Afghans protest US order to give $3.5B to 9/11 victims

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KATHY GANNON

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital Saturday condemned President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the U.S. for families of America’s 9/11 victims — saying the money belongs to Afghans.

Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

Biden’s order, signed Friday, allocates another $3.5 billion in Afghan assets for humanitarian aid to a trust fund to be managed by the U.N. to provide aid to Afghans. The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of collapse after international money stopped coming into Afghanistan with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban.

Afghanistan’s Central Bank called on Biden to reverse his order and release the funds to it, saying in a statement Saturday that they belonged to the people of Afghanistan and not a government, party or group.



Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against U.S. during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. President Biden signed an executive order, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, to create a pathway to split $7 billion in Afghan assets frozen in the U.S. to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and to create a trust fund to compensate Sept. 11 victims. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-joe-biden-taliban-kabul-terrorism-040a362ce4181f95d113d3ddb425f8d1

[underpants]

1. Sorry. Gotta use trucks or it doesn't work

That’s just how it is now.

[Polybius]

2. Fuck 'em

n/t

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Why, pray tell?

[Polybius]

8. Because I don't give a shit what they want

I trust Biden on this one, not Afghans.

[COL Mustard]

13. I feel for the average Afghan

Especially the women and children. But I understand you not wanting to give them anything. I think we've given them enough of our blood and treasure.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. Not that I would trust their central bank either

[cstanleytech]

5. The time for them to protest was when their country gave aide and comfort to Bin Laden and

his band of murderers.

[calguy]

6. We should send them a bill for reimbursement of the $trillians$ we wasted on that country

We have them 20 years and invested trillions of dollars in that country. After all that, they still couldn't be motivated to defend their own country. They've proven they expect the world to give them handouts while they sit on their ass and do nothing. It's past time for them to reap what they have sown.

[denvine]

7. This may not be popular but I agree with the Afghan people

If we want money for families of 9/11, it should be taken from Saudi Arabia!

[Fritz Walter]

12. Agreed!

The vast majority of those terrorists were Saudi.
And besides, it’d send a clear message to Mohammed Bone Saw: “Your globe-fondling puppet — i.e. Cantaloupe Caligula — is no longer in charge here. Don’t fuck with US!”

[Lonestarblue]

14. So do I.

I think it’s difficult to use another country’s money to pay US citizens for damages from 9/11. It is Osama bin Ladan was a Saudi, and it is the Saudis who not only tolerated their extremist Wahabi Islamists, but also exported their extremism to other countries to wreak havoc in many parts of the world, not just the US. This money belongs to the Afghan people, not the US, though I would certainly not hand it over to the Taliban.

[paleotn]

9. Sorry, but no.

Don't harbor terrorists. On the other side, we shouldn't think that there's an American struggling to get out of every person NOT in America. A lesson the neo-cons may never learn is not everyone wants to be like the Americans. Doing a deal with the Taliban to "acquire" Bin Laden and his merry band would have been a hell of a lot cheaper in blood and treasure than the 20 year nightmare Biden wisely ended. They offered. We turned them down. No carrot. Only our stick. Our way or the highway. And once started, we just couldn't stop with the Don Quixote routine for 2 freaking decades, ignoring years of history like it didn't apply to us.

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. Don't harbor terrorists?

Hell, America harbors thousands of terrorists.

[mitch96]

10. Where did the Afgans get the 7 billion?? I suspect it came from US!!

So we are just getting our money back? Where did the Afgans get the money? Sure as hell it wasn't from bin Laden. Left over Russian money? I doubt it .. Opium money?
m

[ancianita]

11. Why couldn't the Afghan govt & bank offer precious metals sales agreements & act like a nation

that can function like other nations, and not just relate to the world as victims. Just wondering.

[Brainfodder]

18. Perhaps because they are not a functioning democracy?

...or even close?

[ancianita]

20. Yep. Not even organized enough for trade. Not even a functioning self-proclaimed theocracy, either.

[LakeArenal]

15. I have a friend in close contact with some Afghans

They don’t like Biden. They think Trump was going to save them.

[rpannier]

17. Have at it hoss

Protest away
Your new government was the government that harbored him two decades ago
As long as they're in power give them zip

[JI7]

19. Where are the women at ?

This is a non issue. The US could easily give a lot more to them if they had a better and functioning govt. The same goes for Aid organizations.

The problem is they don't trust the Taliban .

[tavernier]

21. It is sad.

My friend who was stationed there for years said that American money was their only source of income and not for any reason other than just the fact that we were over there trying to help. He said that there basically is no way for them to earn a living in agriculture because the soil and the water are completely trashed, and there is no incentive to learn anything else. They need funneled funds from other countries in order to survive.

Sadly after all the years of attempting to make a difference, now it is time for their government, whatever it may be, to take up that task.

I may be completely off the mark here, but this is how it was explained to me by my friend who was on the ground there for many years.

[XanaDUer2]

22. I guess 20 yrs

Of our tax monies wasn't enough