The desperation on the faces of tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan while they attempted to escape as the country came under Taliban rule was broadcast across the world.
As the US-led coalition fled the country in August 2021, the chaos outside Kabul airport intensified. Entire families gathered outside, hoping for a spot on an airlift, and more than 180 people in the crowd were killed in an Islamic State-led suicide attack.
An aid worker, Zemari Ahmadi, was later erroneously struck by an American drone two miles away, killing him and nine others – including seven children, one only two years old.
But as all this unfurled, email inboxes in Whitehall were clogged with a separate issue: dogs and cats.
The extent of this fixation can be revealed for the first time after hundreds of emails were released as part of an employment tribunal case brought by Josie Stewart, following her dismissal from the Foreign Office (FCDO) after she blew the whistle on a catalogue of failures about the Kabul withdrawal.
As part of her successful case against unfair dismissal, which on Tuesday was upheld by a panel of three judges, hundreds of secret and sensitive documents were disclosed during the hearing.
It was no surprise that government lawyers tried to hold the case behind closed doors, as it lifted the lid on questionable Whitehall decision-making.
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