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First up is Fox: A Republican congressman is arguing Secretary of State Antony Blinken Insisted the State Department did not prevent citizens from leaving Mazar-i-Sharif Air Base in Afghanistan during the frantic troop withdrawal.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote a letter demanding to know how many planes the State Department had blocked from leaving the Air Force base, who called for permission to take off and what the criteria were for approving flights. Stop flight delays and whether there was communication with the Taliban.
After withdrawalAccording to reports, 1,000 people, including Americans, were trapped at Mazar-i-Sharif Airport, waiting for permission for a charter flight to take off.
Many travel 400 miles from Kabul to get to airports in northern Afghanistan more quickly.
House Republicans release scathing report on Biden troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, wrote a letter demanding to know how many planes the State Department had prevented from leaving the Air Force base, which was obtained by Fox News Digital.
One flight organizer told Reuters the State Department failed to inform the Taliban that it approved the flight from Mazar-i-Sharif or to verify the landing site.
Davidson stated in the letter that when he and State Council, An official asked “which tail number” he was referring to, suggesting that more than one flight had not been authorized to take off and was delayed.
Colonel Francis Hoang, who was in charge of the Afghan evacuation with his Allied Airlift 21 group, told the Foreign Affairs Committee, “We spent three weeks hiding these nearly 400 people, no. Let the Taliban find out, let them live, and use American donor money to keep them alive.”
At a hearing last week, Davidson asked Blinken: “Is the State Department preventing U.S. citizens from traveling from Mazar-i-Sharif Airport in Afghanistan?”
“Absolutely not,” Blinken said.
“You know they’re blocked!” Davidson said.
“I would be happy to review any relevant information you have. As far as I know, no U.S. citizens have been blocked.”
Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft near Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan on Monday, Aug. 17, 2021. (Associated Press)
“I have emails. I have photos of U.S. citizens with blue passports waiting at the airport to depart with safe third country clearance, and that order was issued by the U.S. government. Right? State Department?” Davidson asked road.
Blinken’s testimony came after the committee voted along party lines to recommend that he be jailed for three months. contempt of parliamentwhen he refused to testify again on the 2021 troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Republicans released a lengthy report in September stressing that State Department officials had no plans to evacuate Americans and their allies while troops remained there to protect them.
Reports say that then-U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson ignored warnings from military officials of an imminent Taliban takeover and expanded the embassy’s footprint rather than sending personnel home.
“You ignored warnings of collapse from your own people,” Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul told Blinken.
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Blinken defends Biden administration’s Addressing the withdrawal, saying every American who wants to leave will have the opportunity to do so, thousands of Afghans have resettled internationally.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to call for the resignation of all senior officials “involved in the disaster in Afghanistan.”
Democrats, meanwhile, insist that the U.S. troop withdrawal deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban is to blame for the acrimonious end to the 20-year war.
