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A sizeable amount of US money went into IEA’s pockets: John Sopko
John Sopko, former US special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said on Wednesday that a sizeable amount of US taxpayers’ money went into the pockets of the Islamic Emirate.
“We know it is going to continue because unfortunately we have nobody on the ground and the money is going through the UN, world food organization (WFP) and other international organizations, and we don’t really have good oversight,” Sopko told Fox Business.
He said that he was not sure if the US foreign aid pause by the Trump administration includes money going directly to the UN and other international organizations.
Sopko said that the US international aid agency (USAID) continues to be a “broken agency.”
He said USAID workers in Afghanistan told SIGAR: “You can’t believe what we are doing. And we use that for a lot of our reports. But none of that got up to Washington. That is why you heard all the happy talk – we are winning the war, we are helping the kids, we are building schools, we are doing all this – and it turned out they built schools but they never looked if there were any teachers. They built hospitals but they never looked if there was any water or drugs or even patients.”
Sopko said that the whole objective was to spend the money, and it wasn’t just for USAID, but the US Department of Defense and the Department of State.
“The test was: did you spend your appropriated funds, and if you didn’t, you lost money, if you didn’t, you weren’t promoted. And that is the whole delusion we had between the reality on the ground and what the American people were being told by the aid administrators, the ambassadors, the generals and everybody for the last 20 years,” he said.
Earlier, John Sopko claimed that the Islamic Emirate is diverting or otherwise benefitting from a considerable amount of U.S. assistance.
IEA, however, has rejected the claim.
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Tornadoes strike US South, killing 33 people amid rising risk
In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.
Tornadoes killed at least 33 people across several states in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast on Saturday night, with at least 12 fatalities reported in Missouri, CNN reported.
More than 500 homes, a church and grocery store in Butler County were destroyed and a mobile home park had been “totally destroyed,” Robbie Myers, the director of emergency management for Missouri’s Butler County said.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves posted on X that six deaths had been reported in the state.
According to preliminary assessments, 29 people were injured statewide and 21 counties sustained storm damage, Reeves said.
In Arkansas, three deaths occurred, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said, adding that there were 32 injuries.
Twenty-six tornadoes were reported but not confirmed to have touched down late on Friday night and early on Saturday as a low-pressure system drove powerful thunderstorms across parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri, said David Roth, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
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UN Security Council to vote on extension of UNAMA mission in Afghanistan
The council said in a report that if approved, the mandate would extend the UNAMA mission for another year without changing its mandate and priorities.
The UN Security Council announced it is scheduled to vote on Monday 17 March on a draft resolution to extend the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, for another year.
The council said in a report that if approved, the mandate would extend the UNAMA mission for another year without changing its mandate and priorities.
According to the report, the draft mandate specified for UNAMA, for another year, include human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, women, peace and security, the economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, terrorism, drug trafficking, small arms, internally displaced persons and refugees, and the effects of natural disasters.
The UN Security Council said that all 15 permanent and non-permanent members of the council are expected to support it.
This comes after the Islamic Emirate recently called the UNAMA mission in Afghanistan a “failure.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate, accused UNAMA of providing “negative and inaccurate” reports on the situation in Afghanistan.
Mujahid said that UNAMA’s reports had created a “negative mindset” towards Afghanistan within the UN.
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