Watchdog: Pentagon blocks information on insurgent dominance in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military is keeping from the public more information that gauges the war in Afghanistan’s success, a government watchdog said after significant insurgent gains.

The Defense Department has restricted the pubic release of data on the number of districts and people living in territory under insurgent or government control, or areas contested by both, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, said in a report released late Monday.

“The number of districts controlled or influenced by the Afghan government had been one of the last remaining publicly available indicators for members of Congress ... and for the American public of how the 16-year-long U.S. effort to secure Afghanistan is faring,” John Sopko, the special inspector general, said in the report.

It’s the first time that SIGAR has been instructed not to release unclassified information to the American taxpayer in one of its quarterly reports, Spoko said, and will instead include the information in an annex unavailable to the public. The watchdog was given no justification for the new restrictions, according to the report. - Read More

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Watchdog: Pentagon blocks information on insurgent dominance in Afghanistan