Despite warnings that Kabul was in danger of collapsing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on vacation in the Hamptons just hours before the Taliban invaded the Afghan capital and overthrew the government, according to a report.
On the Friday afternoon before the fall of Kabul on August 15, many senior White House officials prepared to go on vacation after President Biden marched on his withdrawal from Camp David, according to the detailed schedule of the Washington Post on the Taliban capture.
Blinken headed to the Hamptons, according to the newspaper.
Her family has had a long presence in East Hampton, where Blinken’s father, Donald Blinken, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary under President Bill Clinton, has been living seasonally in Lily Pond Lane for about 50 years, he reported. East Hampton Star.
But Blinken and other senior Biden administration officials, who had been waiting for the Afghan government to stay for weeks, had to be called back to Washington, DC, when the insurgents came to power, according to the Washington Post.
Following the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif on August 13, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called for the immediate transfer of all U.S. embassy workers to Kabul airport, he reported. on departure an American official familiar with the call.
And the next evening, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani spoke by phone with Blinken, who called for the support of the besieged leader for a settlement with the Taliban between the United States in which they would stay out of the city if left unchecked. band while a provisional government took over. , the Washington Post reported.
Ghani soon fled the Afghan capital.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Ross Wilson’s staff continued to frantically destroy classified documents and equipment on the embassy grounds since Aug. 13, according to the newspaper, which obtained an internal note urging staff to use incinerators, disintegrators. and “burning containers.”
They were also ordered to destroy “American flags or items that could be misused in propaganda efforts,” the newspaper said.
Biden has been widely criticized for his handling of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the war-ravaged country after a prolonged 21-year presence and the events that led to the suicide that killed more than 180 people, including 13 members of the American service.
The terrorist group ISIS-K has been accused of carrying out the attack, which took place when US and allied forces moved to evacuate thousands from the airport.
