The State Department said Wednesday that two senior House Foreign Affairs Committee officials may view a redacted version of a secret diplomatic cable regarding the August 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. That’s exactly what committee chairman, Republican Michael McCall, is asking the State Department.
Earlier, McCall announced that a committee meeting next week would consider an allegation of contempt of Congress by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The head of the State Department initially refused to hand over to members of Congress the cable, which was sent by US diplomats through a special communications channel allowing State Department employees to brief leaders on the issues emerging in the work of diplomatic missions.
The State Department will allow McCall and his colleague, Gregory Meeks, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, to see an edited version of the cable, from which the names of the authors of the report will be removed. This will be done to protect the privacy of State Department employees using the dedicated communication channel. This was reported to reporters by Deputy Press Secretary Vedant Patel.
“President McCall himself has said that’s what he’s interested in, so we sincerely hope that our proposal will sufficiently satisfy his request for information,” Patel said at a press briefing.
McCall has opened an investigation into the circumstances of the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The Republicans and part of the Democrats are demanding a full report on the operation, during which 13 American soldiers were killed at Kabul airport.
McCall demanded for months that the State Department examine the contents of a secret cable sent to Washington in July 2021. For the first time, the existence of this document is known in August of the same year from the publication of the Wall Street Journal. The report’s authors warned senior officials of Kabul’s potential downfall soon after the withdrawal of US troops.
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