we anticipated including in the intelligence community and there are a number of other statements of that kind that i can share with you. with regard to the so-called dissent channel cable is something i m immensely proud of, a tradition we have and, you re right, i read every such cable. i respond to it. i factor it into my own thinking and actions. and that cable did not predict the collapse of the government or security forces before our departure. it was very focused and rightly focused on the work we were doing to try to get afghans at risk out of the country and pressing to speed up that effort. as it happens, a number of the things that were suggested in that very important cable were things that we were in the process of doing. the very next day i think the cable came in on the 13th of july, the 14th we launched operation allies refuge which, of course, had been in training for some time as well as the 24/7 task force to help those in the siv program get out and even
as the task force to help those in the siv program get out and to relocate them, which is not part of the program. that was a very important cable. i m grateful for it and grateful we have a process at the state department that people with clearly express their views and differences on policy or recommendations on policy. that is usually important. gentleman s time has expired. i recognize bill keating from massachusetts for five minutes. thanks, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary for your service and as head of the department of state for our country, i want to thank all of your people for the work you ve done. they stood side by side with our military risking their lives and helping people evacuate. it s the most dangerous situation. my sincere appreciate to
0 legitimizing them as a real government? not only us, but virtually the entire international community has made clear what we expect and will insist on from the taliban. if they want to seek any legitimacy or any support. and that includes, it starts with freedom of travel. so we have been intensely engaged with turkey in qatar to get the airport in kabul up and running again which is now the case. we started to get flights out last week. and with regard to sharif, you re correct. there are flights that have been there for some time that have not been allowed to leave. we want to see the flights leave. we want to allow the flights to start to move. and we re working on that every day. thank you. i yield back. thank you. mr. secretary. we requested such a classified briefing not too long ago. we welcome your assurance to schedule this briefing sometime in the immediate future. yes. absolutely. and i now recognize representative brad sherman from california for five minutes.
afghanistan. as an adviser to the trump campaign, did you advise them or the president on the moral injury of basically scrapping the siv program that contributed to the difficulties that we ve seen in evacuating afghan allies? so that wasn t something that i worked on. it would be very hard for me to speak on. something i m often an advocate for is mental health for all of our veterans across administrations and something i think is remarkably again bipartisan and nonpartisan ensuring the health and well being of our veterans, military and our military families are first and foremost in a variety of ways and this includes at the v.a. and includes during their period of service and also during their period of being at the academies ensuring we re taking proper and appropriate precautions to make sure those needs are addressed. every opportunity i can speak about getting left of bang ahead of any of these issues that might occur as a result of military service i m a very outspoken adv
background. dhs is paroleing them in. they aren t passing the background checks and they have to skirt around the issue. that s the concern that many republican senators like yourself have. are we going to get answers from the white house? jen psaki says we ll properly vet them. how do you do that with the large number of afghan refugees we re talking about here? exactly. we were told that by the administration that everyone before they set foot onto american soil would be vetted. i know there are parolees coming in. the once that have large in part passed the vetting process but may not have been finalized. we need to make sure they are properly vetted, have the right documentation. according to the siv program. i was part of a letter