Defense officials moved to classify information about U.S.-backed Afghan security forces within days after an independent watchdog published details on those same forces.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko called the classification effort “unprecedented” and said the move will prevent his office from publicizing findings in the area that has soaked up the bulk of the $107.5 billion Congress has appropriated to Afghan reconstruction activities since 2002.
“The decision leaves SIGAR for the first time in six years unable to publicly report on most of the U.S.-taxpayer-funded efforts to build, train, equip, and sustain” Afghan security forces, Sopko told Congress in SIGAR’s latest quarterly report.
U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, commander of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission that began at the start of 2015 and of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, pointed to safety concerns as his reason for classifying the data.
“I cannot comment upon the precise reason why certain information was considered unclassified in the past,” Campbell wrote in a Jan. 18, 2015, memo to Sopko.
“With lives literally on the line, I am sure you can join me in recognizing that we must be careful to avoid providing sensitive information to those that threaten our forces and Afghan forces, particularly information that can be used by such opposing forces to sharpen their attacks,” Campbell said.
Coalition troops shifted responsibility for Afghanistan’s security to Afghan military and police forces at the end of 2014, leaving the struggling nation to deal with a rising number of violent attacks mounted by the Taliban.
A SIGAR report published earlier this month criticized the Pentagon for lax oversight of the $300 million it give to the Afghan police force annually for salaries. In it, SIGAR discovered millions of taxpayer dollars could be siphoned off by corrupt Afghan officers because U.S. officials too readily accept unverified personnel data.
But such salary information, as well as findings related to strength, equipment, transportation, strength, sustainment, facilities, training or operations for both the Afghan army and the Afghan police, will be kept out of future reports due to the classification.
Past SIGAR reports have outlined flaws in the management of Afghan security forces and expressed ongoing concerns with the country’s ability to run them on its own after coalition troops depart Afghanistan for good.
Outgoing Lt. Gen. Joseph Anderson attributed logistical problems in the Afghan security forces to “pure ineptitude” in a Reuters interview as he led combat operations to a close at the end of last year.
Such ineptitude will be kept out of the public eye now that classification requirements will limit the information SIGAR can release in its reports.
For example, the watchdog highlighted the fact that 36,000 Afghan army troops left the force between September 2013 and August 2014, but noted it will no longer be able to report publicly on the attrition problems from this quarter forward.
Go here to read the full SIGAR quarterly report.
