Given that we now have a
worldwide terrorism alert in effect, this
little tidbit seems, well, huge:
Analysts at U.S. Central Command were pressured to ease off negative assessments about the Islamic State threat and were even told in an email to “cut it out,” Fox News has learned – as an investigation expands into whether intelligence reports were altered to present a more positive picture.
Fox News is told by a source close to the CENTCOM analysts that the pressure on them included at least two emails saying they needed to “cut it out” and “toe the line.”
Separately, a former Pentagon official told Fox News there apparently was an attempt to destroy the communications. The Pentagon official said the email warnings were "not well received" by the analysts.
As the Bush administration found out to its great pain, it's never a good idea to piss off the analysts, because they will make their displeasure public, just as has happened here. But there's more to the story, especially this:
The former Pentagon official said there were “multiple assessments” from military intelligence and the CIA regarding the “rapid rise” of ISIS in Iraq and North Africa in the year leading up to the group’s territory grab in 2014.
Similar intelligence was included in the President’s Daily Brief, or PDB – the intelligence community’s most authoritative product -- during the same time period. Yet the official, who was part of the White House discussions, said the administration kept "kicking the can down the road." The official said there was no discussion of the military involvement needed to make a difference.
The IG probe started earlier this year amid complaints that information was changed to make ISIS look more degraded than it really was.
Are we ready to start the "Obama lied, people died" chants yet?
5 comments:
The report I read said the investigation was to determine whether the intelligence was "altered before it reached the White House." I would wager a trillion dollars it was altered AFTER. Because what any fool knew about the situation was clear, while what the WH told us showed no sign of "intelligence" whatsoever.
It certainly fits with what we know of the Obama administration; it's getting harder and harder to, per Hanlon's Razor, to attribute this to incompetence anymore.
Perhaps not. One Corollary of Hanlon is that "the difference between intelligence and stupidity is that there is a limit to intelligence."
:^) But occasionally stupidity will stumble into something good. Obama is nothing if not consistent in what he does.
Yes, stupidity will, at random, do something right. That leads to Heinlein's Law, an extension of Hanlon that says, " but always suspect malice." To screw up consistently is not incompetence, it takes planning.
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