RASC News Agency: U.S. Representative Brian Mast, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has issued a blistering rebuke of the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan, accusing the White House of directing millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the country without a coherent strategy or clearly defined objectives. Mast particularly criticized the allocation of $5 million purportedly aimed at expanding access to higher education in Afghanistan despite the fact that all educational institutions are under Taliban control, and women remain categorically barred from attending them.
“The administration is funding access to higher education in a country where women are not even allowed inside the classroom,” Mast stated. “Meanwhile, the Taliban have eliminated academic disciplines aligned with Western values and replaced them with compulsory Islamic jurisprudence programs.” He went on to denounce what he characterized as an absence of oversight, noting that U.S. funds are effectively propping up institutions that serve as conduits for Taliban indoctrination. “We are paying for schools that function as ideological arms of the Taliban,” he said. “There is no rational justification for this.”
Mast underscored the lack of formal diplomatic engagement between Washington and the Taliban regime, pointing out that the U.S. has no active embassy in the country. “There is no legitimate framework through which this aid can be responsibly administered,” he added. In a video statement, Mast cited findings from U.S. government watchdogs, which suggest that millions in U.S. aid have been siphoned off by the Taliban either directly or through forced taxation, extortion, and coercive levies on aid organizations operating within Afghanistan. “This is precisely why we need to pass Representative Tim Burchett’s proposed legislation to put a stop to this,” Mast asserted. “American taxpayers should not be funding a regime that actively undermines basic human rights.”
He also revealed that the administration has allocated hundreds of thousands of dollars toward promoting concepts such as religious tolerance in a country where the Taliban violently suppress religious and ideological diversity. “In addition, tens of millions have been spent on drug rehabilitation programs,” Mast continued, “while the Taliban simultaneously claims to have banned the production, sale, and use of narcotics a claim that is unverifiable and widely disbelieved.” Mast’s statements reflect mounting bipartisan concern in Congress over the unaccountable flow of U.S. aid to Taliban-held Afghanistan and highlight a growing demand for legislative safeguards to prevent future misuse of American funds in hostile or unstable regimes.
