U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led seven of her Republican colleagues in questioning the State and Defense departments about a disclosure that the Taliban is using biometric data left behind by the United States during its withdrawal from Afghanistan to target American allies who remain in the war-torn nation.
The sensitive data reportedly contained iris scans, fingerprints, photographs, occupational data, home addresses, and the names of relatives of Afghan citizens who aided the U.S., according to an April 28 letter the senators sent to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“As the world focuses its attention to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Taliban is using this personal information to increase targeted killings, torture and forced disappearances of Afghans who helped the United States,” wrote the lawmakers, who included U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and John Thune (R-SD).
The senators noted that the Taliban will continue to target the vulnerable with equipment and information that the U.S. left behind in Afghanistan and requested that the secretaries respond to several questions to establish transparency and clear expectations, according to their letter.
For instance, Sen. Blackburn and her colleagues want to know if the reports about the abandoned data are true; what the policies and procedures are for governing when and how the U.S. collects such sensitive data about individuals working with the American military around the globe; and what steps the administration will take to improve its data collection and retention policies to ensure a similar situation doesn’t happen in the future.
“We owe these Afghans who aided the U.S. military a debt of gratitude,” they wrote. “We should show them that we will not forget their service and will not ignore their sacrifices for a better and freer Afghanistan.”