Breaking reports indicate that President Biden’s State Department began the process of disbanding a bureau dedicated to helping Americans during crises abroad, just two months before the present situation in Afghanistan. The Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau, known as CCR, was set up by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo under the direction of President Trump to deal with such contingencies as evacuating staff and providing an emergency medical response. But with the Biden administration keen to undo just about every policy and program created during the Trump years, the CCR was put on the chopping block.
(Photo by Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In June, a memo was signed by Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon that approved the “discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau.” A State Department Budget Justification document for 2022 sent to Congress earlier this year reads, “The Department has paused implementation of Op Med (CCR) pending a policy review.” However, it seems the State Department is now trying to muddy the waters.
The Official Response
A State Dept. official told The Washington Free Beacon that the CCR had not been abolished and that it had also not been created by the Trump administration. “Every requirement the department delivered on last year, and since the proposed establishment of the bureau, can be delivered today in the same manner,” the official said. However, a copy of the memo authorizing its disbandment was published by editor-in-chief of The National Pulse, Raheem Kassam. It reads:
“That you direct the discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR), and direct a further review of certain associated Department requirements and capabilities.”
The memo is marked approved and dated June 11, 2021. Furthermore, reports show clearly that the bureau was created by Mike Pompeo in October 2020, and as of January 2020, CCR was listed in the Foreign Affairs Manual as a functioning entity.
For What Purpose?
CCR was an offshoot of the OPMed, which itself was explicitly birthed in response to the 2012 Benghazi tragedy that saw, among others, the death of the United States Ambassador to Libya, John Christopher Stevens. The point of the CCR was, as expressed by the Trump administration in a note to Congress, to provide “aviation, logistics, and medical support capabilities for the Department’s operational bureaus, thereby enhancing the secretary’s ability to protect American citizens overseas in connection with overseas evacuations in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster.” In fact, just the sort of resources required to evacuate and safeguard American personnel in Kabul and the surrounding areas today.
Speaking to The National Pulse, former President Donald Trump reacted to the news that CCR had been disbanded. He said:
“My Administration prioritized keeping Americans safe, Biden leaves them behind. Canceling this successful Trump Administration program before the withdrawal that would have helped tens of thousands Americans reach home is beyond disgraceful. Our withdrawal was conditions-based and perfect, it would have been flawlessly executed, and nobody would have even known we left. The Biden execution and withdrawal is perhaps the greatest embarrassment to our Country in History, both as a military and humanitarian operation.”
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The question that many feel should be answered is what motivation did the Biden administration have for shutting down the bureau? While it is certainly possible that other outfits could have taken up the tasks assigned to CCR, the denials from the State Department make it seem more like an effort at obfuscation is underway.
Anti-Trump Mania?
With just a couple of notable exceptions, the Biden presidency has so far been one long effort to undo the term in office of Donald Trump. And while this may prove blue meat to progressive Democrats and die-hard anti-Trumpers, the real-world implications of apparently malicious governing are now coming to fruition.
Hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossings per month have overwhelmed southern states, the U.S. has lost its hard-won energy independence, and now, Americans are facing an uncertain fate as they attempt to flee a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. CCR was put in place by Trump and Pompeo to deal with just such an eventuality; that the current administration would seek to remove it proves Joe Biden’s assurance that he had considered “every contingency” false.
The anger and hatred built up in the hearts of Democrats over the last four years – and encouraged by a self-righteous Fourth Estate – has led to the belief that anything touched by Donald Trump must be tainted and therefore destroyed. It is a blindness that has already led to catastrophe and chaos internally, and now we must wait and see what victims it leaves in its wake on the world stage.
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Read more from Mark Angelides.
