November 08, 2022
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Judicial Watch
The Taliban is coaching and working with U.S. army tools together with rifles, vans, and helmets with evening imaginative and prescient mounts for the reason that Biden administration withdrew American troops from Afghanistan final 12 months. Taliban forces even held a army parade with dozens of U.S.-provided armored automobiles and Mi-17 helicopters flying overhead, based on a federal audit documenting the collapse of the American-funded Afghan Nationwide Protection and Safety Forces (ANDSF). For 20 years the U.S. authorities spent a mind-boggling $90 billion to assist the ANDSF develop right into a self-sustaining power able to combatting terrorist teams just like the Taliban. It by no means occurred.
When the Biden administration withdrew U.S. troops in August 2021 the ANDSF crumbled and the Taliban took over, producing photos and movies of troopers sporting U.S.-provided clothes and brandishing U.S.-provided rifles. “Taliban models now patrol in pickup vans and armored automobiles possible procured by the U.S. and offered to the ANDSF,” reads the report revealed by the Particular Inspector Normal for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), which was created by Congress to supply impartial and goal oversight of Afghanistan reconstruction tasks and actions. “Taliban particular operations troops, generally known as Badri 313 models, put on helmets with evening imaginative and prescient mounts possible offered by the US, and carry U.S.-provided M4 rifles geared up with superior gunsights.” The report continues. “Khalil Haqqani, a senior Taliban chief, carried a U.S.-provided rifle as he attended prayers at a mosque in Kabul following the collapse.” The examples present that the terrorist group is now geared up with materials that was provided by the U.S. to defeat it, the watchdog writes.
The 43-page report, which has 17 pages of endnotes, was launched to the general public earlier this 12 months and decided that the one most essential issue within the ANDSF’s collapse was the U.S. choice to withdraw army forces and contractors from Afghanistan. Since 2002, the US deployed army and civilian personnel to coach, advise, and mentor Afghan troopers, police, and ministry officers, the report reveals, including that Uncle Sam offered the ANDSF over 600,000 weapons, 300 plane, 80,000 automobiles, communication tools, and different superior materials, akin to evening imaginative and prescient goggles and biometric programs. As a part of its probe SIGAR reviewed lots of of presidency and tutorial stories associated to the event of Afghan forces and its subsequent collapse. Investigators additionally performed greater than 40 interviews with former Afghan authorities officers, former ANDSF members, and present and former U.S. authorities officers, together with commanders of U.S. forces and the Mixed Safety Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A), the unit liable for the ANDSF’s growth. Ambassadors and advisors have been additionally interviewed.
Although fairly prolonged, the report leaves quite a lot of unanswered questions so Judicial Watched filed a Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) request for information that might make clear the SIGAR probe and supply solutions for the American taxpayers that financed the 20-year boondoggle. In its request Judicial Watch requested for emails, interviews, memoranda, stories, and briefings with former Afghan authorities officers, former ANDSF members, and present and former U.S. authorities officers, together with former commanders of U.S. forces, CSTC-A commanders, ambassadors, and advisors liable for the event of the Afghan military, air power, particular forces, and police, as they relate to the report. A couple of weeks later Judicial Watch obtained a letter acknowledging receipt of the FOIA request and several other weeks later SIGAR adopted up with a letter rejecting the general public report request. The watchdog claims solely 27 information aware of Judicial Watch’s request have been positioned however they’re exempt from disclosure below measures that shield attorney-client privilege, private privateness and data compiled for regulation enforcement that might fairly be anticipated to represent an invasion of private privateness. The exemptions have official authorities codes that have been cited within the rejection letter.
SIGAR’s refusal to supply the information means the general public won’t ever know the whole fact behind the U.S.’s huge failure in Afghanistan and the abrupt demise of the American-funded ANDSF. Within the title of transparency the watchdog ought to present the knowledge. Paradoxically, SIGAR just lately blasted the State Division for withholding information mandatory to analyze how billions of {dollars} in Afghanistan reconstruction cash is being spent. The watchdog condemned the stonewalling in a letter to Congress and the Secretary of State that explains “American taxpayers should know why the Afghan authorities collapsed in any case that help, the place the cash went, and the way taxpayer cash is now being spent in Afghanistan.”
