His emails proved confusion, uncertainty, and mismanagement during the evacuation.
(Washington, DC) – In April 2023, discussing previously classified analyses of the August 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, National Security Spokesman John Kirby told a White House press briefing that President Biden was “proud” of the operation. Incredulous reporters questioned him about the confused, ugly, and ultimately deadly debacle. “For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it,” Kirby objected, “Not from my perch.”
However, according to Kirby’s records obtained via FOIA litigation by government watchdog Functional Government Initiative (FGI), Kirby’s perch at the Pentagon offered quite a different view of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during the crisis. On August 16, 2021 (10 days before the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members), Kirby emailed colleagues what he called a “Good summary from State [Department].” The State Department alerted him that departures of State Department personnel had ceased “contingent [on] re-establishment of positive control of airfield.”
Also, State reported that Afghan citizens had “attempted to breach the tarmac and terminal, and several large (100s) groups have been successful.” Hundreds of Afghans “flooded the flight line in at least one case, have forced themselves into at least one US mil aircraft. Crowds continue to run alongside planes.” In another incident, crowds “forced themselves onto” military aircraft. Such breaches couldn’t be prevented “with current force levels.”
In the meantime, “audible heavy gunfire continue[d] throughout the night” and a U.S. Marine sustained a “non-fatal gunshot wound.” There had been media reports that Marines had fired at charging civilians, and counter reports that they had only fired in the air. U.S. civilians in the city had been advised to “shelter in place.”
The same day, Kirby shared an update from someone on the ground in Kabul and noted, “I’m sure you all are tracking. But see below. Things are not going well at HKIA.” An officer alerted him that “the situation at HKIA is extremely challenging. Multiple breaches of the perimeter on the civilian side. The Marines killed two armed members interspersed with the crowd threatening their post … 3 civilians were killed trying to hold on to a C-17 taking off. And we have aborted our mission. It’s going to be a rough day.” Of note, the report of an aborted mission seems to contradict Kirby from that same April 2023 White House briefing when Kirby claimed that “not one single mission was missed.”
Elsewhere in the documents, advisors discuss the inability to get Afghan allies through the airport gates, reports of abandoned “translators and activists who stood with us,” and confusion about whether the United States gave the Taliban a list of personnel they wanted to get out (a “Kill list” as reported by Politico). There is more in the documents that shows an out-of-control situation.
Meanwhile, Kirby’s team was already starting to spin the news, emphasizing the gains made in Afghanistan over two decades, issuing empty dictates that the “Taliban must be inclusive and respect rights,” and saying there “will be time for lessons learned but focus now on getting people out (including evacs of Afghan local staff, several Allies looking into what they can do).” When the time for lessons learned did come some 20 months later, Kirby maintained there had been no chaos.
Peter McGinnis, spokesman for FGI, issued the following statement:
“These documents are Mr. Kirby’s ‘perch. They show what he saw – confusion, miscommunication, inadequate resources, tragic deaths. This situation showed an administration out of its depth and a military trying to salvage a near-impossible situation. But the American public didn’t need these emails to know the truth about the chaos. They saw the shameful episode unfold in real time on their TV screens.”
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