by Iqbal Jassat
American legal vultures are poised to make a meal of Afghanistan’s financial crisis.
It flows out of US President Joe Biden’s immoral decision to seize $7 billion belonging to the Afghan people.
Apart from the immorality of the theft, the cruelty of it is shocking.
It comes at a time when the new Taliban-led Afghan government is making huge overtures to gain the trust of the world.
Saddled with America’s unilateral seizure of much-needed revenue, the Taliban will not be faulted if it adopts stringent measures to overcome the reality of millions facing starvation.
That people are on the verge of starvation is a fact known to Biden and his minions.
Yet despite a growing humanitarian disaster that has its roots in America’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the White House has opted to inflict further suffering.
The theft has unleashed greedy lawyers intent on grabbing chunks of the loot.
Their criminal conduct is being assisted by Biden’s decree to grab half of the total amount for what he claims is to settle lawsuits brought by the families of 9/11 victims.
Instead of defending and protecting Afghanistan’s assets, Biden has cunningly deflected American culpability in the lawsuits.
That Afghanistan was not implicated in the events of 9/11 is apparently of no consequence for the White House.
According to a report by Intercept, Biden’s own Afghanistan counsel left the White House last month to resume representing some of these plaintiffs—setting himself up for a lucrative payday if he receives even a tiny percentage of the damages awarded.
The feeding frenzy unleashed is evident in the haste by lawyers to grab a slice of the pie.
Executive decisions of such magnitude by a person who has a terrible track record of being an active partisan and proponent of America’s unjust wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere, before assuming the presidency, is not surprising.
Regrettably, little or no media coverage of Biden’s shameful economic warfare against innocent Afghans has allowed him to steam ahead at full speed.
The crime of looting much-needed revenue from the mouths of Afghan babies ought to be headlined in bold letters.
Ignoring it, as most western mainstream media outlets have done, is not only a dereliction of duty by journalists, but an indictment on their inability to speak truth to power.
It is true that most media platforms are saturated with around-the-clock coverage of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.
But to use it as an excuse to ignore the significance and potential humanitarian disaster emanating from Biden’s economic warfare against Afghanistan, is untenable.
To prevent mass starvation and malnutrition, it behooves the international community to urgently intervene.
An important component of the intervention ought to be a stark reminder to America, that its aggressive war which ultimately failed, is the direct cause of Afghanistan’s financial woes.
In addition to the need for accountability, the least one expects of the Biden regime is the immediate repatriation of all Afghan assets.
Failure to do so, will see US lawyers running all the way to the bank, celebrating possession of stolen money.
Iqbal Jassat is Executive Member at the Media Review Network, Johannesburg, South Africa