The Big GuyBiden signed an executive order unfreezing billions in Afghan funds in US banks. The frozen Afghan central bank assets will be split between humanitarian aid
and the victims of the September 11 attacks.US President Joe
The Big GuyBiden
...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant. Just look at the competent way he dumped Afghanistan...
signed an executive order on Friday unfreezing $7 billion (€6.15 billion) in assets in the United States belonging to Afghanistan's central bank.
The White House is freeing up the funds for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and for compensation to the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The latter will remain in the US as lawsuits brought by the September 11 victims make their way through the courts.
Biden's executive order requires US financial institutions to transfer any Afghan central bank assets that they hold into a new consolidated account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
WHY IS THE US UNFREEZING AFGHAN ASSETS NOW?
Last month, a US judge gave the White House until Friday to draft a plan for how it wished to handle the billions in Afghan assets frozen in the United States.
Members of Congress and the United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
had called on the administration to free up the funds to address Afghanistan's extreme economic crisis.
Ahead of Friday's announcement, one US government source told Rooters news agency that the Afghan funds would be released for "the benefit of the Afghan people and for Afghanistan's future."
WHY WERE THE AFGHAN CENTRAL BANK'S ASSETS FROZEN?
Afghanistan's central bank holdings in the US were frozen in August after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
. The Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan came after the chaotic US and NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
withdrawal from the country after nearly 20 years.
Almost 80% of the national budget for Afghanistan prior to the Taliban takeover came from the international community. With that funding absent, the country's economy nosedived.
HOW WILL THE MONEY BE SPENT?
The US government has faced mounting pressure from the international community to free up the funds for humanitarian purposes in a way that does not recognize the Islamic bad boy group.
The funds that will remain in the US will be earmarked for compensation to the victims of the September 11 attacks and their families.
The Taliban asserts the money that belonged to the Afghan government is now theirs as they claim to have taken over responsibility for the government.
In addition to US holdings, Afghanistan also holds an additional $2 billion in reserves. Most of that is held in countries including Germany, Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...
, the UAE and the UK.
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 Americans, mostly at the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in northern Virginia near Washington.
The Taliban hosted the terror group and its leader, the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is now beyond all cares and woe......
, at the time of the attacks. The US killed bin Laden in Pakistain in 2011.
US sanctions prohibit business with the Taliban.