Federal circuit riders are being asked to decide the fate of billions awarded to 9/11 victims’ families — if President Biden doesn’t give it to the Taliban first. The conflict shaping up at the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals centers on some $7 billion in Afghan central bank funds, half of which are left in the vaults of the New York Fed. Mr. Biden already handed the other half over to the Taliban in the name of the “Afghan Fund.”

Mr. Biden surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban, so it’s no wonder that the militant Islamists see him as an easy mark and are pressing him to yield on their demands for the frozen billions. The handover of the money is “crucial for confidence-building,” a Taliban spokesman, Qahar Balkhi, said yesterday, Reuters reports. He said giving the billions to the regime at Kabul was needed “so that Afghans can establish an economy unreliant on foreign aid.” 

The Afghan “banking sector,” Reuters points out, “has been crippled by sanctions since the takeover by the Taliban.” Blaming the West for this economic disaster, though, overlooks the role played by the Taliban itself in the destruction of the rule of law and business activity in the country. The regime’s corruption and refusal to allow women to work or even be educated are doing far more economic damage than any sanctions.

All the more reason, then, not to reward the Taliban by giving them the money they are unable to generate through economic prosperity. Mr. Biden fails to grasp that logic, though. He rigged up “The Afghan Fund” to funnel back to Kabul some of Afghanistan’s frozen assets. He vows the money will “be used for the benefit” of the Afghans “while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban,” denying the Taliban is “part of the Afghan Fund.”

As we have noted, though, this muddled thinking doesn’t conform to a fundamental economic principle, the fungibility of money. It doesn’t matter whether the Taliban is “part of” the Afghan Fund. Any assistance that goes to the Afghans takes some burden off the Taliban regime. That enables the regime to devote more resources to its other nefarious priorities — like stifling dissent at home, oppressing women, and plotting terrorism abroad.

Mr. Biden’s claim that “robust safeguards” will “prevent the funds from being used for illicit activity” is belied by the Taliban itself. In January, the AP reported, the UN scolded the Afghan central bank for posting on Twitter a photo of “wads of cash.” It was deposited at a Kabul bank. The Taliban-run central bank “appreciates any principled move that will bring currency to the country and help the needy in the society,” the tweet said.

This was not quite cricket as far as the UN and Mr. Biden were concerned. They both are keen to maintain the illusion that the money is “destined for humanitarian work,” as the AP puts it. “None of the cash brought is deposited in the Central Bank of Afghanistan nor provided to the Taliban de facto authorities by the UN,” the world body insisted. “Announcements by non-UN entities about UN fund shipments are misleading & unhelpful.”

What a farce — malarkey. Meanwhile, there’s a better use available for the billions in Afghan frozen bank assets — give them to the families of the Taliban’s victims who were murdered on 9/11. A federal judge has already awarded some of these families some $7 billion in damages. That amount coincides with the money that was on deposit at the New York Fed, until Mr. Biden had the bright idea of giving half to the perpetrator of the crimes. 

Which brings us back to the riders of the Second Circuit. In February, a federal district judge ruled against the 9/11 families, claiming that even though the Taliban owed them billions, they didn’t have the right to take the money from the Afghan central bank. The families are appealing that decision to the sages of the Second Circuit. While they’re at it, the riders could look into the billions that Mr. Biden handed over to the “Afghan Fund,” too.