US Afghanistan watchdog tells Congress he can’t guarantee American aid is ‘not currently funding the Taliban’

The US authorities’s Afghanistan watchdog instructed lawmakers Wednesday that he can not say with certainty that US support to the nation is “not at present funding the Taliban.”

“Whereas I agree, and all of us agree Afghanistan faces a dire humanitarian and financial state of affairs, it’s crucial that our help not be diverted by the Taliban,” John Sopko, the Particular Inspector Common for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), instructed the Home Oversight Committee. “Sadly, as I sit right here right this moment, I can not guarantee this committee or the American taxpayer we’re not at present funding the Taliban.

“Nor can I guarantee you that the Taliban are usually not diverting the cash we’re sending from the meant recipients, that are the poor Afghan individuals,” he mentioned.

“I’d simply say, I haven’t seen a ravenous Taliban fighter on TV, all of them appear to be fats, dumb, and completely satisfied,” Sopko later added. “I see a variety of ravenous Afghan kids on TV, so I’m questioning the place all this funding goes.”

Sopko’s testimony earlier than Congress – alongside different authorities inspectors basic – coincided with the discharge of the most recent SIGAR report, which mentioned that efforts to course of Afghan visa functions or refugee functions are chronically understaffed and face a backlog of roughly 175,000 candidates.

“In line with one estimate, on the present tempo, it’s going to take 31 years to relocate and resettle all SIV candidates,” SIGAR wrote within the report, known as the 2023 Excessive-Threat Record.

Initially tasked with overseeing US spending in Afghanistan when the US had a big presence within the nation, SIGAR is now targeted on monitoring greater than $8 billion devoted to Afghanistan for the reason that US withdrawal.

As an alternative of dealing immediately with the Taliban, with which the US has no formal ties, the Biden administration has tried to direct the cash into Afghanistan via worldwide organizations and NGOs. However with out US observers on the bottom to observe using the funding, SIGAR warns in its newest report that support to the Afghan individuals might be diverted earlier than it reaches its meant recipient.

The shortage of efficient oversight will increase the danger that the US funds will find yourself within the incorrect fingers, “subjected to waste, fraud, and abuse,” SIGAR wrote.

Wednesday’s listening to comes roughly two weeks after the Pentagon and State Division despatched labeled findings of their after-action opinions of the Afghanistan withdrawal to Congress, and the White Home launched a abstract of these findings.

The abstract launched by the White Home largely blamed the Trump administration for setting circumstances that led to the disastrous 2021 withdrawal, avoiding a full-throated admission of errors on the Biden administration’s behalf. The abstract did, nevertheless, acknowledge some classes discovered from the withdrawal.

One supply aware of the State Division’s report beforehand instructed CNN that it “is a bit disingenuous” for the Biden administration “to say that their fingers have been fully tied.”

“The Biden administration inherited a deadline with no clear plan of the best way to get there, however they then undertook their very own assessment. And in April, Biden determined to go forward with it and delayed the withdrawal timeline,” the supply mentioned. “So they didn’t precisely take the blueprint they got in that regard.”

Republicans have vowed for months to scrutinize the withdrawal in congressional hearings, and in March adopted via with a Home International Affairs Committee listening to wherein lawmakers heard from two service members on the bottom throughout the withdrawal and people concerned in evacuation efforts.

Comer mentioned on CNN that Wednesday’s listening to is about having “higher checks and balances and oversight” of humanitarian support going to Afghanistan.

“There’s no victims of the Afghanistan withdrawal that can be testifying, that is all inspector generals, the individuals which might be presupposed to be in command of auditing to ensure our tax {dollars} are going the place they are saying they’re going,” he mentioned.

SIGAR’s report launched Wednesday says that along with an prolonged ready interval for the processing of a visa software, the US by no means maintained a complete database of Afghans eligible for US visas, creating “nearly insurmountable burdens” on Afghans to recreate proof of their work with US forces.

“Twenty months after the withdrawal, many are in hiding in Afghanistan, attempting to flee Taliban retaliation,” SIGAR mentioned of Afghans nonetheless within the nation. “Others have already been arrested or killed.”

Assessments from lawmakers of who was guilty for the withdrawal and its subsequent impacts largely have fallen alongside social gathering strains. In opening remarks, Comer mentioned Wednesday that Biden’s “poor management and planning” led to the withdrawal, whereas Rating Member Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, mentioned it was “morally confused and politically cynical” guilty the Biden administration.

“The Afghan Conflict was America’s longest conflict,” Raskin mentioned. “It spanned 4 Republican and Democratic presidential administrations.”

On Wednesday morning, the White Home sought to pre-but Republican criticism of Biden’s dealing with of the withdrawal positive to come back on Wednesday, accusing Home Republicans of finishing up “politically-motivated assaults” whereas failing to agree on measures that may grant Afghan allies a pathway to everlasting authorized standing within the US.

In a memo distributed to Democratic lawmakers and different allies forward of Wednesday’s listening to, the White Home’s oversight spokesman Ian Sams accused Home Republicans of “hypocritically” attacking Biden over the withdrawal whereas failing to behave on the Afghan Adjustment Act, which might give tens of hundreds of Afghans dwelling within the US on momentary standing a pathway to everlasting residency.

“Let’s be very clear: with their politically-motivated assaults, these MAGA Home Republicans are hoping to distract from their very own failure to even agree upon, a lot much less act on, options which might be desperately wanted right this moment to guard the progress the Biden Administration has made to soundly evacuate tens of hundreds of individuals from Afghanistan on the finish of the conflict,” Sams wrote within the memo, which CNN obtained.

“In the event that they actually care about America’s ongoing commitments on Afghanistan, as a substitute of staging political stunts geared toward attacking President Biden, Home Republicans ought to do their job and take motion on these essential ongoing priorities.”

Sams additionally rejected Comer’s declare that the Biden administration has “obstructed” SIGAR’s investigations, arguing the administration has “offered hundreds of pages of paperwork, analyses, spreadsheets, and written responses to questions.”