taliban continued as relentless march on remote outposts, checkpoints, villages and districts as well as some of the major roads connecting the cities. by january of 2021. the taliban was in its strongest military position since 911. and we had the smallest number of us forces in afghanistan since 2001 as a result, upon taking office. president biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating had he not followed through on a speed assessors commitment attacks on our forces and those of our lives would have resumed. and the taliban nationwide assault on afghanistan major cities would have commenced. that would have required sending substantially more us forces into afghanistan to defend ourselves and to prevent a taliban take over, taking casualties. and with it best, the prospect of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck in afghanistan under fire indefinitely. there is no

evidence that staying longer would have made the f can security forces, or the african government any more resilient or self sustaining. if 20 years, hundreds of billions of dollars and support equipment training did not suffice. why would another year? another 5, another 10. conversely, there is nothing strategic competitors like china and russia, or adversaries like ran and or 3 and would have like more and for the united states to re up a 20 year war and remain bog down in afghanistan for another decade. in advance of the president's decision, i was in constant contact with our allies and partners to hear their views and fax them into our thinking. when the president announced the withdrawal nato immediately and unanimously embraced it, we all set to work together on the drawdown. similar, we were intensely focused on the safety of americans and can stand in march. we

began urging them to leave the country. in total between march and august, we sent 19 specific messages without warning, as well as offers of help including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets. despite this effort, at the time the evacuation began, there were still thousands of americans and f canister and almost all of them were evacuated by august 31st. many were dual citizens living in afghanistan for years, decades, generations deciding whether or not to leave the place that they know his home is a wrenching decision. in april, we began drawing down our embassy, ordering non essential personnel to depart. we also use this time to significantly speed up the processing a special immigrant visas ref gans who worked for us. when we took office, we inherited a program with a 14 step process based on a statutory framework inactive by congress involving multiple agencies in

a backlog or more than 17000 s. i. the applicants there had not been a single s i the applicant interview and couple in 9 months going back to march of 2020. the program was basically in a stall within 2 weeks of taking office. we restarted the s, i b entered process and campbell on february 4th, one of the 1st executive orders issued by president biden directed us to immediately review the s i. d program to identify causes of undue delay and find ways to process the applications more quickly. the spring, i directed significant additional resources to the program. expanding the team of people in washington processing applications from 10 to 50, doubling the number of the adjudicators in capital in our embassy there. even as many embassy personnel began to return under ordered departure, we set more counselor officers to couple to process s i the applications. as

a result of these and other steps, including working with congress, especially this committee sen, shaheen and others. by may, we had reduce the average processing time for special and business. by more than one year. even a mid, a covert surgeon cable. we continued to issue visas and we went from issuing about $100.00 special, a 1000000 pieces per week in march to more than $1000.00 per week in august. when our evacuation and relocation effort began. that emergency evacuation was sparked by the collapse of the afghan security forces and government throughout the year. we were constantly assessing their staying power and considering multiple scenarios . even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that the government forces enough in capital would class when u. s. while u. s. forces remain, they were focused on what would happen after united states withdrew from september onward. as general mili, the chairman,

the joint chiefs of staff has said nothing. i or anyone else saw, indicated a collapse of this army. and the government in 11 days. nonetheless, we planned and exercised a wide range of contingencies because of that planning. we were able to draw down our embassy and move our remaining personnel to the airport within 48 hours. and the military placed on standby by president biden was able to secure the airport and start the evacuation within 72 hours. and yes, that evacuation was an extraordinary effort. under the most difficult conditions imaginable. by our diplomats or military wire intelligence professionals. they worked around the clock to get american citizens, afghans who helped us citizens of our allies and partners, and at risk afghans on planes. out of the country, off the united states or the transit locations that are diplomats that arrangement to go seated in multiple countries or counselor team or 247 to reach out to americans who could still be in country making 55000 phone calls, sending 33000

e mails by august 31st and they're still at it. in the midst of the sharon effort and isis k attack killed 13 service members working the gates that h kaya wounded 20 others killed and wounded scores of atkins. our service members gave their lives so that others can continue till the there's in the end, we completed one of the biggest airless in history. with 124000 people evacuated to safety. and on august 31st in capital, the military mission in afghanistan officially ended and a new diplomatic mission began. i wanna acknowledge the more than 2 dozen countries that have help with a relocation effort. some serving is transit of some welcoming afghans evacuees for longer periods of time. and as the $911.00 report suggested, it is essential that we accelerate the appointment process for national

security officials. since a catastrophic attack could occur with little little or no notice. today there are nearly 80 state department dominic pending before the senate. nearly 2 doesn't have already been voted out of this committee on a strong bipartisan basis and simply await about in the center for our national security. i respectfully urge the senate and the committee to move as swiftly as possible to consider and confirm all pending nominees and to address what is a significant disruption international security policy making. now let me briefly outline what the state department has done in the last couple of weeks and where we're going in the weeks ahead. first, as you know, we moved our diplomatic operations from capital to doha, where our new african affairs team is hard at work. many of our key partners have done the same thing. they've joined us there and oh ha. second,

we continued our relentless efforts to help any remaining americans, as well as atkinson citizens valid and partner nations leave afghanistan. if they choose last week on thursday at the time, always charter flight with us citizens and others on board departed capital and landed in on friday. a 2nd flight carrying us citizens and others departed at canister. and these flights were the result of coordinated efforts by the united states cutter and turkey. to reopen the airport, an intense diplomacy to start the flight. in addition to those flights, half a dozen american citizens dozen permanent residence, the united states have also left afghanistan. the overland roots, with our systems, were in constant contact with american citizens. don't ask anason who's told us they wish to leave. each has been assigned a case management team to offer specific guidance and instructions. some declined to be on the 1st flights on thursday and friday, for reasons including needing more time to make arrangements. wanting to remain the

extended family for now or medical issues that precluded traveling. last week. we will continue to help americans and ask hands when we have a special commitment. the part afghan is stand if they choose. just as we've done in other countries where we have evacuated, our embassy and hundreds or even thousands of americans remain behind. for example, in libya, syria, venezuela, yemen, somalia. there is no deadline to this effort. 3rd, or we're focused on counterterrorism. taliban is committed to prevent terrorist groups from using up can stand as a base for external operations that could threaten united states or allies, including our kato and i, c. k. will hold them accountable for that. that does not mean that we will rely on will maintain a vigilant effort to monitor threats. robust counterterrorism capabilities in the

region to neutralize those threats if necessary. and as we do in places around the world where we do not have military forces on the ground forth, we continue our intensive diplomacy with allies and partners. we initiated a statement joined by more than $100.00 countries and a united nations security council resolution. setting out the international community expectations of a taliban to lead government. we expect the taliban to ensure freedom of travel to make good on its counter. terrorism commitments does hold the basic rights of the afghan people, including women, girls, minorities, to name a broadly representative, permanent government, to forswear reprisals, to legitimacy and support that it seeks from the international community will depend entirely on its conduct. we've organized contact groups of key countries to ensure that the international community continues to speak and act together on afghanistan and to leverage our combined influence. last week, i lead

a ministerial meeting of $22.00 countries plus nato, the you, the united nations, to align our efforts. and so will continue to support you mandatory and a to the afghan people. consistent with sanctions. this aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations like n g o z and you and agencies. yesterday, when asked united states has provided nearly 64000000 in new monitoring assistance to the people that can span to meet critical health and nutrition needs to address the protection concerns of women, children, minorities, help more children including girls go back to school. this additional funding means the united states is provided nearly 330000000 and assistance to the asking people this fiscal year in the hon. ramstein i toward the facilities were afghans that we evacuated are being processed before moving onto their next destinations. here at

home, i spend time at the dulles expo center where more than 45000 afghans have been processed . after arriving in the united states, it's remarkable to see what our diplomats are military employees from. many civilian agencies across the us government have been able to achieve in a very short time. they've met in enormous human need, a coordinated food water sanitation for thousands of people. they arranging medical care, including the delivery of babies, the reuniting families that were separated, carrying for unaccompanied miners to an extraordinary inner agency effort, a powerful testament to the skill, the dedication, the amenities of our people. and i think we can all be deeply proud of what they're doing. and as we've done throughout our history, americans are now welcoming families from afghanistan into our communities, helping them resettle as they start new lives. and that's something to be proud of as well. with that, i thank the member of this committee and look forward to your questions. thank you,

mr. secretary. let me 1st begin by asking unanimous consent trying to the hearing record a letter by the us african women's counsel calling on the by the ministration to take immediate action at the united nations to protect africa, civilians, particularly women and girls. without objection, it's so ordered 5, let's start a series of 7 minute rounds. i'm going to hold the time tight so that every member can get their opportunity. and i'll start off by making sure that i don't exceed my 7 minutes. so prior to the final flight out, we heard from both american citizens and african partners seeking to access the airport. but they were either not being allowed to the gates being sent back home or simply abandon. while we understand and appreciate the security issues that we're at play as confounding of such

a chaotic process arose to begin with. so when did the administration begin to plan for a worst case? scenario contingency in the spring and summer in the spring and summer of this year . yes, multiple interagency meetings, exercises looking at the different contingencies. and so what was the specific planning put into the likely scenario that american citizens were going to have to evacuate under hostile conditions? while planning went to a number of things, including the ability to move our embassy quickly. as we did in 48 hours, including the effort to make sure that we could control the airport, bring flights in and evacuated people out. one of the things that that happened is, you know, mr. chairman, is that the situation outside the airport became incredibly chaotic with thousands of people matching at the airport massing at the gates of the airport and

that created among other things. a very, very challenging situation. should we not have started earlier? should not have been a bigger search on the s i b issue i. i recognize. i think it's only fair to put in context that your own testimony suggested that there was 817000 s i b backlog. that hadn't 9 months had passed by without a single interview. so obviously you inherited a significant backlog, but how many s i b were awarded during the term, but ministration. i don't have the numbers in front of me, but i think over the course the administration there must have been several 1000. ok. so the question is then, should we not have served more significantly? i know you said you put up to 50 individuals, but knowing that you are preparing for a contingency of the worst case scenario should not back in march. there had been

a more significant surge to process ideas and determine the entire university and who needed to be taken now. well, i believe we did search those those resources. as i said we, we quadruple the number of people in washington doing processing of ideas. and this is at a critical stage and the processing is, i think many members know the most important stage in many ways is the so called chief admission approval. that's the stage at which s i the applicants are actually eligible under the criteria established by congress for the, for the program. and by the way, those who apply those who actually get chief admission approval, the wash out rate is about 40 percent historically. that's because it turns out that many people who apply don't qualify under the criteria set by congress or they're unable to get the documentation. i think this is alluded to to prove that they had worked faithfully and oily for the for the united states. there are some

situations where people are committing fraud in order to get into program, maybe for understandable reasons. but the point is we have a very lengthy process. 14 steps, multiple agencies involved. we work to try to streamline that. i think there's more work that we would like to do going forward to do that. but the bottom line is we did significantly search our resources to that, particularly to the chief admission approval process for grouping them. and ultimately we went from 10 to 50 to now, i believe 61 or 62 working on that stage of things. we doubled the resources we had in campbell, all in an effort x. right. and we did, we went from a 100. these is a week to a 1000 pieces a week, but what was not anticipated was the collapse in 11 days of the african government and the military. let me ask you this. there been numerous press reports over the past week about a new or refined process for the state department to lead efforts in coordination

with the department of defense to work with outside groups to evacuate american citizens and africa, and allies left behind the dentist. and can you tell us exactly what the new us government led efforts are coordination with outside groups and individuals being handled like, who was the nature of the state deal cooperation? give us a sense of that for we have within the department led by a former investor that can stand john bass, who went back to capital to the airport to help lead the evacuation efforts. he is leading an effort to manage, coordinate all of the ongoing efforts to bring people who wish leave afghanistan out. and that includes, among other things, a coordination with the many outside groups as well as other members of congress who are working themselves heroically to help in this effort. i met myself with about 75 veterans organizations a couple of weeks ago,

given the export and efforts that veterans either individual or as groups are willing to help. and we want to make sure that we are as coordinated as we possibly can be on these efforts. to make sure that we know who is doing what, what assistance we can provide and to make sure that we're working together going forward. we have many other people working on this on this task force, some dedicated to american citizens, others focused on s i, v and other afghans and risk. others focused on coordinating with different groups including members of congress. let me give me one my final minute. i'd like to give you an opportunity to set the record straight on one point. several commentators have suggested that had the department move forward with a crisis contingency and response bureau proposed by the trump administration. as it was walking out the door, it would have been able to respond better to the afghans situation. but is my

understanding that bureau had not been stood up yet? when you decided to curtail the proposal, nor as proposed, did it actually add any additional resources or capabilities to those that state already had? it was a bureaucratic movement not creating or getting rid of actual capabilities just in new organizational charts. and in that bureaucratic, we start holding potentially creating damages. apartments operation is not solving them. is that a fair statement? that is a fair statement. ok, if it's not the ccr, then what is the answer? well, here again to your, to your point with regard to, to the ccr. whether it became a bureau or not, there was no change in the assets that we already had in hand to work on these efforts. and the focus of this group either end its existing organizational structure or how to become europe, which, among other things, it didn't because they were congressional holes from across across the,

on this effort the previous administration nonetheless, went through and tried to moving forward. we decided that we needed to review it. we did the review, and as you described very, very accurately, we found that this would add no assets to what we already had in hand. it would simply create a different bureaucratic structure. but having said that, again, this was, this is something designed primarily for individual extractions medical emergencies . these men and women who are part of our operational medical unit are remarkable and do incredible work, but not the kind of work that would have been applicable to the larger evacuation that we had to conduct sen understand. thank you. thanks very much, miss chairman. mister secretary, i can tell you i've listened to you and a handful of other people tried to put the best face on this possible. and i can

tell you that the temperature of the american people is not there with here. and that i'm not talking from a partisan basis is this goes both ways. you know that there is not enough lipstick in the world to put on his pig to make it look any different than what it actually is. so somebody need, we need the american people want to know who is responsible for this. so let's start with this. who is responsible? who made the decisions on this? was that the president, the united states? ultimately, the president makes the decision. that's correct. what did he, in this case, as, as in every case, ultimately, decisions that can only be decided by the president decided by the president? well, now of course, to be, to be specific. senator, there are hundreds, thousands of decisions every single day that go into it. the situation is complex as this is the big strategic decisions. those are decided by the, by the president,

the tactical operational decisions are made by, by different agencies. agency heads, agency officials, well, i'm more interested in, in the top decision making. look, we've all seen this. we saw it as it is recently as yesterday. somebody in the white house has authority to press the button and stop the president. cut off the president says, speaking ability in sound, who is that person? i think anyone who knows the president, including members of the committee knows that he speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself. no one else says, what are you saying that there's no one in the white house that can cut him off because yesterday that happened and it's happened the number of times in florida. and it's been widely reported that somebody has the ability to push the button and, and cut off his sound and stop him from speaking. who is that person? there is, there is no such person again. the president speaks for himself makes all of the

strategic decisions, informed by the best advice that he can get from the people around him. so are you aware that this is actually happening because it happened yesterday at the interagency fire center? it was widely reported, the media is reported on it and it's not the 1st time it's happened. it's happened several times. are you telling this? are you telling this committee that this does not happen, that there's no one in the white house who pushes the button and cuts him off in mid sentence? that's correct. so this didn't happen yesterday nor on the other occasions where the media showed the american people that his sentence was cut off in mid sentence. now, are you saying that didn't happen, senator? i really don't know what you're, what you're referring to. all i can tell you is having worked with the president for now 20 years,

both here on this committee. and in over the last 9 months, the white house, the president, very much speaks for himself. well, let's take a different attack. he does speak for himself, but what happens when somebody doesn't want him speaking? you're telling us, you don't know anything about this that, that somebody cuts him off in mid sentence. is that what you're trying to tell this committee? i guess everybody here is seen. it said, i'm telling you, based on my own experience with the president over the last 20 years, anyone who tried to stop him from saying what he wanted to say, speaking his mind would probably not belong to their, their job, to turn to the descent cable that you received in july, are you willing to give a copy of this descent cable that you got from 2 dozen diplomats regarding the eminent catastrophic collapse in afghanistan? are you willing to give a copy of that to this committee?

senator, this, this dissent channel is something that i placed tremendous value and importance on it's a way for people in the state department to speak the truth as they see it to power. and these cables i've read every single one of them, of the dissent channel tables that we've gotten during this administration. i've responded to every single one i factored what i read and heard into, into my thinking and into my actions. but the legitimacy of the, of the channel, the ability for people to be able to with confidence, share their thoughts, share their views, even when they run counter, to what their, their seniors have sat, are, the policies being prescribed. it's vitally important that we project that channel protect us integrity. and it is designed by it's for regulations only to be shared with senior officials in the department. and what i don't want to see is some kind

of chilling effect going forward that says to those who would think of writing a cable in the future that this, this will of, you know, get out widely, the, be distributed in ways that, that would have that that would have that chilling effect. do you admit that you received 80 said cable in july, some by 2 dozen. diplomats that warned about human and class catastrophic collapse that was coming in. that's going to stand senator, i certainly received this cable in mid july. i read it, i responded to it, i factored its contents into my, my thinking and what the cable set broadly is. it did not suggest that the government and security forces were going to collapse prior to our departure. it did express real concerns about the durability of that government in force after our departure. and it focused on the efforts that we were making, particularly on the,

on the side front to try to expedite moving them out. and in fact, a number of the recommendations. the very good recommendations that made were already in train. others were not, but one of the ones that was in train was the establishment of operation allies, refuge. we received the cable on july 13th. that operation was actually put in into force on july 14th, that already been planned for some time. and this was an effort to expedite the identification and relocation of s i. d. 's actually putting my claims, which was, you know, was not part of, of the program, actually relocating them and working to establish transit sites so that we could put them there while we finish processing them. what do you see? that's the problem with us, not having access to the cable. you're telling us that. but we have been told by others that it was, it was significantly different than what you're saying. also, we really would like to see the response that because i think history is going to be interested in that particular cable and your response to it.

i'll say my next question for the make sure i think mr. thank you, senator coroner sent a requirement to in addition to the questions preside for a few minutes since i have a hearing that i have to just go to thank you. thank you miss german secretary blink and thank you so much for being with us today. and thank you, during the afghan evacuations for almost the daily briefings you have for all members of the united states senate. and keeping us totally informed as to the events unfolding and contrast that to what happened during the trump years. where we were not kept informed at all about the negotiations between the trump administration and the tal bond that we had no briefings or information at all in regards to the summit meetings between the united states and north korea or the united states and russia. where our committee could not conduct the oversight that

is so important, as you pointed out, working with the executive branch and a check and balance for the unity of our country. so i thank you very much for the way that you have kept us engaged and informed as decisions have been made. as you pointed out, the bible and ministration was dealt a very difficult hand on the withdrawal from that got to stand. we all recognize we needed to withdraw and is $1500.00 chan. this is out of here. we're bringing your life coverage of here. a secretary of state, anthony lincoln, who's on capitol hill, as you can see, answering questions from senate leaders about the withdrawal from afghanistan as continues listening to iraq. and one of the reasons was that we wanted to complete the mission and afghan damn when we had a chance to do it. when the tal bon was diminished after our military came in after tack on our country. but instead we went into iraq, which was not engaged in the 911 activities and we'd never.