Harris, Blinken, Austin silent on Operation Allies Welcome
Former top Biden administration decision makers were silent on whether they stand by the vetting procedures deployed for “Operation Allies Welcome,” the Afghan resettlement program that was utilized by the alleged National Guard attacker to get to the U.S.
The heinous incident that claimed the life of one West Virginia National Guard member and gravely wounded another on Thanksgiving Eve sprung back to the forefront last week when House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., infuriated Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he referred to it as an “unfortunate accident.”
The attack renewed questions over whether Democrats still stand by the vetting processes put in place by the previous administration — and whether officials involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal and refugee resettlement would revise those decisions today.
Fox News Digital has reached out to several members of the Biden administration with roles directly or tangentially related to the Afghanistan withdrawal and the resettlement of Afghan refugees.
Inquiries to former President Joe Biden’s office, former Vice President Kamala Harris and a second request to an individual listed as Harris’ literary agent were not returned within a week.
Messages sent to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley [Ret.], as well as via an official at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs – where he is listed as a visiting professor – also went unanswered.
Milley, though a general, was not in a command position – as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is an advisory role.
In that regard, he did not make any operational decisions, but instead was in the president’s ear when it came to military advice. Milley later told senators on Capitol Hill that he recommended maintaining a small, 2,500-troop force in Afghanistan.
Fox News Digital also reached out to former Central Command (CENTCOM) commander, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie via his new role at the University of South Florida, for comment – which was not returned.
CENTCOM covers the Middle East and was tasked with overseeing security and evacuation operations out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Messages sent to addresses listed for National Security Adviser Jacob Sullivan and Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer were not returned. Finer is now a visiting fellow at Columbia University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and Sullivan’s wife – Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., is in her first term in Congress.
Sullivan was a key adviser to Biden during the withdrawal and was later pressed by CNN whether he feels “personally responsible for the failures” therein.
He replied that the “strategic call President Biden made, looking back three years, history has judged well and will continue to judge well. From the point of view that, if we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying; Russia would have more leverage over us; we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face.”
A woman who answered a line listed for former Secretary of State Antony Blinken redirected Fox News Digital to a press liaison. That request was not returned.
Blinken, as leader of the State Department, was the point person for the diplomatic aspect of the withdrawal. He advised Biden on what to do about the Taliban’s “Doha Agreement” that was forged by the previous Trump administration, while the department coordinated overflight rights, temporary housing and other issues regarding the refugee outflow from Kabul.
A woman who answered an extension listed for former Pentagon chief Gen. Lloyd Austin III [Ret.] said she would take a message and that Austin would return the call if he wished.
As Pentagon chief, Austin was the top bureaucrat in the U.S. military structure at the time of the withdrawal.
After the Thanksgiving Eve attack, U.S. Citizenship for Immigration Services administrator Joe Edlow announced a review of the green card system, citing suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s situation.
His predecessor, Biden-appointed Ur Jaddou, did not respond to a request for comment.
Fox News Digital also reached out to alleged addresses linked to former Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, but did not receive responses. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Belfer Center at Harvard, which recently cited that Sherwood-Randall would be rejoining their ranks to lead their “Initiative on Bioconvergence, Biosecurity, and Bioresilience.”
Fox News Digital also attempted to reach Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, via his new role at a global advisory firm, but did not receive a response.
Efforts to reach Biden confidants Ronald Klain and Jeffrey Zients were unsuccessful.
Gens. Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin III, left, join Alejandro Mayorkas, right, behind Joe Biden, center-front. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Tracey Jacobson, now the chargé d’affaires for the U.S. in Dhaka, Bangladesh, led the administration’s Afghanistan coordination task force charged with processing and relocating Afghan allies. She did not respond to an inquiry.
During the Afghan withdrawal, Jacobson was named by the Biden administration to lead an Afghanistan coordination task force as part of its “whole-of-government effort to process, transport and relocate Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other Afghan allies,” according to Biden.
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus was asked by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign in 2022 or risk being the first Biden administration official fired, according to The New York Times.
DHS officials ultimately cut his access to the agency’s social media accounts, according to the paper, and a report from Heritage Foundation fellow Simon Hankinson cited that he ultimately left the job soon after.
His role would have also placed him in the midst of the orchestration of Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Allies Refuge. He was also unable to be reached for comment.
Another Mayorkas deputy, then-FEMA Director Robert Fenton Jr., was reportedly tasked with setting up Operation Allies Welcome centers to help evacuees “integrate successfully and safely into new communities.”
Fenton remains the Region 9 administrator for the agency, tasked with an area covering the west coast and South Pacific protectorates. An inquiry to Fenton was not returned.
Mayorkas himself could not be reached directly for comment. Efforts to reach him via a law firm he was or is connected to, as well as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is a visiting scholar, were either unsuccessful or not returned.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
