review it. we did the review. and as you described very accurately, we found that this would add no assets to what we already had at hand. it would simply create a different bureaucratic structure. but having said that, again, this was something designed primarily for individual extractions, medical emergencies, these men and women who are part of our operational medical units 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 in afghanistan. thank you. thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. secretary, coy tell you, i ve 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 is not there with you. and that democrat i m not talking from a partisan basis.
this will this will get out widely, be distributed in ways that would have that chilling effect. do you admit that you received any dissent cable in july signed by two dozen diplomats that warned about the imminent catastrophic collapse that was coming in afghanistan? senator, i certainly received this cable and in mid-july. i read it. i responded to it. i factored its contents into my thinking. and what the cable said broadly is 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 of that government enforce after our departure and it focused on the efforts that we were making particularly on the siv front. to try to expedite moving them out. and in fact a number of recommendations, the very good recommendations were already in
lengthy process, 14 steps, multiple agencies involved. we work to try to stream line that. i think there is more work we d like to do going forward to do that. but the bottom line is we did significantly surge our resources to that particularly to the chief admission approval process, quad rupingle them and 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 kabul. all in an effort to expedite and we did. we went if 100 to 1,000 visas a week. what was not anticipated was 11 days in the afghan government and the afghan military. let me ask you this, there has been numerous press reports 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 allies left behind in afghanistan. could you tell us exactly what
not have american forces on ground. fourth, we continue our diplomacy with allies and partners. we had a statement joined by more than 100 countries and a united nations security council resolution setting out the international expectations of a taliban-led government. we expect the taliban to ensure freedom of travel, to make good on its counter-terrorism commitments and to uphold the basic rights of the afghan people including women, girls, minorities, to name a broadly representative permanent government, to force swear reprisals. the 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 led a meeting of 22 countries plus nato and eu and
choose. last week on thursday a qatar airways charter flight with u.s. citizens and others on board departed kabul and landed in doha. on friday a second flight departed afghanistan. these flights were the result of coordinated efforts by the united states, qatar and turkey to reopen the airport and intent to start the flights. in addition to the flights, half a dozen american citis, a dozen permanent residents of the united states have also left afghanistan via over land routes. we re in constant contact with american citis still in afghanistan. each has been assigned a case management team to offer specific guidance and instructions. some declined to be on the the first flights on thursday and friday. for reasons including needing more time to make arrangements, wanting to remain with extended family for now, or medical issues that precluded traveling last week. we will continue to help