A senior investigator on the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into the Afghan withdrawal has surprisingly resigned over what he described as a “disappointing lack of courage” and “broken promises.”
The committee is investigating the deadly US withdrawal from Kabul in 2021, which left 13 US troops and nearly 200 Afghan allies dead in an ISIS-K terrorist bombing at Abbey Gate.
The explosion occurred as U.S. troops evacuated Americans and partners from Kabul airport. To date, no one has taken responsibility for the frantic withdrawal that led to bloodshed — and no Biden administration officials have been fired or resigned.
Jerry Dunleavy, a former journalist and author of a book about the disastrous withdrawal, took a job with the commission a year ago as a senior researcher to help draft a now 600-page report scheduled for publication in September.
But Dunleavy, who had no prior experience with Hill’s presidency, surprisingly announced Monday that he would resign “in protest,” saying he wanted an even more thorough investigation.
A senior investigator on the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry into the withdrawal from Afghanistan has surprisingly resigned over what he described as a “disappointing lack of courage” and “broken promises”
His list of specific complaints ranged from the committee’s failure to use his proposed titles for hearings to his “suggestions” for interviews being ignored by more senior members of the committee to “indecisiveness” by Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
He also complained that the role of Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, should have been taken more seriously.
“I did not take this decision to step down and publicly blow the whistle lightly, but I could no longer be a part of this sham,” Jerry Dunleavy wrote on X.
McCaul, Dunleavy alleged, “has failed to exercise this awesome power with any vigor or consistency.”
However, Dunleavy alleged that it had “failed to properly investigate all aspects of the ISIS-K bombing” and had failed to live up to promises it made to Gold Star families who lost loved ones in the attack to fully investigate the matter.
The committee opposed Dunleavy’s characterization and demanded that their hard work be reflected in the upcoming report.
“I worked for Chairman McCaul for two years and I can tell you he puts his heart and soul into finding answers for our Gold Star families and Afghanistan veterans,” committee spokesperson Emily Cassil told DailyMail.com.
“That will become clear in a few weeks when he releases his comprehensive report, the culmination of thousands of hours of work at both staff and member levels. Its release will not be the end of our work, but a critical next step in ensuring the personal accountability that the Biden-Harris administration has refused to provide.”
The committee has conducted transcripts of interviews with 20 senior officials, including former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, John Bass, who led the evacuation after Kabul fell, former State Department spokesman Ned Price and the joint chiefs of staff for Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, to name a few.
Dunleavy acknowledged that the committee had already “interviewed an impressive number of State Department witnesses and obtained damning testimony from them.”
But he cited a “repeated refusal to interview a number of key witnesses,” including: Tracey Jacobson, former head of the Afghanistan Coordination Task Force now nominated for ambassador to Iraq, Wendy Sherman, former deputy secretary of state, and Victoria Nuland, former assistant secretary of state for political affairs.
He fired off a list of names of defense officials he said should also be brought in for testimony. The Defense Department falls under the jurisdiction of the Armed Services Committee, not Foreign Affairs, so McCaul’s committee would not have subpoena power to bring them in.
Videos and footage from the 2021 withdrawal show US military planes evacuating the country as desperate residents cling to the outside of the plane in attempts to escape Taliban rule.
The withdrawal culminated in an effort by tens of thousands of Afghans to evacuate the country using US military transport planes
“The House Armed Services Committee has failed to investigate these matters itself and has often been slow and reluctant to assist our own committee, but that is no excuse for our inaction,” Dunleavy said.
He regretted that the US Central Command had given the committee only a confidential briefing – without a transcript and without counter-questioning – and that the committee had failed to bring Ross Wilson, the last US ambassador to Afghanistan, into a public hearing.
Dunleavy directed his harshest criticism at the chief investigator he served under.
He said the lead investigator ordered him to bring Wilson along for public testimony because he would “paint us as bullies.”
They also had very different views on Zalmay Khalilzad, the former special representative for reconciliation in Afghanistan, according to Dunleavy.
A source tells DailyMail.com that his story is completely false.
After a transcribed interview, it became “clearer than ever to me how dishonest Khalilzad continued to be about the nature of the Taliban and about his actions as a negotiator in Doha,” Dunleavy said.
A suicide bombing during the withdrawal killed 13 American soldiers
Coffins for the 13 fallen service members returned to the U.S. on August 29, 2021 aboard a military C-17
He also criticized a February hearing, at which he largely escaped scrutiny, titled “How the Biden Administration Failed to Uphold the Doha Deal,” in which the aide reportedly took a selfie with Khalilzad.
Dunleavy regretted that the hearing “cast the seriously flawed Doha agreement in a favorable light.”
He called the selfie “highly inappropriate and potentially damaging to the effectiveness of the investigation.”
The Doha deal, brokered by Khalilzad under the Trump administration in 2020, ended U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in 2021. But by adhering to the terms of the deal, such as reducing U.S. airstrikes, the Taliban were able to quickly regain control of Afghanistan.
Feeling abandoned, the Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF) surrendered to the Taliban faster than anyone had ever expected.
He also said the committee had not spent enough time questioning Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or Gen. Mark Mackenzie, the former head of Central Command.