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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. Distinguished career diplomats including Ambassadors Thomas Boyatt, Ryan Crocker, and James Jeffrey, have affirmed that it is important that Congress have access to these cables as part of its oversight role and that such access 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.”

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