After months of resistance, Blinken finally agrees to testify on return from Afghanistan

Washington – Secretary of State Antony Blinken has finally agreed to testify House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul made the announcement on Tuesday, ahead of a House committee hearing next week to investigate the Biden administration’s deadly chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

McCaul (R-Texas) said, “After months of good faith efforts that were often met with obstruction from the State Department, I am proud to secure Secretary Blinken’s appearance before my committee.” “I am confident that his testimony will provide long-awaited accountability and transparency for the American people, our Afghan partners, and our Gold Star families.”

The hearing, scheduled for Dec. 11, will come nearly three months after Blinken similar hearing before the committee waivedto violate a congressional subpoena Appearing, according to the committee, “despite repeated warnings and adjustments”.

The Foreign Affairs panel then found Blinken in contempt of Congress for his demurrer, which McCaul said Tuesday appeared to have prompted the top U.S. diplomat to finally admit it. Has gone.

McCaul said, “It is unfortunate that the Secretary agreed to appear only after my committee pursued contempt proceedings against him.”

“Although I wish he had not delayed this important appearance until the end of his tenure as head of the State Department, I look forward to hearing his testimony and asking poignant questions to help House Republicans and the next administration To ensure that nothing like this happens again.”

Kabul finally fell to the Taliban on August 15, 2021 – about two weeks before the last US troops left Afghanistan. Following the collapse of the Afghan government, President Biden ordered a non-combat evacuation mission, which was marred by the deaths of 13 US service members and hundreds of Afghans in an ISIS-K suicide bomb attack on August 26, 2021.

The committee is expected to press Blinken to at least some degree for additional information about the State Department’s warnings, which strongly urge against Biden’s plan. Pull America out of the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan Without leaving at least a small contingent of troops in place.

The House panel has been looking for such information since it began its investigation in 2022. That’s when it began pursuing a dissent cable in which 23 diplomats reportedly warned of a rapid Taliban advance before withdrawal.

After months of wrangling with the State Department, the committee finally received a version of the report for review in 2023.

Committee in September released its report On the disastrous withdrawal, which partly revealed that Biden was so hell-bent on getting out of Afghanistan that Condemned any advice to the contrary from the Pentagon or the State DepartmentIgnored the Afghan government’s pleas and Objections were ignored From American allies.

“Contrary to President Biden’s public claims, our investigation found the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commander of U.S. Central Command, the Secretary of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Commander. “NATO’s Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces-Afghanistan advised against withdrawing all U.S. troops from the country during and after the interagency review,” the 350-page report said.

It also found that the Biden administration repeatedly lied and misled the American public to support the president’s results-oriented approach that the US should rapidly end its 20-year war in Afghanistan.