The Trump Administration Is Now Hiding Information About Taliban Attacks in Afghanistan

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Mother Jones

CS
48 MINS AGO

“The data looks bad so they hide the data.”

Dan Spinelli
Reporter

The NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan has stopped releasing details about Taliban attacks against the Afghan government even as the United States prepares to draw down its forces there, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction revealed in a report Friday morning.

The decision to shield that information was another step back for Pentagon transparency and a troubling sign of turmoil following the signing of a peace agreement between the US government and the Taliban in February. The deal, which sets a 14-month timeline for a complete withdrawal of US forces, was negotiated without the Afghan government’s involvement but includes a provision requiring the Taliban to begin negotiating with Afghan leaders—a process that started last month but quickly ran into roadblocks.

Special Inspector General John Sopko’s quarterly report revealed how far apart the two sides remain. Immediately after signing the agreement, “the Taliban increased its attacks on Afghan security forces,” Sopko wrote. Instead of revealing how many attacks took place, as it had done previously, the NATO Resolute Support mission withheld data on “enemy-initiated attacks” from investigators in Sopko’s office, known as SIGAR. This data, he wrote, “was one of the last remaining metrics SIGAR was able to use to report publicly on the security situation in Afghanistan.” The military declined to reveal the information, which is not classified, due to peace negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, has spent five years cataloguing how much Afghan territory falls under the Taliban’s control. (The US military used to release this information on a district-by-district basis to SIGAR, but stopped in 2018). He was not shocked by the military’s latest step to shield information about the Taliban’s brewing conflict with the Afghan government, which makes any US declaration of peace look suspect. “The data looks bad so they hide the data,” he told me. “That’s what’s going on here.”



Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/the-trump-administration-is-now-hiding-information-about-taliban-attacks-in-afghanistan/

[ffr]

1. K&R - "We are not pleased by the level of violence by the Taliban"

Well then tRump, the negotiator-in-chief, should go over there and personally see to it that they succumb to his peace offer.

[The Magistrate]

2. Readings in Nineteenth Century History, Ma'am

Suggest these people cannot be relied on in negotiation. You can buy them, and the peace you get in return will be exactly proportionate to the cash paid.

The choices, in no particular order, are decamp, massacre, or purchase. Anything else is flummery.




Now it is not good for the Christian’s health to hustle the Aryan brown,
For the Christian riles, and the Aryan smiles and he weareth the Christian down;
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
And the epitaph drear: “A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”

[Judi Lynn]

4. So glad for the chance to see that verse. First time to see it in my life. It's wonderful.

Will never forget it!

Thank you, so much!

On edit:

Put it in a search, the author appeared instantly. Should have known! So very happy to see it.

[keithbvadu2]

6. He was my first guess as well.

WHEN the 'arf-made recruity goes out to the East
'E acts like a babe an' 'e drinks like a beast,
An' 'e wonders because 'e is frequent deceased
Ere 'e's fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

----------------

The Young British Soldier by Rudyard Kipllng

Go read the rest of the poem.... it's worth it.

https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/young_british_soldier.html

----------------

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Overnight Defense: US military stops releasing data on Taliban attacks

Overnight Defense: US military stops releasing data on Taliban attacks
BY REBECCA KHEEL - 05/01/20 05:32 PM EDT

In a report released Friday, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan is no longer publicly releasing data on insurgent attacks, citing ongoing negotiations with the Taliban to implement the Trump administration's withdrawal deal.

In its latest quarterly report, SIGAR said Taliban attacks against Afghan forces have been “above seasonal norms” since the Trump administration signed a withdrawal deal with the Taliban.

But the exact number of so-called enemy initiated attacks (EIA) is now being restricted from public release by the Resolute Support (RS) mission, SIGAR said.

“This EIA data was one of the last remaining metrics SIGAR was able to use to report publicly on the security situation in Afghanistan since RS discontinued its previous system of assessing district control in 2018,” Special Inspector General John Sopko wrote in his introduction to the report. “RS explained its decision by saying ‘EIA are now a critical part of deliberative interagency discussions regarding ongoing political negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban.’”

More:
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/overnights/495740-overnight-defense-us-military-stops-releasing-data-on-taliban

[sop]

5. We're going to need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after this POS is driven from office.

Biden will have to hold restorative justice public hearings, with witnesses invited to testify about their experiences, to uncover the truth and expose the many crimes committed during Trump's presidency. We must heal the country and help bring about a reconciliation of the American people after all the lies.