August 26, 2026 – Pentagon: ‘Highly relevant’ documents on Afghanistan withdrawal were ‘stashed and hidden in safes’

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A Pentagon review panel examining the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan says it has recovered highly relevant classified documents that were allegedly “stashed and hidden away in safes” where investigators would not find them.

War Department spokesman Sean Parnell, who leads the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel, announced the discovery in a video message.

The statement was released around the fifth anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

That suicide attack, carried out by an ISIS-K terrorist, killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during the chaotic evacuation.

“The deeper we look, the more there is to look at. We are finding things that we did not expect,” Parnell said.

“Recently, my team recovered highly relevant classified documents, material that should have been disclosed, stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found.”

“And after the team reviewed these documents, it became clear why someone tried to hide them.”

Panel Reviewing Millions of Documents

Parnell did not reveal what the recovered records contain, where exactly they were found, or who was responsible for storing them.

He also did not say whether the documents would eventually be declassified or released publicly.

The special review panel was established under War Secretary Pete Hegseth to examine decisions made before and during the August 2021 withdrawal.

According to Parnell, the investigation has included interviews with military officials involved in planning and carrying out the operation, along with a review of approximately 9 million documents.

The panel is examining the broader collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government, the abandonment of facilities including Bagram Air Base, and the chaotic evacuation from Kabul.

‘We Are Following the Evidence’

Parnell said the investigation would not settle for a sanitized account of what happened.

“They are owed the full picture of how and why those decisions were made, and we’re going to give it to them,” he said, referring to the service members who participated in the withdrawal.

“I’m not going to give you a convenient version of the truth, nor will I give you a rushed one.”

“Here is my commitment. We are following the evidence to wherever it leads and to whoever it touches.”

Parnell added that the panel would not accept “incomplete or comfortable answers.”

Earlier Review Accused of Over-Classification

The current investigation follows previous after-action reviews conducted by the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

Some of those materials remain classified.

Parnell has previously criticized an earlier probe as having been “over-classified at the highest levels,” arguing that the classification decisions kept critical information away from public scrutiny.

The newly discovered documents could intensify those concerns if investigators determine that relevant records were deliberately kept from prior reviewers.

Questions Remain Over Who Hid the Records

The 2021 withdrawal followed the U.S.-Taliban agreement reached in 2020 and the Biden administration’s decision to complete the military exit.

The result was a rapid Taliban takeover, the collapse of the Afghan government, and a desperate evacuation operation at Kabul airport.

The Abbey Gate bombing became the deadliest single moment of the withdrawal for U.S. forces.

Five years later, the Pentagon’s latest review is now raising fresh questions over whether important evidence about how the withdrawal was planned and executed was concealed inside the department.

Parnell has not yet identified who allegedly hid the records.

But according to Parnell, the panel believes the documents were placed where investigators would not find them, and that their contents explain why.

Pentagon: ‘Highly Relevant’ Documents on Afghanistan Withdrawal Were ‘Stashed and Hidden in Safes’