The House Oversight and Accountability Committee is expanding its inquiry into the Biden administration’s deadly military pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021.
The committee sent letters to senior leadership at the White House, Department of Defense (DOD), Department of State, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Agency for International Development, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff demanding any documents relating to the military and diplomatic pullout from Afghanistan by the Biden administration.
Oversight Committee Republicans have been looking for details on the Afghanistan debacle since August 2021, but the Biden administration has reportedly continued to block legislative and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) oversight.
“We are concerned that the Biden administration continues to delay long overdue transparency to the American people about the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal and evacuation,” the lawmakers wrote.
Republicans called it “unacceptable” that the Afghan War Commission, which was formed in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), has yet to meet and will not submit a report for three years.
Their letters are in response to a variety of acts made by Republicans during the previous Congress. Republicans claim they have not gotten a “substantive response” from the Biden administration after issuing over 10 distinct requests for papers and information.
Republicans are demanding new information and documents from agency heads by March 3, including contingency plans for the withdrawal, inter-agency records, communications with NATO leaders about troop drawdown, the posture of terrorist organizations in the months leading up to the withdrawal, and information on the closure of Bagram Airfield, among other things.
The Pentagon responded to The Epoch Times’s request for comment on the letter by saying. “As with all correspondence he receives, Secretary Austin will reply to the author of the letter,” but said they didn’t have further comment on the subject.
“The Biden Administration was tragically unprepared for the Afghanistan withdrawal and their decisions in the region directly resulted in a national security and humanitarian catastrophe,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said, according to the committee’s press release.
“U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, Americans were abandoned, taxpayer dollars are unaccounted for, the Taliban gained access to military equipment, progress for Afghan women was derailed, and the entire area is now under hostile Taliban control.
“The American people deserve answers and the Biden administration’s ongoing obstruction of this investigation is unacceptable. With the power of the gavel, Oversight Republicans are determined to provide answers, transparency, and accountability. Every relevant department and agency should be prepared to cooperate and provide all requested information. The American people expect nothing less.”