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INTERMEDIATE: The Pentagon’s new review of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is planned to separate things that were previously determined in the previous investigation, and also open the review of important decisions made when the Biden administration leaves the country in 2021.
The review will include interview transcripts, internal documents and previous findings that officials say were classified as extreme, according to Pentagon adviser Stu Scheller.
“We plan to declassify all the documents that we get from this investigation — all the interview documents, all the previous investigations by the Biden administration that were extremely classified,” Scheller told Fox News Digital. “We’re going to break it all down so everyone can check it out for themselves.”
Unlike previous reviews that documented failure but stopped short of challenging individual responsibility, this Pentagon effort examines a wide collection of records and conducts extensive interviews with senior military leaders and high-ranking soldiers — officials who say they could reopen unanswered questions about who made key decisions during the 2021 withdrawal.
“There will be accountability,” Scheller said.
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“We’ve interviewed a lot of people, all the key generals… and we’ve also interviewed thousands of junior staff members,” Scheller told Fox News Digital about the report. “One of the things they said was that they didn’t feel like their experience was validated.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the previous Biden administration for the Abbey Gate disaster that killed 13 members of the US, calling the 2021 withdrawal a “Biden disaster” and “the lowest point in our country’s history.” The administration in May 2025 ordered a new Pentagon review as part of what officials described as a push for accountability.
Scheller’s role in the review marks a dramatic reversal for a Marine officer who had been disciplined after publicly criticizing the military’s handling of the withdrawal.
Then a lieutenant in charge of the children’s training unit at Camp Lejeune, Scheller drew national attention in August 2021 after posting a viral video of himself in uniform demanding accountability from senior leaders. He was released from custody, remanded in custody before trial and later pleaded guilty in a court-martial.
“I just felt like there was no other voice that would advocate for the Governor not to wear clothes,” said Scheller. “I didn’t do it unintentionally.”
“God was with me in that. I went through it. Here I am influencing the changes I pointed out at the beginning.”
British and American security forces maintain order among Afghan refugees inside the Abbey Gate in Kabul on Aug. 25, 2021, when the US withdraws from Afghanistan. (Marcus Lam/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images)
Previous investigations by Congress, the Pentagon and federal watchdogs have identified a number of failures in planning and executing the withdrawal, including gaps in evacuation efforts, intelligence assessments and high-level decision-making.
A report by the Republican-led Foreign Affairs Committee found the State Department had failed to implement an evacuation plan for Americans and Afghan allies despite growing warnings that Kabul could fall, delaying evacuation efforts until the Taliban entered the capital.
The report also said US officials were following up on suicide threats in the days leading up to the Abbey Gate bombing – including intelligence pointing to a possible ISIS-K attack on the airport – but operations at the gate continued.
Those circumstances are now being reexamined as part of a Pentagon review, including how the Marines’ actions on the ground were monitored.
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Scheller said his team focused early on the unit at Abbey Gate, where many Marines were nominated for high honors that were later dropped during the approval process.
“Actually, they had submitted the awards that were lowered. So we didn’t create these awards for no reason,” said Scheller. “All seven awards have been submitted and we have official documents from the original document.”
Evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III as they depart Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 23. (Sgt. Isaiah Campbell/US Marine Corps)
The upgrade affected Marines from Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, including instances where commendation medals were upgraded to include equipment for valor and, in some cases, the Bronze Star was upgraded to reflect combat valor.
The Abbey Gate bombing killed 13 US service members and more than 150 Afghans, marking the deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan in years.
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The Biden administration has defended its administration’s withdrawal, saying the decision ended America’s longest war and prevented more American casualties, while accusing critics of politicizing the issue.
A spokesman for former President Joe Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
