State Department, Pentagon concealing Afghanistan information, says US watchdog

A US authorities watchdog on Friday accused the State Department and Pentagon of suppressing info that lawmakers and the general public want to grasp the collapse of Afghanistan’s former authorities and navy and the chaotic US troop pullout.
“The full picture of what happened in August — and all the warning signs that could have predicted the outcome — will only be revealed if the information that the departments of Defense and State have already restricted from public release is made available,” stated John Sopko, the particular inspector basic for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR).
A State Department spokesperson stated the division had requested “some reports be temporarily removed to redact identifying information from public records and protect the identities of Afghans and Afghan partner organizations” because of safety considerations in regards to the evacuation effort.

“The identifying information are the only details intended to be shielded,” the spokesperson stated, including that SIGAR has the authority to revive the studies.
The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Addressing reporters, Sopko stated that after the Taliban seized Kabul, the State Department requested him to quickly droop on-line entry to sure studies he issued to make sure the protection of US-affiliated Afghans.

The division “was never able to describe any specific threats to individuals that were supposedly contained in our reports,” stated Sopko, who added he “reluctantly” barred entry to the paperwork.
The State Department, he continued, just lately sought redactions of some 2,400 gadgets remaining on SIGAR’s web site.
Some requests had been “bizarre,” resembling excising former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s identify from studies, Sopko stated.

After a overview, his company discovered solely 4 gadgets meriting redaction, and left the rest accessible.
Noting that Congress tasked him with investigating the collapse of the US-backed Afghan authorities and navy, he stated the Pentagon has since 2015 barred from public launch a spread of information purportedly on the former Ghani authorities’s request.
Most of that info, together with casualty information and unit strengths, was “all you needed to know to determine whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards,” he stated.