In Seeking Reengagement, Report Reminds State Department That Taliban Grifted Billions

Office that tracks how $147 billion in U.S. Afghan aid is spent cites Biden administration’s aspirational ‘consular return to Kabul’ in update.

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington on Nov. 14, 2023, about how he is frustrated by a lack of cooperation from the Biden administration’s State Department in figuring out where $2.5 billon in United States humanitarian assistance has been spent since August 2021. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The State Department in December 2023 revised its policy to now seek “meaningful dialogue” with the Taliban, 30 months after its calamitous withdrawal cost 13 U.S. servicemembers and hundreds of Afghans their lives in an ignoble end to the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan.

The Biden administration is doing so despite knowing there’s no such thing as “meaningful dialogue” with the Taliban, State Department officials told investigators with Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko’s office in a 154-page booklet-type report released Feb. 1.