To deliver to her the confidential diplomatic cable, which warned of the dangers posed by the withdrawal of US armed forces from Afghanistan in 2021, Joe Biden’s administration ordered a Republican-controlled House Committee on Monday (3/27).
The head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike McCaul, announced that he had subpoenaed the State Department for the document.
The cable, which was drafted and sent by US diplomats stationed in Kabul in the summer of 2021, warned that the Western-backed Afghan government would collapse very quickly after the withdrawal of US troopsaccording to press reports.
This was mentioned during a March 23 hearing at the committee, when US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken appeared and testified before it.
But the State Department so far he has not delivered a copy of this cable to the committee, citing the need to protect a confidential internal communication channel.
On August 26, 2021, a bomb blast killed some 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. military personnel on the perimeter of the Kabul airport amid Operation USA for the evacuation of foreign citizens and their Afghan allies after the Taliban took over. The Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The American people deserve answers about how that tragedy unfolded and regarding the reasons for which 13 American soldiers died”, commented Mr. McCall, as reported by the Athens News Agency.
It is not clear how the committee will react if the US State Department insists on refusing to hand over a copy of the text, that is, if it will ask the judiciary to intervene and guarantee that its subpoena will be executed.
When securing control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November’s election, Republican opponents promised to conduct an inquiry into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ends on August 30, 2021.
The US military withdrawal ended the longest military engagement in US history, which began in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
In that war, which lasted nearly 20 years, more than 2,400 US servicemen were killed, according to Pentagon figures.
Source: News Beast
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