GOP: U.S. military painted ‘rosy view’ of ISIS intel
WASHINGTON — Intelligence assessments approved by senior leaders at U.S. Central Command exaggerated the progress of antiterrorism efforts they ran against Islamic State militants, a House Republican task force said in an initial report released Thursday.
The report detailed what the task force described as “persistent problems” in 2014 and 2015 with the command’s analysis of U.S. efforts to train Iraqi forces and combat the extremist group in Iraq and Syria. Central Command, based in Tampa, Fla., runs the U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
The task force’s investigation isn’t yet complete. A separate investigation by the Pentagon inspector general also is underway.
A Central Command spokesman said the command is reviewing the House report but declined to comment further because the task force and inspector general inquiries are still proceeding.
The task force focused on the command’s intelligence directorate.
The office underwent structural and management changes in mid2014 that resulted in intelligence that was “consistently more optimistic regarding the conduct of U.S. military action” than the judgments of many senior, career analysts at the command, according to the report.
The command’s intelligence on ISIS also was “more optimistic” than that of other U.S. intelligence agencies and what actual events warranted, the task force said. “Additionally, many (Central Command) press releases, public statements and congressional testimonies were also significantly more positive than actual events,” according to the report.
House Republican leaders formed the task force after lawmakers learned that an unnamed analyst assigned to the command had filed a formal complaint alleging that intelligence about ISIS had been manipulated.
The report said leadership at the command and within its intelligence office “deteriorated significantly” after Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis was replaced by Army Gen. Lloyd Austin in 2013 as the command’s top officer.
Roughly a year after Austin took over, several new senior intelligence officials arrived in Tampa to replace holdovers from Mattis’ tenure.
Following the fall of Mosul, Iraq, to ISIS militants in June 2014, the new officials, who are not named in the report, increased their involvement in the review and editing of various intelligence products.
The officials “regularly performed line-in/line-out edits and wording changes which were perceived by analysts as more frequent than previous intelligence directorate leadership,” according to the task force.
The command’s “consistently rosy view” of military success against Islamic State militants in 2014 and 2015 “may well have resulted in putting American troops at risk as policymakers relied on this intelligence when formulating policy and allocating resources for the fight,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., a task force leader.