How the USA funded the Taliban - U.S. foreign secretary Antony Blinken

Tim Burchett, a member of the United States House of Representatives, referring to the activities of the National Resistance Front (NRF) (of Afghanistan), made a public statement, in which he wrote that the country's Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has ignored the resistance against the Taliban.

Burchett wrote on his account on X on January 1, 2025, referring to the recent activities of the National Resistance Front against the Taliban, that there is resistance against this group.

He commented a post by the X account of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan:

"I remember earlier this month when @SecBlinken told me that there is no resistance to the Taliban. Our State Department will be back under @realDonaldTrump."

Screenshot from X account of Mr. Burchett, 1 Jan. 2024

This post refers to a previous hearing at a House Foreign Affairs Committee on 11 December 2024. There, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) questioned Sec. Antony Blinken about US help to Taliban.

An excerpt of the hearing is noted below (excerpt of the video posted below from 0:17 till 4:21):

Tim Burchett: (…) but Mr. secretary in your opening remarks you stated that Al-Qaeda is not regrouped in Afghanistan. A friend of mine who just returned from there wants you to know that al-Qaeda in fact has thousands of fighters in Afghanistan and eight new bases there, one of those bases is in the Panjshir Valley, which is the home to Afghan resistance. In July of 2024 a call was issued to foreign fighters around the world to migrate to Afghanistan and join the ranks of the Jihad. This was widely covered by the media and in fact there is video evidence of al-Qaeda fighting alongside the Taliban. Knowing all that, is Hamza bin Laden still alive?

Antony Blinken: I can't, I couldn't tell you definitely.

Tim Burchett: Well, (it was he was) if people don't know he's the leader of al-Qaeda and his father Osama bin Laden was killed. Hamza was thought to be dead sometime in 2019. But new reports suggest that he is alive and still charge of al-Qaeda. What is the relationship between Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Isis?

Antony Blinken: When it comes to Isis, which is the group that is of greatest concern in Afghanistan, the relationship between the Taliban and Isis is deeply adversarial. Taliban sees Isis as its number one enemy and it has the will but not necessarily the capacity to deal effectively with it al-Qaeda is a different story.

This is obviously a group that the Taliban in the past has collaborated with, given shelter to and other wise aqus(?) to.

Tim Burchett: Okay, what has the state department done briefly to unify the Afghan resistance groups who want to drive out the Taliban?

Antony Blinken: There is not much of a resistance active in trying to do that.

Tim Burchett: Alright. Well, my friend Legend, an Afghan-American and former US army non-commissioned officers traveled to Afghanistan after the collapse and reports that Taliban has been benefiting from US cash shipments sent to the Afghan Central Bank. This is American funds and that was sanction and that sanctioned terrorist are diverting US Aid meant for the Afghan people. Are we giving the Taliban millions and taxpayers’ dollars while they held Americans hostage and are killing the Afghan people and, in my opinion, Sir, they will hate us for free. We don't be need giving them money.

Antony Blinken: We're not giving the Taliban anything. As I discussed, with Congressman (Brian) Mast, we are providing money, as many other countries are to UN agencies, NGOs, to help the Afghan people.

Tim Burchett: And these agencies are funding the Taliban. Reports are saying between, Sir, reports are saying between 40 and 80 million US tax dollars are given to the Taliban every dadgum week. I mean, is that acceptable?

Antony Blinken: (under) according to the report that I read and that Congressman referred to the SIGAR’s (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) report of the approximately $8 billion dollar that the International Community, including the United States, is dedicated to Afghanistan, about $10 billion of that, that is 0.1%, has no doubt gotten to the Taliban in terms…

Tim Burchett: I don't care, if it's a dadgum penny, I don't care, if it's a penny, I mean for you to sit up here and admit that our enemies, I mean these people swear to hate Christians and Jews, and that takes care of about everybody in this dadgum room, and we're sending them, I don't care, if it's 1%. (You can) but let me tell you $10 million is a hell of a lot of money (for) the people I represent, Sir. And it needs to be something that you all let me get on my questions of running out. I've invited (ex vice) president (Amrullah) Saleh and commander (Ahmad) Massoud of the Afghan resistance (to of the US) to meet with myself and colleagues. Will the state department work to facilitate their entry into the country to meet with Congress?

Antony Blinken: I'll be happy to follow up with your office on that.

Tim Burchett: Alright… Just for the record, this State Department has funded our enemies and they've turned a blind eye to our open Southern border US border patrol has caught known terrorist sneaking into our country likely using our tax dollars to do so and this disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan was not a solution. It was the beginning of a much bigger problem waiting to happen. (…)

Complete video of the excerpt of the hearing of Blinken by Burchett:

The complete hearing lasts more than 4 hours. This also rejects the claims from a recent article published by the New York Times to supposedly frame the anti-Taliban resistance as ineffective.