House Foreign Affairs Leaders View Afghan Dissent Cable; McCaul Wants All Committee Members to See It

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), speaks at a bipartisan news conference, on the Afghanistan evacuations, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 25, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), a ranking member of the committee, viewed on May 23 a dissent cable from the time of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The two viewed the dissent cable at the State Department, said McCaul.

“Although I cannot discuss the classified information in the cable, I can say the dissenters were right–and the administration should have listened,” said McCaul in a statement.

The committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March for the cable, which, as The Wall Street Journal first reported, shows the U.S. Embassy in Kabul warning the State Department about the Taliban quickly gaining ground and the Afghan forces falling apart. They gave suggestions on how to expedite an evacuation and alleviate the situation.

“The cable, dated July 13 [2021], also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban,” the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with its contents.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan was completed on Aug. 30, 2021.

McCaul called on the State Department to let other committee members view the cable as well and will decide what course of action to take were the department to say no.

“I am going to speak with Ranking Member Meeks and my Republican and Democrat colleagues on the committee to discuss our next course of action if the State Department continues to block all committee members from seeing this cable as the subpoena requested,” he said.

The cable was written by 23 State Department officials in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which no longer is in operation. Blinken has repeatedly refused to hand over the cable, even amid the subpoena. The department had repeatedly cited security and privacy concerns with the State Department’s dissent channel system as the reason that it would not hand over the cable to the committee.

On May 17, McCaul announced a markup holding Blinken in contempt of Congress for not handing over the cable. The markup was postponed. That same day, the State Department announced it had offered McCaul and Meeks the opportunity to view the cable at the department.

In a letter the following day, McCaul accepted the offer.

McCaul also wrote that he “will pause efforts to enforce the committee’s subpoena pending my review of the documents” even though “the subpoena remains in full force and effect, and the acceptance of this accommodation does not waive any of the Committee’s rights regarding the subpoena.”