Opinion: U.S. freezing Afghan money for 9/11 victims is cruel and unjust – By Ayman Moyheldin (MSNBC) / February 15, 2022
The U.S. is not pursuing justice in this case but is engaging in cruelty.
The Biden administration announced Friday that it is freezing $7 billion that the Afghan central bank has in U.S. banks, surprising many who had been calling on the U.S. to release the funds to aid organizations that are addressing the humanitarian crisis ravaging the country. But the Biden administration set aside half those assets, $3.5 billion, to be used as possible compensation to the families of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with pending legal judgments against the Taliban. Taking money from Afghanistan to pay the families of 9/11 victims while the country is in dire need of assistance is cruel and unjust. Let me explain why.
Let’s start with the fact that the money the U.S. is holding does not belong to the Taliban. It is money the Afghan government (and its Central Bank) earned and collected after the government’s formation in 2001. In other words, this is money that belonged to the internationally recognized and legitimate Afghan government that was established by the United States and other international partners after the U.S. invasion. That government came into existence after the terrorist attacks, so it clearly had nothing to do with those attacks. Moreover, those funds include revenues from exports and aid assistance provided by donor countries. It’s not money that was earned or ever held by the Taliban. In short, this money belonged to the Afghan people not the Taliban.
It’s also important to remember that of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks, none was Afghan. There 15 were Saudis, two Emiratis, one Egyptian and one Lebanese. The mastermind of the operation is Pakistani, and the leader of al Qaeda, the organization to which all the men belonged, was Osama bin Laden, a one-time Saudi national. The families of the 9-11 attacks have not received compensation from the countries of any of the actual hijackers.
