When the legitimate and recognized government of Afghanistan, unable to stand without the U.S. military, fled a year ago as the Taliban swarmed into Kabul, $7 billion held by the Afghan central bank in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was orphaned.
The Treasury Department rightly froze the assets to deny the Taliban access to money that had largely come from international donors or the savings of Afghan citizens. Then, long-dormant lawsuits filed by a small number of 9/11 families put a claim on the funds. These were 9/11 victims who sued the Taliban for hosting al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden. The Taliban, as lawless gangs tend to do, never answered the suits and the families won default judgments in American courts.
There was never any way to collect, but when the Taliban seized Kabul and control of the central bank, the billions sitting downtown came to the fore.
