by Sebastian Hughes
The State Department’s inspector general will investigate the Biden administration’s diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, a spokesperson confirmed with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The series of investigations will tackle a range of issues, from the State Department’s Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, to the processing of Afghans who applied for refugee admission into the U.S, to the resettlement of those refugees and visa recipients, according to an Oct. 15 action memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken first obtained by Politico.
It will also evaluate the emergency evacuation of U.S citizens and Afghan nationals from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after the Taliban took over the capital, Politico reported.
Diana Shaw, the department’s acting inspector general, said her office was beginning “several oversight projects” concerning the conclusion of the U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan in a separate letter to top lawmakers obtained by Politico. Congress as a whole was notified in another letter on Monday.
“Given the elevated interest in this work by Congress and the unique circumstances requiring coordination across the Inspector General community, I wanted to notify our committees of jurisdiction of this important work,” Shaw wrote to multiple committee leaders in both chambers.
Mark Huffman, a spokesperson for the State Office of the Inspector General, confirmed it had notified the committees of its plans in a statement to the DCNF.
“This work will be conducted in coordination with other members of the IG community,” he said. “We have no additional information to share at this time and Acting IG Shaw is not scheduled to provide a briefing on this work.”
The inspector general offices of other departments, such as the Defense Department and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, will likely launch their own investigations, Politico reported. The Pentagon has already announced three reviews related to the evacuation.
The State Department is set to resume evacuations for the remaining Americans in Afghanistan, as well as some Afghans, such as SIV applicants, by the end of the year, a senior State Department official told The Wall Street Journal. The effort will require coordination with the Taliban.
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Sebastian Hughes is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
