>> we are ready to get started needing no introduction and then voicing truth to power and the how the information about the military was becoming increasingly classified. with no usable information to talk about progress was publicly available and as accurately predicted everything that had gone wrong with reconstruction toward the

marshall plan and shortly before kabul fell to explain the failures of the afghanistan toward the hubris and audacity. it is an honor for me to introduce john. [applause] >> let me get settled. thank you very much for that kind introduction. and thank you for the association to invite me today. this is a unique experience because last time i spoke in person live was back in

march 102020 at syracuse university gave a speech the next day governor, close down the university in the state so that must've been a pretty good speech. here i i am back 10000 zoom meetings later it's great to be back life and not hit the button but it is kind of weird to speak to people and be wearing pants. i don't wear a skirt but i'm sure a lot of women have the same consideration. >> that 53rd quarterly report to congress it is the first one issued in the 12 year existence with anybody in the us empress on —- embassy in afghanistan those of you

who have followed the workar know that many other reasons for that collapse of the afghan government is that has been reported on four years. corruption, the dependence of the afghan military contractors and well as the overall incompetency of the afghan government. some in the press and on the hill has suggested that cigar may be the only us agency to stock has risen in the wake of the withdrawal due to telling an inconvenient truth over the last ten years. but i would say even the press corps must be credited for telling unwanted but truths

through the evacuation of kabul and today. and with the amplification of our reports cigar would not have been successful as it had been. we all know that us agencies have not made honest reporting easy for either about america's longest war. so now like to discuss the report briefly with you today. shortly after the fall of kabul the state department wrote to me with other oversight agencies requesting that we quote unquote temporarily suspend access to all of the audit inspection and financial reports that are

on the website because the department was afraid were afraid they would put afghan allies at risk. i strongly believe afghans that are in genuine risk of reprisal due to their work for the united states government should and must be protected that legitimate risk of harm is not an issue to quibble over but despite repeated requests the state department was never able to describe any specific threat to individuals that supposedly was contained in the reports. nor did state ever explain how removing reports and public

disseminationro now since those were many years old and expensively disseminated worldwide. nevertheless with great reservation i exceeded the states initial request to pull down all reports because it was at the height of the evacuation and i thought that request would only be temporary. recently i received a second letter from the state department and they stated they reviewed the relatively few materials still remaining on the website and including a spreadsheet containing roughly 2400 new items and that we drive down the race given how hard the department is to evacuate from afghanistan and

resettle refugees i was a bit surprised as was my colleagues at the state department found the time to go through every one of our reports to produce that list but nevertheless on reviewing that request it quickly became clear to us the state department had little if any criteria to determine if it actually endangered anyone i thank you would agree with me that some of those were bizarre to say the least the state department requested that the name was that president connie wants to be excised but i think he has any additional threat to any other afghan by mentioning his name in our reports.

the state department also requested we consider redacting redstone arsenal. so this is a bit bizarre that somehow the name itself is a threat to afghans and is a threat to alabama. state law also asked us to consider the name of usaid american citizen to testify publicly before congress in 2017. even though his testimony remains in the website the house foreign affairs committee and the hearing video is available by c-span these are just a few examples but regardless of this weird

request there was a risk-based assessment looking at those 2400 request for redaction's and we found for that made some sense and we also have another internal review looking at other audits and reports we had taken down before to make the decision that they should go back up on the public website. so no audience in washington better understands the danger of limiting public access to information in the name of security than you. simply because the war in afghanistan has concluded does not mean the american people or the elected representatives

do not have a right to know the truth about what happened in afghanistan over the last 20 years. to that and congress has tasked us with a number of assignmentshe. they include answering the following questions. why did the afghan government collapse despite $146,000,000,000.20 years of reconstruction assistance? why did the afghan security forces collapse so suddenly? how do the us train and advise efforts possibly contributing to that collapse? they want us to find out about continued risk to the funded assistance and that is to previously provided funding and equipment particularly weapons that are left behind

and then to document the status of to the afghan people and civil society organizations including afghan women and girls educators, healthcare providers and other nongovernment institutions since the taliban took over. and then to determine afghan officials fled the country with taxpayer dollars. and then to have a comprehensive joint audit with the state usaid and dod ig to administration of the special immigrant visa program. the full picture of what happened in august all the warning signs i could have predicted that outcome will only be revealed of the

information those that have been restricted from public release will be available. for example so with a range of information going back from 2015 on the performance of the afghan security forces. at the requesty of the afghan government such as casualty data, tactical and operational readiness leadership. and operational down to the core level. and then to be held at the request of the afghan government and then to be

determined at the afghan security forces were real fighting force or a house of cards waiting to collapse. in light of recent events is not surprising why the department of defense wanted to keep that under lock and key. but that is almost certainly would have benefited congress and the public in assessing whether progress was being made in afghanistan and more importantly, whether we should've ended our efforts there earlier. but cigar was to put all that information into a classified annex making much more difficult for members of congress to access the information and completely eliminate public access to and

discussion of that information. and in recognition of this information in particular is essential with all those directives with the house oversight committee in the national security subcommittee. and all the information of the classify dependencies be declassified. by the rating agencies and just so you know when we were created we have no classification or declassification authority. the only people that can do it is the originating agency. but at the bare minimum dod should immediately make available to the public information restricted at the

request of the afghan government our security system anymore they have completely collapsed. so my question is who are we protecting by keeping that information secret? likewise the administration should declassify a make available to congress with the dod state department cables and reports and other materials reflecting for l everything on the ground over the last two years especially that differed from the public statement of the agency in washington. is especially important for congress to have any reporting related to the reaction of the

afghan government to withdraw the agreement signed between the prior administration and the taliban 2020. what would you want to keep this information out of public view? rather than impede the work the current administration should have every incentive has demanded and i certainly hope for that. but then all too often in the past good intentions for transparency they are frequently thwarted by bureaucratic inertia and fear of the public knowing too much.

and then to use all legal authorities must continue to pursue leads and demand answers. we must find out what our government knew and who knew and the government and what did they dofo with that information before the collapse? the investigators are alreadydy reviewing many afghans who were evacuated to the united states. and then what they can provide about corruption by the afghan leadership. the auditors and those experts every interviewed us and afghan government and military officials to start to put together the full picture of everything that happened that ultimately led to the taliban

takeover. but luckily not starting from scratch. we already know a lot of lessons learned report i have a copy of it. with all the previous lessons learned and then to coincide with the 20th anniversary of afghanistan. and it was released by sheer coincidence right before kabul fell. the seven key lessons we identified in that is instructed not only for afghanistan and then to take a similar project again.

and then to do that ongoing work and while cigar has identified the key lessons and as we look at what happened to washington and cobbled in the months and hours before ghani fled and the taliban walked into his house. i sincerely hope idea or anyone to say that these matters are no longer important. the twitter content was accessed two.2 million times in august demonstrating the american taxpayer not only deserved answers but they want answers and they demand them.

and others 2400 americans to tell them the effort to build a strong and sustainable afghan state failed so dramatically. so in closing it is up to all of us at cigar in congress and the press to ask the question and then cover the answers no matter how unpleasant they may be. i look forward to your questions no matter how pleasant or unpleasant they may be. thank you. >> thank you i would just ask one question.

and then to have so much information about the afghan to classify the war has lasted 20 years. those military commanders who can no longer tell the truth. spent there's a lot of military commanders. there is also a lot of younger officers in the military who were telling the truth. a lot of c them actually risked their careers by sending reports back up the chain. those are the type of reports we want to find. the state department usaid officials writing back urgentre memos to the leadership saying things are going wrong. some call them dissent memos i call them honest assessments. we need to find out what went wrong with the information

flow. i talk to too many commanders captain colonel sergeants and private senate. who knew that this was going south. and they said they were reporting. where did they go why were they not sent over to the leadership so we didn't have to hear all the heavy talk the last 20 years? >> so with all of this information out in the open to say that this is not going well is the issue because

there was no date as it were? and if there is no progress it doesn't really matter. >> that's we want to try to find out. and those at the highest levels were briefed part of the problem is not to have a 20 year war or 20 year construction that's a good when i don't want to prejudge that's hopefully what my staff will earn.

>> if i remember correctly as a result types on the 2020 deal and the coffin the pentagon was once we finalize that we see those metrics to become available. did you ever become available again? >> no. that's what were talking about. >> you said at a congressional hearing one of the issues is at the agency does not have you are power but talking about and just to be clear that treasury department they can subpoena documents. do you have that yet?

>> can you subpoena documents quick. >> we cannot subpoena documents from the us government. i can get subpoenas issued from contractors but not us government. but the important thing is we had access to a lot of the information but the problem is if you work on the hill you understand this better that and then to go to a secret place then the kind of silence comes down i don't want to assume bad intent but most of the documents those were classified nato most of the staff on the hills do not have

nato secret clearance. see you have a number to go in with no staff which puts the number at an extreme disadvantage who was he supposed to dock to? the state department andnt dod. to now stamp documents and official use only. sensitive or classified. those are states of mind. but when they go up to the hill my boss thinks it's classified that is outrageous that is one of the problems that even if members try to

get it. because they did not have nato clarence. that's not super clearance just a different process. that is the problem. there was no public discourse and i and old-school people same ancient i believe in public discourse that is how we solve problems the american taxpayer has a right to know and that is one of the things i'm still outraged about. the taliban knew it. the afghan government knew it. the only people that did not know what was going on in afghanistan were the people paying for it. lies and money.

the american taxpayer. that is what is offensive with the process. called me old-school but that's we have to address as a country. >> i have spent a lot of time in afghanistan and iraq over the years. talking to people in vietnam they talk about how that was very similar. they call it the reverse infiltration. the harder to craft the heart of the story became so have we learned anything from these three wars which are very similar in a lot of ways.

so what have we learned from this? because what they are doing is classifying information that's how we do things in this country. >> i believe you are right and that is the underlying point of the lessons learned report that came out. suggest to undo that. everybody says will never do it again with done it three times in the last 50 years vietnam, we did not learn and then we forgot and we eliminated a lot of theca capabilities we had built from usaid and state we will never

do it again so than we did in afghanistan and iraq. saying we shouldn't now we start the slippery slope again. one of the lessons learned about this type of effort but it start small and it growsth like a roller coaster. so we don't learn lessons to well in the united states. we should. we will spend another trillion dollars of the horrible result. but on the classification have been here since 1982 dealing with classified information since 1978. i have learned one thing. because governments don't classify good news.

i'll think that has changed since vietnam or worldld war ii. and anna know how you break the chain. i think senator mccain talked aboutbo the classification is basically that is used to protect incompetency and other nefarious actions. he would know better than us but there is some truth to that. >> i don't recognize you you have a mask. [laughter]

>> that is quite a slate of reports of has b been requested byer congress. look forward to reading them but are there any deadlines or estimated completion dates for any of those specifically regarding the collapse? i believe in the house version of the ndaa. there are deadlines that could be passed but we will start reporting when we get the information it often depends on how much we get access to a lot of this this is all we are workingve on.

but i am hoping we will start releasing stuff once we can put it together and analyze it but remember there is a lot of allegations. there are allegations that some senior officials including president ghani walked off at $500 million or whatever. they ares allegations. we have too determine and you know how difficult it is in afghanistan to determine truth and fiction. and also give us support. wet. have to get access to the data to see what we can do to answer all the questions.

>> just to drill down about the evacuation for full disclosure i spent my summer beach vacation doing something to help me create one of the many ad hoc veterans groups so nowed for all these groups got out and those that come back to duty and for every one that got out for their family there were probably five or ten times as many that did not. you talk about assessing the risk et cetera and does that

extend tennis veteran population is receiving the the work not only to evacuate but also to try to raise money to get them through what would be a brutal winter. not getting a paycheck anymore after the fall of afghanistan. they can't walk - - work. they cannot leave their homes. it will be a tough winter are you looking at the scope of what you are looking at? how far will you go in that effort? thank you again. >> that is an excellent question.

so we went to answer the question in congress wants to know many people say what will happen to women and girls which is very important they are in a special category of having to deal with the taliban and losing a lot of little advances but some were made over the last 20 years. looking at everybody who believed in democracy and will of law and what we were doing with reconstruction. so i have gotten the calls from many afghans and many are concerned and i did not know how broad and wide the afghan film industry was.

all of those people are running for their lives. all those male and female who believed in democracy they are all hiding all the prosecutors and all the special forces this is one thing you have to remember. there are a lot of ghost a lot of soldiers that never existed because their salary but there were a lot of honest great afghans especially in the special forces and other units that fought hard and died. now they are all at risk. we heard numbers going and 60 through 100,000. but we don't know that they are stuck. think of it you are an afghan soldier special

forces, judge, female journalist. the us government isn't helping you anymore. how do you get out? you're in a third world country. you need a passport who was issuing the passports? the taliban the same people you reported on or fought. you need a visa. who do you go to for help? you have to go to a taliban official the same official you reported on what about the four businessmen that reported and then those that were spending money to the taliban. who has access?

the taliban. those people are left behind. it is a broad category of people who believe in what america was selling who are now stuck. that is a policy decision what we do or don'twh do but we have over 300 that we are trying to get out and it is a blackhole and i'm certain many of you here at two. i don't know how long it will take and it's very difficult because it's hard to reach out to so many people because of moving in don't want to use phones and god bless all of them. but then you addhe to the fact

next year almost 93 percent of the afghan population will be below the poverty level. that is what the un is predicting over 93 or 97 percent likely the biggest economic humanitarian disaster. >> i you are all looking at it don't forget those afghans left behind. >> a word of thanks to everyone in this room who were to get afghans to safety. thank you for everything that w you did i will try to get to as many as possible.

>> with those 20 years they have been saying that so when you try to assign responsibility for this government officials are already diffusing responsibility. but who is responsible for conducting the 20 year war? is it on congress? dod, department of state? that is what points do with the overall that was blamed for doing it that way. >> not one entity of the government. and if you read the report it is the way they reports the big efforts like this. so we go back to the lessons

learned report. and then to give you soup to nuts at any time because we are already doing it with the administration right now. so when we send people to afghanistan they were not nefarious or stupid or lazy people. above and beyond they were brave, smart and eager to do the right thing. atwe gave them a box of tools that is something we are dealing with with the government right now with the v.a. and hhs and dhs and all agencies. our procurement system is broken the reward system to

the over emphasis on contractors having build the capabilities of usaid your state is broken.ut and the whole appropriating cycle the approach to a whole government issue and i use the term to be wickedly difficult issue that we face as americans is due to the fact a whole of government problem and we're not designed for or equipped for a whole of government a problem —- problem. the problem with healthcare, retirement, and

those that multiple federal agencies. nobody is in charge. and the staff is going out there for multiple agencies. you have congress. multiple committees and subcommittees looking at the same issue. surveyed that report and focus on the whole of government issue. there is a whole of government issue is not just police but healthcare not just dhs but hhs. we don't have a way to handle. and to take the whole of government problem.

everybody has to sit back and think about how to better be prepared to handle the big wickedly difficult whole of government issue and afghanistan is one of them. >> i have a question it wasn't addressed of earlier but have you faced any pressure or are you expecting any pressure and then also if you could duplicate the mission with any

other dod effort right now where would you place the focus? >> let me answer the first question. a lot of people would like to see us go out of existence and some have been dreaming about that since reasons i have taken over ten years ago. the ig should not make friends we should be as mean as junkyard dogs as president reagan said. there is nobody in town. 's if you disagree. think there's anybody in town that picks up the phone to say the ig is coming to cs. nobody. except members of congress. nobody does that. oh great. "60 minutes" is coming to cs.

so there are people who would like to see us leave we are a temporary agency i believe in temporary government agencies spending my whole life working for temporary agencies i think they should be when the mission is done we should l disappear in congress gave us the authority to go out of existence. i don't know when that will be congress has to tell me. and then to have an agency that looks at it. we are the only ig that looks at any government agency operating in afghanistan.fg so we will go out of

existence. and then congress will tell me when. >> but if they are offering? >> i don't know. >> i think a special ig i think they are a good thing. and it was a good approach to afghanistan and iraq but i don't know. and those for those we could be difficult issues.

and that may be useful but i have not thought about it. may be when i retire but i think it's ahe good idea. again, every ig except us like every week they create a new one. 's house in a specific agency and can only look at that agency. so by definition it cannot see the whole of government. >> in response and with those agencies with the covid issue but when you have those looking it'ss very difficult with an approach and different

staffing and i'm not certain that's the way to go. i would have created a special ig for covid but they didn't so that is where we are. >> during the recent testimony you have members of congress to hold people accountable. >> and what does that look like and who was that to hold accountable? >> . >> when we get all of the records with that ambassadors so-and-so to get information they don't convey that information so why didn't you?

and nobody reads the president. or if people testify before congress to say the sky is blue and we know it was black then they should be asked to explain why how may times to be here one more year of turning the corner? have you get all the facts and then to say the sky is falling

testify to congress everybody should be held accountable for what they say and what they do not legitimate people in jail or embarrass them but why didta the system allow this? why did they allow the spin to keep spinning even mid-level high-level people who work in afghanistan said it is a failure. i'm just trying to figure out why did the system break down? i don't know may be the

presidents have never been told the truth about afghanistan. i don't know. i've never been in the room. this is important for us the form policy is being determined based upon facts. but on hope it is not a strategy care of people say. it doesn't work. you need facts. hard facts. provable facts. many times you cannot prove that. our job is to see if there was credible information out there. don't worry i have all the

time in the world into your questions. i am around. >> and with the fall of kabul. and those afghan security forces seen the us leaving then so do you think the chaotic final withdrawal of troops is inevitable? were that these evacuations started earlier they were taken for what we saw at the summer? >> that's an excellent question i don't havees the answer and that is what we are trying to do. and that's why it's important.

and what is anything we do with it. it's all hypothetical. and then october 1st and that information was relayed back to washington in january. what do they do with that information that's obviously important. that's what we're trying to do. >> and with that caveat? >> i hate to start gaze in afghanistan. i think it was napoleon who

said don't assume nefarious motives for what my a be explained by confidence. and it may turn out if i was a predictor and i will take a risk it may turn out that like everything in the government you don't have 100 percent certainty about the new information you are getting or inadequate information i'm guessing we make decisions every day and it adequate information and then come here to this meeting with or without a mask.

>> i think we agree the afghan war around the level of interaction and then to known child rapist and the defense department in the state department regardless. >> i know we did our whole

report and asked 5300 members bipartisan bicameral request to look at the work in afghanistan. and they are specifically there is always exemptions on the national security exemption everything that congress passes which is probably good but you should at least tell congress when you are using the national security exemption and whatun we found out is based upon an opinion by the general counsel of dod that he didn't have to notify congress when he invoked that objection because in the statute they always use the term notwithstanding any other provision of law. so he focused on that that

means you don't have to tell congress we apply the national security exemption. >> a big problem about the human rights violation is this. not only were individual boys or girls being sex slaves basically to senior and mid- level afghan politicians and police and military. us as a result? human rights violations are national concert actual mesh -- actual national security

concerns. why did the afghan government is the support of its people, if it ever had any? why did the afghan military lose the support of the afghan people and why did the united states and our coalition allies lose the support of the afghan people , if we ever had any, and i think we did. it is because we became associated with the worst excesses of afghan culture, violating human rights, endemic corruption, supporting people, and then, you add to that the indiscriminate use of bombing, night raids, you name it, and i think it was an ambassador or general officer that said every

time we accidentally kill an afghan we create 10 more taliban supporters. so, you know, when you do the right thing, you do the right thing. when you cozy up and kind of ignore the -- ignore what is right, you bear the consequences. i think one of the reasons -- this is a hunch based on topping -- talking to afghans and many reporters who have been talking to afghans, and many people in the human rights area who say that you lost the support of the afghan people years ago because of your indiscriminate bombing, your indiscriminate night raids, because of your indiscriminate support for the most evil people in the afghan culture who the taliban kicked out once before.

so, you ask the question, how did the taliban win. they had the support of the afghan people. you know? they did not have any magic weapons, they did not have drones, they did not have f-16's , but they had the support of the afghan people, and that is a question we have to answer, why? >> thank you very much, would you like to make any closing remarks? john: thank you very much for this opportunity to speak, just so you know for those who saw me speaking without a mask, i have all the shots in the world. i think this is still an important issue, and let me close with this. i think that if we do the right thing and -- in answering these questions, this might be the most important series of reports and are 10 years -- my 10 years in this job.

because these reports will answer really the question of what happens, and i think that we are the only agency in town that the american people and congress trust to answer those questions. thank you very much, but we need your help. so, we need your help in doing what you have been doing so well over the last 10, 20, and 30 years. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> and our next panel is slated to begin at 11:15, please feel free to use is time to refresh yourself and take a stretch.

>> it afternoon. i am the executive vice president for communication and strategy at the american for center for progress at the action event. before we get started let's do housekeeping to say live captioning is available by clicking on the closed caption button on the bottom of your screen. we have a fantastic panel joining us