A recent report filled by a House Republican task force, claims that the Pentagon’s Central Command (CENTCOM) manipulated information regarding ISIS to paint a better picture of the events between U.S.A and the Islamic State.
The Republican members of the United States Congress, have filled a month-long report assuring CENTCOM’s top officials have made ‘positive’ changes to reports made by analysts in the Defense Intelligence Agency. The recent report comes as a response to a complaint made by a CENTCOM senior analyst. The whistleblower claimed information on intel had been manipulated by the Pentagon. Moreover, investigations are still being made for the claim to check its veracity.
The GOP report goes back to 2014 when the supposed changes started. The published reports made by CENTCOM were different than the reports made by internal analysts, CBS reports.
“The facts on the ground didn’t match what the intelligence was saying out f the United States Central Command,” assured GOP member and Kansas Representative, Mike Pompeo, who takes part in the report and task force.
According to the report, CENTCOM’s communications were based on information given by military officials rather than their analysts because sometimes the reports weren’t optimistic.
Ongoing investigation
The United States Central Command is a part of the U.S Department of Defense, and it provides security for American interests in over 20 nations that include the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Command is present and responsible for many military operations held by the United States, the Afghanistan war as well as the Iraq and Persian Gulf war were supervised by CENTCOM. According to the recent report, released by a GOP task force the Central Command’s information has been manipulated by senior levels to give a rosier picture of the current situation in Syria with ISIS.
The report shows surveys made to analysts and obtained by the task force, revealed that the reports had several “structural and management changes” in 40 percent of the cases.
The task-force also performed interviews with CENTCOM employees and in some cases, explanations were made to justify the correction on the operational reports. CNN reports that commanders felt their analysts were not optimistic on reports, so they relied on military officials on the battlefield to get a more confident statement.
The GOP task force, suggests that there might have been political reasons for the changes made in the report, yet this remains just as allegations and not facts at the moment. Media reports assure that the Obama administration could be severely damaged if political reasons were behind the changes.
The report also suggests the changes were not just made on confidential reports, but in public information as well. According to the task force, in March 2015 CENTCOM’S Commander, General Lloyd Austin assured to congress progress made over ISIS and their desire over winning territory.
Internal reports didn’t show that much of a process on stopping the Islamic State on gathering more territory and statements made by CIA’s Director John Brennan had less positive views on fighting ISIS. CENTCOM’s media department is in charge of Commander Kyle Raines.
“We appreciate the independent oversight provided by the task force, cooperated fully with this investigation and encouraged personnel to speak freely,” Raines assured.
It’s worth mentioning the Central Command has yet to receive the final findings of the panel report.
Source: CNN