Four more members of Congress sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter Thursday asking for a briefing on command climate surveys that showed whether analysts felt under political pressure to alter intelligence to paint a rosier picture of the fight against the Islamic State.
The bipartisan letter asks for the Office of the Director of Intelligence to brief the House Armed Services Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about annual command climate reports regarding the politicization of intelligence.
“Potentially politicized intelligence should be a cause for exceptionally grave concern,” the letter said. “Independence and objectivity are at the heart of the analytical enterprise and history has shown that distorted intelligence can have disastrous consequences.”
The letter is signed by Reps. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., Mike Thompson, D-Calif., Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Mike Coffman, R-Colo.
In addition, the lawmakers asked for the acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence to conduct an additional anonymous command climate survey of the Defense Intelligence Enterprise to determine if intelligence is being skewed.
The letter also says officials should refrain from any retaliation against whistleblowers reporting politicization of intelligence and should update Congress on how they are ensuring lawmakers are getting accurate information while an investigation into the allegations is ongoing.
The letter is not the first Carter received on the subject. Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., wrote a letter last week demanding a briefing this week on the inspector general probe.
