State Dept. to allow Congress to see Afghanistan dissent cable

The State Department said Wednesday it would allow two members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to view a July 2021 “dissent cable” that warned the Biden administration about the risks of withdrawing from Afghanistan — as Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced being the first top diplomat held in contempt of Congress.

Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) had planned to move ahead with a contempt charge against Blinken next week after the department refused to comply with a subpoena for the cable issued back in March. 

Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters Wednesday that the department would allow McCaul and committee ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) to view the cable “in camera” and with some redactions. 

“First let me say it is unfortunate that the House Foreign Affairs Committee has continued to pursue this even before the State Department had the opportunity to respond to the chairman and the committee,” said Patel, who added the State Department believes it has already “provided sufficient information” to the panel in the form of a one-page summary of the dissent cable as well as classified briefings.

“But that being said in our letter to the committee today, we will invite Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks to view the dissent channel cable here at the State Department in camera with appropriate personal information redacted,” the spokesman said. “Chairman McCaul himself has said that this is what he is interested in. And so it is our sincere hope that our offer here will sufficiently satisfy their request for information.”

When asked by a reporter about the delay in providing lawmakers access, Patel argued that the dissent channel cable is” something that is really integral and sacred” to the State Department.

“It is an avenue for personnel across the world to engage with the senior leadership on very important issues and for senior leadership to engage back,” he said. “It’s not an avenue to inform or convey policy to Congress. And we wanted to ensure that we are taking steps to respect and protect the integrity of that channel.”

Republicans on the committee have been probing the circumstances surrounding the disastrous US pullout from Afghanistan in August of 2021 that resulted in the Taliban swiftly taking over the country.  

Thirteen US service members were killed by an ISIS suicide bomber during the chaotic evacuation of Afghans and Americans from the capitol city of Kabul. Hundreds of US citizens were also left stranded in Afghanistan after the last evacuation flight departed on Aug. 30, 2021.

McCaul called the State Department’s offer “significant progress” during a Wednesday night interview with CNN, but added that he would also like to see Blinken’s response to the dissent cable and have family members of the service members who died in the terror attack view the cable as well.

“I do applaud them moving forward in the right direction,” McCaul told anchor Wolf Blitzer. “The only issue I have remaining, Wolf, is that I have a lot of Afghan veterans on this committee, and in fairness to them, I believe that they should be able to see this cable as well, not just me and the ranking member.

“If we can work out this last step, then I think we we’ve resolved a litigation fight in the courts,” he added.