The Pentagon has quietly removed a massive collection of Afghanistan War footage totaling more than 120,000 photos and 17,000 videos from its official visual record, Task and Purpose reported Monday.
The images and videos, which date back more than a decade, were previously published to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, a vast repository of public domain material that’s available for use by the public and the press.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Monday that he made the decision to temporarily archive any images and videos that could put Afghans in danger.
“My guidance was: I want any imagery that could be used to identify individuals and/or family members over the last 20 years of war; I wanted it to be unpublished for a temporary period of time, and it is temporary,” Kirby told reporters at a Pentagon news briefing. “It was done out of an abundance of caution.”
He said about 120,000 photographs and about 17,000 videos have been unpublished but he did not say when they would be reposted.
“We did not delete, but we took off publicly accessible platforms and archived for future republication at a later date,” Kirby said. “We removed thousands of still imagery and videos that would show the faces or any other identifiable information about many of the Afghans that we have worked for and we have supported and who have supported us over the last 20 years.”
As of Monday, there were approximately 86,000 images and 46,000 videos from Afghanistan remaining on DVIDS.
“This was an abundance of caution that we felt was necessary in keeping with our obligation to protect the identities of our Afghan allies and partners,” Kirby said.
“When we don’t feel that that need is there, then we will absolutely republish them.”
But Kirby described the effort to remove so many pictures and videos as a “mammoth undertaking” that took nearly two months; and he added: “The reason why I didn’t announce it was because we were in the middle of it and it wouldn’t make much sense to tell the world that we were archiving these images before we were done archiving them.”
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Fazal Mohammad Saber, Chargé d’affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Ashgabat, and Faryal Leghari, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Turkmenistan, met on Saturday to discuss strengthening bilateral trade relations, addressing issues faced by Afghan refugees, and facilitating the visa issuance process for Afghans in Pakistan.
The Afghan Embassy in Ashgabat said in a post on X that both sides emphasized the need to expand relations between the two countries to address ongoing issues.
During the meeting, Leghari described the “good” relations between Kabul and Islamabad as important and pledged to convey the contents of the meeting to officials in her country.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s Ambassador in Islamabad and the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan also discussed bilateral relations between Kabul and Tehran, regional developments, Afghan refugees, and related topics.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Mohammad Reza Bahrami, Director General for South Asia at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held an online meeting to discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan.
In a post on X, Sadiq said that the meeting was constructive, and both sides expressed their concerns about terrorism as a shared challenge and reviewed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation and regional engagement with Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan has decided to accept an ambassador from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to Astana in the near future and to upgrade its diplomatic mission in Kabul to ambassadorial level, an Afghan official said on Saturday.
The decision was conveyed by Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister to his Afghan counterpart and is being viewed as a significant signal of renewed political engagement between the two countries, Zia Ahmad, Director of Public Communication of Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, said.
Russia is the only country that has formally recognised the IEA government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Pakistan have all designated ambassadors to Kabul, in a step towards recognition.
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has expressed openness to allowing an Islamic Emirate-appointed Afghan representative to operate in Berlin, even without formally recognizing the government.
Dorbindt has told Welt TV that he is prepared “to find the appropriate agreement with those responsible in Afghanistan to enable” repatriation of convicted criminals of Afghan nationality.
“If the Taliban (IEA) send Afghan representatives here who may then serve in Berlin, then that can work even without diplomatic recognition. And I would have no problem if we had a contact person here on site for problems we want to solve,” he said.
In August, Germany resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, after pausing deportations following the IEA’s takeover in August 2021, with the support of what Berlin said were “key regional partners”.
The United Nations, however, has criticised the German interior minister’s plan to deport criminals to Afghanistan, citing human rights issues.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has also stated that there would be no relations with the IEA beyond the current contacts.
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