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Afghanistan: Russia sends humanitarian aid to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (77WABC) — The top U.S. Commander in Kabul during the evacuation of Afghanistan says the withdrawal was made even more chaotic due to special requests to evacuate certain people.
According to Rear Admiral Peter Vasely, making the special requests were First Lady Jill biden, Pope Francis, the White House and Congress, calling the requests a distraction on already strained 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.
“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 frustrations the Pentagon had with the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis.
The Biden administration has defended its withdrawal plan. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said 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.
