WASHINGTON (HRNW) – Republicans have launched an investigation into the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan that sparked a lightning takeover of the war-ravaged country by the Taliban and the death of 13 American troops in a militant attack.
Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on Friday he had written to Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting an array of records, from intelligence assessments to communications with the Taliban.
“It is absurd and disgraceful that the Biden administration has repeatedly denied our longstanding oversight requests and continues to withhold information related to the withdrawal,” said McCaul, a longstanding opposition member on the panel who became its chairman after the House flipped to Republican control at the start of the year.
“In the event of continued noncompliance, the committee will use the authorities available to it to enforce these requests as necessary, including through a compulsory process.”
The US soldiers were killed on August 26, 2021 in a bombing outside Kabul’s airport as the capital fell, with the government crumbling days later despite $2 trillion pumped into Afghanistan over two decades.