US diplomats sent cable warning of potential catastrophe in Afghanistan last month

They laid out how the department could take swift action to process Afghans who had assisted the United States and get them out of the country quickly.

The diplomats decided to send the dissent memo because they felt previous warnings and recommendations they had made were being ignored and labeled alarmist, two State Department officials told CNN.

The classified cable, signed by more than a dozen US diplomats, urged specific steps to be taken, including starting a biometric enrollment program for the Afghans applying for Special Immigrant Visas or refugee status ahead of the evacuation, so they wouldn’t waste time before what they believed would be the imminent collapse of the Afghan government as the US withdrew.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the cable.

Dissent memos are designed as a way for diplomats to express concern over a policy when they feel they have not been heard through other means. Every dissent memo is typically reviewed by the secretary of state.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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