Biden-Harris admin prioritized ‘optics’ of Afghanistan withdrawal ‘over the security of US personnel,’ ‘directly lied’ to Americans: report

Over the course of three years, the committee, led by McCaul, conducted a "thorough investigation into the US withdrawal from Afghanistan." Among the five primary conclusions from the investigation was that the administration "prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of US personnel on the ground. For that reason, they failed to plan for all contingencies, including a noncombatant emergency evacuation (NEO) and refused to order a NEO until after the Taliban had already entered Kabul."

The 354-page report stated that senior administration officials were "willfully blind to warnings" about the situation on the ground presented to them by US military personnel, US intelligence assessments, American and international media reports, and State Department personnel in Kabul. "Instead, they consistently prioritized the optics of maintaining a large US embassy presence over the safety of embassy personnel."

The committee’s investigation found that senior State Department and National Security Council officials "equated a NEO with failure," and that this partially explained "the decision to keep Embassy Kabul open no matter the cost and their refusal to plan for a NEO."

"Indeed, testimony obtained by the committee reveals the administration failed to even contemplate a plan for a NEO with the Taliban in control of the country. This failure is inexcusable in light of warnings from Embassy Kabul personnel and the Defense Department that a Taliban takeover was imminent following the military withdrawal," the report stated.

Following the order to remove troops from Biden, "only two interagency rehearsal of concept (ROC) drills were conducted, and the embassy did not fully engage in NEO planning until August 6th — a little more than a week prior to the fall of Kabul," the report stated.

"In viewing a NEO as failure, Ambassador [Ross] Wilson ignored triggers set by the Defense Department and refused to call the NEO until August 15th — as the Taliban were marching into Kabul and three days after the US embassy began transferring staff to [Hamid Karzai International Airport]." The report stated that evidence gathered by the committee pointed to Wilson, Chief of Mission to US Embassy Kabul, as being "a key figure in the unwillingness to properly plan for a NEO."

"The concern that a NEO equated to failure was a consistent theme in the administration’s approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal. As a result, some in the administration — especially leaders within the NSC and the State Department — were loathe to plan for one. A State Department employee told After Action Review interviewers that those at the department did not want to use the word NEO and it was seen as "taboo."

Brigadier General Sullivan said that attempts to talk to embassy leadership in early August 2021 about possible evacuations was "like pulling teeth," with a US military officer saying, "We had [an] ad hoc meeting with the Embassy but they didn’t want to talk about [a] NEO."

The administration also "misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal, from before the go-to-zero order until today. This coverup included mid-level administration officials all the way up to the Oval Office," the report stated, adding that the investigation revealed the National Security Council and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan "were of the source of the majority of that misinformation campaign."

"There is one primary party responsible withholding or misrepresenting critical information to the American public: the NSC led by NSA Sullivan. Throughout the course of the majority’s investigation, multiple witnesses have pointed to the NSC as leading not only the interagency coordination, but also the decision-making and day-to-day operations of the withdrawal," the report stated.

Citing testimony from former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the report stated that she "conceded she received her talking points on the situation in Afghanistan directly from the NSC press team, who coordinated messaging across agencies. Further, she testified that she engaged directly with NSA Sullivan when questions arose. For this reason, the committee requested NSA Sullivan appear publicly before this committee, so the public can learn why it was kept in the dark or misled on so many key issues." This request was refused.