Head of government watchdog accuses Pentagon and State Dept of covering up failures in Afghanistan

A U.S. government watchdog on Friday accused the State Department and Pentagon of suppressing information that lawmakers and the public need to understand the collapse of Afghanistan's former government and military and the chaotic U.S. 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,' said Sopko.

'There is a lot of information that was classified or withheld from the American people over the years, particularly since 2015, to protect the Afghan government from embarrassment,' Sopko told NPR.'And there is no Ghani government.

Asked what the information he wanted publishing was, he replied: 'It was, how good was the Afghan government fighting corruption?

'That was information that the Ghani government requested the U.S. government not share with the American people.

A State Department spokesperson said the department had requested 'some reports be temporarily removed to redact identifying information from public records and protect the identities of Afghans and Afghan partner organizations' due to security concerns about the evacuation effort.

Noting that Congress tasked him with investigating the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and military, he said the Pentagon has since 2015 barred from public release a range of data purportedly at the former Ghani government's request.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10146551/State-Dept-Pentagon-concealing-Afghanistan-data-says-U-S-watchdog.html