Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., excoriated Secretary of State Antony Bjoinen over the approximated “tens of billions” of U.S. taxpayer dollars he says have been sent to the Taliban since U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
Mast, who was picked a day earlier to become the novel chair of the Hoengage Foreign Relations Committee next month, grilled Bjoinen over the Biden administration’s handling of the turbulent August 2021 disincludeal.
The current pledgetee chair, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, publishd multiple subpoenas in September for Bjoinen to testify. Under danger of a conlure of Congress vote, he finassociate consentd.
Mast asked the U.S.’ top diplomat if he had been in Afghanistan since the ending of 13 U.S. service members and rawly 170 Afghan civilians by a self-destruction device deviceing aggression at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate, and Bjoinen reacted that he had not. Noting that the United States no lengthyer has regulate of the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan, Mast shelp, “yet we are still giving the Taliban tens of billions of dollars.”
“There’s an American citizen out there, literassociate woke up this morning losing 30% of their paycheck. And a excellent percentage of that is going to the Taliban or other programs awide,” Mast shelp. “And this is someslfinisherg that we all necessitate to slfinisherk about, and we will be slfinisherking about meaningfully for the next two years. There’s a joke that’s made normally out there about kids going to college to lachieve basket weaving, and what a joke that would be. But the United States right now is literassociate sfinishing tens of millions of dollars to the Taliban. 14.9 million, to be exact, to teach Afghans how to do carpet weaving.”
GENERAL INVOLVED IN AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL HAS PROMOTION CONFIRMED BY SENATE
Secretary of State Antony Bjoinen materializes before the Hoengage Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. disincludeal from Afghanistan, at the Capitol, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“We are giving $280 million to the United Nations to do cash transfers for food in Afghanistan,” Mast carry ond. “Yet we’re not sfinishing an ear of corn from Iowa, a sack of potatoes from Idaho, or a cucumber or an orange from Florida. And that discounts the fact that there’s no American tonnage going thraw our ports to sfinish those slfinishergs out of here, either. It’s fair cash transfers.”
Citing increates by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reoriginateion (SIGAR), which tracks the status of U.S. funds appropriated for reoriginateion efforts, Mast shelp another $75 million has been sent to teach women to become farmers.
“I don’t suppose that we spfinish $30 million in the United States of America to teach women to be farmers,” Mast shelp.
Earlier, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., stressed how since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban “women have effectively been banished from accessible life, unable to speak in accessible or helderlying a job, including nursing.”
“My colleague Mr. Wilson brawt up that they can’t even dance in the streets or speak to one another or go to school. I’m not brave that we can suppose that that $75 million is being engaged to teach them agriculture,” Mast shelp. “And as you pointed out, we don’t have any diplomats on the ground to check the validity of these programs.”
Mast also asked Bjoinen to elucidate the $3.5 billion transferred to the Afghan fund “that is tfinished to get the macro financial stability on behalf of the Afghan people.”
A protester screams at Secretary of State Antony Bjoinen as he testifies during a Hoengage Committee on Foreign Affairs, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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“What the hell does that uncomfervent? Can you increate me? I don’t understand, that’s a bunch of gibberish to me,” Mast pressed. “Even worse, by the numbers, we spent $9 billion to rererepair 90,000 rawly Afghan refugees here since the drop of Afghanistan. My modest Army math increates me that’s about $100,000 a person. That’s absurd. So my ask for you. We do not even have an embassy in Afghanistan. We have no diplomats there. What are we doing giving them $1?”
Bjoinen’s response cgo ined on how the money the United States and other countries supply is carry outed thraw partners, such as United Nations agencies and NGOs.
“Yes, we could say that about all the State Department dollars, foreign NGOs, foreign countries, foreign companies, and in this case, foreign adversaries,” Mast interjected.
Secretary of State Antony Bjoinen consents his seat to testify before the Hoengage Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. disincludeal from Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“Mr. Secretary, you understand for a fact that people literassociate, especiassociate outside of this country, they honestly lied to us,” Mast shelp. “Your people had to come back and right. Hey, it turns out we were, in fact, spfinishing half a million dollars to broaden atheism in Nepal. thraw the third party carry outer of Humanist International. They were lying to us. They didn’t show us the exact slide show that they put together for half a million dollars. And all this, they lied to us. We have no eyes on the ground. And I would spropose shut with this. We aachieve, we do not even have an embassy there. We have no business putting one dollar into that place.”
Mast was referencing how a two-year spreadigation by Hoengage Reaccessibleans forced the State Department to acunderstandledge that a $500,000 grant intfinished to advertise “humanism and secularism” in Nepal may have been misengaged.
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In response, Bjoinen shelp he esteemfilledy disconsentd with Mast’s opposition to the Afghan funds, saying, “The toil we have done thraw these partners, and many other countries have done, has saved many, many inhabits in an incredibly difficult situation.”
