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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey | | 
A man holds a certificate acknowledging his work for Americans as hundreds of people gather outside the international airport in Kabul on Aug. 17, 2021. | AP Photo | With help from Lara Seligman and Daniel Lippman Welcome to National Security Daily, POLITICO’s newsletter on the global events roiling Washington and keeping the administration up at night. I’m Alex Ward, your guide to what’s happening inside the Pentagon, the NSC and D.C.’s foreign policy machine. National Security Daily arrives in your inbox Monday through Friday around 4 p.m.; subscribe here. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and qforgey@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @QuintForgey. During an interagency meeting early this summer, a Defense Department official was asked if the Pentagon had a list of all the Afghans who worked alongside the United States during the 20-year war. The Pentagon representative responded that such a list did not exist. Then, during another interagency meeting in early July — this one classified and conducted via video conference — a State Department staffer detailed how they would eventually relocate vulnerable Afghans seeking special visas to the U.S. The official asserted that Kabul wouldn’t fall for six to 12 months, so they had plenty of time to hire more staff and position consular officers in the capital to process the 20,000-person backlog. And in late July, two weeks before the Taliban captured their first provincial capital, a coalition of groups that work with special visa applicants wrote multiple emails to the State Department’s Afghanistan Task Force offering their assistance. Those emails were never returned. These instances, detailed to POLITICO by five U.S. officials and people familiar with the situation, are indicative of how the administration wasted precious time and failed to prepare to evacuate thousands in danger as the Taliban plotted their comeback. Flaws in the planning and execution of the withdrawal have led to wrenching scenes of Afghans clinging to U.S. military cargo planes as the aircraft race out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where President JOE BIDEN has dispatched up to 7,000 troops to handle the chaos. “They were sitting on their hands,” said a congressional aide who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. “They only started surging three to four weeks ago.” In fact, it was only on Saturday that the State Department task force approached those same activist organizations and sought their help to fill out a list with names of people needing relocation. A State Department spokesperson did not deny these accounts, but said: “We are actively working on every possible contingency to make sure that we can help those who have helped us,” noting that 2,000 Afghans and their families are now in the United States. A defense official confirmed no comprehensive list exists at the Pentagon, saying, “We are not aware of any database that tallies up a list of Afghans who worked with us over the last several years.” Although the official said there were likely partial lists held by other agencies or private contractors, they could not confirm one way or the other. So if you’re wondering how the Biden administration failed to scale up quickly to help evacuate Americans and Afghans in need, remember all the precious time U.S. officials wasted. You can read Alex’s full story here. | | | TALIBAN WELCOMES WOMEN TO JOIN GOVERNMENT: ENAMULLAH SAMANGANI, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said Tuesday that women “should be in the government structure according to Shariah law,” per The Associated Press’ AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR, KATHY GANNON and JON GAMBRELL. “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims,” Samangani said — a rhetorical shift for the fundamentalist group infamously known for its oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan. Samangani also declared a seemingly blanket “amnesty” across the country, even though Taliban officials are still negotiating with leaders of the fallen, Western-backed government. At a news conference Tuesday, Taliban spokesperson ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID worked to allay concerns regarding retribution by the militants, per our own NICK NIEDZWIADEK. “We have given amnesty to everybody, there is no revenge,” Mujahid said, adding that “no one will go after” those who worked with U.S. forces and other allies. In another noteworthy public signal, MAWLAWI ABDULHAQ HEMAD, a member of the Taliban’s media team, sat for an interview Tuesday with BEHESHTA ARGHAND, a female broadcaster on the Afghan TV station TOLOnews. “It is the most important development in the last two days, I think,” The New York Times’ SHARIF HASSAN tweeted about the segment. “Taliban are actually showing they are different now.” Moby Group founder SAAD MOHSENI, whose media company owns TOLOnews, also tweeted that the interview with the Taliban official would have been “[u]nthinkable two decades ago when they were last in charge.” NATO ENDS AID TO AFGHANISTAN: In response to the Taliban’s takeover, NATO won’t provide Afghanistan any more financial aid, per Defense One’s JACQUELINE FELDSCHER. “We have of course suspended all … financial and other kinds of support to the Afghan government because there is no Afghan government for NATO to support,” NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG said Tuesday. “All of that is frozen and suspended. … No money is transferred, no support is provided to Kabul after the collapse of the government.” NATO’s move is in line with what the United States and its allies have said for months: If the Taliban take over by force, then the group will become an international pariah and won’t receive any financial assistance from the West. However, Stoltenberg did offer the militants a path to receiving such funds in the future. If the Taliban form an “inclusive government,” then it will be easier to have some kind of relationship, “compared to if we have a Taliban rule which is similar to what we saw 20 years ago.” TURKEY IN TALKS WITH TALIBAN: Turkish Foreign Minister MEVLUT CAVUSOGLU said Tuesday that Ankara was “keeping up dialogue with all sides” in Afghanistan, “including the Taliban,” per Reuters. Cavusoglu added that Turkish officials “view positively the messages that the Taliban has given so far, whether to foreigners, to diplomatic individuals or its own people. We hope to see these in action as well.” Despite those warm words from the top Turkish diplomat, both Turkey and Iran are apprehensive about an increase in refugees that could result from the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan, per AFP. Turkey hosts a large number of Syrian refugees, and millions of Afghan refugees already reside in Iran. Both countries are seeking new influence amid the Afghanistan fallout, but their governments are still fighting the coronavirus pandemic and facing struggling economies. IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to POLITICO’s newsletter on the national security politics roiling Washington. NatSec Daily is for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Please share this subscription link with a colleague or friend. Follow the whole team here: @alexbward, @QuintForgey, @nahaltoosi, @woodruffbets, @politicoryan, @PhelimKine, @BryanDBender, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmccleary, @leehudson, @AndrewDesiderio, and @JonnyCustodio. IF YOU’RE MISSING MORNING DEFENSE, DON’T WORRY — WE’RE STILL HERE: Coming at Pro s bright and early every a.m., if you’re not getting Morning D, you’re missing out. Learn more about our best-in-class insider reporters and sign up here. 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Subscribe to Ottawa Playbook today. | | | | | | | | THE TAIWAN-AFGHANISTAN DISCOURSE: There’s a debate happening inside elite D.C. circles (aka Twitter) about whether the Afghanistan withdrawal should make Taiwanese officials shiver. The argument is that America now can’t be trusted to defend its friends and partners in the long term, which sends a welcome signal to Beijing and an uneasy one to Taipei. Experts NatSec Daily spoke to think that’s hyperbolic, to put it mildly. “Taiwan and Afghanistan could not be more different. Taiwan and the US have deep, historical ties,” said BONNIE GLASER , the director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund in D.C. “If there is any comparison to be made, it should be that the U.S. would be likely to devote at least as much blood and treasure to Taiwan, if not more.” Still, the growing conversation got Taiwan’s Premier SU TSENG-CHANG to weigh in, saying his government wouldn’t collapse like Afghanistan’s . “We also tell foreign forces who want to invade and grab Taiwan — don't be deluded,” he said. “We must guard this country and this land, and not be like certain people who always talk up the enemy's prestige and talk down our resolve.” | | | SECAF AIMING TO SPOOK ADVERSARIES: Air Force Secretary FRANK KENDALL says his main goal is to acquire technologies that “scare China,” per Defense News’ VALERIE INSINNA. What kind of tech? “We’ve got a few things that are in the pipeline that have not been revealed to the public yet, that I can’t talk about,” Kendall said. “One that has been revealed in part is the B-21 bomber. I think that’s going to be something that will be intimidating, it’s going to be very capable. And there are a few others like that that are coming down the pipeline. … But I think we have to be continuously thinking about other things that will be intimidating to our future enemies.” | | | WATCHDOG PAINTS “BLEAK” PICTURE OF AFGHANISTAN CONFLICT: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has released a massive new report that offers a troubling postmortem of America’s longest war, per our own MAEVE SHEEHEY. “If the goal was to rebuild and leave behind a country that can sustain itself and pose little threat to U.S. national security interests, the overall picture is bleak,” JOHN SOPKO, the SIGAR, wrote in the report — titled, “What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction.” The report was based on 13 years of oversight work, including 760 interviews with subjects including policymakers, military officers and experts. Though the SIGAR concluded the United States’ intervention in Afghanistan resulted in certain “bright spots” — such as lower child mortality rates and higher literacy rates — the report also questioned whether these gains were “commensurate with the U.S. investment or sustainable after a U.S. drawdown.” GD’S NEW UUV CENTER: General Dynamics has opened its new unmanned underwater vehicle manufacturing center, per Defense News’ MEGAN ECKSTEIN . “With the opening of the new UUV facility, the employees at Taunton who specialize in manufacturing and final assembly will bring their training and expertise to [the Knifefish] Navy program, while the nearby Quincy facility will continue the UUV engineering, as well as building some subcomponents of the Knifefish and conducting final in-water testing before delivering the vehicles to the Navy,” Eckstein wrote. | | | HILL DEM ANGER SPELLS TROUBLE FOR BIDEN: Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) on Monday called for hearings to understand just what exactly went wrong with the Afghanistan withdrawal. “As the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I hope to work with the other committees of jurisdiction to ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces,” Warner said in a statement. “We owe those answers to the American people and to all those who served and sacrificed so much.” Today, Sen. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. JACK REED (D-R.I.) pledged to hold hearings of their own soon. Monday, NatSec Daily reported the Senate Armed Services Committee was considering a hearing with Pentagon officials. It looks like senior members of the administration will soon face lawmakers for tense testimony once they all come back to town. The administration is also feeling pressure from congressional Democrats to get thousands of Special Immigrant Visa applicants out of Afghanistan, per our own SARAH FERRIS, HEATHER CAYGLE, OLIVIA BEAVERS and NICHOLAS WU . “We need to stop overthinking this,” said Rep. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-Ariz.), a Marine Corps veteran who serves on the House Armed Services Committee. “Cut the bureaucratic b.s. Put people on planes, land them at bases and deal with the paperwork later.” | | | HOUSE DEM CALLS AFGHANISTAN DRAWDOWN “A CATASTROPHE”: Rep. JIM LANGEVIN (D-R.I.) torched the administration’s withdrawal today in a piece for Foreign Policy. “Public executions and forced marriages are reportedly back. People are fleeing. The Taliban are in Kabul, and the government has fallen. This is a catastrophe,” Langevin wrote. “This negligence was par for the course for the last U.S. administration. I am disappointed to see it now. At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan.” Clearly, the administration is struggling to amass much support from Democrats on the Hill for its pullout. | | | PENTAGON ARRIVAL LOUNGE: CAROLINE BAXTER has been sworn in as deputy assistant secretary of defense for force education and training. She tweeted: “This is a portfolio I care deeply about and I have the high honor of serving alongside exceptional public servants w/in P&R and DOD. Let’s get to work.” | | | | Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today . | | | | | | | | The Atlantic: “Why the Afghan Army Folded” USA Today: “Veterans wanted out of Afghanistan, but sudden collapse brings mental health to light” The Washington Post: “72 hours at Camp David: Inside Biden’s lagging response to the fall of Afghanistan” | | | — The Peterson Institute for International Economics, 9 a.m.: “The African free trade area: Eight months in” — The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, 11 a.m.: “ USCIRF Conversation: New Report on Religious Freedom Violations in North Korea” — The Atlantic Council, 12 p.m.: “Digital inclusion during the technological revolution” — The Hoover Institution, 2 p.m.: “ Nearshoring: Combating Chinese Influence In The Western Hemisphere” — The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2:30 p.m.: “Chile's Constitutional Reform: What's Next?” Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? 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