President Joe Biden can’t touch anything without having it turn to disaster, and that, alas, is the case with billions in previously frozen Afghan funds meant to compensate terror victims and their loved ones.
In a February executive order, Biden effectively confiscated $7 billion of those funds, which had been sitting in US banks, and directed half for Aghan humanitarian aid and half for US victims of terror. Critics question his right to such action, yet surely the Taliban’s role in 9/11 and the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa justify any move to keep the money out of their hands.
Trouble is, Biden’s order limits the pool of terror victims who’d benefit from their $3.5 billion half to only those who already had claims on the cash — about 150 people (and possibly some insurance companies that promise to distribute funds to other victims). That leaves out thousands of others who suffered in the 9/11 and other attacks, rewarding only those who managed to get to the courthouse early.
Sure enough, a legal battle has erupted between victims over the pot, an especially ugly development considering the horrors these people have already endured. Congress sought to avoid just such a nightmare — and to ensure all terror victims are treated fairly — when it set up the US Victims of State Sponsored Terror fund in 2015. Yet Biden’s order simply bypasses that fund, leaving just the lucky (politically connected?) few to benefit.
read more:
Replies