Rep. McCaul signed the subpeona with a pen from the family of a Marine killed at Kabul airport.
The State Department finally issued its official ‘what happened in Afghanistan’ report that mostly absolved it of responsibility while suppressing dissenting materials. Congress has been trying to get hold of those even while State keeps stonewalling. Now Congress is beginning to lose its patience.
US House foreign affairs committee chairman Michael McCaul on Tuesday subpoenaed the State Department in a bid to obtain documents related to its Afghanistan withdrawal report, accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of “obstruction”.
Mr McCaul said in a statement that the subpoena was delivered directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday morning for the “Afghanistan AAR files” – the collection of underlying documents used to produce the State Department’s After-Action Review.
“The committee has been forced, by the department’s obstruction, to issue a subpoena,” Mr McCaul said.
Meanwhile, at the hearing on Afghanistan, military leaders testified that there was no plan. Family members of those lost in Afghanistan were present.
“There was very little intelligence to suggest the Biden administration’s plan would work and a mountain range of evidence to suggest the plan would fail,” retired Col. Seth Krummrich, former chief of staff for special operations at U.S. Central Command, testified on Thursday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The president’s decision to ignore the best military advice and execute an immediate military withdrawal was a shock and a rude awakening for all the planners.”
Another senior military leader, Command Sergeant Major Jacob Smith, warned State Department officials in the months leading up to September 2021 that Kabul International Airport—the eventual site of a terror bombing that killed 13 service members—was not equipped to handle a mass exodus of Americans. But the administration refused to shift the evacuation to the more secure Bagram Air Base, which had been shut down by the time of the withdrawal.
Bagram, Smith revealed, “had a completely secured airfield that would require a massive military offensive to overrun or breach.” Kabul airport, on the other hand, was surrounded by a city of 4.4 million residents and not even completely controlled by U.S. forces, presenting a host of security challenges.
Bagram also had “the mechanical capability to destroy sensitive equipment on an industrial scale in a short time,” while Kabul airport “did not,” according to Smith. If the State Department had chosen Bagram as the site of its evacuation, the military likely could have destroyed much of $7.2 billion in sensitive military equipment that was left behind and ultimately seized by the Taliban.
“I advised the embassy team against using” the Kabul airport, Smith said, noting that the State Department initially agreed with his assessment. However, officials back in Washington, D.C., ordered the base be shut down by early July 2021. “It is my understanding that those in [U.S.] embassy did not think that Taliban would advance to take Kabul.”
By August, a month before the full-scale evacuation effort, Kabul airport was left mostly undefended.
“An area once protected by hundreds of soldiers and contractors was now protected by 113 American soldiers,” Smith said, as the families of several soldiers killed in the September terrorist bombing wept behind him. “This was the only force left in Afghanistan.”
The State Department insisted on dispensing with the military’s role and maintaining a civilian diplomatic presence, fantasizing that some sort of Taliban-Government coalition would peacefully come together.
Was there a plan? Not so much.
So you can see why Secretary of State Blinken’s only plan is obstruction and more obstruction.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Is that a Blinken move or a Lloyd Austin/Milley move? I’d question the latter: this was not so much a Foreign Policy disaster as much as a military strategy disaster
Jlyn says
Appears to me that the military made their recommendations and it was the State Dept who made the ultimate decision. I disagree with you Infidel says. It was a foreign policy disaster. Let’s ask the parents’ of the dead soldiers, shall we?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Trump had already made the decision to pull out, so there was nothing to change: it was an implementation decision by DoD. Milley wanted to leave the equipment there, & Austin or Biden or whoever seemed to support him. I don’t see how the State Department would have gotten involved in what was essentially an internal DoD operation: in fact, it would have been a POTUS decision totally, not even a State one
Phil Copson says
“Trump had already made the decision to pull out, so there was nothing to change.”
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Why are you making excuses for the disaster brought about by the Biden admin?
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Donald Trump: The policies and decisions of the previous admin are not binding on the current admin – if they were, there wouldn’t be any point in changing government, would there?
Trump would have (A) withdrawn properly with a plan in place to shore-up the Afghan government and military and prevent the return to power of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, (B) removed all military equipment not being handed to the Afghan Army, and (C) kept the vital Bagram Airbase.
Claiming that “Trump didn’t leave us a withdrawal plan – so we just left without one.” is an excuse that would shame a six-year old.
America has surrendered – the “American Century” has ended – and much of the rest of the world is now forming alliances with China and Russia.
somehistory says
They are stalling, stonewalling, and obstructing because they know what they did was so very wrong….and they wanted the disaster that happened. When criminals can’t offer a defense they believe will work, they hide and try to hide the evidence.
The perps in this massive crime can’t “hide”…so hide the evidence is the only strategy they have.
Keith O says
Given the actions of the Biden dictatorship, I would hazard a guess and say that the rout from Afghanistan went exactly as his handlers planned and going for bonus points, they tried laying the blame for the debacle at the feet of the previous administration and Trump personally.
I also believe it was their intention to allow the enemy to et their hands on all that weaponry and equipment.
For what purpose, I am unsure.
The Turkeychoker says
admit it ! The so called ‘withdrawal’ from Afganistan, was a ROUT . Our military has experience in running away. ie: Vietnam, another ROUT.