Secretary of state blinken, who is hoping for a friendlier reception than he got yesterday. Contentious and combative. One of our analysts predicting it will be brutal. Well talk to her in a second with blinken set to defend the administrations exit from afghanistan. I want to get to our team. So right now, were looking at several senators talking. The republican cohort of this, secretary blinken just walked in. Leanne, what are you looking ahead to . Thats right, hallie. Todays the second difficult day for secretary blinken whos before capitol hill. This time, this senate. Hes going to receive a lot of tough questions. Yesterday in the house, he was called a liar. He was called on to resign by republicans but we didnt get a lot of specifics into what the plan was and what its going to look like moving forward. We expect the senate to really drill down on some of those specifics. We are going to see secretary blinken defend the administration and their plan and blame the Previous Administration. I just spoke to the chairman of this committee, senator mendez, and i asked him what he expects to hear from blinken and he says he wants to know if the administration took into account a worst Case Scenario and also what theyre going to do with the Americans Still in afghanistan and also the American Allies that are still in afghanistan as well. Its going to be perhaps a very contentious hearing. Not like yesterday, but theres going to be a lot of tough questions for secretary blinken who knows this committee well. He was a top adviser to President Biden when he was the top senator on this committee for more than ten years. Let me sneak you in quickly. Leanne talked about yesterday when he had republicans calling for his resignation. Said he had blood on his hands. Obviously, democrats are going to try to give blinken a little defense here. What are you looking for . Well, i think one of the things to look at is the republicans that are attacking secretary blinken yesterday, many of them avoided attacking the underlying decision, which was to withdraw from afghanistan. And it puts them in a pretty challenging situation when they know that a broad majority of the public agrees with that decision. The former president , president trump, initiated that process. So theyre criticizing the process of withdrawal, not the underlying decision. Then, what are they focused on exactly . Like you said yesterday, you heard a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric. Theres nothing new about republicans calling on democrats to resign. Calling them names. The question is what aspect of the withdrawal are they most upset about . I think that really wasnt clear yesterday. So from the critics today, id be focused about what are they focused in on. Lastly, if theyre focused in on the evacuation of afghan allies, i think we need a discussion about what were going to do to resettle those refugees and how were going to get more afghans out of the country and come here and have a stake here. Again, another challenge, some who criticized the evacuation of afghan allies and refugees dont necessarily want to welcome them in here. So theres a lot of contradiction to some of the criticism well hear even as theres very valid questions raised even about the planning that went into the investigation and about our relationship with afghanistan. Are we going to be providing assistance into the Afghan People trying to avoid the taliban and are we going to be able to get more people out. Ben, thank you so much. We want to go to this hearing now. Senator menendez beginning. They took me into a room, tied my hands with a scarf and started beating me with a cable. The horror he experienced is hard to fathom. He described a demonstrator covered in blood and saw taliban abusing prisoners. One of his colleagues said they were mocking us and saying you want freedom . What freedom . This is not the taliban of 2001. This happened last week. Amid the extensive oversight work planned in afghanistan, we must not lose sight of people like namat and a courageous woman who continued to protest in the streets calling for freedom in the face of violence and threats. A repression of the Afghan People is happening in realtime and the world must bear witness and hold the taliban accountable. Mr. Secretary, the execution of the u. S. Withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed. This committee expects to receive a full explanation of the administrations decisions on afghanistan since coming into office last january. There has to be accountability. We will have other hearings to develop a set of Lessons Learned over the course of the war to understand the many mistakes made over the course of 20 years. The diversion of attention and resources when the Bush Administration decided to invade iraq despite its irrelevance to the 9 11 attacks. The double dealing by pakistan in providing a safe haven to the taliban and the list goes on. We need to understand why successive Administration Made so many of the same mistakes repeatedly. Perhaps most urgently, we need to understand why the Afghan Government and military collapsed to precipitously. This rapid collapse laid bare a fundamental fact that successive administrations lied to the congress over the years about the durability of Afghan Military and governing institutions. And we need to understand why. The chaos of last august is due in large part to the february 2020 surrender deal negotiated by president trump. A deal that was clearly built on a set of lies. A deal that led to the release of 5,000 hardened taliban fighters, boosting the militant group on the battlefield this summer. We know now that the taliban had no intention of pursuing a political path and peace deal with the Afghan Government. It had no intention of pursuing a democratic path. It had no intention of breaking ties with alqaeda. And it clearly had no intention of allowing women to have their rightful seat at the table and to participate fully in society. To demand the taliban abide by its commitments now and expect a different result is somewhat absurd. The taliban rules afghanistan so we will have to deal with it in some form, but lets not kid ourselves. Theres no such thing as a reformed taliban. This group is woefully stuck in the 14th century with no will to come out. Their concept of legitimacy is based squarely on the use of violent force and intimidation. The Administration Says we should judge them by their actions and i agree and their actions since taking over afghanistan have been pretty horrifying. Beating women activists, murdering ethnic and religious minorities, separating classrooms by gender, shutting down local media, refusal to break with alqaeda, appointing the head of a Foreign Terrorist Organization thats designated by our government from the Haqqani Network to lead the ministry of interior and the list goes on. With this in mind, the United States and the United Nations should maintain existing sanctions on the taliban. The u. S. Should reimpose those sanctions that were waived during the negotiations process and the u. S. Should consider new measures to impose higher costs on the group and its leaders while ensuring that life saving humanitarian aid is able to assist those most vulnerable to hunger, disease, and disaster. Nor should any country be in a rush to unilaterally recognize this regime. A minimum the following criteria must be met before recognition is considered. Absolutely reproceeduation of the taliban of all cross border terrorism including alqaeda and associated groups. Equality of rights for girls and women. Protection of minority, ethnic and religious groups. Commitment to democratic elections and banning all narcotics activity. So yes, the taliban run afghanistan, but that does not mean we ever accept their behavior. I supported the decision to eventually withdraw our military from afghanistan. I have long maintained, however, that how the United States left, mattered. Doing the right thing in the wrong way can end up being the wrong thing. And to get this right, the Biden Administration needed to answer two fundamental questions. First, would the withdrawal leave a durable political arrangement . Second, would the u. S. And allies maintain the ability to conduct Counterterrorism Operations in a region still ripe with groups including isisk seeking to do us harm. I believe the u. S. Fell short on the first measure and time will tell on the second, but the prospects dont look promising. So let me start with some framing questions about the Biden Administrations afghanistan decision making. First, upon coming into office, how did the Biden Administration assess the impact on the ground of president trumps flawed deal with the taliban . Did the administration negotiate better terms with the taliban upon coming into office . Second, did the president s april withdrawal announcement set into place any planning in the event the taliban took over the country . What was the plan to evacuate all americans . Other at risk groups . What was the plan to evacuate staff and those affiliated with radio free europe, radio liberty, voice of america, the National Endowment for democracy and other u. S. Funded organizations . President trump with Steven Miller intentionally blocked sivs from being processed, which i think is a barbaric and cruel decision which likely resulted in death for some u. S. Partners. How did the Biden Administration specifically accelerate processing sivs upon coming into office . And third, what was the plan to avoid ordeal with refugee or humanitarian crisis. I expect youll address some of these issues in your opening remarks. Let me applaud the efforts for the personnel on the ground who worked under horrific circumstances. Their actions in evacuating over 120,000 individuals were nothing short of heroic and these personnel deserve answers. The American Public deserves answers and the Afghan People certainly deserve answers. First, while communication from the administration has been frequent throughout this crisis, information from state, the pentagon and the white house has been vague or contradictory. This was obviously a fluid and difficult situation. Frustration among many members was high and this has to improve. To put this in context, member frustration came on top of years of stone walling by the Trump Administration and its refusal to engage the senate on the taliban negotiations. This is one of the examples why ive been trying to pursue on the case act to understand what are the written agreements that come between an administration and others. Maybe if we had seen all of the elements of it, we would have been poised in a better position. Second, im very disappointed that secretary austin declined our request to testify. A full accounting to this crisis is not complete without the pentagon. Especially when it comes to understanding the complete collapse of the u. S. Trained and funded Afghan Military. His decision not to appear before the committee will affect my personal judgment on department of defense nominees. I expect the secretary will avail himself to the committee in the near future and if he does not, i may consider the use of Committee Subpoena power to compel him and others over the course of these last 20 years to testify. Third, i implore the administration to remain focused on afghanistan. Its critically important that the world can take action when possible in response to taliban abuses. Your visit to qatar and germany sent the right message and i strongly urge sustained attention to afghanistan in the months and years to come. I also urge the administration to strengthen its resolve and efforts to secure the relocation of our Civil Society partners now at grave risk who are left behind in afghanistan. They include heroic individuals working for organizations on the front lines of u. S. Efforts to strengthen democracy and human rights including the rights of afghan women and girls. Finally, i know that senator young is not with us today. He is home in indiana attending the funeral of marine corporal sanchez. Corporal sanchez was killed on august 26th at the kabul airport. Id like to suggest we have a moment of silence and pay our respects to all those brave American Service members who were killed or injured on that day and that we also honor the thousands of American Service members, Afghan Soldiers and civilians who were casualties of this 20year war. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Thanks very much, mr. Chairman. Secretary blinken, good morning and welcome back to our committee. Youre doing the right thing testifying here today and i thank you. However, like the chairman, i am disappointed some of your colleagues have declined to testify. Particularly secretary austin. Theres questions that we really need to have answered and its disheartening that they declined to testify. The debacle in afghanistan is an interagency failure and the fact youre the only one stepping up is disheartening. I agree that the withdrawal was a dismal failure. One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is whos responsible for who made the decisions. Theres real questions right now is to whos making the decisions. We know for a fact that the president of the United States is somewhat disadvantaged here in that someones calling the shots. He cant even speak without someone in the white house censoring it or signing off on it. As recently as yesterday in mid sentence, he was cut off by someone in the white house who makes the decision, but the president of the United States is not speaking correctly. So id like to know who this person is. Is this a puppeteer act, if you would, and we need to know whos in charge and whos making these decisions. And the only way were going to get that is when we have people come in like you and answer questions and when we get to the question, ill have more for you on that regard. I supported a responsible end to the war in afghanistan. No american thinks we should have left this way. America cannot end wars simply by walking away. It is naive to assume enemies will leave us alone. Theres a fierce battle of ideas on the world stage and the u. S. Cant remain neutral. However, President Biden presented the American People with a false choice in afghanistan and the rushed retreat is a stain on america that will have implications for years to come. There are other options that could have allowed for a more measured reduction in force. I feel this administration is trying to blame the Prior Administration and contrary to some that have said that the Prior Administration started this is responsible, thats simply not true. The Prior Administration, when they took steps towards withdrawing from afghanistan entered into an agreement that had very, very specific conditions. I was privy to those so i have personal knowledge of this. In february 2020, an agreement was contingent, contingent, upon the taliban reducing violence, meeting counterterrorism commitments and engaging in talks with the Afghan Government. These were all very important and most importantly, most importantly, it was telegraphed to the taliban that failure to meet their commitments would be met with grave, grave circumstances for them. The taliban failed to meet any of these commitments and yet, yet, this administration turned the country over to them. President biden chose to withdraw from afghanistan without conditions and without prudent planning and obviously without most important telegraphing to the taliban that they would enforce the conditions that the taliban had agreed to. It didnt happen. It was a strategic, unforced error and he did this against the advice of the commanders on the ground. One of the most embarrassing things i thought was the strike that was made and obviously we cant talk about what we know from intelligence standpoint, but the kin etic strike made after the taliban entered the country. The strike had dire consequences for civilian, but not the taliban. It led to topple the democratically like the government. Slam the door at any chance for a final peace agreement, reverse the hard earned rights of afghan women and minorities and will result in a safe haven for terrorists, many of whom wish to attack the United States. The Biden Administration left afghanistan in total disarray and created a humanitarian crisis with thousands of refugees and afghans in need of emergency assistance. Secretary blinken, you characterized the evacuation as an extraordinary effort. Youve touted over 124,000 evacuees, however, we abandoned the people we prioritized for departure. The departments efforts were plagued by lack of base k planning, a failure to identify americans, a failure to energize the siv process months in advance, ignoring repeated offers to help, and a failure to recognize the taliban for what it is. A terrorist organization. You evacuated 6,040 americans and say only a couple hundred remain. Your own department told this committee in july that there were 10 to 15,000 americans in afghanistan. Theres a huge difference between 6,000 and 15,000. What happened to these other americans . The situation with the special immigrant visa evacuations is more disturbing. Not counting the sivs that arrived before kabuls fall, you evacuated 750 of roughly 20,000 principle siv applicants. What happened to these people . This committee reached out in april, may, and june to help with processing. We asked what Additional Resources you needed. For months, we received contradictory responses or no responses. Ill take a minute to defend the state department. One of the biggest problems to help process these is the enormous failure the department of defense to provide the records needed to validate the afghans to helped our forces. The fact that dod didnt keep accurate records is irresponsible and a slap in the face to those who fought alongside of us. Obviously we want to talk to secretary austin about this. Despite the enormous effort of our troops and diplomats on the ground, the preventable tragedy that happened at the airport in kabul was a disaster of leadership and of the administrations own making. Not only were you unable to ensure that americans had access to the airport, many were turned away repeatedly after braving taliban check point, but americans outside of kabul had absolutely no chance of evacuation. Green card holders and sivs should have been prioritized, but there was no mechanism to get inside. It was an Informal Network of americans that helped get americans and afghans around the bureaucratic wall the administration set up at the airport. It should not have come to that. The administration is paying itself in the back for this evacuation is like an arsonist taking credit for safing people from the burning building he just set on fire. We know the u. S. Military and our diplomats can do so much more than they did if only their political bosses had gotten out of the way. Now we have on untold number of american, u. S. Contractors and sivs still in afghanistan despite repeated assurances you will get them out. Youve been unable to do so. Planes are stranded in afghanistan. Our voice of america employees and female afghan students on scholarships have been abandoned and our siv applicants are in hiding as taliban death squads hunt them down. You said you would have mechanisms after 31 august. Wheres your plan . I have not seen it. I dont know if ive talked to anyone thats seen it. Ive seen a rebuke from our european allies. Instead, we had to rely on the generosity of partners like qatar. We have all heard and read is that the United States is no longer a reliable ally and frankly, the way this evacuation was conducted, i cannot blame them. For year, despite strains in our relationships, everyone knew the United States was the competent and capable partner. They trusted us to be the steady hand at the wheel that could navigate out of any difficult situation. That it was has been shattered. Now across the globe, allies doubt our resolve and china and russia see weakness and think they can exploit this situation. The Biden Administration alone is responsible for this debacle and its consequences. Going forward, the challenge has become even harder to resolve. U. S. Actions must rebuild our credibility and reestablish deterrence. The u. S. Will need more proactive policies on counterterrorism and security around the globe to discourage our competitors. Over the weekend, we marked the 20th anniversary of september 11th, but we have yet to receive details about how the administrations socalled over the Horizon Counterterrorism plan will succeed. The talibans takeover destroyed the basis of that strategy and despite repeated requests, we had yet to receive a single piece of information about the administrations revised counterterrorism plan. Meanwhile, the taliban continues its relationship with alqaeda and the new interior minister has a 10 million u. S. Bounty on his head for killing americans. Any hope that the taliban will protect American Security is a fatally flawed assumption. You must redouble efforts to reach agreements, to preserve disappearing intelligence networks. Additionally, any country that offered support to the taliban should risk a strategic downgrade in their relationship with the United States. We also must understand pakistans role in this entire matter as the chairman has alluded to. This is a difficult but important situation. I also remain concerned that the administration is rushing to normalize ties with the taliban government. This must not occur without extensive congressional consultations. Your notification that you intended to restart foreign assistance is deeply, deeply concerning. I suspect theres other members of this committee that are going to speak to that. Thats going to be heavy lift for you. On this security front, the United States spent over 80 billion on Afghan Security forces. Many of these funds bypassed the oversight of the state department and this committee. We now see the consequences of a department of defense that operating Security Cooperation on its own. The taliban is one of the best armed terrorist organizations on the planet. We have yet to receive any response. As secretary, i would help you would demand that all dod assistance programs require state department concurrence. Id like to speak to our diplomats, our men and women in uniform, our gold star families, our humanitarian workers and veterans. On behalf of the American People, id like to say thank you. The ineptitude of this administration does not tarnish your service. What you did mattered. You served nobly. You stood on the wall and prevented a terrorist attack against the United States for over 20 years at enormous cost to you and your families. America will always be indebted to you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, secretary has agreed to stay with us till each member has an opportunity to answer their questions as such and because of the nature of the subject matter, ive agreed the secretary has an extended opening statement. With that, mr. Secretary, youre recognized. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Ranking member, thank you very much and to all members, i appreciate the opportunity to be with you today to discuss our policy on afghanistan including where we are, how we got here and where were going in the weeks and months ahead. For 20 years, congress has conducted oversight and provided funding for the mission in afghanistan and i know from my own time as a staff member here in this room before then senator biden just how invaluable a partner congress is. As i said, when i was nominated, i believed strongly in conscious traditional role as a partner in Foreign Policy making. Im committed to working with you on the path forward in afghanistan and to advance the interests of the American People. On this 20th anniversary of 9 11 as we honor nearly 3,000 men, women, and children who lost their lives, we are reminded of why we went to afghanistan in the first place. To bring justice to those who attacked us and to ensure it would never happen again. We achieved those objectives along time ago. Osama bin laden was killed in 2011. Alqaedas capabilities were degraded significantly, including its ability to plan external operations. After 20 years, 461 american lives lost, 20,000 injuries, 2 trillion spent, it was time to end americas longest war. President Biden Took Office in january, he inherited an agreement his predecessor had reached with the taliban to remove all forces in afghanistan by may 1st this year. As part of that, the administration pressed the taliban to release some top war commanders. Reduced our presence to 2500 troops. Taliban agreed to stop attacks u. S. And Partner Forces and to refrain from attacking major cities, but the taliban continued its march on remote outposts, check points, villages and some major roads connecting the cities. By january of 2021, the taliban was in its Strongest Military position since 9 11 and we had the smallest number of u. S. Forces in afghanistan since 2001. As a result, upon taking office, President Biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating it. Had he not followed through on his predecessors commitment, attacks on our forces and those of our allies would have resumed and the talibans nationwide assault on afghanistans major cities would have commenced. That would have required sending substantially more u. S. Forces into afghanistan to prevent a taliban takeover, taking casualties and with at best, the process of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck in afghanistan under fire indefinitely. Theres no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan Security forces or the Afghan Government any more resilient or selfsustaining. If 20 years, hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, training did not suffice, why would another year, another five . Another ten . Conversely, there is nothing that strategic competitors like china and russia or adversaries like iran and north korea would have liked more than for the United States to reup a 20year war and remain bogged 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 factor them into our thinking. When the president announced the withdrawal, nato immediately and unanimously embraced it. We all set to Work Together on a drawdown. Similarly, we were intensely focused on the safety of americans in afghanistan. In march, we began urging them to leave the country. In total, between march and august, we sent 19 specific messages with that warning as well as offers of help including Financial Assistance to pay for plane tickets. Despite this effort, the time the evacuation began, there were still thousands of americans in afghanistan. Almost all of whom were evacuated by august 31st. Many were dual citizens, living in afghanistan for years, decades, generations. Deciding whether or not to leave a place they call home is a wrenching decision. In april, we began drawing down our embassy. Ordering nonessential personnel to depart. We also used this time to significantly speed up the processing of special immigrant visas for afghans who worked for us. When we took office, we inherited a program with a 14step process based on a statutory framework involving multiple agencies and a backlog of more than 17,000 siv applicants. There had not been a single si virks interview since march of 2020. On february 4th, one of the First Executive orders issued by President Biden directed us to immediately review the siv program to identify causes of undo delay and find ways to process siv applications more quickly. This spring, i directed significant Additional Resources to the program. Expanding the team of people in washington processing applications from ten to 50. Doubling the number of siv adjudicators. Even as many Embassy Personnel began to return, we sent more consular officers to kabul to process siv applications. As a result of these and other steps including working with congress, especially this committee, senator shaheen and others, by may, we had reduced the average processing time by a year. Even amid a covid surge in kabul, we continued to issue visas. 100 per week in march to more than 1000 per week in march when our relocation effort began. That march 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 in kabul would collapse while u. S. Forces remained. They were focused on what would happen after the United States withdrew. From september onward. As general milley has said, nothing i or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days. Nonetheless, we planned and exercised a wide range of contingencies. Because of that, we were able to draw down within 48 hours and the military placed on stand by 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. They worked around the clock to get american citizens, afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners on planes out of the country. Off to the United States or to transit locations that our diplomats had arranged or negotiated in multiple countries. Our Consular Team worked 24 7 to reach out to americans who could still be in country. Making 55,000 phone calls, sends thousands of emails by august 31st, and theyre still at it. In the midst of this, an isisk attack killed 13 Service Members. Wounded 30 others. Our Service Members gave their lives so others could continue to live theirs. In the end, we completed one o f the biggest air lifts in history with 124,000 people evacuated to safety and on august 31st in kabul, the military mission in afghanistan officially ended and a new Diplomatic Mission began. I want to acknowledge the more than two dozen countries that have helped with the relocation effort. Some serving as transit hubs. Some welcoming afghan evacuees for longer periods of time. And as the 9 11 report suggested, it is essential that we accelerate the appointment process for National Security officials since the catastrophic attack could occur with little or no notice. Today, there are nearly 80 state department nominees pending before the senate. Nearly two dozen have already been voted out of this committee on a strong bipartisan basis an simply await a vote in the senate. For our National Security, i respectfully urge the senate and this committee to move as swiftly as possible to consider and confirm all pending nominees and to address what a significant disruption in our National Security policymaking. Let me briefly outline what the state department has done in the last couple of weeks and where were going in the weeks ahead. First, as you know, we moved our diplomatic operations from kabul to doha where our new Afghan Affairs team is hard at work. Many of our key partners have done the same. Second, weve continued to help any remaining americans as well as afghans leave afghanistan if they choose. Last week on thursday, a Qatari Airways charter flight with u. S. Citizens on board landed in doha. On friday, a second flight carrying u. S. Citizens and others departed afghanistan. These flights were the result of coordinated efforts by the United States, qatar and turkey to reopen the airport and start the flights. In addition to those flights, half a dozen american citizens, a dozen permanent residents of the United States have also left afghanistan via overland routes with our assistance. Were in Constant Contact with american citizens still in afghanistan who have told us they wish to leave. Each has been assigned a team the offer guidance. Some declined to be on the first flights on thursday and friday for reasons like needing more time to make arrangements or medical issues that prevented traveling last week. We will continue to help americans and afghans to whom we have a special commitment depart afghanistan if they choose. Just as weve done in other countries where weve evacuated our embassy and hundreds or thousands of americans remain behind. For example, in libya, syria, venezuela, yemen, somalia. Theres no deadline to this effort. Third, were focused on counterterrorism. Talibans committed to prevent terrorist groups from using afghanistan as a base for external operations as a base including alqaeda and isisk. Well hold them accountable for that. That does not mean that we wont rely on them. Well maintain a vigilant effort to monitor threats 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. Fourth, we continue our intensive diplomacy with partners. We initiated a statement with 100 countries setting out the expeckations of a taliban led government. We expect them to make good on its counterterrorism to name a broadly representative permanent government, to force reprisals. The legitimatesy and support it seeks from the International Community will depend entirely on its conduct. Weve organized contact groups of Key Countries to ensure that the International Community will speak and act together on afghanistan and to leverage our combined influence. Last week, i led a meeting of 22 countries, plus the eu, the United Nations, to align our efforts. And fifth, well continue to support aid to the people. Consistent with sanctions, this aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations like ngos and un agencies. Yesterday, we announced that the United States has provided nearly 64 million in new humanitarian assistance to the people of afghanistan to meet Critical Health and nutrition needs, to address the protection of women, children, minorities, to help more children, including girls, to go back to school. This additional funding means the United States has provided nearly 330 million in assistance to the Afghan People this year. In doha ramstein, i toured the facilities where afghans are being processed before moving on to their next destinations. Here at home, i spent time at the Dulles Expo Center where more than 40,000 afghans have been processed after arriving in the United States. Its remarkable to see what our diplomats, our military, employees from many civilian agencies across the u. S. Government have been able to achieve in a very short time. Theyve met an enormous human need. Theyve coordinated food, water, sanitation for thousands of people. Theyre arranging medical care including the delivery of babies. Theyre reuniting families that were separated, caring if r unaccompanied minors. Its an extraordinary interagency effort. A powerful testament to the skill, dedication and humanity of our people and i think we can be deeply proud of that theyre doing. Americans are welcoming families from afghanistan into our communities. Helping them resettle. And thats something to be proud of as well. With that, i thank the members of this committee and look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Secretary. A letter by the u. S. Afghan womens counsel calling on the Biden Administration take immediate action at the United Nations to protect afghan civilians, particularly women and girls. Without objection, so ordered. Lets start a series of sevenminute rounds. Im going to hold the time tight so that every member can get their opportunity and ill start off by making sure i dont exceed my seven minutes. Prior to the final flight out, we heard from both american citizens and afghan partners seeking to access the airport, they were either not being allowed to the gate, being sent back home or simply abandoned. While we understand and appreciate the Security Issues that were at play, its confounding that such a chaotic process arose to begin with. So when did the administration begin to plan for a worse Case Scenario contingency . Spring and summer. Multiple interagency meetings, exercises, looking at the different contingencies. What was the specific planning put into the likely scenario that american citizens were going to have to evacuate under hostile conditions . 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 evacuate people out. One of the things that happened as you know, mr. Chairman, is that the situation outside the airport became incredibly chaotic with thousands of people massing at the airport. Massing at the gates at the airport and that created, among other things, a very, very challenging situation. Should we not have started earlier . Should there not have been a bigger surge on the siv issue . I recognize, i think its only fair to put in context that your own testimony suggested that there was a 17,000 siv backlog. Nine months had passed by without a single interview, so obviously you inherited a significant backlog, but how many sivs were awarded during the Trump Administration . I dont have the numbers in front of me, but i think over the course of the administration, there must have been several thousand. So the question is then should we not have surged more significantly . I know you said you put up to 50 individuals, but knowing that you were preparing for a contingency worst Case Scenario should not back in march, there have been a more significant surge to process sivs and determine the entire universe in who needed to be taken out . Well, i believe we did surge those resources. As i said, we quadrupled the number of people in washington doing processing and this is at a critical stage in the processing. The most important stage in many ways is the socalled chief admission approval. The stage at which applicants are deemed eligible for the criteria established by congress for the program. And by the way, those who applied, those who actually get chief admission approval, the washout rate is about 40 historically. Thats because it turns out that many who apply dont qualify under the criteria set by congress or theyre unable to get the documentation. I think this was alluded to. To prove that they have worked faithfully and loyally for the United States. There are some situations where people are committing fraud in order to get into the program and 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. Theres more work we would like to do for that, but we did significantly surge our resources to that. Particularly to the chief admission approval process. Quadrupling them and we went from ten to 50 to now i believe 61 or 62. Working on that stage of things. We doubled the resources we had in kabul. All in an effort. And we did, we went from 100 visas a week to 1,000 visas a week, but what was not anticipated was the collapse in 11 days of the Afghan Government and the Afghan Military. There have 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 afghan allies left behind in afghanistan. Can you tell us exactly what these new u. S. Governmentled efforts are . What is the nature of the state dod cooperation, give us a sense of that. Sure. We have within the Department Led by our former veteran in afghanistan, john bass, who went back to kabul 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 to leave afghanistan out. And that includes among other things, a coordination with the many outside groups as well as 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 extraordinary efforts that veterans either individually or as groups are doing 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 whos doing what, what assistance we can provide, and to make sure that were working together Going Forward. We have many other people working on this task force. Some dedicated to american citizens. Others focused on sivs and other afghans at risk. Others focused on coordinating with different groups including members of congress. Let me give you one final minute. Id like to give you the opportunity to set the record straight. Several commentators have suggested that had the department moved 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 afghan situation, but its my understanding that the bureau had not been stood up yet when you decided to curtail the proposal nor did it add any Additional Resources or capabilities that state already had. It was a bureaucratic movement. Not creating or getting rid of actual capabilities. Just a new organizational chart. And new chart. Is that a fair statement . That is a fair statement, mr. Chairman. Okay. If its not the ccr, then what is the answer . Here again, to your point, with regard to the ccr, whether it became a bureau or not, there was no change in the assets that we already had at hand to work on these efforts. The focus of this group either in its existing organizational structure, or had it become a bureau, and among other things it didnt because there were congressional holds from across the aisle and the Previous Administration nonetheless tried to move it forward and we decided to review it and we did the review and as you describe accurately, we found it would add no assets to what we already had at hand but create a different bureaucratic structure. Having said that, this was 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 large evacuation that we had to conduct. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, i can tell you, i listened to you and a handful of other people try to put the best face on this possible and i can tell you that the temperature of the American People, its not there with you, and im not talking from a partisan basis, this goes both ways. Theres not enough lipstick in the world to put on this pig to make it look any different than it actually is. The American People want to know who is responsible for this. Lets start with this. Who is responsible . Who made the decisions on this . Was it the president of the United States . Ultimately the president makes the decisions, thats correct. Did he in this case . As in every case, ultimately decisions that can only be decided by the president were decided by the president. Well of course, to be specific, senator, there are hundreds, thousands of decisions every single day that go into a situation as complex as this one. The big Strategic Decisions, those are decided by the president. The tactical operational decisions are made by different agencies, agency heads, agency officials. Im more interested in the top decision making. Look, weve all seen this and saw it as recently as yesterday, somebody in the white house has the authority to press the button and cut off the president s speaking ability and sound. Who is that person . I think anybody who knows the president , including members of this committee knows that he speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself. Nobody else does. Are you saying that theres nobody in the white house that can cut him off, because yesterday it happened and it has happened before that, and it has been widely reported that suddenly somebody has the power to push a button and cut off his sound. Who is that person . There is no such person. Again, the president speaks for himself and makes all the Strategic Decisions and informed by the best advice he can get from around him. Are you unaware this is actually happening . It happened yesterday at the interagency fire center. It was widely reported and the media is reporting on it and its not the first time it has happened, it has happened several times, and are you telling this committee that this does not happen and theres nobody in the white house and pushes a button and cuts him off mid sentence . Correct. Are you saying that didnt happen . Senator, i really dont know what you are 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 nine months at the white house, the president very much speaks for himself. Well, lets take a different attack. He does speak for himself, but what happens when somebody doesnt want him speaking . You are telling us you dont know anything about this, somebody cuts him off in midst, is that what you are trying to tell this committee . Because everybody here has seen it. Senator, i am telling you based on my own experience with the president over the last 20 years, anybody who tried to stop him from saying what he wanted to say, speaking his mind, would probably not be long for their job. Lets turn to the dissent cable you received in july. Are you willing to give a copy of this dissent cable you got from the diplomats regarding the imminent catastrophic collapse in afghanistan . Are you willing to give a copy of that to this committee . This dissent is something that i place tremendous value and importance on. Its a way for people in the state department to speak the truth as they see it to power, and these cables, i have read every one of them that we have gotten during this administration and i have responded to every one and i factored every one into my thinking and actions, and the legitimacy of the channel, the ability for people with confidence to share their thoughts and views even when they run counter to what their seniors have said or the policies being prescribed, its vitally important that we protect that and its only to be shared with senior officials in the department. What i dont want to see is some kind of chilling affect Going Forward that says to those that would think of writing a cable in the future that this will, you know, get out widely and be distributed in ways that would have that that would have that chilling affect. Do you admit you received a dissent cable in july signed by two dozen diplomats that warned about the catastrophic collapse that was coming in afghanistan . Senator, i certainly received the cable in july. I read it. I spopd responded to it, and factored its contents into my thinking, and what the cable said broadly was two things. 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 Government Force after our departures and it focused on the siv front, and to expedite moving them out, and the good recommendations were already intrained was the establishment of operation allies refuge. That operation was put into force on july 14th, and it has already been planned for sometime and this was an effort to expedite the identification and relocation of sivs, actually putting them on planes, which, as you know, is not part of the program, actually relocating them and establishing transit sites so we could put them there thats a problem with us not having access to that, because you are telling us that but others say its significantly different to what you are saying. I think history will be interested in that particular cable and your response to it. Ill save my next question for the next round. Senator cardin, i asked him in addition to his questions to preside for a few minutes since i have another hearing to go to. Thank you. Secretary blinken, thank you for being with us today. Thank you for almost the daily briefings you had for the members of the United States senate and keeping us totally informed as to the events unfolding. I 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 taliban, 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. Our committee could not conduct oversight that is so important, as you have pointed out, while working with the executive branch in 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 Biden Administration was dealt a very difficult hand on the withdrawal from afghanistan. We all recognize we needed to withdrawal and the options were extremely limited. The mistakes made by Previous Administrations, we talked about it, but i think we need to understand that many of us did not support the 2002 campaign to go into iraq. One of those reasons was we wanted to complete the mission in afghanistan when we had a chance to do it when the taliban was diminished after our military came in after the attack on our country, but instead we went into iraq which was not engaged in the 9 11 activities, and we