They reveal how USAID laundered money for the Taliban

Published at: 14/02/2025 06:45 PM

The research agency, Freedom Center Investigates, published a recent article in which it reveals how USAID laundered money for the Taliban under the guise of humanitarian aid.

The plan, which involved multiple international actors, allowed the flow of millions of dollars to the Taliban, strengthening their governance and economic structure.

In 2021, the Taliban-controlled Central Bank of Afghanistan (DAB) posted images on social media of blue bags filled with hundred-dollar bills. These bags, labeled “humanitarian aid”, arrived at the International Bank of Afghanistan (AIB).

In 2022, the DAB showed photos of bundles of hundred-dollar bills worth 40 million dollars on the runway at Kabul airport. This shipment was one of three that totaled more than 100 million dollars.

The DAB was led by Noor Ahmad Agha, a “specially designated terrorist” and funder of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that caused the deaths of more than a thousand American soldiers.

USAID and the State Department provided more than $1.7 billion in funding to the United Nations (UN)

The UN, in turn, sent $2.9 billion in cash to Afghanistan. The money was physically transported because it was illegal for U.S. banks to hand it over directly to the Taliban.

USAID deposited funds in common UN accounts that it did not directly control. This allowed the agency to deny any direct transfer of money to the Taliban.

The UN bought hundred-dollar bills from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and transported them to Afghanistan, possibly using an airline linked to “Osama bin Laden”.

The UN deposited the dollars in a private bank in Afghanistan, whose identities were unknown even to US officials. The money was transferred to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded by the UN.

The NGOs exchanged the dollars for Afghani, the local currency controlled by the Taliban central bank.

The Taliban used dollars to artificially prop up the value of the Afghan, where they set an exchange rate higher than that of the black market.

Mazo News Team