The Inspector General at the Pentagon has opened an investigation into the manipulation of intelligence reporting by senior commanders. Two analysts have signed a formal complaint and at least fifty are willing to support the allegations that intelligence reports are being skewed to fit the political narrative that ISIS is losing in Iraq and Syria. They say their reports are being watered down to bolster the public narrative that ISIS is the JV team as President Obama once claimed.

CENTCOM is the U.S. military command for the Middle East and Central Asia. The analysts that staff CENTCOM have decades of experience. They understand that loose lips sink ships, so for them to come forward in a public way to criticize authority says a lot about their convictions. As for the job they do, they take pride in getting it right. They shun political overtones in their works and they look at the facts. From that they make their best judgments. It is in their core beliefs to ensure that their reporting is the absolute truth because they know that their assessments are the cornerstones for monumental governmental decisions. So naturally, when they see their sincere work being manipulated for what they perceive to be political purposes they take offense.

Further, scrutiny on the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, is ramping up.  He reportedly stays in daily contact with the commander of CENTCOM, Army Maj. Gen. Steven Grove. This is said to be very unusual and could indicate that the higher-ranking Clapper is exerting inappropriate influence on CENTCOM to massage the reports. The DoD is denying such acts however:

“We look at a vast amount of information to deliver an assessment to our decision-makers,” said Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “We take great pride in speaking truth to power…we don’t serve a president, we serve the president, whoever that is. We deliver the truth wherever the data takes us.”

Stewart, speaking Sept. 10 at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, suggested that data and the resultant analysis isn’t always cut-and-dry – something that could instead be subjective, a gray area up for interpretation and even dispute.

“It’s not clean, it’s not science. It is as much art and experience and judgment as anything else,” Stewart said. “When you go through the process there can be some very rough-and-tumble debate. There are variations of views on what the data says. So you have this clash and tension among analysts about what the data really means.”

In addition to the Inspector General investigation, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ron DeSantis are requesting a briefing from the Defense Department on the “skewed intelligence assessments.”

“We request the briefing to include additional information regarding the nature of the allegations, and the Department’s procedures for how analyses and collection drive the final product reviewed by senior civilian and military leadership.”

Some analysts have left their jobs citing the toxic environment at CENTCOM. Others remain but say the pressure to report their findings in a way palatable to higher ups is Stalinistic. Many analysts remember the lead in to the Iraq war, when faulty intelligence provided a basis for the action. Mistaken information is not acceptable, but manipulated information is evil.