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Overseas Affairs Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul mentioned he nonetheless intends to haul in Antony Blinken on the Afghanistan withdrawal even after his sprawling report was accomplished, and can maintain him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t comply.
“This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions,” the Texas Republican informed reporters on Monday. “It is a shame. I’ll maintain him in contempt if that’s what it takes to deliver him earlier than the American folks.”
“Secretary Blinken refuses to take in the future out of this month to come back earlier than the [Gold Star] households.”
McCaul’s feedback got here on the heels of a 350-page report he launched Monday on the withdrawal that the committee labored on for a lot of the previous practically two years of the Republican majority.
It laid a lot blame on the State Division and detailed how State officers had no plan for getting People and allies out whereas there have been nonetheless troops there to guard them.
McCaul subpoenaed Blinken final week, saying he should seem earlier than the committee by Sept. 19.
HOUSE GOP RELEASES SCATHING REPORT ON BIDEN’S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN
State Division spokesperson Vedant Patel shrugged off the committee’s threats.
“The bulk is not actually fascinated with legislating on Afghanistan coverage. In the event that they had been, they might have sought to talk to the secretary way back,” he informed reporters Monday.
Home Overseas Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul spoke with Fox Information Digital on the sidelines of his Congressional delegation to Taipei (Getty Photos)
“They might have sought to talk to him to get his enter as they make this report,” he mentioned. “As an alternative they waited till the report was fully completed to come back again to us.”
In Might, McCaul requested Blinken to seem at a listening to in September on the committee’s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The State Division failed on a number of events to supply a date for Blinken to seem earlier than lawmakers, McCaul mentioned.
However the State Division mentioned Monday Blinken had testified earlier than Home and Senate committees 14 occasions on the withdrawal, together with 4 occasions earlier than the Overseas Affairs Committee.
McCaul additionally hinted that he believes there ought to nonetheless be a small contingency of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
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“We can’t see now into Afghanistan besides by way of over the horizon, which does not work. We won’t see Russia, China and Iran, both, due to this tragic failure of overseas coverage,” he informed reporters.
“We won’t see all of ISIS gathering within the Korazhan area of Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, making their method to the USA of America. That’s what they did to us,” the chairman went on.
“They embolden the unholy alliance of Putin, Xi, the Ayatollah and Kim Jong Un,” he mentioned, referring to the leaders of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, standing with Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin, proper, speaks throughout a information convention at the USA Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Picture/Susan Walsh)
The Biden administration has lengthy claimed the president’s palms had been tied by the Doha settlement negotiated underneath President Trump that laid out a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. However the brand new report detailed how the Taliban had failed to carry up their finish of the deal, absolving the U.S. of any obligation to stick to it.
“Biden, for his half, confronted a stark alternative when he got here to workplace, abide by the flawed settlement and finish America’s longest battle, or blow up the deal, lengthen the battle, and see a a lot smaller contingent of American troops again in fight with the Taliban,” White Home nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby informed reporters on Monday.
“He selected the previous and was in a position to purchase further time to arrange for that withdrawal all the way in which into the summer season. And we, as a nation are safer for it. Any and each dialogue about what occurred in Afghanistan has to start out proper there. Sadly, the report doesn’t dwell on it.”
The damning report claims that whereas US navy personnel had been drawing down their footprint within the nation, the State Division was rising theirs.
And in keeping with the report, U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson was on trip the final week of July and the primary week of August 2021. He promptly hightailed it in another country on a flight forward of his workers in mid-August. He allegedly had COVID-19 on the time and compelled a overseas service officer to take his COVID take a look at so he may get on the aircraft.
Taliban fighters rejoice the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Picture/Siddiqullah Alizai)
Patel defended Wilson, however didn’t deny the allegations.
“I am simply not going to get right into a tit-for-tat with the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, however what I can say is that it isn’t my understanding that he was on trip at first of August. Past that, I’ll simply echo what I mentioned beforehand about Ambassador Wilson, that that is an esteemed particular person, a embellished Overseas Service officer.”
He claimed the GOP-led report selected “scandal over substance” and known as it a “assortment of cherry-picked feedback… designed to color an inaccurate image of this administration’s efforts.
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He claimed the withdrawal was carried out in a means that was per division coverage. “The drawdown in Kabul was carried out in a way which is per our departments and our nation’s requirements and protocols when confronted in these circumstances.”
He mentioned he didn’t have a headcount on what number of People are nonetheless in Afghanistan, however touted the greater than 18,000 Afghan particular immigrant visas (SIVs) for the U.S.’s Afghan allies, comparable to interpreters, that had been processed in 2023.
McCaul says he’ll maintain Blinken in contempt after State Division shrugs off his calls for for testimony
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