The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee isn’t waiting for the Pentagon inspector general to decide whether the Obama administration pressured intelligence analysts to skew data to make the Islamic State and its allies seem weaker in their reports.
Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, wrote Friday to Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Inspector General Jon Rymer demanding a briefing this week on the probe.
“We are deeply concerned about these allegations and want to ensure that intelligence provided to key decision-makers properly reflect the expert analysis produced by our intelligence community professionals,” they wrote.
The inspector general’s probe into the alleged manipulation of intelligence was first reported by the Daily Beast, which said more than 50 analysts at Central Command’s headquarters in Tampa, Fla., had formally complained that their reports had been altered by senior officials to make the Islamic State seem weaker than it was.
The Guardian, meanwhile, reported last week that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was in nearly daily contact with Army Brig. Gen. Steven Grove, Central Command’s director of intelligence. A former official said such an arrangement is “highly, highly unusual,” further raising the question of whether the administration’s Islamic State policy was based on politicized analysis of intelligence data.
The House Intelligence Committee also is watching the inspector general’s probe, but has not yet taken any action.
“We are going to gather facts and, if we have to, open an investigation,” Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told the Washington Examiner.
