AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL – MILLIONS OF $$$, CLASSIFIED INFO, BIOMETRIC DATA LEFT FOR THE TALIBAN
Tuesday, September 17th, 2024
Millions of Dollars, Classified Information, and Biometric Data: Inside What the Biden-Harris Admin Left Behind in Afghanistan
House Foreign Affairs report, three years in the making, details scope of security failures
The report, published Monday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, provides previously unknown details about the scope of cash and sensitive information left behind when the United States left Afghanistan in a rushed evacuation that left hundreds of Americans stranded and 13 service members dead.
Because of these security failures, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is now “a hotbed of terrorist activities.” But the Biden-Harris administration has not conducted a single anti-terrorism operation in the country since 2021, suggesting the withdrawal severely hindered the military’s ability to target militants operating in the country.
The sheer scale of the administration’s failure to plan for a catastrophe is the centerpiece of the House committee’s report, which is more than three years in the making. Investigators determined through scores of interviews and subpoenaed documents that, in addition to leaving classified information, millions in cash, and around $7 billion in military hardware, the State Department had “no idea if people being evacuated [from the country] were threats.”
In one security lapse documented by the House committee, a U.S. evacuation plane leaving the country included potential terror threats.
