House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul announced Monday that he has struck a deal with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that allows the entire panel access to a July 2021 “dissent cable” that warned the Biden administration about the risks of withdrawing from Afghanistan.
The agreement – months in the making – comes after McCaul (R-Texas) announced in May that he would move forward with a hearing to hold Blinken in contempt after his initial refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena for the dissent cable as well as the US response to concerns from diplomats.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee – now satisfied that the secretary of state will comply with its subpoena – has taken a contempt hearing against Blinken off the table.
“This is an unprecedented step forward in our committee’s investigation into the Afghanistan withdrawal,” read a statement released by McCaul on Monday. “For the first time in history, the State Department has agreed to allow Congress to view a dissent channel cable. This cable contains first-hand information from Embassy Kabul employees who were on the ground prior to the collapse as well as Secretary Blinken’s response to their concerns. I want to thank Secretary Blinken for negotiating with me in good faith on this.”
After initially only offering the committee a one-page summary of the dissent cable and classified briefings on the matter, last month the State Department offered to allow McCaul and committee ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) the chance to view the cable “in camera” and with redactions.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel explained to reporters last month that the department was wary of giving lawmakers access to the material because 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.”
McCaul applauded the State Department for “moving forward in the right direction” after it caved on allowing him and Meeks to view the cable but argued that more committee members, particularly veterans of the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, should be able to read the sensitive document.
“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,” McCaul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in May.
Republicans on the committee have been investigating the circumstances surrounding the disastrous August 2021 US pullout from Afghanistan 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 capital city of Kabul.
Hundreds of US citizens were also left stranded in Afghanistan after the last evacuation flight departed on Aug. 30, 2021.
McCaul argued last week that “it is essential that every one of the Committee’s Members — Democrat and Republican — have the same opportunity that Ranking Member Meeks and I did” to review the dissent cable.
McCaul noted that the cable “significantly enhanced my understanding of the deteriorating conditions on the ground in Afghanistan and the direness of the dissenting officials’ warnings to the Department’s leadership.”