Officials at the U.S. Department of State declined to say Thursday why Secretary of State Anthony Blinken “paused” a special evacuation unit formed by his predecessor even as the firestorm of reaction to the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal intensified. In June Blinken signed off on the department’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget justification request submitted to Congress that included a notation that, while $50.8 million was sought for the Crisis and Contingency Response (CCR) program, “the department has paused implementation pending a policy review.” When asked by The Epoch Times “why was [CCR] paused, is that still State’s intent and is [CCR] being utilized now in the Kabul evacs,” the department spokesman declined to respond. Instead, the spokesman repeated a statement previously provided to media inquiries, saying: “It is important to note that not only would the proposed [CCR] not have introduced any new capabilities to the department, it was never formally …