THESE DICTATORS, ALL OF WHOM HATE OUR GUTS, KNOW A GOOD AMERICAN SUCKER WHEN THEY SHAKE US DOWN!
Report: Ex-Afghan Officials Smuggled Nearly $1 Billion out Before Taliban Takeover
A bombshell report citing customs reports and other documents published by Business Insider on Tuesday accused the collapsed government of Afghanistan of allowing nearly $1 billion in cash, gold, jewelry, and other valuables to be smuggled out of the country shortly before the Taliban takeover.
The report notes that customs forms and alleged Afghan government documents indicate the smuggling appeared to be happening under former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani officials and Afghan lawmakers. The items allegedly smuggled out of the country crossed the Uzbek border – where Uzbek customs documents appear to show their arrival – and largely ended up, the report claims, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On August 15, 2021, when the Taliban entered Kabul, Ghani fled via helicopter to the UAE, where he is believed to remain today.
Business Insider’s report adds to an ever-mounting body of evidence of widespread corruption in the previous, U.S.-backed Afghan government. It also indicates that Ghani may have benefitted from a corruption operation featuring many other high-profile politicians in the country in the days before his government collapsed – rather than merely smuggling money into the helicopter he used to flee, as had been previously reported.
Ghani ceased being the president of the country after fleeing. The return of the Taliban, a jihadist terrorist organization, to power in Afghanistan was preceded by leftist American President Joe Biden breaking an agreement with the group that would have seen U.S. troops leave the country on May 1, 2021. Biden extended the 20-year-old Afghan War into September 2021, but ultimately was forced to remove all troops a month earlier. The Taliban responded to pushing back the May deadline with a campaign of national conquest that ended at the city limits of Kabul. Upon the arrival of Taliban leadership there, Ghani abruptly fled.
Ghani still insisted that he is the legitimate president of Afghanistan as recently as last August, despite wielding no power in the country and living abroad.
FILE – In this Aug. 15, 2021 file photo, Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. (AP Photo/Zabi Karimi, File)
Following his departure from Kabul, reports began surfacing – most from Russian government sources – that Ghani had stuffed his helicopter with as much as $169 million in cash. The Business Insider report suggests that he and several other high-ranking government officials would not have had any need to do such a thing as a long-term smuggling operation had already taken hundreds of millions of dollars of wealth out of the country.
“Documents assembled by Afghanistan’s now-defunct government and obtained by Insider show that $59.7 million in cash and gold went from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan through the port of Hairatan during the first three months of 2021,” the report detaimed. “During a 13-month period running from May 2019 through May 2020, the total was a staggering $824 million.”
“Insider obtained 457 pages of customs records showing that more than $824 million in cash and gold illegally crossed the border there during the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020,” the report continued, “roughly four percent of Afghanistan’s GDP and more than the total amount of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. government was providing to the country each year.”
The money, it claims, mostly ended up in the UAE. Business Insider stated the documents appeared to accuse former deputy parliament speaker Mirza Mohammad Katawazai of “directing” the operation.
The report noted that the records are from Uzbekistan, no equivalent Afghan documents seem to exist, and they do not detail exactly where this money came from or who it belongs to. It cited several former lower-level Afghan officials who said they noticed irregularities and attempted to get approval from Ghani to investigate corruption but were mostly ignored. Evidence of corruption also appeared to do little to alarm the American government, which had spent into the trillions of dollars on the Afghan government since the war began in 2001.
Business Insider noted that its reporting followed up on similar revelations first published by the Afghan network Tolo News last year. Tolo News found evidence in March 2021, five months before the Taliban takeover, of “hundreds of kilograms of gold” being illicitly funneled out of Afghanistan through the same port Business Insider claimed had documented suspicious customs intakes.
“Based on the documents, which have been confirmed by credible government sources, in the first three months of 2021, 329 kg of gold, worth 59.6 million dollars, was smuggled abroad,” Tolo News reported at the time. “Sources at Sarai Shahzada (Kabul’s main exchange center) have said that each day various currencies more than 8 million dollars are being smuggled to Uzbekistan and then on to other countries.”
The Tolo report also named Mirza Mohammad Katawazai as being implicated in smuggling operations but noted that Katawazai had denied all allegations.
“There are people inside the parliament who are involved in smuggling gold and money,” a then-member of Parliament, Abdul Sattar Hussaini, said at the time. “There are also people within the government who are involved in the smuggling of money and national assets.”
America’s Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog office set up to follow up on U.S. taxpayer expenses in the country, published a report a year after the fall of Kabul appearing to exonerate Ghani of reports that he filled his fleeing helicopter with cash, but suggesting his inner circle nonetheless smuggled millions, if not billions, out of the country shortly before ceding control.
“The allegations that former President Ghani and his senior advisors fled Afghanistan aboard helicopters with millions in cash are unlikely to be true,” SIGAR concluded. “The hurried nature of their departure, the emphasis on passengers over cargo, the payload and performance limitations of the helicopters, and the consistent alignment in detailed accounts from witnesses on the ground and in the air all suggest that there was little more than $500,000 in cash on board the helicopters.”
“That being said,” the report continued, “it remains a strong possibility that significant amounts of U.S. currency disappeared from Afghan government property in the chaos of the Taliban takeover—including millions from the presidential palace and the National Directorate of Security vault.”
The vault, it continued, was mostly empty when the Taliban opened it, and the whereabouts of the millions stored there remain a mystery.
“I want to categorically state, I did not take any money out of the country,” Ghani said in December 2021, his first extensive remarks since fleeing to UAE. “My style of life is known to everyone. What would I do with money?”
Volodymyr Zelensky: $45 Billion Support in Omnibus Bill Is Not Enough
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to speak to Congress and President Joe Biden on Wednesday and claim the $45 billion worth of aid designated for Ukraine in the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill is not enough support.
Congress is weighing whether to pass the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that designates $45 billion in military and economic aid for Ukraine. The $45 billion is in addition to the $66 billion lawmakers have already approved of taxpayers’ money for Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Zelensky released a video revealing he will tell Biden and Congress $45 billion is still not enough support.
“We are not in an easy situation. The enemy is increasing its army. Our people are braver and need more powerful weapons,” he said about the Ukrainian war. “We will pass it on from the boys to the Congress, to the president of the United States. We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough. It is a hint — it is not enough.”
Zelensky’s claim that $45 billion is not enough aid – on top of the already approved $66 billion – comes as the omnibus bill is expected to approve a military budget of about $858 billion, $45 billion more than Biden had requested from taxpayers.
FILE – Patriot missiles are seen at the Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport, March 25, 2022, in Jasionka, Poland. The U.S. will send $1.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine in a massive package that will for the first time include a Patriot missile battery and precision guided bombs for their fighter jets, U.S. officials said Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022, as the Biden administration prepares to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Critics of Ukrainian aid say much of the funds have ended up in the hands of American defense contractors. Others have demanded the previous sums of money approved by Congress should be audited before aid more is given. Still others are concerned the sheer amount of money spent defending Ukraine’s borders is too much.
American taxpayers have given more aid to Ukraine than is sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined. In just a few short months since the Ukrainian war, the amount of U.S. aid to Ukraine also surpassed three of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in history.
The New York Times reported Sunday the “[m]ilitary spending next year is on track to reach its highest level in inflation-adjusted terms since the peaks in the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between 2008 and 2011, and the second highest in inflation-adjusted terms since World War II — a level that is more than the budgets for the next 10 largest cabinet agencies combined.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
NO ENTITY SQUANDERS MORE LOOT THAN THE PENTAGON UNDER THE GUISE OF SAVING US FROM OUR ENEMIES. IF THE BIG BOYS AT THE PENTAGON WANTED TO SAVE US, THEY'D NUKE JOE BIDEN!
GOP Sen. Braun: We’re Using Pentagon that Can’t Account for Most of Its Assets as ‘Quid Pro Quo’ to Get Deeper in Debt
On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) stated that the omnibus bill is an example of the “unholy alliance” where Republicans agree to increases in domestic spending for boosted defense spending and argued that because the Pentagon can’t account for most of its assets, they should “improve it first before you use that as a quid pro quo that gets us deeper in debt every year.”
Braun said, “The biggest thing is, we get rolled so often by the other side. And, in this case, they want us to roll over to them on anything domestic. And they do that by saying hey, you can have whatever you want on defense. Defense is the most important thing we do, but it’s kind of that unholy alliance that drives this [in]sanity each year and drives this poor process.”
He later added, “Why would we want to give Nancy Pelosi a going-away present as Speaker, let Schumer have his fingerprints all over it? And here’s why: Because our side said, it does so much for us for defense. Again, the most important thing we do, the Defense Department just completed an audit that cost about $180 million to do on where their assets are, 3.5 trillion, they could only account for 39% of them. And when you’ve got a place like that that doesn’t even know what it owns, where they’re at, and wants more, I say improve it first before you use that as a quid pro quo that gets us deeper in debt every year. That does not make sense.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Dem Sen. Murphy: Omnibus Won’t Be Extraordinarily Inflationary — Much of ‘Big Emergency Numbers’ in It Go Overseas
On Tuesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) stated that the omnibus spending bill does have “some big emergency numbers” but “much of” those large emergency funds are going overseas and he doesn’t expect the bill to have “any extraordinary inflationary effect.” Murphy also stated that we’re having “much-needed downward pressure on inflation.”
Co-host Jim Sciutto asked, “So, first on the topline number. This bill comes in at $1.7 trillion. As The Wall Street Journal noted, that’s getting nearly as large as the $1.9 trillion March 2020 COVID relief bill, given ongoing inflation and price hikes, is this an inflationary budget?”
Murphy responded, “What you’re seeing is much-needed downward pressure on inflation. What we’re funding in this bill are essential services. This is mostly a bill about obligations, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. There are some big emergency numbers in this bill. But much of that is going overseas. 40-plus billion dollars for Ukraine. I don’t think there’s anything in this bill that isn’t absolutely necessary for the health of the country. I don’t anticipate that it’ll have any extraordinary inflationary effect.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Omnibus Spending Bill: $410M for Border Security — in the Middle East
The $1.7 trillion year-end omnibus spending bill uses hundreds of millions of dollars of American taxpayer money to fund border security initiatives overseas as the United States, at its own border, is projected to set illegal immigration records next year.
The spending bill includes $410 million “for enhanced border security” in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman. At least $150 million of the funding is to be used to help Jordan secure its borders.
The hundreds of millions of dollars for border security thousands of miles away from the U.S. comes after Republicans and Democrats negotiated a similar plan in March that saw about $370 million go to border security initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa.
In June of last year, Congress authorized nearly a billion dollars in border security initiatives for Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s administration is projected to oversee 2.6 million border crossers and illegal aliens arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border next year — a figure that would eclipse this year’s record of about 2.3 million encounters.
If the projections pan out, some 6.9 million border crossers and illegal aliens will have been apprehended at the border since 2021 to 2023 under Biden. This is a foreign population just two million short of New York City’s resident population.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
Victims of Terrorism Sue Biden Admin for Sending Taxpayer Aid to Palestinians
Victims of Palestinian terror attacks are suing the Biden administration for awarding nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds to the Palestinian government, which allegedly uses these funds to pay convicted terrorists and their families.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Tuesday by American victims of Palestinian terror attacks and Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), alleges the Biden administration is in violation of federal law for resuming U.S. aid to the Palestinian government, according to a copy of the lawsuit exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The Trump administration froze these funds due to the Palestinian government’s financial support for terrorists as part of a program known as pay-to-slay.
The plaintiffs, led in the suit by the America First Legal Foundation, a watchdog group composed of lawyers, are asking the court to halt the Biden administration’s Palestinian aid program over charges it is sustaining the pay-to-slay program in violation of a 2018 law known as the Taylor Force Act. That law—named after an American who was killed in 2016 by a Palestinian terrorist—bars all U.S. payments to the Palestinian government until it halts the terrorist payment program.
The State Department, which is named as a defendant in the suit, has formally determined in congressional notifications that the Palestinian government pays terrorists and incites violence against Israel. Now, a court must determine if U.S. aid payments should be stopped for violating federal law.
Force’s family is also listed as a plaintiff in the case, along with Jackson and Sarri Singer, who survived a Palestinian suicide bombing in 2003.
"I am committed to doing everything in my power to get the accountability these families so richly deserve as we work to make sure U.S. taxpayer-funded terrorism never happens again," Jackson told the Free Beacon. "President Trump showed tremendous leadership when he signed the Taylor Force Act into law and ended taxpayer support for the Palestinian Authority’s terrorist activities. Joe Biden’s decision to reverse course knowing full well blood is on his hands as a result is unconscionable."
Stuart and Robbi Force, Taylor’s parents, said in a statement that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are "dishonoring the memory and legacy of a good man, and ignoring the citizens of the United States who understand that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund the killing of innocent civilians."
The lawsuit centers on the Biden’s administration’s decision to resume U.S. aid even as the State Department determines the pay-to-slay program has continued, disclosures that were first made public by the Free Beacon reveal.
The Palestinian government "continued payments to Palestinian prisoners who had committed acts of terrorism, as well as the families of so-called ‘martyrs’ who died while committing acts of terrorism," the State Department affirmed in a non-public report to Congress earlier this year.
The Palestinian government has provided an estimated $1.5 billion to convicted terrorists and their families from 2013 to 2020, according to information contained in the lawsuit. As much as $15 million per month is being paid into the pay-to-slay fund as of 2020, according to Palestinian officials quoted in regional news outlets.
While the bulk of U.S. funds are channeled through a Palestinian economic support program that primarily benefits non-governmental groups operating in the region, the lawsuit alleges this fund is a tactic to skirt the Taylor Force Act.
The administration is "intentionally laundering Economic Support Fund grants and awards through non-governmental organizations that are in fact or by operation of ‘law-by-decree’ Palestinian Authority affiliates or instrumentalities," the suit says.
The State Department maintains that all aid to the Palestinians is consistent with U.S. law.
"The Biden administration is strongly opposed to the prisoner payment system and has consistently engaged the Palestinian Authority to end this practice," a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon in October. The U.S. Agency for International Development's "assistance in the West Bank and Gaza is implemented consistent with U.S. law."
Julie Strauss, senior counsel at the America First Legal Foundation, told the Free Beacon the administration knew that resuming Palestinian aid would prompt a "massive infusion of U.S. funds [that] has led to a correspondingly massive increase in the frequency and lethality of Palestinian terrorism."
The lawsuit, she said, "seeks to protect Taylor Force's memory and the rule of law by stopping Joe Biden and Secretary of State Blinken from subsidizing Palestinian terrorism."
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