WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (INP): An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the US’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a US official and a person familiar with the document. The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban’s advance was imminent and Afghanistan’s military may be unable to stop it. The cable, sent via the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, warned of rapid territorial gains by the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of Afghan security forces, and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation, the two people said. The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban, one of the people said. As of last weekend, some 18,000 Afghans who have applied for the US Special Immigrant Visa program, as well as their families, remained on the ground in c with about half of them outside Kabul in areas already under Taliban control, and efforts to get them to the Kabul airport have grown more difficult by the day. In all, 23 US Embassy staffers, all Americans, signed the July 13 cable, the two people said. The U.S. official said there was a rush to deliver it, given circumstances on the ground in Kabul. The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban, one of the people said. The cable was sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of Policy Planning Salman Ahmed. Mr. Blinken received the cable and reviewed it shortly after receipt, according to the person familiar with the exchange, who added that contingency planning was already under way when it was received, and that Mr. Blinken welcomed their feedback. State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to address the cable, but told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Blinken reads every dissent and reviews every reply. “He’s made clear that he welcomes and encourages use of the dissent channel, and is committed to its revitalization," Mr. Price said. “We value constructive internal dissent." The existence of the confidential State Department cable adds to an expanding debate involving the White House, Pentagon and intelligence services over what US officials understood about assessments of Afghanistan’s stability. Last week, the administration cited unexpectedly rapid military gains by the Taliban in downsizing its embassy in Kabul and sending about 3,000 troops to aid in the evacuation of US staff. At the time, Mr. Price said the embassy was still open at its regular location, but that soon proved too precarious. Embassy staffers who weren’t being evacuated from country were transferred to a makeshift office at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, with increasing US troop presence. The person familiar with the contents of the cable said that the actions ultimately taken by the administration were even more drastic than what embassy staffers recommended in the internal memo a month earlier.