By Humeyra Pamuk and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said two top members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee can view a redacted version of a classified cable about the chaotic August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan sought by the committee’s Republican chairperson.
Michael McCaul earlier scheduled a committee meeting next week to consider a contempt of Congress charge against Secretary of State Antony Blinken over his refusal to release the cable, sent by U.S. diplomats via the department’s so-called “dissent channel.” The channel allows State Department officials to air concerns to supervisors.
The State Department will let McCaul and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Gregory Meeks, view a redacted version to protect the identity of those using the dissent channel, Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.
“Chairman McCaul himself has said that this is what he’s interested in, and so it is our sincere hope that our offer here will sufficiently satisfy their request for information,” Patel said at a press briefing.
McCaul has launched an investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans – and some Democrats – say there has never been a full accounting of the chaotic operation, in which 13 U.S. service members were killed at Kabul’s airport.
McCaul has for months been seeking a “dissent channel” cable sent in July 2021 that a Wall Street Journal article in August 2021 said warned top officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Patricia Zengerle and Simon LewisEditing by Alistair Bell and Lisa Shumaker)
