US cannot seize $3.5bln Afghan funds, allocate to 9/11 victims: Judge
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The assets were illegally frozen on August 15, 2021, the day the Taliban entered Kabul.
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Children are bearing the brunt of the US’ 20 years of occupation, which left a growing humanitarian crisis. (Archive)
A federal judge in New York ruled Tuesday that the relatives of 9/11 victims cannot lay their hands on $3.5 billion in funds belonging to Afghanistan's central bank.
The assets were illegally frozen on August 15, 2021, the day the Taliban entered Kabul concurrently with the hasty withdrawal of US occupation forces from Afghanistan. Later, US President Joe Biden stated that he would have the $7 billion in illegally frozen funds split between Afghan humanitarian aid and what he called American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 families.
At the time, demonstrations erupted in Kabul in protest to Biden’s order to just simply $3.5 billion that belong to the struggling Afghan people. The step was slammed as a showcase of theft and US moral decline by a top Taliban official
Moreover, protesters gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque and demanded financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of US occupation.
Biden's order sparked outrage on social media storm with the hashtag #USAstolemoneyfromafghan trending on Twitter.
A group of US families, who had previously sued the Taliban for their losses and won, have now moved to seize the cash in order to pay off the judgment debt.
But Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York said Tuesday, as quoted by AFP, that the federal courts lack the jurisdiction to seize the funds from Afghanistan's central bank.
Read more: US won't release billions in frozen Afghan funds: WSJ
"The Judgment Creditors are entitled to collect on their default judgments and be made whole for the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history, but they cannot do so with the funds of the central bank of Afghanistan," Daniels explained in a 30-page opinion.
"The fundamental conclusion... is that neither the Taliban nor the Judgment Creditors are entitled to raid the coffers of the state of Afghanistan to pay the Taliban's debts," he tersely stated.
Daniels' ruling, which aligns with a recommendation by another judge last year, deals a blow to Biden, as well as insurance companies that made payments because of the attacks.
It is worth noting that using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext, then-president George W Bush launched a brutal invasion of Afghanistan, resulting in two decades of war.
Meanwhile, the children of Afghanistan are left too weak to crawl or stand due to famine.
Millions of Afghan children are struggling to survive severe food shortages during a harsh winter and economic crash, as international aid was cut off following the hasty withdrawal of US occupation forces. Babies are too weak to crawl, stand, or walk. They appear to be bearing the burden of US occupation.
