A group of Republican lawmakers is introducing a legislation that would force the State Department to declassify a dissent cable that is believed to show the Biden administration knew in advance that its withdrawal from Afghanistan would end in disaster.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, the legislation, introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) last week, would require the State Department to release a “complete” and “unredacted” copy of the dissent cable, which was authored around July 2021, when the Biden administration was preparing for its September withdrawal deadline.
The names of those who authored the cable may be redacted under the legislation in order to protect those who may have objected to the State Department’s plan.
Darrel Issa said in a tweet on that the legislation would “get to the truth”.
The dissent cable is seen as pivotal to Congress’s investigation into the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“The Afghanistan dissent cable obliterates the administration’s big lie on Afghanistan: what happened could not have been foretold, nobody could have seen this coming, nothing could have been done to prevent it,” Issa said in a statement. “That’s why the Biden administration has kept it hidden from public view. That’s why we won’t stop until it is shown to the American people.”
The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Michael Waltz (R., Fla.), Brian Mast (R., Fla.), and Cory Mills (R., Fla.). McCaul is also said to be supportive, sources said, indicating the bill will quickly move through the committee and to a full vote in the Republican-controlled House.
Passage in the Democrat-controlled Senate could prove difficult, but sources working on the bill said the debate will increase pressure on the Biden administration to either release the dissent cable or provide a public accounting of its contents.
The dissent cable is believed to show that Biden administration officials were aware the Taliban would quickly reassume control of the country once American forces departed. The document is also said to warn that the Kabul airport was not equipped to handle a mass exodus of people.
