In a shocking development Saturday afternoon, it was first reported by CNN that top officials within the Biden administration met with top Taliban leaders in Doha, Qatar, marking the first meeting with the terrorist group since al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was vaporized by a U.S. drone strike in July, under Taliban care and comfort.
CNN noted:
The administration sent the CIA’s deputy director and the top State Department official responsible for Afghanistan to the Qatari capital of Doha for the talks with the Taliban delegation which included their head of intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq.
The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and the Taliban’s Wasiq at the meeting on Saturday indicates an emphasis on counterterrorism. The White House last month called cooperation with the Taliban on counterterrorism “a work in progress.”
Cohen was accompanied by the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, who has often led engagement with the Taliban since the US withdrawal last year.
The goal of the meeting is still unclear, but it comes in the wake of recent news regarding a giant pile of cash — $3.5 billion — that Taliban leaders in Afghanistan would love to get their hands on. The money was frozen after the Taliban took over Afghanistan following President Joe Biden’s disastrous, failed withdrawal of U.S. troops, allowing terrorist masterminds back to their sandy playground.
The meeting also comes just weeks after Taliban terrorists celebrated the first anniversary of Biden’s botched pullout by parading some of the billions in top-tier U.S. military equipment left behind by Biden and Pentagon brass.
Some screens from military parade of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) celebrate first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-coalition from Afghanistan on August 31 2022.
MD-530F and UH-60A helicopters pic.twitter.com/EchGSsU0Yp— Yuri Lyamin (@imp_navigator) August 31, 2022
Recently, the Biden administration has been heavily criticized for its plans to distribute the money across Afghanistan, where people are already starving, and where conditions for Afghani citizens seem to be deteriorating by the day. Critics say that the billions in frozen assets will ultimately still end up in the hands of Taliban leadership.
From Foreign Policy:
The United States has set up the Afghan Fund at the Bank for International Settlements in an effort to kick-start the economy before the winter exacerbates alarming levels of hunger and poverty. The U.S. Treasury said the money will help pay Afghanistan’s debts and bills, keeping the economy afloat, while critics said it will simply transfer liability for payments from the Taliban to the Afghan Fund.
Omar Joya, an economist formerly with the World Bank and Afghanistan’s central bank, described the Afghan Fund as a “windfall” for the Taliban, saying it effectively pays their bills while relieving them of responsibility for managing an economy suffering from the political shock of the republic’s fall as well as natural disasters that have disrupted agricultural production and supply chains.
Joya ripped the idea that the money might go to where it’s needed across the third-world country.
“On the contrary, it will further support the Taliban leaders by easing fiscal pressures and providing them with windfall gains. Nothing will change for the poor. They will continue to cope with lack of jobs, no source of income, deprivation, soaring food prices,” Joya said.
Initial reaction to the breaking report on social media was not favorable for the Biden administration. The tweets below are just two examples of the sentiment regarding the meeting.
So are the Taliban going to loosen their grip of oppression, stop raping and murdering women and children, and committing other Human Rights abuses as a result of the meeting?
— joe lewis (@ja_lewi) October 8, 2022
Another user wrote: “Don’t forget they killed 13 soldiers. Biden is a total disaster.”
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