by Jerry Dunleavy
A July 2021 dissent cable from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul gave the Biden administration a critical warning the Afghanistan withdrawal was in trouble, and the “embarrassing” emergency message must be made public, according to GOP lawmakers who viewed it.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a former Army Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, told the Washington Examiner that “embarrassing does not mean it should be classified, and there is no reason it should be classified.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, under threat of contempt of Congress, allowed the full House Foreign Affairs Committee to view the dissent cable this week, but it remains classified and inaccessible to the public.
“I see no reason in reading it that it should be classified, in terms of protecting sources and methods. I think it should be released,” Waltz said. “The American people should see it, the Gold Star families should certainly see it, and while I think it will be very embarrassing for the administration, it would do no damage to national security.”
Republicans have argued since late 2021 that the Biden administration has been stonewalling congressional investigations into the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended with a chaotic evacuation, a Taliban takeover, hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies left behind, and 13 U.S. service members killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing.
“The other question that I want an answer to — were [national security adviser] Jake Sullivan and the president briefed on the warnings, which were very dire, that were coming from the diplomats in the field?” Waltz said. “Because either they were briefed and the president was briefed, which I would certainly hope he was in the middle of this crisis, and he moved forward anyway, or they chose not to brief him. Which is it? Either way, that’s unacceptable.”
The State Department announced in May that it would allow Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member, to look at the cable after the GOP had moved toward holding Blinken in contempt over his refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena.
The cable is known to have criticized the State Department’s planning for the Afghanistan evacuation and warned that Kabul could collapse soon after the United States withdrew its troops.
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), a veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division who helped rescue Americans stranded in Afghanistan, said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner that “after reading the dissent cable from the Afghanistan withdrawal, it’s clear why the Biden administration did not want to comply with Congress’s subpoena.”
He revealed the dissent cable showed that “this withdrawal wasn’t botched, the decisions were made after being informed and they simply ignored the warnings and intelligence which cost Americans their lives” and that “this proves exactly what we suspected all along — this administration had a clear and defined warning of what was happening on the ground and what would take place if no action was taken.”
Mills said diplomats warned the Biden State Department “with a high degree of confidence that the Afghanistan National Defense Force could not hold the Taliban, and Americans and our allied partners would be left behind in harm’s way unless the U.S. corrected course in our withdrawal.” But “as every American witnessed, there was no course correction, there was no serious re-evaluation of contingency plans, and as a result, Americans were murdered and stranded,” Mills continued. “The Biden administration failed every one of these Americans and their families.”
The congressman added that “the American people, and especially the 13 Gold Star families, have a right to know what really transpired” and that the dissent cable “obliterates the lies this administration has told, and there must be accountability.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the Washington Examiner the cable “is a comprehensive and detailed warning, as well as a prediction of what would happen if the Biden admin didn’t change course.”
Issa’s communications director, Jonathan Wilcox, also told the Washington Examiner the cable “obliterates the administration’s big lie on Afghanistan — that this could not have been foretold, nobody could have seen this coming, nothing could have done to prevent it.” He added that “we know it was received, we know it wasn’t followed, and their personnel on the ground saw this, reported it, warned them, and were ignored.”
Issa also insisted that the fight was not over.
“Gaining access to the dissent cable is a credit to Chairman McCaul, but make no mistake: This isn’t the beginning of the end of our drive for Afghanistan accountability,” Issa said. “It’s the end of the beginning. Nothing ends here. Our commitment to the families has to be strong enough to accept nothing short of full disclosure.”