Page:CTRL0000034609 - Transcribed Interview of Kashyap Pramod Patel, (December 9, 2021).pdf/93

93 combatant commanders in particular countries are consulted ever occurred that you recall during the time that—in your personal experience when you were the chief of staff to the Secretary?

I don't recall me dealing with something outside of the chain of command. I do know and can say I would not do that because I would view that to be improper.

Okay. So, if other witnesses told us that there was such a directive with a certain deadline to withdraw from those countries that did not get vetted by specifically the National Security Advisor or the Chairman—

Well—

—that—

Sorry. Go ahead.

—that would be outside of the process that you just—

If other witnesses—I can't speak to them. I can speculate. If other witnesses are telling you about a document which you or I have never seen and don't have about dates, what I can tell you about dates in general is dates come in through the theaters, through the combatant commanders, and they move. So were there discussions about dates? Yes, we've had discussions about dates around those topics.

Yes.

But I can't speak to this memo of somebody who did or didn't write it.

Okay. It sounds like you're saying you don't recall any such memo, that there was an order from the President outside of the chain of command to withdraw from Somalia and Afghanistan by dates certain within—

So I want to be very clear: You're talking about this memo we've never seen. I'm talking about memos that I can't get into because they're all classified, and there is a lot of information in them regarding generally withdrawal, timelines, dates,