Terrorist Financing’: Rep. Scott Perry Accuses USAID of Funneling $700 Million Annually to Taliban and Designated Enemies

Lawmaker Delivers Emotional Rebuke, Claiming U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Fund ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Haqqani Network Figures Post-Withdrawal

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one of the most blistering and emotionally charged congressional hearings since the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Representative Scott Perry (R-PA), a veteran, launched a furious indictment against the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), accusing the organization of facilitating the direct funding of terrorist groups through aid programs.

Perry’s testimony was a raw reckoning with the cost of the 20-year war, contrasting the sacrifice of American service members with the government’s alleged gross negligence in spending.

The $697 Million Question: Funding a Designated Enemy

Perry immediately cut to the heart of the issue: the financial flow into a country now entirely controlled by a terrorist entity. He reminded the committee that the Taliban is classified by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization.

Despite this classification and the August 2021 withdrawal, Perry presented shocking data:

Post-2021 Spending: In the most recent year of review (2024, as cited in the testimony), the U.S. spent $697 million of taxpayer dollars in Afghanistan.

USAID’s Share: Over $534 million of that total was channeled through USAID.

Perry argued that the premise of this continued spending is fatally flawed. “I don’t know what we think we’re going to change in Afghanistan,” he stated, citing the immense cost: 22,500 Americans lost or wounded and over $2 trillion spent during the war.

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Names and Cash: The Direct Terror Connection

Perry’s most explosive claims involved the actual recipients of the aid and the method of delivery, which he claims ensures the money reaches America’s enemies.

He named key figures who now rule Afghanistan: Sirajuddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network (a designated terrorist group), and Abdullah bin Laden (a figure linked to the infamous family). Perry demanded to know if anyone in the room recognized the gravity of these names, asserting they were beneficiaries of U.S. funds.

The alleged diversion of funds is not limited to checks and transfers. Perry revealed a startling pattern of cash shipments:

“Your money, $697 million annually, plus the shipments of cash funds Madras, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS Corazan, terrorist training camps. That’s what it’s funding.”

He specified that these shipments involve a constant flow of $40 million to $80 million in cash every 10 days, directly into Afghanistan, where the Taliban has established a comprehensive system to extort and steal the aid.

The Taliban’s “Effective Scheme”

Perry meticulously detailed the systematic process by which the Taliban allegedly ensures maximum exploitation of U.S. aid, calling it a scheme more effective at undermining the U.S. than anything its enemies could have designed. This systematic interference includes:

Threatening Personnel: Taliban actively threatens the lives of NGO personnel distributing the aid.

Taxation and Theft: They tax the delivery services, tax the beneficiaries, and steal food commodities and divert cash funds.

Extortion and Control: They extort citizens for “protection” fees and create “sham procurement schemes” to funnel U.S. dollars into their own pockets.

Perry pointed to specific programs—like the Women’s Scholarship Endowment ($60 million annually) and Young Women Lead ($5 million)—and cited an Inspector General’s report noting that the Taliban bans women from speaking in public. He concluded these programs are a complete deception: “You are funding terrorism and it’s coming through USAID.”

The Pakistan Education Fraud

The indictment did not stop at Afghanistan. Perry cited similar alleged corruption in Pakistan, where USAID spent $840 million over two decades on education-related programs. This included $136 million to build 120 schools.

Perry dropped another bombshell of gross negligence: “There is zero evidence that any of them were built.” Inspectors were allegedly denied access to verify the projects.

He then highlighted a further absurdity: $20 million was spent by USAID to create educational TV programs for children who were unable to attend the physical schools—schools that, he argued, never existed in the first place.

“Yeah. They can’t attend it because it doesn’t exist,” Perry stated, concluding: “You paid for it. Somebody else got the money. You are paying for terrorism. This has got to end.”

Perry’s testimony served as a profound reckoning, fueled by the conviction that the U.S. is not only wasting trillions of dollars but is actively betraying the sacrifice of its own veterans by strengthening the hands of the very enemies they fought to defeat. The silent, heavy atmosphere in the room confirmed that his unfiltered truth had landed with devastating effect.