Friday, September 11, 2015

US intel analysts revolt over rosy IS assessments: Daily Beast

US intel analysts revolt over rosy IS assessments: Daily Beast: More than 50 US intelligence analysts have complained that senior military officials altered reports so as to downplay the strength of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, the Daily Beast reported Thursday.

The online news outlet said senior officials at US Central Command changed the reports to bring them into line with the White House's rosier public view that the United States was winning the war against the militant groups.

"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," the report quoted a defense official as saying.

It said the revolt came to a head when two senior analysts at Centcom signed and sent a written complaint to the Defense Department inspector general in July alleging that reports, including some presented in briefings to President Barack Obama, portrayed the groups as weaker than the analysts believed they were.