A secret internal State Department memo was sent directly to Secretary of State Antony Blinken just one month ago warning about what would potentially happen upon the completion of U.S. forces withdrawing from Afghanistan at the end of August.
Officials working at the U.S. embassy in Kabul sent the confidential cable, dated July 13, to Blinken to quantify the Taliban threat and how close the terror group was to sieging the entire nation. The cable was first confirmed in a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The cable was sent on behalf of 23 staffers through the State Department’s Dissent Channel, a method of communication that is rarely used through which foreign service officers can bring up internal concerns.
The cable also contained concrete recommendations of actions that could be taken to combat the impending threat and likewise, expedite the evacuation of U.S. personnel.
Suggestions included using "tougher language" in talking about the actions of the Taliban.
The Biden administration has argued that the cable only warned that Afghanistan could collapse after the U.S. leaves on Aug. 31, and did not predict this happening earlier in the month.
