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WASHINGTON :
The State Division’s inner watchdog has knowledgeable U.S. lawmakers that it has begun to research coverage planning behind the suspension of operations on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, main as much as the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August.
The division’s Workplace of the Inspector Normal will evaluation the State Division’s Particular Immigrant Visa program for Afghanistan, its processing and resettlement of refugees for admissions into the U.S., and the emergency evacuation of U.S. residents and Afghan nationals, based on a letter reviewed by The Wall Avenue Journal.
On Aug. 12, the U.S. introduced that it could quickly deploy hundreds of troops to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan to evacuate personnel from the embassy in Kabul, chopping the scale of the diplomatic presence because the Taliban superior towards the Afghan capital.
The U.S. troop drawdown become an emergency evacuation mission for the U.S. and plenty of of its international companions based mostly in Afghanistan, in addition to Afghans who served these governments, because the Taliban rolled into Kabul on Aug. 15 seizing management after the U.S.-backed authorities collapsed and its president fled.
The evaluation represents at the least the second company probe into the Afghan withdrawal. The Pentagon is investigating an Aug. 29 drone strike that mistakenly killed 10 civilians, together with seven kids.
The State Division has drawn criticism from lawmakers for not shifting rapidly sufficient to course of Afghans who aided U.S. forces below the Particular Immigrant Visa program, which permits them to enter the U.S.
In June 2020, the State Division inspector common stated in a report that the Division’s staffing ranges for the SIV program had remained fixed since 2016 “and are inadequate to cut back the SIV applicant backlog.”
The chaotic nature of the evacuation, which compelled the U.S. to proceed efforts to extricate stranded People and Afghans even after the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline, has raised the prospect of litigation and different investigations into the Biden administration’s withdrawal plans. Politico reported earlier on the State Division inspector common’s letter to Congress.
The Division of Protection has requested its personal personnel to protect any related “paperwork, writings, texts, emails, footage, movies and voice messages and any related attachments” regarding the army’s Afghanistan operations, based on a letter, reviewed by the Journal, from Protection Division Normal Counsel Caroline Krass.
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