Statements from US President Joe Biden regarding the administration's intentions to maintain a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan not only backfired but proved to harm the evacuation efforts of staffers stationed at the US Embassy in Kabul, new findings by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
The report details how the embassy staffers spent significant resources preparing for the administration’s stated goals in the country. In fact, the stated position of the Biden White House was one of several issues with the withdrawal, the government watchdog revealed.
Because of the Biden administration’s assertion that the diplomatic mission in Afghanistan would continue even after US troops withdrew from the country, embassy staff spent “considerable efforts” planning projects increasing the defensive capabilities of the embassy, developing supply lines and creating other support platforms.
While embassy employees who would perform their tasks remotely were removed from Afghanistan as early as April, some staffers returned to the embassy, ultimately increasing the total number of employees who needed to be evacuated.
The plan to keep operating as normal also led to other staffing issues as embassy officials rotated out normally. This resulted in the senior regional security officer and two deputies being replaced in August with staff that had just arrived earlier that month or in July, despite a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
The consular chief and attending staff, responsible for issuing passports, visas and other documents to citizens and Afghan nationals, also left the country in early August and were replaced with newly arrived staff.
At least one embassy employee told inspectors that staff were reprimanded by the US ambassador for raising concerns about the security situation in the country. The report also notes the embassy feared overt evacuation orders would undermine support for the Afghan government and panic the Afghan population. When the order finally came, some staff reported hearing about it for the first time over the building’s loudspeaker.
Another issue contributing to the chaotic nature of the withdrawal was an incomplete list of US nationals in the country and a lack of guidance on which Afghans qualified for evacuation and no procedures were provided for evacuating locally employed staff.
In an attempt to rectify that situation, the department - at that point limited to Kabul’s airport, sent an email including “passes” and other documents to Afghan nationals eligible for evacuation; however, those emails were forwarded to “many other email addresses” by the Afghans, resulting in many more showing up to the airport than would have otherwise.
While not directly related to the chaotic nature of the withdrawal, the report also notes it was unable to verify the number of individuals evacuated from Afghanistan. Although it's noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed “approximately 124,000 individuals, including 6,000 US citizens” were evacuated, the department failed to provide any supporting documents despite the OIG making “multiple requests.”