The U.S. State Department agreed Thursday to allow the top Republican and Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to view a key document relating to the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement that the State Department had agreed to show him and Representative Gregory Meeks, the ranking committee member, the 2021 dissent cable signed by some diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. That cable reportedly expresses concerns about U.S. preparation for the evacuation.
Earlier this month, a State Department spokesperson said a classified briefing on the cable held last month fulfilled lawmakers’ request to learn more about the chaotic withdrawal ending two decades of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. In response, McCaul prepared a subpoena holding U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress.
“In light of this invitation, I will pause efforts to enforce the committee’s subpoena pending my review of the documents. Please note, however, that 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,” McCaul wrote to Blinken.
McCaul has also called on Blinken to release the administration’s After Action Review on the withdrawal.
“There is a strong public interest in the department sharing the results of its After Action Review to the fullest extent possible,” McCaul wrote earlier this month, noting that large portions of the report are marked as sensitive but unclassified.
According to McCaul, the 87-page March 2022 report contains numerous unexplained redactions and directly contradicts the Biden administration’s public statements, which largely blamed the failures of the withdrawal on the previous administration of former President Donald Trump.
McCaul had asked the State Department to release the full report by May 5.
The Foreign Affairs Committee has conducted oversight hearings into the withdrawal, including the August 26, 2021, suicide bomb at Kabul International Airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians.
The Biden administration report said decisions made by the Trump administration to negotiate with the Taliban and set a withdrawal date for U.S. troops prevented an orderly U.S. evacuation.
“When you look at what President Biden inherited, the timeline that was required and the agreement that was reached in the Trump administration, the president did everything he could to manage that situation,” Democratic Representative David Cicilline, a Foreign Affairs Committee member, told VOA last month. “But there are a set of decisions made by the prior administration that made that more difficult.”
McCaul said Thursday that he would continue to insist the full membership of the House Foreign Affairs Committee be allowed to see the cable.
Cindy Saine contributed to this report.
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