Afghanistan Data Being Concealed By US Government: Watchdog

Afghanistan :Data Being Concealed By US Government Watchdog Washington A US government watchdog on Friday indicted the State Department and Pentagon of suppressing information that lawgivers and the public need to understand the collapse of Afghanistan’s former government and service and the chaotic US troop retirement The full picture of what happed in August-and all the warning signs that could have prognosticated the outgrowth-will only be revealed if the information that the departments of Defense and State have formerly confined from public release is made available,” said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR).

A State Department prophet said the department had requested”some reports be temporarily removed to redact relating information from public records and cover the individualities of Afghans and Afghan mate associations”due to security enterprises about the evacuation trouble The relating information are the only details intended to be shielded,”the prophet said, adding that SIGAR has the authority to restore the reports.

The Pentagon didn’t incontinently respond to a request for comment Addressing journalists, Mr Sopko said that after the Taliban seized Kabul, the State Department asked him to temporarily suspend online access to certain reports he issued to insure the safety of US- combined Afghans The department” was noway suitable to describe any specific pitfalls to individualities that were apparently contained in our reports,” said Mr Sopko, who added he”reluctantly” barred access to the documents The State Department, he continued, lately sought redactions of some particulars remaining on SIGAR’s website Some requests were” crazy,” similar as drawing former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s name from reports, Mr Sopko said.

After a review, his agency plant only four particulars earning redaction, and left the remainder accessible Noting that Congress assigned him with probing the collapse of theU.S.- backed Afghan government and service, he said the Pentagon has since 2015 barred from public release a range of data purportedly at the former Ghani government’s request Utmost of that information, including casualty data and unit strengths, was” each you demanded to know to determine whether the Afghan security forces were a real fighting force or a house of cards,”he said.