Speier: Pentagon Watchdog Not Objective Enough to Probe Skewed ISIS Intelligence

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier is expressing outrage over claims that senior military officials skewed intelligence reports to give the impression that the Islamic State is weaker than analysts concluded. The allegations have renewed concerns about the nation’s intelligence community more than a decade after manipulated data was used in the lead-up to the Iraq War.

“It appears that the truth may have been, in fact, somehow modified,” the Peninsula congresswoman said in an interview Thursday. “This is a serious breach, and we have got to demand accountability in the intelligence community.”

Speier, a Democrat, is calling on the Pentagon to release to the House Intelligence Committee the original reports written by 50 or so analysts who allege their conclusions were misrepresented, as well as the allegedly amended documents.

“I want to see the memos,” Speier said. “They can redact the individuals’ names, but I want to see what the various analysts said, and then how that was transformed into what CENTCOM actually conveyed to both Congress and the White House.”

Speier’s comments come a day after Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, confirmed to the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating allegations about the “processing of intelligence information by CENTCOM’s intelligence directorate.” He did not comment further.

A Department of Defense inspector general’s spokeswoman, however, confirmed to KQED Thursday morning that the probe will look into whether intelligence reports were altered.

“The investigation will address whether there was any falsification, distortion, delay, suppression, or improper modification of intelligence information,” said Bridget Ann Serchak, chief of public affairs at the Pentagon inspector general’s office, in an emailed statement. The investigation will also look at “any deviations from appropriate process, procedures or internal controls regarding the intelligence analysis and personal accountability for any misconduct or failure to follow established processes.”

Speier said she doesn’t have a lot of confidence that the Pentagon inspector general can investigate the allegations objectively.

“In my experience on many other issues, they are often times hand-in-glove with the department,” Speier said. “I have an ongoing concern that they are often times in sync with the department and not nearly as independent as they should be.”

Meanwhile, Speier and North Bay Rep. Mike Thompson are circulating a bipartisan letter that calls on the Pentagon to survey intelligence employees to determine if their work is being swayed by politics.

“Potentially politicized intelligence should be a a cause for exceptionally grave concern,” the letter states. “Independence and objectivity are at the heart of the analytical enterprise, and history has shown that distorted intelligence can have disastrous consequences.”

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