseno said.

“There is General Milley. There’s Secretary Austin, there’s Secretary Blinken. McKenzie can be involved in that decision as well. Resign. The president needs to resign. Admit their faults,” Hoover said.

If Biden “can’t stand up and, in the words of our son Taylor, ‘be a grown-ass man and admit your problems,’ then absolutely resign. Absolutely, 100 percent resign. Leave it to somebody else that will step up. And take the place and become a leader,” Hoover added, noting that “our kids had more integrity in their little pinky toes than any one of those men combined.”

No Transparency

The Gold Star families also expressed frustration at the limited information the administration has provided about the terror attack, saying they receive a different account from those who were actually on the ground.

“We know the truth because … my kid’s friends told me exactly what happened. So I have the truth. I just want [Biden] to actually agree,” Briseno said, adding that the Department of Defense (DOD) report she received was heavily redacted.

In March, Marine Corps Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews testified before Congress that he had spotted who he believed to be suicide bomber from their sniper perch, but was denied permission to engage by battalion commander Lt. Col. Brad Whited.

“We asked if we could shoot. Our battalion commander said, ‘I don’t know,’” Vargas-Andrews told Congress at the time.

“I want full transparency. I want everything. Tell us. We talked to the guys that were there. I’ve talked to a couple of special ops people that were training for and had another plan in place. Before Biden came, his administration came in, they were executing it and training for it,” Hoover told the Caller.

“It’s disheartening. I mean it’s absolutely disheartening. They need to come out and say, ‘You know what? We screwed up and here’s where. We take responsibility for this and this is why.’ We’re not doing any of that. Now I understand if there’s some things that are national security, tell us that, but tell us the rest of it. Why? Why did you do it this way? Why were they put in harm’s way in a manner that they were and ultimately this is what happened?” Hoover added.

Call For Change

Even two years later, the administration can still make amends with the families and the fallen service members by being more transparent and honoring the 13 men and women, the Gold Star parents told the Caller.

“I want to see honesty and transparency. Again, I’m a very proud mother of service members. I understand national security and I understand information I don’t need, but the things we’re asking for are, you know, our kids’ pictures, their memories, their cell phones, their SIM cards. And again, I understood understand they were in, while it was called a peaceful evacuation, they were in a war zone … We would like that transparency,” Shamblin said.

“It’s important to me that not only my daughter, but everybody that was celebrated and honored correctly and to do that it has to be honest and transparent,” she added. “It can’t be hidden behind ulterior motives.”

But more importantly, the parents asked that the memory of their children not be forgotten.

“The next thing. Don’t forget our kids. Please don’t forget our children,” Hoover said. “They ended this war and they ended it with their lives. Continue to say their names. Because if their names are not spoken, that’s when they are taken from us. And that’s the only thing the only two things I asked, being grateful, say their names. And never forget their sacrifices.”

The White House did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Caller.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

65 Jihadis Identified as ‘National Security Risks’ were Granted Entry into the U.S. after the Fall of Afghanistan

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Is the Biden regime really just catastrophically incompetent, or did this operation go according to plan? It does so much to weaken the United States, can it be said with any certainty that this wasn’t another such operation?

EXCLUSIVE – 65 Afghan terrorists were let into the U.S. after Biden’s chaotic withdrawal: Prisoner freed by the Taliban and men who planted IEDs got through dire vetting processes

by Wills Robinson, DailyMail.com, August 13, 2023

Militants who left fingerprints on IEDs meant to kill Americans in Afghanistan and a prisoner freed by the Taliban were among more than 65 terrorists allowed into the United States after the catastrophic withdrawal.

Most of them could still be roaming the country, and the government cannot track them down.

The damning revelations made in a new book add to the laundry list of blunders from the Biden administration during and after the disastrous evacuation of Kabul in August 2021.

It has been two years since the two weeks of carnage at Hamid Karzai International Airport that led to the deaths of 13 American service members, hundreds of Afghans, and thousands left behind.

Yet the evidence of the U.S. government’s disastrous handling of the departure of troops after 20 years and the evacuation of allies is still coming to light.

Sixty-five individuals identified as ‘national security risks’ were granted entry into the U.S. in the 12 months after the withdrawal, Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson write in Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End.

The book also reveals how the Biden administration missed two chances to prevent the Kabul suicide attack and the dire impact of putting the Taliban in charge of security.

The dangerous individuals let into the U.S. included multiple men whose DNA was found on explosives defused by American forces.

Another was a prisoner ‘liberated’ by the Taliban while they were running riot across the war-torn country on the way to Kabul.

Despite assurances the Taliban wouldn’t surge to power and the US-backed Afghan government would hold, the capital toppled as the Western military left.

An Afghan-American interpreter even identified many Taliban fighters on the tarmac, ready to board flights bound for the U.S….

Read full article.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

13 Fallen Soldiers ‘Have More Integrity in Their Little Toes’ than This Administration: Parents

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At a forum hosted by Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Monday, Gold Star families of the fallen servicemen in Afghanistan had a public platform to testify. Since the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, killing 13 U.S. servicemembers, the families have sought accountability and clarity regarding the disorderly withdrawal of American troops from the Taliban-infested country.

“To say it’s time to move on and there’s nothing more to be said as to the planning and the execution of how our country wrapped a two-decade war, is an insult to all of us,” said Alicia Lopez, mother of fallen Marine Hunter Lopez.

Sensing that the families of the fallen had not been provided an opportunity to speak publicly, Issa devoted time at the Escondido City Hall for loved ones to seek answers regarding the catastrophic events that occurred nearly two years ago.

Before the emotional testimonies began, Issa assured families that this was “their day” and that they would be heard. Although he noted a particular order that “people believe we should go in,” he decided to open the floor to family members to speak whenever they felt comfortable.

After the father of fallen Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Darin T. Hoover thanked Issa and those in attendance for listening to “the hurt, the anger, and the anguish that we feel for our children,” he expressed his frustration with the Biden administration regarding the bombing as a whole. He called for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, General Mark Milley, General Kenneth McKenzie, Lieutenant Colonel Whitehead, and President Joe Biden to “do what our son did: Be a grown a– man.”

Hoover also attacked the administration’s character in the whole fiasco. “You all need to resign immediately,” he urged. “Our sons and daughters have more integrity in their little toes than every one of them combined.”

Hoover’s comments were made shortly after Biden “insisted he made no mistakes” regarding the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan last Friday. U.S. Army experts disagree.

“The withdrawal of U.S. Forces and the evacuation of non-combatants from Afghanistan in 2021 is one of the greatest foreign policy failures in U.S. history,” Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William G. Boykin told The Washington Stand. “President Biden ignored the advice of several of his advisors who warned against letting a timeline drive the activities of the operation on the ground. That is incompetence and demands accountability starting at the White House.”

According to the mother of 20-year-old fallen Marine Dylan R. Merola, Cheryl Rex, there’s been no accountability in this White House. The grieving mother briefed the room about her encounter with President Biden nearly 24 hours after the tragedy.

Rex first shared that the president’s words of comfort included a comparison of his own feelings when he lost his son to cancer.

“[I wondered] how someone could honestly be so heartless to say he knew how I felt a little over 24 hours after learning of my son’s death,” Rex shared. “After this encounter, I have never had any personal correspondence nor has my son been honored or his name spoken by this commander-in-chief or his administration on what I feel is because of their failure and poor planning to exit our troops from Afghanistan.”

Rex continued by stating she believed the media — along with the Biden administration — had been covering up vital facts regarding the bombing. In January, she realized, “everything, even the way my son died, is being covered up.”

From her conversations with other Marines, she learned that the incident at Abbey Gate “was a complex attack, not just a single suicide bombing.” After her social media accounts were silenced and her son’s name hardly mentioned, Rex knew she “was being targeted and shut down publicly by media outlets.”

“The lies that were told to most of those grieving families violate every standard of conduct and leadership and should trigger the resignation of those who were responsible,” said Boykin. But then, as the general told “Washington Watch” guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice, “This president has a very long history of lying to people — especially to the American people — that he was sworn to support and defend. I find that to be one of the most disgusting things. And I will tell you … [this] administration does not care about their soldiers. And the administration does not understand how critical they are to our security.”

“[W]hat we’re seeing right now,” Boykin continued, “is the demise of our military. When you see stuff like that, and you reflect on it for just a moment, you realize we need a commander-in-chief that not only cares about our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, and our Coast Guardsmen, but will do what is right by them to make sure that when the time comes to go to war, they’re ready to go to war and win. And all of this woke nonsense that we’re getting out of this administration is doing nothing but bringing us down. Keeping us from being ready to go to war.”

Although not all of the family’s questions have been answered, Issa vowed that progress would be made.

“It is not new for there to be military mistakes,” the congressman conceded. “But it is in fact a tradition that investigations don’t end until every question has been answered,” he said. “There are many, many questions … that have been asked that we will get to the bottom of.”

Until then, Freedom Alliance’s Tom Kilgannon reminded viewers, these families are dealing with tremendous emotional trauma “inflicted by this administration.” “It is unforgiveable. So we need to pray that they have the strength to carry this cross, to bear this burden, to be able to forgive, and to be able to honor their loved ones as time goes on.”

AUTHOR

Abigail Olsson

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Taliban wages jihad on Western necktie, claims it resembles Christian cross and must be ‘broken and eliminated’

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Not to be outdone by the Iranian Islamic regime’s brutal enforcement of hijab, Afghanistan’s Taliban has renewed its jihad against Western dress – particularly the necktie worn by men. The tie draped around the collar resembles a crucifix or a Christian cross, the Taliban regime declared.

The cross, which signifies mankind’s redemption through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a hated symbol according to the Islamic Sharia law, and must be desecrated and destroyed, a senior Taliban operative proclaimed.

“What is a tie? It is the cross. It is ordered in Sharia that you should break it and eliminate it,” Mohammad Hashim Shaheed Wror, Taliban’s head of Islamic proselytizing and guidance told reporters on Wednesday.

The necktie actually carries no religious significance, and was first adopted by the French from the attire worn by Croatian mercenaries during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). It was later modified by the British and has since become an integral part of men’s formal wear throughout the world.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the spring of 2021 after President Joe Biden’s botched U.S. withdrawal and quickly reestablished Sharia rule under its Islamic emirate after two decades. The regime barred girls from secondary education and imposed a strict dress code for women. The Taliban also demanded girls as young as 15 as war booty for its fighters in “marriage.”

Taliban’s latest jihad on western dress, say neckties ‘resemble’ Christian cross

C. Krishnasai, WION, July 27, 2023:

In their latest disdain towards western clothing, Taliban have expressed apprehension over neckties, claiming that they resemble a Christian cross and called for a total ban in the country.

Talking to reporters on July 26, Mohammad Hashim Shaheed Wror, head of the Invitation and Guidance Directorate, a department that seeks to guide people along proper Islamic lines, said that wearing neckties is against the Sharia law.

“Sometimes, when I go to hospitals and other areas, an Afghan Muslim engineer or doctor uses a necktie,” Mohammad Hashim Shaheed Wror said in speech broadcast by Tolo TV.

He said that the symbolism of the tie “is obvious in Islam”.

“What is a tie? It is the cross. It is ordered in Sharia that you should break it and eliminate it,” he was quoted as saying.

Read more.

AUTHOR

VIJETA UNIYAL

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden Regime Obstructing Afghan Investigation On All Fronts

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These are serious grounds for impeachment.

Nearly a year after I wrote this, House hearings made it clear that the Biden administration is still illegally obstructing the Afghanistan watchdog.

In June, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s office (SIGAR), dispatched letters to Secretary of State Blinken and Samantha Power complaining that the State Department and USAID were stonewalling its investigation of waste, corruption and terror cash.

“Two SIGAR audits are also being hindered by a lack of cooperation from State and USAID. The first evaluates your agencies’ compliance with the laws and regulations prohibiting transfers of funds to members of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network,” the letter to Power complained.

Instead of turning over the information, Blinken and Power’s people have lawyered up.

“A State official has informed SIGAR that department staff have received internal direction to not engage with or speak to SIGAR without prior clearance from State legal counsel,” the open letter that was also sent to members of Congress revealed.

Illegally refusing to cooperate with an inspector general and then using State Department lawyers to impede any investigation in a matter involving possible terrorist financing is shocking.

Fast forward to late April 2023 and SIGAR is still being illegally obstructed by the Biden regime.

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko told the House Oversight Committee. “Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban.”

“I don’t trust the Taliban as far as you can throw them. And the information we’re getting … is that the Taliban are already diverting funds,” Sopko told lawmakers. “I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV. They all seem to be fat, dumb and happy. I see a lot of starving Afghan children on TV, so I’m wondering where all this funding is going.”

Sopko said the problems with oversight are exacerbated by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) “failure to fully cooperate” with SIGAR audits and other inquiries.

“The lack of cooperation by State … and to a lesser extent USAID, is unprecedented in the nearly 12 years that I have been the SIGAR,” said Sopko, who was appointed to his role in 2012 under the Obama administration.

He said the agency’s refusal to fully cooperate has led to a significant portion of the watchdog’s work, including five reports for the Oversight Committee, being “hindered and delayed.”

In addition to obstructing the Afghanistan watchdog, the Biden administration has decided to also obstruct Congress.

The State Department on Wednesday violated a congressional Republican subpoena to hand over a sensitive diplomatic cable about the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

The subpoena was issued late last month by chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and is part of Republican efforts to investigate the Biden administration over the chaotic and deadly pullout from Afghanistan at the end of August 2021.

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement to The Hill that, “​​Discussions with the committee about next steps are ongoing,” and said Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered to brief the chairman and the committee next week on the contents of the dissent cable without providing the actual document.

Discussions are ongoing.

Trump was impeached the first time for a whole lot less than this. We’ve had a lot of talk about impeaching Biden. But these are actually serious grounds for impeachment. The entire Afghanistan mess isn’t behind us, it’s still ongoing and so is the cover-up. Terrorism financing is serious business and should be taken seriously.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITOR NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Family of Marine killed In Afghanistan stunned to learn snipers were ordered not to take out jihad suicide bomber

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Old Joe Biden’s woke and desperately corrupt military actively misled the family of one of the soldiers who was killed in the jihad attack.

An update on this story.

Family Of Marine Killed During Afghanistan Withdrawal Stunned To Learn Snipers Could Have Taken Out Suicide Bomber

by Micaela Burrow, Daily Caller, March 26, 2023:

A Marine sniper’s testimony that he had an opportunity to take out the Abbey Gate suicide bomber during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan came as a surprise to family and advocates of one of the service members killed in the attack, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted an investigation into the events leading up to the suicide bombing on August 26, 2021 that killed 13 U.S. military personnel aiding the evacuation of Afghan allies after the Taliban captured Kabul. Family of the deceased received in-person briefings a short while before CENTCOM made public the unclassified version of the final report, but one family member and two advocates said the briefers never provided any indication that the Marine snipers had a missed chance to engage the bomber.

“They said nobody knew where he was at that time or what he looked like at that time,” Shana Chappell, the mother of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who died in the blast, told the DCNF.

“What [the sniper] had said I had already known about, because other Marines had talked about it before the investigation had even happened,” she added. “There was just a lot of stuff that didn’t add up that I had been told by the Marines that were there, and none of it was mentioned in the report that was given to us.”

The investigation concluded a lone suicide bomber managed to bypass Taliban checkpoints at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, detonating an explosive vest that also contained ball bearings at 5:36 p.m, according to the report. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed up to 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. servicemembers, as well as wounding dozens more.

Briefers, including a Marine Corps colonel, a military justice officer, a major and a non-commissioned officer, presented a slideshow and a spiral-bound booklet to Nikoui’s parents in January 2022 on the events of the attack. Retired Col. Kurt Schlichter, a trial lawyer and media figure representing Chappell, and retired Col. Seth Goldberg, a lawyer, attended the briefing by request to support the family with legal and military expertise, and confirmed the briefing contents to the DCNF.

They told the DCNF that they understood the families of the remaining deceased received similar briefings around the same time.

“There was nothing about knowing who the guy was — who the terrorist was —nothing about having eyes on [him], nothing about the battalion commander being requested permission to fire — nothing about any of that,” Schlichter told the DCNF.

However, at a House hearing on March 8, Marine Corps Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews said he, Sgt. Charles Schilling and an unnamed individual spotted the suicide bomber from their perch in the sniper tower, located near the sewage canal and the gate itself, sometime just before 1 p.m. on the day of the blast, according to a transcript. The unnamed individual had previously provided descriptions of the man who Vargas-Andrews believed to be the suicide bomber.

Vargas-Andrews requested permission to engage with the suspect and presented evidence to the battalion commander, LT. Col. Brad Whited, Vargas-Andrews testified.

“We asked if we could shoot. Our battalion commander said, ‘I don’t know,’” Vargas-Andrews told Congress.

“If it was classified, and they withheld it for that reason, the briefing that the families gave was entirely misleading and you don’t have to mislead to not reveal classified info,” Schlichter said….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: United Nations Personnel Pose in Front of Taliban Flag

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What has been very obvious over the past few years (and going back even before that) is that international diplomacy with the Taliban is a game of bad cop/good cop in which the Taliban are the bad cops and the diplomats are the good cops. And we’re the suckers being played by the Taliban and their political allies.

Sometimes the mask drops. Like when Biden stole money from the families of 9/11 victims to send to the Taliban.

Or when officials from a UN delegation there to lobby the Taliban to be nicer to women posed in front of the Taliban flag.

The United Nations issued an apology after some of its officials were seen posing in front of the Taliban flag in Afghanistan.

The world body called it a “significant lapse in judgment”. A group of UN personnel were in Kabul to address the ban on women aid workers in the country.

The UN revealed on Friday that Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed made a rare visit to the southern part of the nation and expressed concerns to Taliban officials in Kandahar over violations of women’s rights

Mohammed then gave an interview to the Taliban’s pals at Al Jazeera claiming that progress was being made. She told other media outlets that the Taliban had “progressive” voices.

“I think there are many voices we heard, which are progressive in the way that we would like to go,” Mohammed told BBC. “But there are others that really are not.”

“I think the pressure we put in, the support we give to those that are thinking more progressively, is a good thing,” she said. “This visit, I think, gives them more voice and pressure to help the argument internally.”

This is the same scam they pulled with Iran, with the PLO, and with every Islamic terror group around. And, for that matter with the Communists and Nazis. Back in the 30s, Hitler was presented as a “moderate” Nazi. And, once again, people are falling for the lies because no one is talking about what’s going on. And those who are talking about it, are not being heard.

The media is mostly not talking about this. And when they are, it’s in the form of the agonized spin of this CBS News headline. “Top U.N. women’s visit to pressure Afghanistan’s Taliban on rights marred by security team’s poorly planned photo op.”

Poorly planned indeed. What’s the best way to plan a photo op with a Jihadist group?

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. The UN has spent a long time telling us exactly what it is, maybe it’s time we listened.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITOR NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. Military Equipment From Afghanistan for Sale on eBay

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Ayman Arafa declined to say how he had acquired it.

Our national security is in the best of hands. Not Biden. Maybe whoever in Afghanistan has an eBay account.

German researchers who purchased biometric capture devices on eBay found sensitive US military data stored on their memory cards, The New York Times has reported. That included fingerprints, iris scans, photographs, names and descriptions of the individuals, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many worked with the US army and could be targeted if the devices fell into the wrong hands, according to the report.

They cost under $200.

Where did it come from before eBay? That’s a good question. And officially there’s no answer. But one seems to have come most recently from Afghanistan.

Metadata on the device, called a Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit, or SEEK II, revealed that it had last been used in the summer of 2012 near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Where was it sitting all this time?

Exactly how the device ended up going from the battlefields in Asia to an online auction site is unclear. But the data, which offers detailed descriptions of individuals in addition to their photograph and biometric data, could be enough to target people who were previously unknown to have worked with U.S. military forces should the information fall into the wrong hands.

The how likely involves our “allies” or the Jihadis who overran the place after Biden’s humiliating retreat. Sure it could be a decommissioned military device, but those are supposed to be destroyed.

How eBay sellers obtained these devices is unclear. The device with the 2,632 profiles was sold by Rhino Trade, a surplus equipment company in Texas. The company’s treasurer, David Mendez, said it had bought the SEEK II at an auction of government equipment and did not realize a decommissioned military device would have sensitive data on it.

“I hope we didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

The SEEK II with the American troops’ information came from Tech-Mart, an eBay seller in Ohio. Tech-Mart’s owner, Ayman Arafa, declined to say how he had acquired it, or two other devices he sold to the researchers.

Arafa is a common Moroccan last name.

The media’s focus is on the fact that there was unencrypted data on the SEEK devices. But a bigger story is how those devices ended up for sale. Period.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Afghanistan: Taliban flogs people in soccer stadium for ‘adultery, robbery and gay sex’

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Sharia, we are constantly told in the West, is completely benign and compatible with Western secular values. Who has Sharia wrong? Non-Muslim Western secular analysts? Or the Taliban?

More on this story.

The Taliban Is Flogging People In Football Stadiums For ‘Adultery and Gay Sex

by Mohammed Rasool, Vice, November 24, 2022 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The Taliban has brought back public floggings for what the group says are “moral crimes,” with people lashed in football stadiums after being convicted by the judges of the Islamist group.

A group of 14 people, including three women, were lashed in a football stadium in front of a crowd on Wednesday in the eastern Logar province. A Taliban official told the BBC that they were being punished for sins “including adultery, robbery, and gay sex.”

The group’s “Supreme Court” confirmed the conviction of “14 people, including three women, who were lashed, and attended by scholars, authorities, and people” in a statement on Twitter.

It’s believed to be the second round of lashings this month, after reports that 19 people were flogged in a similar way in the northern Takhar province.

The wave of public punishments comes a week after the Taliban announced that it will be “implementing Sharia Law” in full force across the country. Scenes such as the flogging resemble the group’s previous stint in power in the late 90s, which featured public executions, stoning, and other forms of corporal punishments….

The Islamist group’s version of the justice system is a mixed bag of Islamic laws and the centuries-old arbitration customs of Afghanistan. To justify banning girls from attending high school, the Islamists cited “cultural” values, as it disagrees with many Islamic scholars’ take on the issue….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden’s Handlers Print Money for the Taliban

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The Taliban chop hands while Biden funds them.

After being described as “partners” by the Biden administration, the Taliban announced that they’re bringing back sharia punishments by chopping off hands and stoning their victims.

Last year, the Biden administration praised the Taliban’s “openness” to women’s rights.

This development puts the nail in the coffin of claims by Biden administration figures that the jihadist organization had changed into a kinder, gentler Taliban. But the media has conveniently ignored revelations of the close collaboration between the administration and the Taliban.

Front Page Magazine was one of the few conservative publications that exposed the over $1.1 billion in aid directed by the administration after the Taliban takeover, the special licenses issued by the Biden administration authorizing financial transactions with the Taliban and Al Qaeda’s Haqqani Network to distribute that aid, and the billions stolen from 9/11 families for the Taliban.

The Biden administration has been stonewalling the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction with the State Department and Samantha Power’s USAID refusing to allow employees to be interviewed about, among other things, their “compliance with the laws and regulations prohibiting transfers of funds to members of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network.”

Instead, the Biden administration has been chartering Osama bin Laden’s old airline which had been used to ferry drugs and terrorists to evacuate the Americans that Biden had left behind. These hostages have become another cash cow that the Taliban are using to extract money from American taxpayers through the offices of their allies in the Biden administration.

Biden administration figures have repeatedly met with Taliban leaders. According to Al Jazeera, run by the state sponsors of the Islamic terror group, the administration had even provided assurances that the United States will not fund any resistance to the Taliban.

Coming a few months after Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed while under Taliban protection, a “high-level delegation” that allegedly included a top CIA figure, agreed not to “fund any armed groups or non-state actors in the country”, particularly the National Resistance Front, consisting of the Northern Alliance members who had originally helped us liberate Afghanistan.

This betrayal came even after clear evidence that the Taliban were harboring Al Qaeda.

Why would the Biden administration unilaterally throw away our best leverage against the Taliban without getting them to end their support for Al Qaeda and other terror groups?

The Biden administration then went beyond just appropriating $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid, much of which will benefit the Taliban in one way or another, while authorizing transactions with the terrorists, but actually conspired to print money for the Taliban to replace their old bills.

According to Biden’s State Department spokesman, the administration was “working hard with international banks to facilitate payment transfers from Afghanistan’s central bank to European printing companies where new banknotes would actually be produced” to “replace what had been crumbling banknotes in Afghanistan”.

Spokesman Ned Price explained that, “Afghanistan’s markets, even today, run widely on cash, but existing banknotes are crumbling. And that’s why this is such an urgent challenge.”

The Biden administration’s idea of an “urgent challenge” in Afghanistan isn’t preventing Al Qaeda from reforming, it’s not getting out Americans, or stopping the Taliban from stoning people, it’s arranging for a Polish printing company to churn out banknotes for the Taliban.

It’s not enough for the Biden administration to steal billions from 9/11 families and send it to the Taliban, it has to go all the way and actually print money for the Islamic terrorist group.

Thanks to Biden, the Taliban will get 10 billion in ‘Afghanis’ from Poland and another 10 billion from a French company. $3.5 billion in assets in the United States are being transferred to a Swiss trust fund held for the Taliban so that a future administration won’t be able to recover it.

The Biden administration claims to be concerned about Taliban atrocities and then continues to enable the terrorists.

Karen Decker, the head of the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan, conducted a “listening tour” of Afghan women who fled the Taliban and claimed that she shares their “concerns and their hope.” Then she described printing money for the Taliban as “part of our commitment to help the Afghan people”. The only Afghan people that she’s helping are the Taliban.

Thomas West, Biden’s Special Representative to Afghanistan, boasted, “I am very pleased to say that in the past 24 hours we have finally seen the conclusion of two currency transactions.”

There is no other conclusion to be drawn from these latest revelations except that the Biden administration wants the Taliban to remain in power. And has been consistently scheming to bypass legal restrictions on funding terrorism to funnel money to the Taliban.

A responsible administration that served our national interests would be providing a fraction of the aid to the National Resistance Front and other anti-Taliban groups that it’s funneling to Ukraine, and it would, at the very least, use sanctions to undermine the Taliban regime.

Instead, Biden is laboring to protect the Taliban and to keep the terrorists in power.

That’s the same conclusion that the Taliban have drawn. That’s why after prolonged hesitation and doubletalk, they are shedding any pretense about their intentions.

The Taliban’s Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada ordered judges to impose “the ruling of sharia” on, among others, “seditionists” and “apostates”.

“Those cases that have met all the Shariah conditions of limitation and retribution, you are obliged to issue the limitation and retribution, because this is the order of the Sharia and my order and it is obligatory to act,” the Taliban’s spokesman tweeted.

The Taliban have begun a comprehensive crackdown using the traditional brutal punishments of Islam. They’re testing the Biden administration and know that they have nothing to worry about.

Supreme Leader Akhundzada had been a chief judge in the Taliban’s court system during their original period of rule when they became notorious for inflicting grotesque and horrifying punishments on anyone who displeased them.

Nothing has really changed.

Last year, the Taliban captured Danish Siddiqui, the chief photographer for Reuters, in a mosque, beat and tortured him, ran him over with a car, and shot him at close range.

The same media, including Reuters, which has amplified Qatari propaganda about its Al Jazeera terrorist operatives, like Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey and Shireen Abu Akleh in Israel, has remained mostly silent about this atrocity against an actual journalist by the allies of Qatar.

The Biden administration, which has attacked Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s death and announced an FBI investigation of Israel over Abu Akleh’s death, has made no such efforts over the mutilation and murder of Siddiqui. Biden condemned the Saudis and the Israelis over Khashoggi and Abu Akleh, but never once mentioned Siddiqui’s name.

Jalina Porter, until recently a Washington Wizards cheerleader, who was elevated to a State Department spokeswoman, failed to condemn the Taliban after Siddiqui’s brutal murder, but only called for “an end to the violence” and a “just and durable peace settlement.”

The complicity and the double standards spoke eloquently about the administration’s agenda.

Last year, the Taliban’s Supreme Leader made his position clear to the rest of the world, “I cannot compromise on Shariah to work with you or even move a step forward.”  He warned that “even if the world uses an atomic bomb, we will rule the country according to the Sharia Law.”

That was back in July.

The Biden administration and its media allies knew that they were lying about the kinder, gentler Taliban and their openness to human rights. They told those lies to keep the money flowing.

After robbing 9/11 families, diverting money to the Taliban under a dozen pretexts, including payments for hostages that the Biden administration chose to leave behind, and even collaborating in printing money for the terrorist group, there will be a brief condemnation as the Taliban resume openly mutilating, killing and torturing victims through their Islamic courts.

But the Biden administration will make sure to keep taxpayer money flowing to the terrorists.

The shameful treason we saw at the panicked evacuation of Afghanistan was not the climax, it was the middle of a conspiracy to put the Taliban in power by the enemies of America. Those enemies are not just in Moscow, Tehran or Beijing, they are right here in Washington D.C.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Afghan Migrants Say United Nations Workers Gave Them Directions To U.S. Border

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Guatemala City, Guatemala — The United Nations and other aid groups are informing migrants from across the globe how to get to the United States to cross the border illegally, six migrants from Afghanistan told the Daily Caller News Foundation after they were apprehended in Guatemala.

The migrants said that before they arrived in Guatemala that aid workers provided them with maps guiding them to Mexico so that they can reach the U.S. southern border. The men were six of 16 Afghans in the detention facility for foreign migrants in Guatemala City.

“They give us a map,” one of the Afghan men said. “The map was up to Mexico. There was no United States. But they told how to cross these borders,” one of the Afghan migrants explained.

“But they told us how to go to the U.S. border,” he added.

The aid workers explained which countries have an immigration process for them and which don’t, they said. But not much else was conveyed due to a language barrier.

“Our big problem was Spanish,” another Afghan refugee said. “They didn’t understand English as well. But they try our best and they only tell us that these countries have immigration processes.”

The group paid in each country along the way to pass through to the next northern destination on their way to the U.S.

“After Nicaragua, they have an immigration process, they will get $150 from you. We went and we gave a 150 U.S. dollars for immigration and we cross another border up to Honduras. We were told that there was also an immigration process in Honduras,” the first Afghan refugee told the DCNF.

“So we went and we gave our biometrics in all process we have done. And we went move up again in another country,” he added.

They hope that they can reach the U.S., where they will be safe like a large portion of the over 2 million migrants that federal border authorities encountered at the U.S. border with Mexico in fiscal year 2022.

The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) didn’t immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

JENNIE TAER

Investigative reporter. 

RELATED ARTICLE: Massive Migrant Caravan On Its Way To The US Is Forming In Guatemala

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Biden Fights 9/11 Victims in Court to Protect Taliban Cash

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The unspeakable betrayal over Afghanistan continues.

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.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Biden is Paying Osama bin Laden’s Old Airline to Fly Out Afghans

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The Taliban are getting rich from the immigration business. And we’re paying for it.

Ariana Afghan Airlines used to fly Al Qaeda terrorists from Afghanistan to the Middle East. As a sideline, it also flew guns and drugs on behalf of the Islamic terrorist organization. While Ariana was controlled by Osama bin Laden, it was allegedly coordinated by Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer whom Biden has offered to trade for pothead WNBA player Brittney Griner.

But these days Ariana has a new mission and we’re the ones paying for it.

The Biden administration is buying bulk tickets on the Taliban airline, according to a congressional report, and paying “approximately $300,000 per flight to a Taliban controlled airline in order to allow U.S. citizens and Afghan allies to continue evacuating.”

Taliban Air flies Afghans to Qatar, a close ally and state sponsor of Islamic terrorists, and then they go on to America. With tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand Afghans in the pipeline, the Taliban could see over $100 million in payments from Biden for its airline.

Ariana Afghan Airlines, notorious for its terrorist connections and its poor safety record (the Europeans banned it some years back and it’s ranked as one of the most dangerous airlines in the world although face masks and probably burkas are compulsory), is once again under the control of the Taliban. And it’s a crucial part of the Taliban business model.

The Taliban sabotaged Biden’s retreat, keeping Americans and Afghans with visas trapped behind enemy lines to profit from their evacuation. And they’ve been doing just that. While the media has been shy about covering what’s going on, the Taliban have been quite open.

Taliban officials have boasted of handing out over 700,000 passports to collect $50 million.

“We are issuing up to 4,000 passports daily and we aim to increase the number to 10,000,” Shirshah Quraishi, deputy director of Afghanistan’s passport department, bragged.

It’s a myth that the Taliban are not allowing Afghans to leave. They’re happy to facilitate the trip for the right price. They’re also willing to let Americans and other foreigners visit since “the Taliban leadership also made more than $1 million in visa fees paid by more than 4,100 foreign nationals who have visited Afghanistan over the past year.” Many if not most of those visitors are involved in humanitarian aid organizations which the United States is also financing.

The Taliban profit from the Biden administration buying bulk tickets on its terrorist airline, they profit from issuing the visas to Afghans leaving the country and they profit from them once they come to America. A Los Angeles Times profile of a family of Afghan refugees describes them getting welfare payments and then sending money back home to Afghanistan.

Such remittances are a commonplace reality among immigrants and a major incentive for mass migration. A number of Latin American economies depend on remittances leading them to encourage mass migration to America. The Taliban have done the same thing in Afghanistan.

In 2020, total Afghan international remittances were estimated at $780 million making up 4% of the failed state’s GDP. Between the mass migration and the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy, the numbers fell, but will likely rebound to become much higher in the coming years.

Much of this money is sent through the Islamic ‘Hawala’ system often used by terrorists.

The Biden administration deliberately insulated remittances from sanctions on the Taliban and Al Qaeda’s Haqqani network going so far as “authorizing transactions involving the U.S.-blacklisted Taliban or Haqqani Network that are incident and necessary to the transfer of noncommercial, personal remittances to Afghanistan.”

Biden had created a massive loophole for funding Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Afghans in America are collecting welfare and sending cash back home. Some of it may be going to their family members while other payments may end up in the hands of the terrorists. Either way, the Taliban and Al Qaeda will take their cut.

And the flow of remittances will make the Taliban Air flights and the visa payoffs seem minute.

Taliban financial institutions break up remittances into installments, thereby potentially profiting from interest rates (despite the formal Islamic stricture against it), charge fees and peg payments to their artificial exchange rate against the dollar which has little connection to reality.

The Taliban profit in three separate ways from just the payments alone, and will profit in many more ways as the money is injected into an economy that they control. That’s why they want to hand out 10,000 visas a day if they can. The more Afghans come to America, the more money the terrorists make when they send payments back home. It’s also why so many of the Afghan migrants are young military-age men. They were never refugees, but guest workers meant to move to America, get jobs, collect aid and send the money back to the Taliban terror state.

The flow of military-age men also helps disguise a terrorist infrastructure allowing Taliban, ISIS and Al Qaeda to inflitrate America, build criminal and terror cells to provide more cash and plot attacks among the huge number of undocumented migrants flown out by Biden in the last days.

The Afghanistan refugee crisis is actually a deliberate effort by the Taliban to create a sustainable funding model for their failed terrorist state through humanitarian aid, passports, flights and remittances. And Americans are footing the bill at every stage of the scam.

Under Osama bin Laden, Ariana Afghan Airlines was a system for transporting terrorists. Under the Taliban, it will play that role once again. Even the Clinton administration had sanctioned Ariana, while Biden is funding Ariana flights, allowing the terror airline to maintain its legitimacy and finance its operations. On September 11, Al Qaeda infiltrated our nation and flew airplanes into our buildings. Now, the terrorists are inflitrating their cash cows and terrorists into America.

And we’re paying their airline for the tickets.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Afghan Refugees in U.S. Are Sending Our Tax Dollars Back to Afghanistan

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Not actually a surprise.

Some countries run their entire economies around remittances, promoting mass migration to America, and then profiting from the money sent back to their families. Once we enabled money to enter Taliban territory, this was inevitable.

But this little detail emerges from what is supposed to be a sympathetic profile of Afghan migrants by the Los Angeles Times, but is actually an exercise in entitlement.

In many ways, Musafer said, America has provided him and his family with the safety and opportunity they had hoped for. He quickly found a full-time job at an Apple warehouse. His children — Sefatullah, 18; Rabia, 16; Muqaddas, 12; and Subhanullah, 10 — are enrolled in school. He and Yalda take English-language courses. Many in Yalda’s family immigrated to California several years ago, during an earlier phase of the U.S. occupation, and on weekends the Musafers spend time with her sister’s family, cooking together or exploring Northern California.

But America sucks.

About 10 miles from Musafer’s home, Ali Zafar Mehran questioned why the resettlement process for Afghans hasn’t gone more smoothly. Since arriving in the U.S. in April, Mehran, 36, has struggled to find housing. His caseworker told him that it could take months for the resettlement agency to help him find a place to live.

It can take Americans months to find a place to live. And we do it without subsidies or a government-funded agency.

“This resettlement system and refugee services are not fair,” said Mehran, who worked as a budget advisor for the Justice Sector Support Program — an international partnership with the U.S. and Afghan governments to help reform the Afghan criminal justice system and curb the flow of narcotics. “Some of my friends received good services. But most are in bad situations like me.”

His resettlement agency didn’t help him find a home, he said.

Why should it? The vast majority of people coming to this country don’t have government agencies finding them homes. They have to do that on their own.

He found his current apartment through another friend, who said he knew the leasing office manager in a complex in the Arden Arcade area where many Afghans have resettled.

That’s how it works.

Mehran used his “welcome money,” about $3,500 disbursed by the resettlement agency, to pay for the apartment that he has furnished with hand-me-downs and items he’s salvaged from the street. His wife, Karima, 31 — a former nurse who gave birth to their second daughter after moving to California — sleeps on a mattress he pulled from the trash. The decorative pillow cases that he brought from Afghanistan are also filled with things he found in the garbage.

Mehran works in a warehouse, he got $3,500 in aid and is getting government aid now. Why can’t he afford a mattress for his pregnant wife?

He borrowed roughly $12,000 from friends to purchase a car, a rug and other household items.

Buying the rug is a priority, but your wife can sleep on a mattress from the trash. That’s a cultural value.

“I really didn’t expect it, that life will start like this in the United States,” Mehran said. “I have lots of other problems. I must earn money to send to my parents in Afghanistan.”

Each month, he receives roughly $1,400 from Sacramento County in the form of cash aid and food stamps.

Between a full-time job and $1,400 in state welfare, Mehran might have more money, but he’s sending it to his family who live in Talibanstan. One way or another, the terrorists will get a cut of money brought into Afghanistan.

How much money is he sending to them? We’re not told.

The bottom line though is that Mehran is surly and complaining about the country that took him in and is lavishing cash on him because it’s not doing enough, meanwhile he’s sending money back to his home country.

We haven’t left Afghanistan.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

U.S. Commits $7,000,000,000 More to the Taliban Despite Severe Human Rights Abuses

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It isn’t enough that Joe Biden left behind $7 billion (at least) worth of sophisticated military equipment that the Taliban quickly seized. It wasn’t enough, either, that he left Americans to die violent deaths in Afghanistan. Now the Biden administration is discussing giving the Taliban $7 billion more. Biden claims that any money donated to Afghanistan for relief will be kept out of the Taliban’s hands or used by the Taliban in a humanitarian fashion.

At it celebrates its windfall, the Taliban mocks America. Last year, Taliban members dressed up as US troops, as the NY Post reported:

After a humiliating swift takeover of Afghanistan amid President Biden’s botched troop withdrawal, Taliban leaders and fighters are now rubbing it in America’s face — showing off their new uniforms and gear taken from US special forces stockpiles provided to the Afghan army.

The Taliban are becoming wealthier and more powerful thanks to their chief benefactor, Joe Biden.

Report: Biden Admin to Discuss Gifting Taliban Afghan’s Billions

by John Hayward, Breitbart, August 22, 2022:

The Biden administration is proceeding with talks to unfreeze the $7 billion in Afghanistan’s assets held by the U.S. Federal Reserve, Reuters reported on Monday, despite the Taliban failing to meet human rights commitments and harboring al-Qaeda mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul.

Reuters on Monday quoted “three sources with knowledge of the situation” who said the administration is prepared to overlook a great deal of misbehavior by the Taliban because of Afghanistan’s growing humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations and U.S. Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) both warned this month that nearly half of the Afghan population will experience “extreme levels of hunger” in the coming winter, with millions facing “near-famine conditions.”

SIGAR also warned about the Taliban’s growing “repression of women and girls,” a clear violation of promises the Islamist regime made to the United Nations after President Joe Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal one year ago brought the Taliban back to power.

The contrast between SIGAR’s warnings captures the dilemma facing the civilized world, as the Taliban refuses to hear Western demands or implement needed reforms until America unfreezes the funds it holds, while humanitarian groups warn they cannot deliver aid to sick and starving Afghans while the national economy lies in ruins.

On the other hand, unfreezing Afghanistan’s assets would put billions of dollars at the disposal of a violent extremist regime that was just caught giving aid and comfort to al-Qaeda leadership and would effectively reward the Taliban for taking the people of Afghanistan hostage.

The American people will not look kindly on handing $7 billion over to the Taliban after a failed 20-year, $5 trillion effort to turn Afghanistan into a democracy, especially since much of the Taliban leadership is currently under U.S. sanctions or wanted by the FBI on terrorism charges….

AUTHOR

CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.