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Blinken Gets Subpoenaed as Military Officers Testify
There Was No Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan
JUL 30, 2023 9:00 AM BY DANIEL GREENFIELD
Rep. McCaul signed the subpoena with a pen from the family of a Marine killed at Kabul airport.
The State Department finally issued its official ‘what happened in Afghanistan’ report that mostly absolved it of responsibility while suppressing dissenting materials. Congress has been trying to get hold of those even while State keeps stonewalling. Now Congress is beginning to lose its patience.
US House foreign affairs committee chairman Michael McCaul on Tuesday subpoenaed the State Department in a bid to obtain documents related to its Afghanistan withdrawal report, accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of “obstruction”.
Mr McCaul said in a statement that the subpoena was delivered directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday morning for the “Afghanistan AAR files” – the collection of underlying documents used to produce the State Department’s After-Action Review.
“The committee has been forced, by the department’s obstruction, to issue a subpoena,” Mr McCaul said.
Meanwhile, at the hearing on Afghanistan, military leaders testified that there was no plan. Family members of those lost in Afghanistan were present.
“There was very little intelligence to suggest the Biden administration’s plan would work and a mountain range of evidence to suggest the plan would fail,” retired Col. Seth Krummrich, former chief of staff for special operations at U.S. Central Command, testified on Thursday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The president’s decision to ignore the best military advice and execute an immediate military withdrawal was a shock and a rude awakening for all the planners.”
Another senior military leader, Command Sergeant Major Jacob Smith, warned State Department officials in the months leading up to September 2021 that Kabul International Airport—the eventual site of a terror bombing that killed 13 service members—was not equipped to handle a mass exodus of Americans. But the administration refused to shift the evacuation to the more secure Bagram Air Base, which had been shut down by the time of the withdrawal.
Bagram, Smith revealed, “had a completely secured airfield that would require a massive military offensive to overrun or breach.” Kabul airport, on the other hand, was surrounded by a city of 4.4 million residents and not even completely controlled by U.S. forces, presenting a host of security challenges.
Bagram also had “the mechanical capability to destroy sensitive equipment on an industrial scale in a short time,” while Kabul airport “did not,” according to Smith. If the State Department had chosen Bagram as the site of its evacuation, the military likely could have destroyed much of $7.2 billion in sensitive military equipment that was left behind and ultimately seized by the Taliban.
“I advised the embassy team against using” the Kabul airport, Smith said, noting that the State Department initially agreed with his assessment. However, officials back in Washington, D.C., ordered the base be shut down by early July 2021. “It is my understanding that those in [U.S.] embassy did not think that Taliban would advance to take Kabul.”
By August, a month before the full-scale evacuation effort, Kabul airport was left mostly undefended.
“An area once protected by hundreds of soldiers and contractors was now protected by 113 American soldiers,” Smith said, as the families of several soldiers killed in the September terrorist bombing wept behind him. “This was the only force left in Afghanistan.”
The State Department insisted on dispensing with the military’s role and maintaining a civilian diplomatic presence, fantasizing that some sort of Taliban-Government coalition would peacefully come together.
Was there a plan? Not so much.
So you can see why Secretary of State Blinken’s only plan is obstruction and more obstruction.
EU ready to strengthen cooperation with Philippines
on maritime security
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday the European Union was ready to strengthen cooperation with the Philippines on maritime security.
Issued on: 31/07/2023 - 06:22
Text by: NEWS WIRES
© Johanna Gern, Reuters
She was speaking after a meeting with Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Manila.
"We are ready to strengthen the cooperation with the Philippines on maritime security in the region by sharing information, conducting threat assessment and building the capacity of your coast guard," she said in a joint statement with Marcos.
The Philippines is a fulcrum of the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China, with its maritime territory encompassing part of the South China Sea, a strategic and resource-rich waterway over which China also claims sovereignty.
The leaders also discussed relaunching negotiations for a free trade agreement and the Southeast Asian country's energy transition.
I'm curious as to why the EU is getting involved in the security of a country halfway around the world when it has enough to worry about in its own backyard? Is this an attempt to put Europe in the middle of the growing troubles between America and China? If so, why? Is von der Leyen setting the Philippines up as a potential market for EU weapons manufacturers? Will it be the site of the next major war? Taiwan is too small for a major prolonged war, which is all the rage these days.
(REUTERS)
Many Western countries are justifying their sending of munitions to Ukraine as being for the defence of the country. Attacking Moscow is not a defensive action. Whoever is providing Kiev with drones to attack Russia is in a rather precarious position right now.
Ukraine hits Moscow with drone strikes, Zelensky claims war
'returning to Russia'
By Joe Fisher
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war is "gradually returning to Russia's territory,"
during an address on Sunday. Photo by Ukrainian President Press Office/ UPI | License Photo
July 30 (UPI) -- The Russian Defense Ministry claims that it intercepted three Ukrainian drones in Moscow on Sunday.
Russia's state news agency reports that two high-rise buildings, including a 50-story building in western Moscow, were hit with a drone strike, according to CNN. The fifth and sixth stories of the 50-story building were damaged and no casualties have been reported.
"Ukraine is getting stronger, and the war is gradually returning to Russia's territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases," said Zelensky. "This is an inevitable, natural, and absolutely fair."
Ukraine has not taken direct responsibility for the attack.
The attack briefly caused the Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to shut down, the BBC reports.
The drone strike is the latest in Ukraine's effort to turn the tides of the war toward Russia, bringing the fighting closer to home for Russian citizens. On Friday Ukraine launched an attack on a bridge in Chonhar and bombed a Russian supply route to southern Ukraine, Politico reports.
An alleged Ukrainian missile struck Taganrog in the Rostov region of Russia on Thursday, injuring 16 people, regional governor Chekhov Sad posted on Telegram. Ten were hospitalized and one was said to be in "severe" condition. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for this attack either.
Earlier this month Russia blamed another drone attack in Moscow on Ukraine. Three drones were neutralized in that attack as well.
China says Taiwan is turning into a 'powder keg' and
'ammunition depot'
By Adam Schrader
Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of People in Beijing in October 2022.
File Photo by Li Xueren/XINHUA/EPA-EFE
July 30 (UPI) -- Chinese officials on Saturday accused politicians in Taiwan of turning the self-governed island into a "powder keg" and "ammunition depot" with the support of the United States.
Chen Binhua, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said in a statement that members of Taiwan's nationalist Democratic Progressive Party are "stubbornly adhering" to the separatist stance of independence.
Taiwan is "constantly begging" the U.S. and to sell it weapons and provide military assistance while strengthening military ties, Binhua said.
"What they are doing is turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot and aggravating the danger of war in the Taiwan Strait," Binhua said. The Taiwan Strait is a waterway that separates mainland China and Taiwan.
"If the DPP is allowed to go down this path, young people will only become cannon fodder," Binhua said.
Yeah! But think of all the weapons the West can sell! Who cares if a few million Taiwanese get wiped out? Certainly not the West.
Binhua added that China, officially the People's Republic of China, remains "firmly against" the United States providing weapons to what he called "China's Taiwan region."
"No matter how much tax money the DPP authorities and the separatist forces for Taiwan independence spend on the people of Taiwan and how many U.S. weapons they buy, they will not be able to shake our firm will to resolve the Taiwan issue and realize the complete reunification of the motherland," he said.
"And, they will not be able to withstand our strong strength to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Mainland China and the island of Taiwan, among other islands, were ruled by the Republic of China before the ROC lost the Chinese Civil War in the early 20th century to the Chinese Communist Party, which established the new government of the People's Republic of China in October 1949. (Under Chairman Mao Zedong).
The ROC in turn established a temporary capital in Taipei on the island of Taiwan, a former Japanese territory, in December 1949 that served as the seat for China at the United Nations until it was replaced by the People's Republic of China in 1971 when foreign countries switched their diplomatic relations.
China views Taiwan and its 23 million residents as a wayward province and has vowed to retake it by force, if necessary. Many supporters of Taiwan have since argued that it is already an independent sovereign state separate from mainland China, which has never controlled Taiwan.
Last year, tensions between China and the United States over the Taiwan issue started to grow after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the wayward province sparking a military response from the Chinese government and increased drills in the Taiwan Strait.
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