Washington, D.C. - House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul issued the following statement today after reading the July 2021 Dissent Channel cable on the Afghanistan withdrawal. Previous Dissent Channel cable authors, Ambassadors Boyatt, Crocker, and Jeffrey, have said it’s important that Congress has access to these cables and that it would not have a chilling effect.
“I am thankful to Secretary Blinken for allowing myself and Ranking Member Meeks to view the dissent channel cable - an unprecedented occurrence. However, every member on our committee should be granted this same access. Although I cannot discuss the classified information in the cable, I can say the dissenters were right - and the administration should have listened. I am going to speak with Ranking Member Meeks and my Republican and Democrat colleagues on the committee to discuss our next course of action if the State Department continues to block all committee members from seeing this cable as the subpoena requested."