SIGAR Website Vanishes, Blocking Public Access to Afghanistan Reports

DID Press: With the official closure of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) on January 31, its website has been taken offline, and no active version is available to the public.

The Press Freedom Foundation has expressed concern, saying this move has effectively blocked public access to hundreds of reports, audits, and oral histories related to the Afghan war.

As per usual procedure for dissolved government agencies, the website of such entities should be archived and made publicly available in the CyberCemetery — a digital archive hosted by the University of North Texas.

However, searches show that the archived version of the SIGAR website has not yet been uploaded to this system, and the reasons for this delay remain unclear.

For over two decades, SIGAR played a crucial role in overseeing U.S. spending in Afghanistan, exposing mismanagement, waste, and the failure of reconstruction projects. It became one of the most important independent sources of accountability and transparency in a war that cost billions of dollars.

The lack of access to SIGAR’s digital archive has raised concerns among researchers, journalists, and transparency activists, as these documents represent an essential part of the historical record and official accounts of the Afghan war.

Authorities have yet to explain why the SIGAR archive website is unavailable or when it will be published.