Yesterday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken following up on previous requests and emphasizing the need for the State Department to produce requested documents pertaining to the Biden administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the letter, Chairman McCaul stresses that failure to produce these documents ahead of Secretary Blinken’s March 23rd testimony will result in the committee issuing a subpoena.
Yesterday’s letter follows a lengthy series of requests by the committee. On January 12th, Chairman McCaul sent a comprehensive document request on the chaotic and deadly withdrawal – many of the requests in this letter dated back to August 2021. On March 3rd, he sent a follow up letter regarding the department’s ongoing failure to comply with the committee’s requests, demanding the immediate production of three specific priority items and making clear that if the department failed to comply, the committee would proceed with compulsory process. On March 12th, Chairman McCaul stated that he was prepared to issue a subpoena if the department failed to produce these requested documents in advance of Secretary Blinken’s March 23rd testimony before the committee.
“From its Yesterday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken following up on previous requests and emphasizing the need for the State Department to produce requested documents pertaining to the Biden administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the letter, Chairman McCaul stresses that failure to produce these documents ahead of Secretary Blinken’s March 23rd testimony will result in the committee issuing a subpoena.
Yesterday’s letter follows a lengthy series of requests by the committee. On January 12th, Chairman McCaul sent a comprehensive document request on the chaotic and deadly withdrawal – many of the requests in this letter dated back to August 2021. On March 3rd, he sent a follow up letter regarding the department’s ongoing failure to comply with the committee’s requests, demanding the immediate production of three specific priority items and making clear that if the department failed to comply, the committee would proceed with compulsory process. On March 12th, Chairman McCaul stated that he was prepared to issue a subpoena if the department failed to produce these requested documents in advance of Secretary Blinken’s March 23rd testimony before the committee.
“From its broader January 12 request, the Committee identified on January 30 three highly specific immediate priority items that are well-known to the Department,” wrote the chairman. “All of the items specified on March 3 could be produced extremely quickly if they were genuinely prioritized by the Department. The Committee routinely receives highly classified documents and information from the Department on the most sensitive issues confronting U.S. foreign policy, including ongoing threats posed by foreign adversaries. A ‘diligent’ process working in good faith to produce these documents ‘as soon as practicable’ would have produced them long ago.”
The full text of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear Secretary Blinken:
On March 3, 2023, I wrote to you regarding the State Department’s ongoing failure to comply with the Committee’s requests for documents and information concerning the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. For the reasons outlined below, it is essential that you produce the items requested in advance of your March 23 testimony before the Committee. Failure to produce these documents will result in the Committee issuing a subpoena to compel their production.
Congress’ Investigative Powers
Congress’ power to conduct oversight and investigations is derived from the Constitution and has been repeatedly affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. In Watkins v. United States, the Court held that the “power of the Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process.” In considering Congress’ investigative powers in Barenblatt v. United States, the Supreme Court held that “scope of its power of inquiry … is as penetrating and far-reaching as the potential power to enact and appropriate under the Constitution.”
Specific Basis for the Committee’s Investigation
Pursuant to Rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives, and pertinent to this investigation, the Committee on Foreign Affairs is delegated legislative and oversight jurisdiction over “[r]elations of the United States with foreign nations generally,” “[d]iplomatic service,” and “[p]rotection of American citizens abroad and expatriation.”
Furthermore, 22 U.S.C. § 2680 states, “The Department of State shall keep the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives fully and currently informed with respect to all activities and responsibilities within the jurisdiction of these committees. Any Federal department, agency, or independent establishment shall furnish any information requested by either such committee relating to any such activity or responsibility.”
On April 14, 2021, President Biden announced an unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from Afghanistan. The Biden Administration failed to conduct essential planning and take critical actions necessary to mitigate the likely adverse consequences of the decision to unconditionally withdraw. President Biden and other senior Administration leaders proceeded with the withdrawal in a manner inconsistent with the recommendations of military leaders and the warnings of diplomatic personnel.
The Taliban captured numerous Afghan provincial capitals during the first half of August 2021. On August 14, 2021, U.S. Embassy to Afghanistan Charge d’Affaires Ross Wilson declared a non-combatant evacuation (NEO) from the country. On August 26, 2021, 13 U.S. servicemembers were murdered and 45 injured in a terrorist attack outside Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) that also claimed the lives of approximately 170 Afghans. When the NEO concluded on August 30, 2021, hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands Afghan allies who risked their lives to support the United States remained left behind in Afghanistan.
On March 8, 2023, the Committee heard testimony from servicemembers who participated in the NEO and were on the scene of the August 26, 2021 terrorist attack, as well as leaders of volunteer-led efforts to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews, a Marine badly wounded in the attack, testified “that [t]he withdrawal was a catastrophe, in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.” Specialist Aidan Gunderson, an Army medic who responded to the attack, testified, “I want America to know the truth. The Afghanistan withdrawal was an organizational failure at multiple levels” and requested that the Committee “[p]lease consider those 13 [killed in the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate] and me, as you conduct this investigation. Please consider the youth of America who continue to serve and never put them in that position again.”
Multiple witnesses were critical of the State Department’s role in the evacuation. For example, Sergeant Vargas-Andrews testified, “Department of State staff in HKIA would completely shut down processing Afghans every evening and into the morning, leaving ground forces with a nightmare. They did not work in reasonable rotations and very much presented an unwillingness to work in other situations as well… State was not prepared to be in HKIA. In fact, State would not want to deal with the Afghans unable to be processed, weakening the security of the perimeter. State would take us away from our mission to walk Afghans out to meet the fate of the Taliban, condemning them to death.” Camille Mackler, an immigration attorney who assisted Afghans in evacuating and testified at the request of the Committee minority stated, “[o]n the State Department, I think there were many decision failures and systemic failures along the way.”
Over 18 months after the fall of Kabul, numerous key questions about the withdrawal remain unanswered. The Committee has an obligation to investigate how these grievous failures occurred and determine what actions, including potential legislation, are necessary to help prevent a similar catastrophe from occurring again in the future. The Afghanistan withdrawal was identified as a “priority oversight matter” in the Committee’s oversight plan, unanimously agreed to by Members of both parties on February 8, 2023.
Notably, the State Department has touted its purported cooperation with Congress as a reason why it believed it was unnecessary for it to comply as legally mandated with oversight by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). In April 2022, Acting Legal Adviser Richard C. Visek wrote, “[m]any of the requests for information from SIGAR address topics that are currently the subject of oversight by other investigative bodies with whom our agencies are already cooperating, including congressional committees…” In contrast to this representation, the State Department has failed to comply with the Committee’s document requests, as detailed below.
The State Department’s Ongoing Failure to Comply with the Committee’s Requests
On January 12, 2023, the Committee renewed and updated longstanding requests for documents and information regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal, with a deadline of January 26, 2023. Many of the requests in this letter were originally issued during the 117th Congress in an August 20, 2021 letter from the then-minority. These August 2021 requests, as well as others, went unsatisfied and were then renewed in an October 14, 2022 letter, which additionally requested the preservation of documents.
Soon after the issuance of the January 12 letter, Committee staff communicated to the Department their expectation that the Department would submit a substantial initial production by the January 26 deadline, including in a January 19, 2023 meeting between Committee staff and Department officials.
On January 26, 2023, the Department provided a 218-page initial production consisting of documents related to Afghanistan responsive to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Of the 218 pages produced, 88 consisted of a previously embargoed version of the Afghanistan Study Group’s Final Report – a document released to the public on February 3, 2021. Most of the remaining pages included extensive redactions that severely limit their usability and value.
Many of the redactions in this production appear to cover answers prepared for the question-and-answer portion of documents containing talking points for press engagements. That is to say, the Department redacted information from Congress that it was prepared to share with the public at the time the documents were generated. Furthermore, the Department failed to provide any legal justification or privilege log for these extensive redactions.
Original source can be found here.