U.S. Home committee chair signals subpoena for Condition Section Afghanistan documents

The Republican chairman of the U.S. Household of Associates Foreign Affairs Committee reported on Monday he signed a subpoena to be delivered to Secretary of Condition Antony Blinken for documents linked to the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Michael McCaul has launched an investigation into the messy withdrawal from Afghanistan beneath Democratic President Joe Biden and functions in the nation given that.

Republicans — and some Democrats — say there has hardly ever been a comprehensive accounting of the chaotic procedure, in which 13 U.S. company members have been killed at Kabul’s airport.

McCaul experienced presented the Point out Division till Monday to generate the documents.

“Sad to say, Secretary Blinken has refused to give the Dissent Cable and his response to the cable, forcing me to concern my very first subpoena as chairman of this committee,” McCaul reported in a statement. He reported the subpoena would be sent on Tuesday morning.

About two dozen U.S. diplomats in Afghanistan sent a private cable via a so-referred to as dissent channel warning Blinken in July 2021 of the prospective tumble of Kabul to the Taliban as U.S. troops withdrew from the region, The Wall Street Journal documented in 2021.

Blinken claimed all through a listening to previous 7 days that the section experienced previously shared info and was doing work to provide a lot more, but that some distinct facts could only be shared with senior officials, a transfer supposed to secure the identity of these who had expressed dissent.

Asked by Reuters for comment on the subpoena, the State Department referred to remarks by spokesperson Vedant Patel at Monday’s press briefing. Patel reported it was “vital to us that we protect the integrity” of the dissent channel. He said the department was “prepared to make the pertinent info in the cable obtainable by briefings or some other mechanisms.”