GOP-Led House Launches Probe Into Biden's "Absurd & Disgraceful" Botched Afghan Withdrawal 
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gop-...ghan-withdrawal
by Tyler Durden
Friday, Jan 13, 2023 - 05:40 PM

The Republican-led House has launched a formal probe into the Biden administration's chaotic and deadly Afghanistan troop withdrawal operation and evacuation of August 2021, which is to be complete with issuing subpoenas for US officials to undergo depositions, in order to gain a clear picture of what happened and the botched decision-making. This as there's still yet to be any level of accountability for officials that oversaw the disaster.

The Hill reports Friday, "Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who served as its ranking member previously, said the Biden administration has so far refused to hand over documents but that he is now formally requesting compliance as chair of the panel."

McCaul blasted the White House, saying "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."
Kabul airport blast aftermath, AFP via Getty Images

"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," he added.

A Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded the handing over of relevant intelligence assessments, and internal agency documents, as well as any communications with either the Afghan government or Taliban that occurred in the lead-up to and during the withdrawal.

It was among the most disastrous withdrawals from a foreign conflict theatre of US troops in American history, which closed a 20-year long. increasingly unpopular occupation. At the time, widespread comparisons were made with the April 1979 fall of Saigon and its images of American helicopters landing on the rooftop of the US embassy to evacuate desperate personnel and their families.

13 US troops died as a result of a terror attack targeting a gate at Kabul international airport. Additionally about 170 Afghans died, as they had been crowded up against the gate that US Marines were manning.

Other countries, notably China and Russia widely mocked the US and Pentagon for its handling of the Afghanistan pullout...-- excerpt, rest at link above --

Lack of US planning, accountability led to collapse of Afghan forces, Taliban takeover, IG report
https://justthenews.com/government/secur...m_campaign=twjs
The Afghan military's "eventual collapse ... was predictable," the watchdog wrote.
By Madeleine Hubbard
Updated: February 28, 2023 - 12:59pm



The United States government's lack of planning and accountability contributed to the collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and enabled the Taliban in taking over in summer 2021 to scavenger some of the $7 billion in U.S. equipment left behind, according to a new inspector general report.

The 148-page report published Tuesday by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko also states the Taliban used the left-behind equipment to hunt down former Afghan service members.

Sopkos in her report also said the Afghan military's "eventual collapse ... was predictable."

The government watchdog group said the U.S. and Afghan governments are each responsible for the military's collapse in August 2021 as the Taliban took over Afghanistan upon the U.S. withdrawal.

"Most significantly, the United States lacked the organizational, agency-level, and inter-agency doctrine, policies, and dedicated resources to initiate the wholesale development of another nation’s army," the report states.

The Afghan government was dominated by corruption, due "to a lack of accountability and oversight by the United States," the report also states.

The inspector general interviewed 40 people for the report, and found that the Taliban is using sensitive U.S. identification equipment to find former Afghan military members.

"The Taliban are using biometric devises [sic] to detect and find former [Afghan service members]. They take fingerprints and if there is a match, they take the individual to the police station," one unidentified former Afghan military intelligence officer said.

The former officer also said that the Taliban search the homes of former service members and, "if they cannot find the individual they will go after their family members. They punish their family until the person they are looking for surrenders." -- excerpt, rest at link above --

I think we knew all of this.

Quote: Sanguine wrote in post #3

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I think we knew all of this.

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