GOP Rep. Michael McCaul tells State Dept. to keep Afghanistan pullout records
By Caitlin Doornbos
October 17, 2022 7:01pm
WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers have asked the State Department to preserve documents and renewed a long-ignored request that the agency make 34 federal employees available to testify about last year’s chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In a Friday letter, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “remind all department employees and officials of their legal responsibilities to collect, retain, and preserve documents, communications and other records” related to congressional requests for information about the withdrawal issued since Aug. 1, 2021.
“This … [is] an instruction to preserve all documents, communications and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that is or may be potentially responsive to a future Congressional inquiry, request, investigation or subpoena,” McCaul wrote. “Please note, we plan to request further documents regarding specific and troubling activities that have come to the minority’s attention.”
In the same letter, McCaul renewed prior requests for information regarding the “disastrous” evacuation “for which we have not received satisfactory responses,” including a Nov. 14, 2021 ask that the department make 34 State Department and USAID workers available for transcribed interviews about the evacuation.
“No one has yet been made available,” he said, noting it appears the request was “ignored.”
The move is the latest push by Republicans for more information and accountability for the botched bugout, during which 13 US troops died and dozens more were injured in an ISIS-K attack four days before the mission ended on Aug. 30.
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https://nypost.com/2022/10/17/gop-rep-michael-mccaul-tells-state-dept-to-keep-afghanistan-pullout-records/
