Let's circle back, Jen? Declassified Pentagon report says Biden WAS dangerously indecisive about Afghan withdrawal - despite Psaki claiming on Friday report did NOT exist
Joe Biden's dithering withdrawal from Afghanistan has been blamed for worsening the chaos on the ground and putting American lives at risk by a newly-declassified US intelligence report.
Newly-released papers compiled in the aftermath of the August withdrawal found that deadly chaos was only made worse due to indecisiveness among officials with the Biden administration officials in Washington D.C.
Their reluctance to close down the U.S. embassy in Kabul only added to the confusion and made the mission even more dangerous, according to the damning documents.
Three weeks after the final planeload of soldiers were back in the U.S., two 'after action' reports were compiled by American officials with Central Command.
On Friday, the very existence of this encyclopedic, 2,000 page report was denied by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, eager to downplay any remarks made by U.S. commanders.
Two declassified reports from the U.S. military into Kabul withdrawal details frustration with White House and State Department throughout the process and complete chaos on the ground. Pictured, Afghans struggle to reach the foreign forces to show their credentials to flee the country outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, 26 August 2021. At least 13 people including children were killed in a blast outside the airport
A U.S. Marine carries a girl to the gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport, August 20
President Joe Biden speaks with his national security team during a briefing on the situation in Afghanistan, on August 22, 2021, in the White House Situation Room in Washington, DC
They served only to confirm the various accounts of U.S. commanders who were on the ground in Afghanistan who described their frustrations as both sloppy and mismanaged.
The Washington Post says military leaders blame the White House and State Department who completely underestimated how fast the Taliban would regain control of the country and put off preparing evacuation plans for Kabul with just weeks until the deadline.
Biden and his team had anticipated Kabul would take weeks or even months to fall, but the Taliban wrested back control within hours.
The 'after-action' report also takes a look at one of the worst incidents during the evacuation, the August 26 suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport's Abbey Gate which killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members.
The attack was carried out by a lone Islamic State operative who had rigged a bomb with ball bearings in order to cause maximum carnage right outside the airport.
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, August 29
The report, some 2,000 pages in length, comprises of dozens of witness interviews, findings of fact, together with official government records.
The Post describes is as 'the most extensive, unvarnished account to date of the United States' 17-day race to end its longest war' with the documents revealing the military's frustration with the White House and diplomats over the evacuation.
But on Friday, the very existence of this encyclopedic report was denied by White House press secretary Jen Psaki, eager to downplay any remarks made by U.S. commanders.
'I think it's important for people to understand that there was no after-action report,' Psaki told reporters in the White House briefing room.
A National Security Council official speaking anonymously said that Psaki was in fact referring to an even more comprehensive review which is said to be forthcoming and will shed even more detail on the American's pullout.
'Many people have wrongly conflated the Abbey Gate report and documents released to The Washington Post with the Pentagon's after-action review of Afghanistan — a broad report that will examine the final months of America's longest war, beginning in February 2020,' the official said.
Marines assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit fly to Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 17
During the second half of August 2021, more than 120,000 people were flown from Kabul
U.S. Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, arrives at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 17, 2021, in advance of the withdrawal
Psaki said last 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.
Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, prepares to board a C-17 cargo plane at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, on Monday, August 30, 2021, as the final American service member to depart
Senior military officials are said to have only recently have been briefed over the conclusions reached in the report at the Pentagon on February 4.
During an interview on NBC News last week, President Biden said he was 'rejecting' critical accounts from U.S. commanders about the Afghanistan evacuation.
The information contained in the after-action reviews is said to have come U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Forward, the military headquarters that oversaw the withdrawal, and Joint Task Force-Crisis Response, a unit led by the U.S. Marine Corps that was involved
Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top U.S. commander in Kabul during the evacuation, said that the withdrawal chaotic
U.S. troops would have been 'much better prepared to conduct a more orderly evacuation if policymakers had paid attention to the indicators of what was happening on the ground', Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, who was among the Commanders responsible for coordinating the evacuation said in his report.
As the Afghan government in Kabul collapsed on August 15 at the Taliban began to slowly take over the various provinces before encircling Kabul, only 600 U.S. troops were left on the ground in order to provide security for the diplomats.
The crisis was so bad that an additional deployment of 5,000 additional U.S. troops was required in order to safely evacuate some 124,000 to safety.
An investigation into the attack on Kabul airport found that the US dead and wounded were close to the canal where the bomber detonated his explosives, and had clustered together to search potential evacuees. The worst hit were standing on a wall overlooking the canal
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 at the Abbey Gate.
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.
Vasely states that the evacuation was so rushed, it left the U.S. with about 12 hours to clear the embassy.
In a second after-action analysis that also focuses on the Abbey Gate bombing, states reveals how U.S. Marines at Kabul airport were completely overrun as tens of thousands of Afghan citizens dashed to terminal, in the hope of making a getaway.
'While considered in the planning phase, the scope and scale of the desperation population was not fully appreciated,' the report states.
The State Department also says that messages sent to potential evacuees were completely at odd with the reality of the situation on the ground at the aiport.
The report warns that for all future evacuations, plans must be put in place in advance at all levels with the Defense and State Departments 'planning, cooperating and endeavoring to stick to the plan.'
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