Republican lawmakers announced Friday the launch of an investigation into the military withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan during the summer of 2021, which allowed the Taliban to return to power and thousands of citizens to flee.
Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has asked the State Department led by Antony Blinken for documents related to the withdrawal of troops from the Biden Administration.
McCaul has given a Jan. 26 deadline for a response, threatening subpoena power in the event the Department does not comply with the request.
«It is imperative that the State Department provide full responses to these longstanding requests, and the Committee will not tolerate continued delays,» the Texas representative has written in a letter sent to Blinken accessed by CNN.
«In the event of non-compliance, the Committee will use available authorities to enforce these requests as necessary, including through a compulsory process,» he stressed.
The 10-page letter requested a list of all meetings held by U.S. authorities at the interagency level as well as with the Taliban since January 2021.
The intention of the investigation, McCaul said, is to delve deeper into the planning of the withdrawal process and to elucidate the after effects of the withdrawal.
The GOP has sent the Department several requests over the past year, but, lacking a majority in the House, Blinken did not provide the requested information. Now that the Republicans have gained a majority in the House of Representatives, they can legally demand that the Administration provide the requested documents.
The State Department did its own review of the Afghanistan withdrawal last year, although the results have not yet been released, even though the report was completed more than 10 months ago, several sources have told CNN.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
