How to Conduct Oversight of Afghanistan: A Conversation with the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction

Presenters:

• John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Mr. Sopko was sworn in on July 2, 2012. Mr. Sopko, appointed to the post by President Obama, has more than 30 years of experience in oversight and investigations as a prosecutor, congressional counsel, and senior federal government advisor.

The session was moderated by Tim Stretton, Director of POGO's Congressional Oversight Initiative.

Training Resources:

• “Setting the record straight on 'The Afghanistan Papers'” - Mr. Sopko’s letter to the editor published in The Washington Post regarding the “Afghanistan Papers.”
• “1978 – 2018: 40 Years of IGs Helping Congress Fight Waste and Protect the Taxpayer” - Mr. Sopko's 2018 Levin Center speech on the role of IGs and congressional oversight.
• Oversight Committee Chairs and Ranking Members Send Bipartisan Request to Inspector General to Conduct Afghanistan Review - A very recent letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to SIGAR asking to answer several critical questions about Afghanistan’s collapse.

Additional Resources:

Recent Press Interviews

• CBS Sunday Morning: 11 days in August: How Afghanistan Fell
• Amanpour (CNN/PBS): The man chasing ghosts in Afghanistan
• Rachel Maddow (MSNBC): 'No one should be surprised by this': U.S. Afghanistan watchdog on mission's collapse 

Recent Articles Summarizing SIGAR’s Oversight Work

• Bloomberg: The U.S. Knew the Truth About Afghanistan. It Didn't Listen
• USA Today: Fraud, waste and abuse in Afghanistan: Inspector general reflects on US failures
• The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Left Afghanistan Littered With Decaying Factories, Schools, Offices
• Government Executive: ‘All the Signs Have Been There’ Predicting Afghan Security Force Collapse, IG Says