Inspector general sounds alarm on US taxpayer dollars possibly funding Taliban after Afghanistan withdrawal
Leader of Task Force Pineapple Scott Mann reacts to statements from the Biden administration on Afghanistan withdrawal and claims made that American taxpayers could be funding Taliban
Veterans of the war in Afghanistan are sounding the alarm on the resurgence of the Taliban after the inspector general charged with oversight of U.S. taxpayer aid to the country told lawmakers he could not guarantee that America is not funding terrorism.
"We could literally be funding the next strike on the United States or the West," Scott Mann, retired green beret behind Task Force Pineapple, warned on "Fox & Friends" Thursday.
Special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko delivered explosive testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Wednesday on the Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal, telling Congress that Taliban fighters appear to be "fat, dumb and happy" in contrast to "starving Afghan children on TV."
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Mann, leader of one of the most prevalent veteran-led groups that helped rescue Afghan allies as the Taliban seized Kabul, said commandos and special forces left behind can verify that "no humanitarian aid is getting to these people who are in this crisis."
"There are others who are saying that there are terror camps operating all over Afghanistan right now with impunity at a pre-9/11 level," Mann said.
Sopko testified that the Taliban is likely pilfering $2 billion in funds meant to assist the people of Afghanistan with food, health care, agriculture, civil society and human rights, and called on lawmakers to end "obfuscation and delay" by the State Department in turning over information that would allow him to conduct full oversight over the more than $8 billion in U.S. funding made available since the 2021 withdrawal.
U.S. Marine veteran Chad Robichaux, who was in Afghanistan during the withdrawal, slammed the oversight failure on "Fox & Friends First" Thursday.
"We sent $2 billion in U.S. aid and trusted a terrorist organization to do something good with it. Of course they're not going to do something good with it, and now we're looking at sending another $3.5 billion of money with no oversight at all," he said.
"No one's giving [Sopko] the answers and no one's speaking up on where this money actually has gone. In the U.S., taxpayer dollars are being used by the Taliban to do terrorism. That's who they are."
The White House has called GOP-led attacks on its handling of Afghanistan "politically motivated" and accused Congress of neglecting to advance legislation that would expand eligibility for special immigrant visas to resettle Afghan nationals.
Earlier this month, the White House released its own assessment of the withdrawal, which mostly blamed former President Trump's administration for constraining the conditions of evacuation.
Taliban fighters celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
"Secretary Blinken and President Biden… [have] covered up everything that's happened [in] Afghanistan," Robichaux said. "[It] was a complete joke that they would do a report on themselves giving themselves an A-plus for this disastrous withdrawal that cost American lives and left the lives of our allies behind."
Mann said politicians need to stop shifting blame and find solutions.
"When you don't take responsibility for your actions, it means you're not going to take any action to fix them. And that's a major concern," he said.
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"It's astounding to me that a country like ours that is supposed to stand for and advocate the empowerment of women, that we could allow this kind of treatment, subhuman treatment of women in broad daylight after 20 years of standing up for them… it's such a moral injury on the veteran population and other volunteers who have advocated for women for years. It's just hard to believe our country is participatory in that."
Fox News' Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
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