House Foreign Affairs Lead Republican Rep. Michael McCaul renewed requests to Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the preservation of all documents related to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
McCaul said his requests for information have previously been ignored by both Blinken and senior members of the State Department, according to an Oct. 14 official letter sent to Blinken.
“I am writing to formally request the preservation of documents and to renew prior requests for information regarding last year’s disastrous Afghanistan evacuation – some stretching back more than a year – for which we have not received satisfactory responses,” McCaul said, according to the letter. “Access to this information is critical to the Constitutional legislative and oversight responsibilities of Congress, and it is unacceptable for such requests to be ignored or given the attention they deserve.”
Requests have been ignored since August 2021, according to the letter. Blinken and 34 named State Department and USAID employees have reportedly ignored information requests from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Minority regarding specific documents, quotes, and other information about the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan Aug. 20, 2021.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs Minority requested information be provided by Sept. 3, 2021, which passed without a response, the letter reported. The Committee asked for 34 named DOS and USAID employees to be available for transcribed interviews, which the letter says was ignored.
McCaul's latest letter to Blinken asked for texts of five unclassified opening statements delivered at a classified Afghanistan briefing that took place June 15. The Committee has yet to receive documents from this June 15 request, according to the letter.
“We write to condemn in the strongest terms the Department's senior leadership team in its dereliction of duty regarding Afghanistan,” McCaul’s Aug. 20, 2021, letter said.
McCaul called the State Department’s contingency plan for Afghanistan “woefully inadequate” and condemned it for creating an avoidable humanitarian disaster in his August 2021 letter. McCaul said U.S. allies claimed they were not fully consulted on the decision to withdraw, which placed them at risk. These planning failures led to requests for information.
In McCaul's Sept. 23, 2021, letter, he asked for intelligence products presented at the White House Principals meetings about the strength of the Taliban, Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’ capabilities, reliability of senior political leadership in the Islamic Republic, evacuation-related consequences for not maintaining Bagram Air Base and the time estimates on the likelihood of a Taliban takeover of the country.
McCaul said a June 23 Wall Street Journal article reported suggestions the Afghan government could withstand for six months, according to the September 2021 letter. The Biden administration claimed it would last for years. CENTCOM Commander General McKenzie reportedly estimated the Taliban would seize control within 30 days, which had allegedly been shared with Secretary Austin.
The public is owed public transparency on the reports and assessments that informed the president’s April 14 withdrawal decision that led to abandoning hundreds of Americans, thousands of U.S. legal permanent residents and tens of thousands of Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other Afghans at risk, McCaul said in his letter.
