House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” he will put a hold on funding to Afghanistan until he gets assurances it is not going to the Taliban.
Anchor Shannon Bream said, “There’s a new report out from the special inspector general overseeing Afghanistan reconstruction. The Washington Free Beacon has this headline from the report. They say the by administration is giving $2.35 billion to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. So what do you tell American taxpayers about their dollars flowing to that group as you said, that was critical in what happened at Abby Gate and now is clearly, you know, disrespectful is the nicest way that I can say that to women, to girls to religious minorities. Those are us tax dollars.”
McCaul said, “I’m prepared in my position to put a hold on this funding until we get assurances it is not going right into the hands of the Taliban.”
He added, “They are repressing women. They can’t go out of their homes. They can’t get educated. Women can’t be hired by these NGOs, these charitable organizations in Afghanistan, and we are paying the money. The U.S. taxpayers are funding this. We need some assurance that this is going to go to the right hands and it’s going to help the women in Afghanistan. If the Taliban can’t assure us of that, I think we need to be prepared to cut that funding off as a stick rather than giving them just a carrot.”
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