A new report from Judicial Watch found that the U.S. mistakingly gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban after the State Department failed to properly vet award recipients.
At least $239 million in taxpayer money has landed in the hands of terrorists since the Biden Administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The State Department appears not to have followed its own counterterrorism partner vetting requirements in Afghanistan before approving the 29 grants to several local entities.
"Because DRL and INL could not demonstrate their compliance with State's partner vetting requirements, there is an increased risk that terrorist and terrorist affiliated individuals and entities may have illegally benefited from State spending in Afghanistan," the report states.
"As State continues to spend U.S. taxpayer funds on programs intended to benefit the Afghan people, it is critical that State knows who is actually benefitting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties, and to enable policymakers and other oversight authorities to better scrutinize the risks posed by State's spending."
The State Department acknowledged that not all its bureaus have complied with document retention requirements, which makes it conveniently impossible to fully assess the magnitude of its transgressions.
A federal audit also found that the United Nations received $1.6 billion in U.S. money for assistance with Afghanistan which reportedly a significant percentage of that money went to the Taliban.
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