FIRST ON FOX: A Republican congressman is disputing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s insistence that the State Division didn’t block residents from leaving Mazar-i-Sharif Airbase in Afghanistan throughout the frenzied withdrawal.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote a letter, obtained by Fox Information Digital, demanding to know what number of planes the State Division blocked from leaving the airbase, who made the decision on whether or not to clear flights for takeoff, what the factors for blocking delaying flights was and whether or not there had been communication with the Taliban.
Following the withdrawal, studies emerged that 1,000 individuals, together with People, had been caught at Mazar-i-Sharif Airport awaiting clearance for his or her constitution flights to go away.
Many had made the 400-mile trek from Kabul to have the ability to get out extra shortly on the airport in northern Afghanistan.
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Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote a letter, obtained by Fox Information Digital, demanding to know what number of planes the State Division blocked from leaving the airbase.
One flight organizer instructed Reuters the State Division had failed to inform the Taliban of its approval for flight departures in Mazar-i-Sharif or validate a touchdown web site.
Davidson mentioned within the letter that when he was in talks with the State Division, an official requested him “which tail quantity” he was referring to, insinuating multiple flight had not acquired authorization to take off and been delayed.
Col. Francis Hoang, who labored on Afghanistan evacuations along with his group Allied Airlift 21, instructed the Overseas Affairs Committee, “We spent three weeks hiding these almost 400 individuals from the Taliban, retaining them alive and fed utilizing funds from American donors.”
Throughout a listening to final week, Davidson requested Blinken, “Did the State Division block Americans from departing from the airfield in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan?”
“Completely not,” mentioned Blinken.
“You realize they had been blocked!” mentioned Davidson.
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“I would be joyful to have a look at any data you’ve on that. I am not conscious of any Americans who had been blocked.”
Lots of of individuals collect close to a U.S. Air Drive C-17 transport airplane at a fringe on the worldwide airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Aug. 17, 2021. (AP)
“I’ve the emails. I’ve the pictures of American, blue passport-holding Americans who had been on the airfield awaiting departure that acquired clearance for secure third nations to depart to, and the order got here down from america authorities. Was it the State Division?” Davidson requested.
Blinken’s testimony got here three months after the committee voted alongside social gathering strains to advocate he be held in contempt of Congress, when he refused to look to testify once more concerning the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Republicans launched a prolonged report in September highlighting how State Division officers had no plan for getting People and allies out whereas there have been nonetheless troops there to guard them.
The report claimed that Ross Wilson, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan on the time, grew the embassy’s footprint as an alternative of sending personnel residence regardless of warnings from navy officers {that a} Taliban takeover was imminent.
“You ignored warnings of collapse from your individual personnel,” Overseas Affairs Chair Michael McCaul instructed Blinken.
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Blinken defended the Biden administration’s dealing with of the withdrawal, saying each American who needed to go away had been given the chance to take action and hundreds of Afghans have been resettled internationally.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to ask for the resignation of each senior official “who touched the Afghanistan calamity.”
Democrats, in the meantime, insist the blame for the 20-year warfare’s acrimonious finish lies with a deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban for U.S. withdrawal.
