Defense, State Departments Refusing To Cooperate On Examination Of Their Afghanistan Blunders, Auditor Says

The Pentagon and State Department have been at war with an official auditor of the government. They are refusing to cooperate with an inquiry into how, despite $90 Billion in U.S. funding, Afghanistan was ceded to the Taliban. Report Monday, April 20th.

The Special Inspector General of Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), one of Washington’s most ingenious watchdogs, has kept an eye on foreign matters that were largely hidden from the public even as U.S. officials. “experts” They made one mistake after another. After numerous embarrassing reports, DOD and State are now refusing to cooperate with SIGAR, stating that it only has the authority to audit Afghanistan reconstruction–which ended when the U.S. pulled out.

Joe Biden, the President, pulled troops and contractors out of Afghanistan in August 2021 without telling Afghan soldiers who were on patrol. It left behind equipment, which was used by the Taliban to propagandize, and some of those who were trained by the U.S. to fight the Taliban joined the Afghan forces. “extremist groups,” According to the report.

Biden allowed former Taliban employees to continue working after that. Migration The U.S. has accepted refugees under a program called “forever” “interpreters,” While Russia and China To exploit Afghanistan’s natural resources, I moved to Afghanistan.

“We identified eight systemic factors that explain why, after 20 years and nearly $90 billion in U.S. security assistance, the [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] was vulnerable to collapse in the first place,” SIGAR.

SIGAR furnished a report interim to the State and DOD in May 2022. “DOD and State declined to review that interim draft, denied us access to their staff, and mostly declined to answer requests for information,” SIGAR made these comments in its latest report.

This month saw the emergence of a cold conflict in the normal-mundane exchanges of information.

“We offered to continue to meet regularly to further discuss the range of issues covered in the draft, but the author did not follow up,” S. Rebecca Zimmerman is the deputy assistant defense secretary for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.

SIGAR replied: “DOD’s assertion that the author ‘never followed up’ on its offer to discuss the draft report is simply false. Moreover, DOD’s highlighting of ‘the efforts undertaken by DoD to cooperate with SIGAR’ should be viewed in the context of a history of extensive delays, missed deadlines, and incomplete answers to questions.”

“SIGAR strongly disagrees with DOD’s characterization of their engagement on this report. In fact, DOD only provided limited responses to SIGAR’s request for information (RFI) and missed every deadline for responding to SIGAR’s questions or for providing feedback to vetting drafts of this report,” It continued.

Richard Visek was the acting legal advisor for the Department of State. He told SIGAR that it did not have the right to investigate the chaos in Afghanistan. “Reconstruction in Afghanistan Has Ended” Moreover, the U.S. dollars being spent in that country now are “humanitarian,” Not for reconstruction.

“While certain assistance may once have fallen under SIGAR’s jurisdiction insofar as it was part of the United States’ broader reconstruction effort, our assistance after August 2021 is no longer being provided for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” He wrote.

“You have repeatedly cited section 1229(i)(2) of the NDAA for FY 2008 as giving SIGAR jurisdiction over humanitarian and development programs… This is incorrect,” He added.

According to the State Department, the U.S.’s wider failures in Afghanistan should not have been examined by SIGAR’s qualified investigators. Instead, the Afghanistan War Commission will examine the case. This panel includes 16 politicians, activists and ex-military brass who played a part in the failures being investigated. Eight of them were appointed by the congressional Republicans and eight by the congressional Democrats.

The Commission Website It is said to be “plans to formally convene in early 2023,” However, it states that it has yet to hire an executive director and other staff positions are dependent on this. “availability of funding.” The “Democratic co-chair” Shamila N. Chaudhary is the one whose biography states she is “co-editor of documentary photography book UnPresidented: The Inauguration of Donald J. Trump and the People’s Response.”

The “Republican co-chair,” Colin Francis Jackson, who was a key player in Afghanistan’s collapse, served as an oversight officer. “Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia (2017-2019), overseeing all strategy, security cooperation, budget oversight, and contingency planning. He also served as the senior DOD representative to the U.S.-Taliban peace talks. “

SIGAR offers a different view than the elite. They have cultivated sources from the trenches to give a view from Afghanistan. SIGAR also does complex financial analysis.

It is Zwischenbericht detailed a shocking combination of arrogance and incompetence by U.S. officials–one that led many Afghans to conclude that the Taliban was simply better at providing efficient government than the U.S.

In one instance, American-allied troops thought they were fighting