House panel criticizes Blinken for defying evidence of withdrawal from Afghanistan

Washington – The Republican-led Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to recommend that Secretary of State Antony Blinken be held in contempt of Congress amid a standoff over testimony from a top diplomat about the US withdrawal. Afghanistan.

The chairman of this committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, subpoenaed Blinken earlier this month to testify, threatening to hold him in contempt if he did not appear before the panel on September 19. In a letter subpoenaing Blinken, McCaul said Blinken’s appearance was behind the scenes. important as the committee considers “potential legislation intended to help prevent catastrophic revocation errors.”

On Tuesday, McCaul was interviewed, saying that its purpose was to “hear directly from Secretary Blinken” and evaluate his withdrawal from Afghanistan. After a long silence, McCaul said, “unfortunately our witness, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is not here today,” before adjourning the hearing and noted his intention to proceed with the markup “to begin the formal process of holding the secretary of Congress in contempt.”

McCaul said he wished “we weren’t here today” after the committee reconvened to consider the matter.

“However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought this on himself,” McCaul said, noting that he was “not happy” to move the secretary in contempt of Congress.

Citing a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 13 American service members during the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, McCaul said that “instead of being accountable for this, the secretary is hiding from the American people.”

“The secretary’s willful indifference — his willful indifference — has brought us to this moment,” McCaul said.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, called the measure an “urgent vote” that “undermines the seriousness” of Congress’s ability to hold officials in contempt.

“There’s nothing stopping you here,” Meeks said. “This is a political platform.”

Blinken’s testimony

The committee’s chairman said Tuesday that after months of Blinken’s testimony requests were ignored, he was forced to call the secretary of state. And when Blinken “violated those documents,” McCaul argued he “had no choice but to move forward and hold him in contempt of Congress.”

McCaul said that by failing to appear before the committee, Blinken is “politicizing” the Afghanistan withdrawal. And he said the secretary’s spokesman has misrepresented the veracity of Blinken’s testimony thus far.

The State Department said it has proposed other dates for Blinken’s appearance, citing his own to walk overseas as the US tries to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. It also requested that Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell appear before the committee when the panel was appointed on a date last week.

“We continue to not understand why the committee chose to take this action,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Sept. 17, calling the draft “an unnecessary and extraordinarily counterproductive step.”

Miller noted that Blinken has answered questions about Afghanistan in 14 of his appearances before Congress, including four times he testified before McCaul’s committee.

Committee spokeswoman Emily Cassil responded with a statement accusing the State Department of continuing to engage in “observance and complete avoidance.”

McCaul delayed the panel meeting by five days and issued another subpoena for Blinken to appear at that time.

“If Secretary Blinken fails to appear, the chairman will proceed with the committee’s full draft of a report recommending to the US House of Representatives that it find Secretary Blinken in contempt of Congress in violation of an executive order,” the notice said.

Although Blinken is in the US, he is attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York City and meeting with world leaders, Miller said last week.

“They picked one day again,” Miller said, adding that the committee was told in advance of Blinken’s plan. “It doesn’t appear that they are acting in good faith.”

During the committee meeting, Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, called the process “a truly embarrassing moment for this committee.”

“I deeply regret that the majority will make this effort while the president and the secretary of state are discussing sensitive matters on our behalf – and in the name of world peace,” he added.

As of next week, Congress is scheduled to be in recess until October, giving Blinken limited days to testify unless committee members return to Washington during recess.

Even if the measures make it out of committee, the full House would still need to vote to refer them to the Justice Department for prosecution, and it is unlikely that Blinken will be prosecuted by the Biden administration.

Withdrawal from Afghanistan

The Republican majority of the committee he issued a report earlier this month detailed the panel’s year-long investigation into the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and accused the Biden administration of misleading the public about the withdrawal.

The lengthy report is highly critical of President Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, accusing the president and his administration of ignoring repeated warnings from military officials, national security advisers and American allies about the risks associated with drawing down American forces to zero because he is “prioritizing politics and his legacy over and America’s national security interests.”

Thirteen US service members were killed in a bomb blast in Kabul during the evacuation.

“This was one of the most dangerous days in Afghanistan. It could have been prevented if the State Department had done its job legally and put in place an evacuation plan,” McCaul said. September 8 interview on “Face the Nation.”

During its investigation, the committee conducted 18 written interviews with Biden administration officials and obtained more than 20,000 pages of documents from the State Department, some obtained through subpoenas. Blinken was not among those testifying.

Democratic members of the Foreign Affairs Committee issued their own report that defended the Biden administration’s withdrawal amid rapidly changing circumstances. Meeks, the committee’s top Democrat, said most Republicans have taken “some pains to avoid facts involving former President Donald Trump.”

The Trump administration made an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from the country by May 2021. The agreement, known as the Doha Agreement, set out a series of conditions that must be met by the Taliban before US troops can withdraw from Afghanistan.

Last year, the State Department issued a partially released letter report that faulted both the Trump and Biden administrations for “inadequate” planning for the withdrawal.