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1/4 The issuing of a State Department Dissent Cable directed directly at the US government itself is, to my knowledge, unprecedented. The Dissent Channel was created in 1971 to give diplomats the ability to voice unpopular views about US policy elsewhere without retaliation. https://twitter.com/RobbieGramer/status/1347604490044665857
2/4 Here is the full text of the cable itself. https://twitter.com/joshrogin/status/1347602317131046914?s=20
3/4 @lizzyshackelfor, a former diplomat who resigned in protest in 2017, has written a definitive history of the dissent channel in an important book: https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/elizabeth-shackelford/the-dissent-channel/9781541724471/
4/4 Hannah Gurman has also written a terrific book on the history of the Dissent Channel and dissent in US foreign policy more generally: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-dissent-papers/9780231158725
5/6 Here is the State Department's definition of the scope and use of the dissent channel: https://fam.state.gov/fam/02fam/02fam0070.html#:~:text=The%20Dissent%20Channel%20is%20reserved,to%20substantive%20matters%20of%20policy).
6/6 As usual, the National Security Archive has a terrific primer on the Dissent Channel and examples of dissent cables: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/foia/2018-03-15/department-states-dissent-channel-revealed
