A Pentagon investigation into allegations that U.S. Central Command “cooked the books” in battlefield intelligence has concluded that no senior officials falsified reports or deliberately distorted them to make war progress against the Islamic State look better than it was.
But the report, released Wednesday, notes a great deal of dissension in one of the most important U.S. war commands. About half of its intelligence analysts at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, believed commanders deliberately distorted their reports. Investigators also criticized the analysts’ leaders for being aloof at times.
The Pentagon inspector general launched a broad probe in 2015 after two whistleblowers in J2, the command’s intelligence directorate, filed complaints that superiors changed words and sentences to produce assessments that Iraqi government forces were succeeding and the Islamic State terrorists were blocked.
One example: A CentCom intelligence report on an Islamic State attack on the Al Asad air base was edited from “successful” to “unsuccessful.”
The complaining analysts referred to a time when the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL and ISIS, was sweeping through northern and western Iraq in 2014 and taking territory.
The inspector general’s report chalked up some of the differences between superiors and analysts to routine intelligence debates, as well as to the rushed and crisis-driven environment as President Obama went to war for a second time in Iraq.
“To be clear, we did not find systematic or intentional distortion of intelligence by CCJ2 leaders, as the complainants and some witnesses alleged,” the 188-page unclassified report says. “We also did not conclude that anyone committed misconduct.”
The inspector general said it was troubling to learn that half of the analysts surveyed believed that CentCom had distorted intelligence reports.
Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, then CentCom commander, denied allegations that he had sought “rosy” war assessments.
“Let me confirm 100 percent that I have not done that and I never would do that,” Gen. Austin told investigators. “Again, we’re in a fight to win, and so I don’t gain anything by trying to paint a rosy picture here.”
The four-star general retired in April amid high praise from Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. Army Gen. Joseph Votel now leads CentCom, which oversees the war in Syria and Iraq to defeat the Islamic State.
The intelligence leadership at CentCom did not escape criticism.
The inspector general’s report faulted Army Maj. Gen. Steven Grove, the J2 director, and Vice Director Gregory Ryckman for being aloof and brusk at times. It said Gen. Grove, who left his post in July for a staff job at the Pentagon, did not deliver his vision for the until months on the job.
“Early on, MG Grove and Mr. Ryckman did not communicate well with analysts, and they seemed unaware of how their actions and words were perceived,” the inspector general said. “One IFC leader described both MG Grove and Mr. Ryckman as initially ’argumentative’ with analysts, but ’after three or four months of them getting to know me and us having interactions and consistently demonstrating that I know what I’m talking about.’”
CentCom’s J2 director has a significant role in the intelligence picture viewed by senior leaders. He directly briefs the CentCom commander as well as the director of national intelligence, who uses the information to deliver the Presidential Daily Brief at the White House.
• Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.