The US military has decided it will no longer release facts and figures about its costly effort to assist Afghan security forces, declaring the information top secret, officials said today.
The move marks an about-face for the Pentagon, which for the past six years has proudly reported a range of data about the USD 65 billion program to build up the Afghan National Security Forces.
This included how US taxpayers' money has been spent and the state of the troubled country's police and army.
"After six years of being publicly reported, Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) data is now classified," said John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction or SIGAR.
"The decision leaves SIGAR unable to publicly report on most of the USD 65 billion US-taxpayer-funded efforts to build, train, equip and sustain the ANSF," Sopko's report said.
The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, defended the change, saying the information could prove helpful to Taliban insurgents and needed to be kept secret.
"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 wrote to the inspector general in a letter dated January 18.
Data about the assistance program has provided a key measure for gauging the effect of the US-led effort to bolster the Afghan forces.
So the decision to withhold facts about the effort raises questions about the condition of the Afghan security forces after the withdrawal of most NATO troops last year.
A small, mostly American contingent of about 12,000 troops remains on the ground to advise and assist the Afghans.
The New York Times condemned the move on its editorial page, saying "it strains credulity to believe that insurgents would become more proficient fighters by poring over lengthy inspector general reports about an increasingly forgotten war."
The newspaper added that keeping the information secret "unreasonably prevents American taxpayers from drawing informed conclusions about the returns on a USD 107.5 billion reconstruction investment that, adjusted for inflation, has surpassed the price tag of the Marshall Plan."
According to the SIGAR report, the military gave classified or restricted answers to more than 140 questions posed by the inspector general
This included the total amount of US funding for Afghan forces for the current year, details of contracts for literacy training and an assessment of anti-corruption initiatives.
