Eight Republican senators have written Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, demanding answers about the trove of biometric data reportedly captured by the Taliban towards the end of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.
The letter, which Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) posted on her site May 4, comes about four months after the Department of Defense (DOD) missed a deadline to produce a report on the estimated $85 billion in U.S. weaponry left in Afghanistan—including abandoned or destroyed biometric equipment or tools.
Blackburn and her colleagues questioned Blinken and Austin about reports from the non-profit group Human Rights Watch, which has alleged that the Taliban is using U.S. biometric tools to hunt down its enemies.
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