(READ) Watchdog group sues State Dept. for censoring govt. reports on Afghanistan

Jan 11. Judicial Watch Press Release

Judicial Watch recently announced that it filed two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against the Department of State for records about the censorship of government reports about US tax dollars spent on military support and equipment for Afghanistan, as well as records about payments to Afghanistan’s Government and/or any member of the Taliban related to the U.S. departure from Afghanistan (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:21-cv-03391)) (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:21-cv-03390)). 

The lawsuit (No. 1:21-cv-03391) about the censorship of government reports about Afghanistan was filed after the State Department failed to respond to a September 13, 2021, FOIA request for:  

• All records regarding the editing or removal from any public website of any report pertaining, in whole or in part, to any military equipment or training provided to the government of Afghanistan or any component thereof. This request includes, but is not limited to, any related directives or requests, as well as any related records of communication between any official or employee of the Department of State and any official or employee of any other branch, department, agency, or office of the Federal government. 

The lawsuit (No. 1:21-cv-03390) concerning payments to the Afghanistan government and/or Taliban was filed after the State Department failed to respond to a September 8, 2021, FOIA request for:  

• All records related to any actual or proposed payments to the government of Afghanistan and/or any member or associate of the Taliban related to the departure from Afghanistan of any U.S. citizen or other individual authorized by the U.S. Government to depart. This includes, but is not limited to, all fees related to the use of any airport for any such departure.

Emails obtained by Judicial Watch from the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) confirm the Biden administration censored hundreds of reports from government websites at the request from the State Department.

“We caught the Biden administration red-handed trying to cover up its Afghanistan disaster” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “As Americans reportedly remain stranded in Afghanistan, the Biden administration has yet come clean about the tens of billions of military resources potentially lost to Taliban and about whether the government paid or considered paying the Taliban during Biden’s deadly and disastrous surrender.”