A $43 million gas station in Afghanistan? Not so fast. - Washingtonpost

"We built a $43 million gas station in Afghanistan and it doesn’t even sell the right gas.” - Donald Trump, rally in Meza, Ariz., Dec. 16, 2015

Sometimes a news report generates big headlines at first, but the corrective follow-up weeks or months later generates barely a ripple — or is ignored altogether. This is a good example of this unfortunate phenomenon.

We often catch Trump making wild exaggerations. But in this case, he is summarizing a story that was widely covered in November. Here are some of the headlines:

• Watchdog: Military blew $43M on useless gas station (USA Today)
• ‘Colossal waste’: DOD slammed for $43M, US-funded gas station in Afghanistan (Fox News)
• Report reveals Afghanistan gas station cost U.S. $43 million (CNN)
• U.S. Spent $43 Million on Afghanistan Gas Station: Watchdog Report (NBC News)
• How the Pentagon spent $43 million on a single gas station (The Washington Post)

The stories were all based on a report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) concerning the construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) station in Afghanistan as part of project to promote business opportunities in the war-torn nation. The report made a number of assertions, such as the fact that the $43 million cost appeared to be 140 times the amount needed to build a similar facility in neighboring Pakistan.

It certainly sounds like a monumental waste of taxpayer money. But new information has emerged to call into question SIGAR’s claims. Let’s take a look.

The Facts:  The project was initiated by the Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO), a Defense Department effort to identify new business opportunities first in Iraq and then, after 2009, in Afghanistan. The group focused on promoting mining operations, light industries, agribusiness and other areas, but by most accounts, the $800 million effort did not get very far before it was essentially disbanded a few years later. SIGAR has been investigating allegations of profligate spending and mismanagement by TFBSO.

SIGAR and DOD have been engaged in a bureaucratic knife fight over TFBSO, with SIGAR claiming it has been not been given unfettered access to key documents and DOD accusing SIGAR of improperly providing private information to the media. The allegations that DOD spent $43 million on a gas station are best understood in that context. Ultimately, as a result of congressional outrage over the gas station report, DOD recently agreed to give SIGAR the access to the documents it had sought. - Read More

A $43 million gas station in Afghanistan? Not so fast.

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