PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: September 9, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Today, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul released a report on the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The report fails to mention the person whose actions in office contributed to the chaos, violence, and uncertainty of the withdrawal: Donald Trump who, among other things, had an aborted plan to dine with the Taliban at Camp David.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project executive director Kyle Herrig said the following:
“Chairman McCaul had eighteen months to conduct his investigation but waited until the September before the election to release a report with no new information, designed to help Donald Trump avoid accountability for the chaos caused by his administration. McCaul has taken a page out of his friend James Comer’s playbook and politicized his chairmanship, all to help Donald Trump, a man who has repeatedly shown he has no respect for our brave service members or their families.”
BACKGROUND:
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NEGOTIATED A BAD DEAL THAT BOLSTERED THE TALIBAN AND UNDERMINED THE AFGHAN GOVERNMENT
In February 2020, The Trump Administration Negotiated ‘A Very Weak Agreement’ with the Taliban to Withdraw All Forces From Afghanistan in May 2021 With ‘No Enforcement Mechanism for the Taliban to Keep Its Word.’ “In February 2020, Trump announced that there was a deal. The basic contours: The United States was to get out of Afghanistan in 14 months [May 1, 2021] and, in exchange, the Taliban agreed not to let Afghanistan become a haven for terrorists and to stop attacking U.S. service members. The deal laid out an explicit timetable for the United States and NATO to pull out their forces: In the first 100 days or so, they would reduce troops from 14,000 to 8,600 and leave five military bases. Over the next nine months, they would vacate all the rest. ‘The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will complete withdrawal of all remaining forces from Afghanistan within the remaining nine and a half (9.5) months,’ the deal reads. ‘The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will withdraw all their forces from remaining bases.’ […] One gaping problem, say scholars (including some from the Trump administration): The peace agreement came with no enforcement mechanism for the Taliban to keep its word. The Taliban basically had to sign a pledge saying it wouldn’t harbor terrorists. Nowhere did the Taliban have to — nor did it choose to — denounce al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that launched the 9/11 attacks from Afghanistan, Miller writes. The biggest tangible commitment from the Taliban looked like this: For seven days before the deal was signed, its leaders significantly reduced their attacks on Afghan forces to show they were capable of controlling the group across the country. But the deal didn’t require that the Taliban stop its attacks against Afghan security forces. Overall, it was a pretty good deal for the Taliban, critics said. ‘Trump all but assured the future course of events would reflect the Taliban’s interests far more than the United States,’ Miller writes. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, has recently called it ‘a surrender agreement with the Taliban.’ Another member of Trump’s National Security Council said it was ‘a very weak agreement.’” [Washington Post, 8/20/21]
Inspector General: Trump Negotiated A Bad Deal With The Taliban That Bolstered That Taliban And Undermined The Afghan Government. In February 2023, the special inspector general for Afghanistan released a report pointing to the Trump administration’s deal with the Taliban that undermined the government of Afghanistan and precipitated the withdrawal: “The decision to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and dramatically reduce U.S. support to the ANDSF destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police. […] The U.S.-Taliban agreement signed under the Trump administration in 2020 made it clear that this was no longer the case, resulting in a sense of abandonment within the ANDSF and the Afghan population. The agreement set in motion a series of events crucial to understanding the ANDSF’s collapse. […] The U.S.-Taliban agreement introduced tremendous uncertainty into the U.S.-Afghan relationship. Many of its provisions were contained in secret written and verbal agreements between U.S. and Taliban envoys, which the Trump administration classified. […] Taliban propaganda weaponized that vacuum against local commanders and elders by falsely asserting the Taliban had a secret deal with the United States for certain districts or provinces to be surrendered to it.” [Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, 2/1/23]
TRUMP’S DEAL INCLUDED RELEASING 5,000 TALIBAN PRISONERS
The Trump Administration Agreed to Withdraw All Forces and Release 5,000 Taliban Prisoners In February 2020. “The deal laid out an explicit timetable for the United States and NATO to pull out their forces: In the first 100 days or so, they would reduce troops from 14,000 to 8,600 and leave five military bases. Over the next nine months, they would vacate all the rest. ‘The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will complete withdrawal of all remaining forces from Afghanistan within the remaining nine and a half (9.5) months,’ the deal reads. ‘The United States, its allies, and the Coalition will withdraw all their forces from remaining bases.’ The United States would release 5,000 Taliban prisoners; the Taliban would release 1,000 of its prisoners. The Taliban’s end of the deal asked a lot from the group — too much to be realistic, critics said. In addition to making sure nowhere in the country harbored a terrorist cell, the Taliban agreed to be responsible for any individual who might want to attack the United States from Afghanistan, including new immigrants to the country.” [Washington Post, 8/20/21]
Afghan President: Trump Prison Release Poses a ‘Danger’ To the World. “Hundreds of Taliban inmates that are set to be released as a precondition to peace talks with Kabul pose a danger ‘to the world’, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday. Ghani’s government is due to meet with the Taliban in Doha in the coming days for the two sides’ direct talks aimed at ending nearly 19 years of war. They are set to meet once Kabul has released 400 Taliban prisoners in a move that has drawn widespread condemnation after it emerged many of the inmates were involved in attacks that killed scores of Afghans and foreigners. ‘Until this issue, there was a consensus on the desirability of peace but not on the cost of it,’ Ghani said in a video conference organized by a US think tank. ‘We have now paid the major installment on cost and that means peace will have consequences,’ he added, noting that the release of ‘hardened criminals’ and drug dealers was ‘likely to pose a danger both to us and to (America) and to the world’. The freeing of the 400 prisoners comes after Kabul already released about 5,000 lower-risk Taliban inmates.” [DAWN, 8/14/20]
A U.S. Peace Envoy Denounced Trump’s Prisoner Deal with the Taliban. “The US envoy for peace in Afghanistan has told the BBC he was ‘not happy about’ a controversial deal to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in order to secure historic peace talks. The release of 5,000 prisoners was a condition, agreed between the US and the Taliban after their peace talks last year, to begin these negotiations. […] The Afghan government was not involved in making the agreement, and had concerns about releasing thousands of militants. Last month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani warned that the prisoners’ release was a ‘danger’ to the world, AFP news agency reported at the time. ‘Until this issue, there was a consensus on the desirability of peace but not on the cost of it,’ Mr Ghani said. But Mr Khalilzad denied that agreeing to release so many prisoners – some of whom are considered highly dangerous – was ‘a mistake.’” [BBC, 9/14/20]
TRUMP WAS GOING TO INVITE THE TALIBAN TO CAMP DAVID
Trump Planned to Invite the Taliban to Camp David, Three Days Before the Anniversary of 9/11. “In the days that followed, Mr. Trump came up with an even more remarkable idea — he would not only bring the Taliban to Washington, but to Camp David, the crown jewel of the American presidency. The leaders of a rugged militant organization deemed terrorists by the United States would be hosted in the mountain getaway used for presidents, prime ministers and kings just three days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that led to the Afghan war.” [New York Times, 9/8/19]