FAMILY MEMBERS OF 9/11 VICTIMS CALL ON BIDEN TO UNFREEZE AFGHAN FUNDS – By Daniel Boguslaw, Austin Ahlman (The Intercept) / March 3, 2022
The families asked the White House to help end the mass starvation crisis in Afghanistan by releasing the country’s U.S.-held foreign reserves. New guidance from the Treasury Department provides a pathway.
MORE THAN 20 years after September 11, family members of those killed in the 2001 attacks have a message for the U.S. government: Release Afghanistan’s central bank assets before millions of civilians die of starvation.
“There is not only a moral imperative in doing this, there is also a national security interest in doing this and preventing Afghanistan from sliding into total collapse,” said Terry Rockefeller, whose sister died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Rockefeller is a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization formed by family members of those killed on 9/11 to oppose the war in Afghanistan.
In February, the Biden administration announced that it would split over $7 billion in Afghan assets held in the New York Federal Reserve Bank between a pool for potential settlements for families of 9/11 victims and an ambiguously defined trust fund “for the benefit of the Afghan people.” The White House has yet to clarify when and how it will release the money, wary of the perceived legal and political repercussions that accompany transferring cash to the Afghan central bank, lest it be seen as giving money to the Taliban. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on February 15 that the administration was incapable of releasing any of the frozen funds until pending litigation has ended, but legal experts have dismissed that claim. On Friday, the Treasury Department issued a new general license to allow economic transactions with a suite of Afghan entities, including the country’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, signaling a potential first step toward unfreezing the funds.
CONTINUE > https://theintercept.com/2022/03/03/afghanistan-starvation-crisis-911-families-biden/
