(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) On the fifth anniversary of the Kabul terror attack, the Trump-led Pentagon accused the Biden administration of hiding classified documents connected to the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell made the revelations in a heartfelt video commemorating the 13 U.S. servicemen who died on Aug. 26, 2021, while protecting thousands of Afghans as the Taliban closed in on the country.
Parnell said that “highly relevant classified documents, materials that should have disclosed,” were “stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found.”
While Parnell did not specify the content of the alleged classified materials, he said that after reviewing them, “it became clear why someone tried to hide them.”
An update from Sean Parnell, Chairman of the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel, on the Fifth Anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing pic.twitter.com/5pkbmuuyX0
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellASW) August 26, 2026
Parnell stated that further information would be revealed in the future.
“I’m not going to give you a convenient version of the truth, nor will I give you a rushed one,” he added. “Here is my commitment: We are following the evidence to wherever it leads and to whoever it touches. We’re not accepting incomplete or comfortable answers.”
Parnell, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, was appointed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to lead a Pentagon-wide review of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal and the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members in Kabul.
The Pentagon said in a statement that “the ongoing review was taking place on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the Gold Star families.”
In his video, Parnell also emphasized the personal cost borne by the fallen service members.
“These patriots commanded troops; they took fire; they carried the wounded, and they buried their friends,” he said. “They knew how decisions in Afghanistan became consequences because they are the ones who lived with them.“
The Biden administration had long faced questions over its handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The administration repeatedly pointed to decisions made by the Trump administration that led to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, which occurred more than seven months after Joe Biden took office.
