By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of a U.S. House of Representatives committee will be able to view a classified cable related to the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, the committee said on Monday, ending a threat to bring contempt charges against Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reached an agreement with Blinken that would allow every member of the panel to see the cable and the department’s response, the committee said. The committee has 51 members.
The committee said McCaul agreed it would be a satisfactory accommodation to the subpoena he sent to Blinken earlier this year, and that he would withdraw a possible contempt charge.
“For the first time in history, the State Department has agreed to allow Congress to view a dissident channel cable,” McCaul said in a statement.
A State Department spokesperson said the department continued to believe its accommodations had been adequate. They include the ability for McCaul and Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the panel, to view the cable and provide a classified briefing and summary.
But he said the ministry would let additional committee members see him. “To settle this matter, we will allow other members of the Committee to view the cable at the State Department,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
McCaul investigates the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Republicans and some Democrats say there has never been a full account of the chaotic operation, in which 13 US servicemen were killed at Kabul airport.
McCaul has been searching for months for the ‘dissent channel’ cable sent in July 2021 that a Wall Street Journal article in August of that year warned senior officials of Kabul’s potential collapse soon after troops withdrew Americans.
The channel allows State Department officials to raise concerns with supervisors.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Bill Berkrot)