Commander in charge of Kabul evacuation slams the White House and Jill Biden for being a 'distraction' during chaos: Claims high-profile pestering for special favors to get allies out slowed military down

 Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top U.S. commander in Kabul during the evacuation, said that the withdrawal was made more chaotic by people like First Lady Jill Biden, Pope Francis, the White House and Congress calling in for special favors to help get out certain people. 

Vasely said the Pentagon was being pulled in all different directions from Biden officials, lawmakers, members of the media and even the Vatican as it carried out the largest evacuation since Vietnam ahead of the Taliban takeover. 

He called the requests a 'distraction' that created competition for 'already stressed resources.' 

Vasely's declassified remarks, made public by a FOIA request from the Washington Post, came during testimony for a U.S. Army investigation into the Aug. 26 suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians. 

The Pentagon's standard priority had been to first evacuate American citizens, then lawful permanent residents, then Afghans who aided the U.S. throughout the war.  

Demands poured in to the U.S. operations center in Kabul through emails, text messages and phone calls in such a high volume that Vasely, a Navy SEAL, felt the need to take certain forces away from the established rescue plan to form a 'coordination cell' to work on the special requests from Washington and beyond. 

'You had everyone from the White House down with a new flavor of the day for prioritization,' Vasely told Army investigators. 

The 2,000 page report, which contains dozens of interviews with military officials and details the evacuation from Aug. 15-31, reveals the deep frustrations the Pentagon had with the Biden administration's handling of the crisis.  

The Army's lead investigator, Brig. Gen. Lance Curtis, asked Vasely whether it was true that First Lady Jill Biden and Pope Francis had called in to seek help for specific people who were in harm's way. 

US President Joe Biden looks down alongside First Lady Jill Biden as they attend the dignified transfer of the remains of a fallen service member at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, Aug. 29

Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit fly to Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 17

A U.S. Marine carries a girl to the gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 20

'That's accurate,' Vasely confirmed 'I was being contacted by representatives from the Holy See to assist the Italian military contingent … in getting through groups … of special interest to the Vatican. That is just one of many examples.

'I cannot stress enough,' the admiral added, 'how these high-profile requests ate up bandwidth and created competition for already stressed resources.'

A Post report earlier this week revealed the frustrations at the Pentagon as the White House and State Department failed to prepare the embassy for evacuations in the weeks preceding Kabul's fall. 

But the Biden administration has defended its planning for the withdrawal. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week that the National Security Council had been meeting for months to discuss to assess the situation and plan for contingencies if an emergency erupted. 

White House officials have insisted they had planned for all possible outcomes, but that no one had expected the Afghan armed forces to collapse so fast. 

Ross Wilson, the acting U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, wanted to maintain a diplomatic presence and said the U.S. could not preserve influence without an embassy, according to Vasely.

The Taliban was making rapid gains - taking as many as 10 districts a day, according to an unnamed official, who said: 'The embassy needed to position for withdrawal, and the ambassador didn’t get it.'

Administration officials also expressed concerns that sounding the alarm would trigger panic, the rapid departure of other nations and the collapse of the government in Kabul.

Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Farrell J. Sullivan said dealing with the embassy was 'like pulling teeth' until early August, when the reality hit home.

And a meeting with a National Security Council official on Aug. 6 prompted him to say that, 'the NSC was not seriously planning for an evacuation.'

Once the Taliban took control of the city, U.S. troops reportedly went room to room in the embassy on Aug. 15 telling people to get ready to leave.

The evacuations succeeded in getting out 124,000 people before it ended midnight on Aug. 31,  but the U.S. was forced to make an unusual security deal with the Taliban, even as terrorist group ISIS-K was able to carry out a deadly attack. 

The Biden administration initially said that only 100 American citizens who wanted to leave had been left behind, but changed that number numerous times. Officials eventually said that 450 left after the evacuation concluded with American help. 

And when it became clear that U.S. forces were swamped and some who had Taliban targets on their back would be left behind, volunteer groups stepped in to get people out on their own. 

'Just about every volunteer group can tell you stories about lawmakers and other people with authority calling and saying, "You need to get my guy out,"' said Scott Mann, founder of Task Force Pineapple, a private group that helped more than 800 escape Taliban rule. 

Last week the Pentagon revealed the results of its investigation into the airport suicide bombing. It said the attack was carried out by a lone suicide bomber, and was not a complex attack - with gunmen and a bomb - as previously thought.

The attack brought a tragic conclusion to the hurried U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and has cast a long shadow over the Biden administration ever since.

Briefing reporters on their findings, investigators said the explosion sent 5mm ball bearings through a packed crowd and that the attack could not have been prevented.

But they also said British, American and Taliban representatives had discussed closing the Abbey Gate - where the blast happened - just 36 minutes before the attack.

They kept it open because there were still evacuees trying to get to the airport.

And the investigators released never before seen footage of the moment the bomb exploded and drone video of the immediate aftermath.