Biden Administration Released Afghanistan Report Day Before Holiday in Attempt to Bury It, Republicans Say

Kristina Wong4 Jul 2023

The Biden administration released a State Department review of its botched Afghanistan withdrawal the Friday before the July Fourth holiday weekend, in what Republicans say was an attempt to bury its release.

The administration also omitted about 60 pages in the version that was released.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) blasted the late release, saying he had called for the administration back in April to release an unclassified version of the review — which was completed in March 2022:

On April 25, I called upon the State Department to declassify its After-Action Review on Afghanistan within 60 days. The department failed to fulfill that request, instead choosing to release only a small portion of that document – 24 of 87 pages that were already unclassified – and completely omitted the narrative which forms the bulk of the report. There is no reason not to produce a declassified version of the full report, as much of it is marked ‘Sensitive but Unclassified’ or ‘Unclassified.’ This is another blatant attempt to hide the Biden administration’s culpability in the chaotic and deadly evacuation from Afghanistan.

Another Republican, House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Mike Waltz, tweeted: “Shameful the Biden Administration would release a damning report on Afghanistan the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend. Typical DC swamp tactic.”

“Like other Afghanistan-related documents, much of this report remains unnecessarily classified to avoid future embarrassment, transparency, and accountability,” added Waltz, a Green Beret Army National Guard colonel who served in Afghanistan.

Reporters questioned White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday about the report.

She referred questions about the report to the State Department but defended the administration’s transparency, claiming that it has provided Congress with answers.

However, a reporter asked her, “What message does it send to release this long-anticipated report on a Friday on a heavy news day ahead of a holiday weekend?”

“That is a State Department decision, so I would have to refer you to them,” she said.

Asked if she agreed with the report, which faulted senior Biden administration officials for lack of planning and direction, Jean-Pierre said, “I will just let it speak for itself. I’m just not going to comment further.”

The portion of the report that was released said both the Trump and Biden administrations were to blame for the lack of planning for the withdrawal, which saw the deaths of 13 American service members and about 170 Afghans. It said:

The decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security. Those decisions are beyond the scope of this review, but the AAR team found that during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.

The report said most estimates predicted Kabul would not fall for weeks, if not months later than it did. However, it admitted that “as security conditions in Afghanistan deteriorated, some argued for more urgency in planning for a possible collapse.”

The report said while evacuation planning had been underway “for some time,” the State Department’s participation in the planning process was “hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the Department had the lead.”

Once the evacuation was underway, the report said a “major challenge” was determining the scale and scope of the operation.…

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/07/04/biden-administration-released-afghanistan-report-day-before-holiday-in-attempt-to-bury-it-republicans-say/

Obama judge blocks Florida's law prohibiting foreigners from collecting voter registrations as 'unconstitutional'

What fresh leftist lunacy is this, coming up at us on the Fourth of July?

According to Cristina Laila at GatewayPundit:

An Obama-appointed federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction against Florida’s election law that imposed limitations on third-party voter registration organizations.

In May Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed SB 7020, a law that barred non-citizens from handling or collecting voter registration forms.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is an immigrant from El Salvador who works for “Mi Vecino,” a third party voter registration organization.

US District Judge Mark Walker said the election law banning non-citizens from handling voter registration forms is unconstitutional.

What, exactly, is "unconstitutional" about not letting foreign nationals participate in our elections, including the vital task of collecting voter registrations from, presumably, citizens?

According to theObama-appointed judge, Mark Walker, in his ruling:

One new provision bars noncitizens from registering citizens to vote, thus discriminating based on alienage, one of the most questionable classifications in equal protection jurisprudence. The other exposes individuals working for third party voter registration organizations to felony prosecutions for retaining voter information without telling them to whom the prohibition applies, what they can retain, and when they can retain it.Florida may, of course, regulate elections, including the voter registration process. Here, however, the challenged provisions exemplify something Florida has struggled with in recent years; namely, governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution.

Florida may, of course, regulate elections, including the voter registration process. Here, however, the challenged provisions exemplify something Florida has struggled with in recent years; namely, governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution. When state government power threatens to spread beyond constitutional bounds and reduce individual rights to ashes, the federal judiciary stands as a firewall.2 The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution.

For the reasons that follow, Plaintiffs are entitled to a preliminary injunction.

He cited aliens "serving their community" as largely his judicial logic, along with "equal protection" under the law as the rest of it.

So aliens, including illegal aliens, are now equal-protection matters, and if an alien can't collect registrations, or, for that matter, vote, he's being discriminated against by all those dirty racists who happen to be U.S. citizens? Illegals, of course, are great ones for knowing where all the valid U.S. citizens are in this game, aren't they? And realistically, are they going to know a whole lot of potentially valid voters, or might they have an inherent interest in registering people just like themselves with their special interests, who are either foreign non-citizens here legally or foreign illegals?

The second part of that initial claim is even more disturbing. Apparently, the foreigners have been collecting data off the new voter registrations that they are gathering and turning in beforehand — and doing something with those data, whether a voter likes it or not.

The data collected could be used to sell lists to Democrat candidates for their mailed campaign literature, perhaps, or to pressure voters over the phone, and, if these groups are really partisan, to simply give away to those Democrat candidates, which negates the nonpartisan purpose of doing voter registrations. What do they do with a newly registered voter who doesn't register Democrat? Do they throw that registration away? Nobody's asking that one. Bottom line here is, who knew that these groups were getting a little slice for themselves as they claimed to be selflessly civic-minded groups out registering voters for "democracy"?

They had such a strong interest in gathering that data from those voter registrations — perhaps a money stream is involved here — that they took the matter to court: foreigners collecting U.S. voter registrations, and foreigners collecting personal data from them before turning those registrations in to the official registrar of voters.

The foreign character listed in the case was a man from an NGO called "Mi Vecino" who is from El Salvador and apparently a legal resident…..

But it should be overturned on appeal. Elections for U.S. office are for citizens and citizens alone. Allowing any foreigners in as key cogs in the process is a bona fide violation of U.S. sovereignty. If this isn't overturned, we are done as a country.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/07/obama_judge_blocks_floridas_law_prohibiting_foreigners_from_collecting_voter_registrations_as_unconstitutional.html