Did U.S. military brass edit intelligence reports that warned of the Islamic State’s success in Iraq to paint a more rosy picture? Did these new reports wrongly color President Obama’s assessment of the threat the Islamic State posed to the peace of nations? And did the supervisors then try to cover the edits up by deleting emails?

These are questions raised by reports that the Defense Department’s inspector general has demanded all manner of documents from Central Command, or Centcom, which is charged with overseeing military intelligence and operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.