Transcripts For CSPAN3 Inspector 20240705

August 2021. If committee on Foreign Affairs will come to order for the purpose of this hearing is to discuss the effects of the Biden Administration afghanistan policy since the u. S. Withdrawal for an out recognize myself for an opening statement. Following the withdrawal from afghanistan the countrys no better off than when the United States first entered any progress made has been erased. It did not have to be this way administration deadly chaotic withdrawal was illconceived from the very start. There are no plans for enduring peace support of the Afghan People. The caliban who now control afghanistan are terrors to impose edicts to oppress the Afghan People they have used women and stealing humanitarian aid from starving afghans. They partner with terrorist organizations such as al qaeda al qaedas leader and top lieutenant was living in downtown kabul under the protection of the network in the caliban. Specifically the talibans minister of interior and leader. The taliban holds several american hostages. In fact the Committee Just heard from ana corbett whose husband ryan has been detained by the caliban for over a year. This is unacceptable she has a deeply flawed approach this administration has taken since the taliban regain control. Under the caliban or roll women and girls describe their daytoday lives as living under house arrest. They are barred from Public Places and not allowed to travel outside their homes without a mail chaperone. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from receiving an education above the sixth grade. Now afghanistan is currently facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. People are starving. 15. 3 million afghans are food insecure and nearly 1 million children need lifesaving treatment last year due to malnutrition the recent earthquakes in october of 2023 have made the deteriorating situation even worse. United states is the largest owner of humanitarian assistance, to afghanistan spending more than 2. 5 billion on assistance for afghanistan since withdrawal. Unfortunately one of the taliban are engaged in theft and diversion of these funds to serve their maligned purposes. What troubles me the Biden Administration is pursuing a policy of engagement at all costs and as failed to hold the taliban into account for their crimes within it the taliban frequently praise the taliban often and haphazardly send them billions of taxpayer dollars into afghanistan. These policies and Biden Administration has all but recognize the taliban as the legitimate government of afghanistan and yet over the past two years on every metric the taliban is only become worse under this administrations policies. On women and girls seemingly every week the taliban announces new edicts stripping away their rights on diversion of humanitarian aid taliban interferences increase by 32 this year. On support for terrorism the taliban equipped with weapons u. S. Behind his increasingly conducting terror attacks and al qaeda remains safely and afghanistan under caliban protection. On hostages today this more americans detained by taliban and then at any point since the u. S. Withdrawal. Obviously the biden ministration policies are not working. I want to be clear my heart is with the people of afghanistan. You are suffering under the caliban. I believe it is our moral imperative to help these people who the biden ministration abandon however we must be clear eyed about our priorities and develop policies that will ensure the u. S. Is supporting innocent afghans and not the caliban. Anything less signals a failure of american leadership. With that, the chair recognizes Ranking Member from. Thank you for convening this important hearing. Despite no longer having a physical presence in the country the United States continues to have vital interest in afghanistan. I was just reminded by ana corbett, ryan corbetts wife the safety of americans continues to be a priority. Just as the biden ministration successfully recently brought five hostages home from iran, we need to make sure we bring the hostages home that were in afghanistan. Any civility in afghanistan is critically important to our National Security interest. We must ensure afghanistan is never again use as a base to plan attacks against the United States or our allies. And the taliban uphold their commitments to that effect. The limited assistance we provide to support the most vulnerable in afghanistan ensures the gangs gains it made over the past 20 years are not completely lost. During the course of our almost two decades in afghanistan, a large segment of our assistance focused on advancing the rights of women, and girls, and other minorities. This interest remains a key priority for members on this committee and this congress, and the American People. It is vital we continue providing critical humanitarian assistant that benefit the Afghan People. Not only because its the right thing to do, but also because each of this other goals i mentioned become much harder to achieve if afghanistan faces a humanitarian crisis or economic collapse. Let me be clear, i am under no illusions about the caliban and i wish they were not in control of afghanistan. But american engagement afghanistan continues to serve our national interests. It is critical we preserve the space engaged with the caliban where we must. But i do not believe we will get better policy outcomes by denying that reality. Instead we must be strategic about how we can pursue our goals in a uniquely challenging environment. I believe the administration has been careful to strike this delicate balance. I know administration witnesses wanted to appear here today and i am disappointed our majority colleagues did not take the state department usaid up on their offer to testify today. It would have been useful to inform our understanding of the Biden Administration policy approach toward afghanistan we need to hear from them. Oversight remains a critical component of our work. This work is more meaningful when the administration can explain his priorities and perspectives directly to congress at a hearing specifically for that purpose. Mr. Chairman the committee has also conducted staff led closeddoor transcribed interviews with the tenant current or former state apartment to date on the u. S. Withdrawal from afghanistan. It is imperative final transcripts from these interviews be made available to all members as soon as possible to inform our ongoing oversight of afghanistan policy. Mr. Chairman i know you have asked for transparency from this administration and express your desire to get answers for the American People so i would also urge you to make these transcripts publicly available to all American People. And with that mr. Chairman thank you again for convening this hearing. And i want to say, i look forward to hearing your testimony and i yield back the balance of my time. s sentiment yields. I do in the state for the record we did invite witnesses of the state and usaid. However they refuse to testify alongside mr. In front of the cigar i thought that was unfortunate even though there is precedence. But with that we are pleased to have the honorable the special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction force today. Sir, your full statement will be made part of the record. I dont recognize you for your opening statement. Thank you very much chairman mccall, Ranking Member meeks and members of the committee. Two years after withdrawal of u. S. Forces from afghanistan, the United States remains the largest donor to the Afghan People as they continue to suffer the unprecedented humanitarian crisis previously alluded to. Unfortunately, cigars work has documented the caliban is diverting or otherwise and in benefiting from a considerable amount of that assistance. Let me outline some of what diversion and interference by the caliban looks like in practice. The caliban demands payoffs to prevent the implementation of projects. The taliban dictates who receives assistance. The caliban pressures the un and other ngos to hire their members, relatives, and allies to help distribute food, donor funded assistance. The taliban pressures the un and other ngos to issue contracts to caliban affiliated companies. The caliban pressured the un and ngos to partner with caliban affiliated ngos and not partner with other ngos that are non government organizations. The caliban have embedded intelligence officials and un agencies to supervise their work to facilitate the interference and diversion and sensor reporting about it. The taliban also collect taxes and other fees for un and u. S. Funded implementing partners. Note such interference and diversion of u. S. Assistance is not unique to the caliban. Nevertheless the diversion of humanitarian assistance by the caliban is of particular concern given the unprecedented humanitarian crisis afghan style face. As well as the calibans terrorist ties. Unlike in the past, diverted u. S. Assistance may now fund terrorist activities in addition to enriching the pockets of corrupt officials. Cigars at work shows theres no good choices for policymakers when providing humanitarian assistance in an environment like afghanistan. Only tradeoffs. To a large degree our Research Confirms those who control the guns control the aid it. Now many would like to believe that we are aiding the Afghan People while successfully bypassing the caliban. This can be viewed as a useful fiction as it reassures but ignores the fact that it is impossible to entirely bypass the caliban regime. Now that fact alone does not mean we should end humanitarian assistance to the Afghan People. That is a policy decision for congress and the administration. Not one that i are other oversight bodies can make. My point is that as long as the United States continues to provide aid for the benefit of the Afghan People it is paramounts to use whatever tools are available to reduce caliban diversion and interference. Including strengthening compliance, vetting standards, and thirdparty monitoring. In addition, congress and the administration should look to lessons identified from other Development Programs around the world for more robust practices to protect our assistance. As we look to the future u. S. Policymakers will need to consider the following risks to our systems. The financial risk of wasting a sizable portion of u. S. And in humanitarian and development assistance, aid that already amounted to . 5 billion since the Afghan Government collapse. The security at risk of u. S. Funds reaching a government with longstanding ties to terrorist groups. And the Political Risk of finding a historic enemy of the United States. For our part, we look forward to offering additional recommendations on the subject and our forthcoming reports which we have undertaken at your request. Thank you very much and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. From what i understand it is not surprising the caliban is diverting funding from the United States into their own coffers including aid to terrorist organizations. I am sorry sir. I understand from your testimony i am not surprised the caliban is diverting foreign aid to the people of afghanistan for their own purposes which would include funding terror organizations. We have heard that in our analysis. Is there any way to influence that behavior . There may be a way to do it but we have not seen any positive response from the caliban from that aid. They dont allow girls to be employed by the ngos is that something that could be brought up . Do you think the funding would have any influence over that policy . I believe it has been brought up by our government and other donors in the un but i do not think it has accomplished anything. Perhaps releasing we just heard from his wife, releasing him from prison, do you think they would have any pressure or leverage to release him . I cannot speak to that. Part ive not been involved in negotiations for any of the hostage removal. I cannot say for sure but all i can tell you is we have not seen any improvement on the way they treat women. On the way they treat former Afghan Soldiers and officials and a number of killings of that this committee may be hearing from general later this afternoon or one of the subcommittees i met him and ive talked to him numerous times he will document the number of people the never former soldiers and government officials who have been brutally slaughtered by the taliban. I dont think giving the aid has affected the taliban at all. On that point we had undersecretary for Political Affairs testify before this committee. She said in her words there has not been a consistent pattern of our afghan allies quote being murdered by the taliban. Do you agree with that statement . No i do not. We have interviewed numerous former afghan officials and afghans who have documented it. Just last week my deputy just came back. We have an extensive Outreach Program and interviewed a former afghan civil rights activist who just gave us a horrible horrible explanation of what happened to her brother and sisterinlaw who were brutally shot dead and another brother who was beaten to death by the taliban. This is something we have heard from many afghans. And i think corroborating those horrible stories the un just issued a report this summer at thatdocumented over 200 extra judicial killings of former government officials. And i think that is an understatement. I totally disagree with secretary new ledge. In your testimony that taliban is actively hunting down afghan partners that we worked with. There are troops worked with special forces worked with and they are brutally torturing and murdering them . Absolutely, absolutely. Are they taking the biometrics that werent left behind to identify them . We have heard that we have not been able to document that. Unfortunately left a lot of biometric and other information not only on former government officials, but also on former contractors. So the question do the taliban talibanknow who our former conts were . We have databases they have access too. It is a very difficult situation for anyone who worked with us who remains in afghanistan. To your acknowledge what it t of the 7 billion of weapons that were left behind . They are using them, we know that. They are parading them around some of the higher more sophisticated weapons including the helicopters, planes and other hardware. There have been allegations who have left afghanistan but i only assume is a buyers market. But weve not been of document. I tend to agree with you on that sir. What would be your recommendation to the foreign aid, its very compassionate very generous and from a humanitarian standpoint i want to help these people who are starving to death. What would be your recommendation given the corruption . It isnt awkward situation of an Inspector General. The humanitarian disaster mr. Meeks and yourself referred to will happen. It is a minimal will disappear if you cut that. If you are sending the money what we are saying is lets learn from experiences around the world how to do this we are doing this in other countries where we dont recognize the host government we dont deal the host government. But we are saying these reports we are doing for you in the committee we have to include that for going to give aid, do it smarter. We have very little control the country right now. We have two of them the committee will take a short recess and reconvene following the votes. [background noises]