Patterico's Pontifications

9/10/2015

50 Spies Spill The Beans

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:24 am



[guest post by Dana]

Well, well, well… According to the Daily Beast, 50 intelligence analysts working out of Central Command claimed that senior management altered reports to more readily fit the administration’s narrative on ISIS:

It’s being called a ‘revolt’ by intelligence pros who are paid to give their honest assessment of the ISIS war—but are instead seeing their reports turned into happy talk.

More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials, The Daily Beast has learned.

The complaints spurred the Pentagon’s inspector general to open an investigation into the alleged manipulation of intelligence. The fact that so many people complained suggests there are deep-rooted, systemic problems in how the U.S. military command charged with the war against the self-proclaimed Islamic State assesses intelligence.

“The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command,” one defense official said.

One person who knows the contents of the complaint said it used the word “Stalinist” to describe the tone set by officials overseeing the military’s analysis.

This is interesting in light of President Obama’s claims last September that the U.S. would “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS, as well as subsequently claiming that we had the upper hand in the situation. This in spite of it never quite appearing to be true.

Is this as damning to the administration as it appears, or is it possible that the administration was just handed the very excuse needed to explain its overall lack of success in the Middle East and policy failure? It will be very interesting to find out who at the top gave the order to doctor the reports.

–Dana

26 Responses to “50 Spies Spill The Beans”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (86e864) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:24 am

  2. Was it reported in The New York Times? How ’bout The Washington Post? Then it didn’t happen.

    The Dana trying to get in the first comment (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:25 am

  3. To quote Maxwell Smart: Missed it by that much! 🙁

    The Dana who failed to get in the first comment (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:25 am

  4. “In my view, this type of situation highlights the importance of the direction where we are headed.”
    — Jeh Johnson, DHS Secretary
    (A quote for all seasons.)

    navyvet (c33501) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:29 am

  5. The much better-looking Dana wrote:

    It will be very interesting to find out who at the top gave the order to doctor the reports.

    Assuming that the story is accurate, it’s quite possible that no one gave the order. The military officers already know what the civilian leadership want, and many act accordingly. Of course, even if such an order was given, no one will ever admit to it, and the facts will never be known until after someone who wants to tell retires and writes a book.

    The conspiracy theorist Dana (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:30 am

  6. They were altered to benefit the Obama Administration? That means someone fraudulently claimed the report to be accurate? Someone lied? And Stalinesque? From this Socialist Administration? Who woulda thunk it?

    John Hitchcock (81341d) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:31 am

  7. But, hey, if the intelligence was doctored, then there’s no harm, no foul in Hillary Clinton’s e-mail troubles, ’cause it was all faked anyway.

    The snarky Dana (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:32 am

  8. Even psy-ops is classified.

    John Hitchcock (81341d) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:34 am

  9. This is nothing new, the Carter adminstratration did the same thing, hence the need for team b.

    narciso (7c7aed) — 9/10/2015 @ 6:54 am

  10. to be clear, the adoption of Team B, over Carter administration assessments,

    narciso (ee1f88) — 9/10/2015 @ 7:06 am

  11. Where is Joseph Wilson Plame and his husband Valerie in all this?

    Colonel Haiku (436b69) — 9/10/2015 @ 7:34 am

  12. which is to say the pentagon is as corrupt as any other part of the failmerican federal government

    happyfeet (a037ad) — 9/10/2015 @ 7:43 am

  13. yes, under Hagel, (gosh didn’t our host warn about his confirmation) and his successor, also see Admiral Kirby ‘the Chip Dillard’ of the administration.

    narciso (ee1f88) — 9/10/2015 @ 7:45 am

  14. Jeh… meh… heh

    Colonel Haiku (436b69) — 9/10/2015 @ 8:40 am

  15. The Army is getting rid of a bunch of captains and majors; if you are a captain or major, in intelligence, and you’d rather not leave the service, about the last thing you’d want to do is tell the truth about intelligence assessments.

    The Dana who values keeping his job (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 9:53 am

  16. It’s alright. Obama can’t handle the truth anyway.

    And he’s pretty shaky with a lie too.

    papertiger (c2d6da) — 9/10/2015 @ 1:48 pm

  17. With Obama in the White House and Kerry at the State Department what honest observer would ever assume for a nanosecond they weren’t cooking the books? Everything those two turds have ever touched was poisoned by their appalling self-interest compounded by hatred for all things American.

    ropelight (46b041) — 9/10/2015 @ 5:24 pm

  18. http://news.yahoo.com/us-10-000-more-syrian-refugees-2016-192647687.html

    What refugees? Weren’t we just yesterday talking about J.V. teams?

    Can’t we doctor the intel and make this all go away?

    Steve57 (a36142) — 9/10/2015 @ 5:52 pm

  19. “Murdered by the government?” he asked excitedly, his conspiratorial leanings springing to the fore. “Now, that would be good.”

    “From my experience of government departments,” said Jack, “they couldn’t order the right size of staples, let alone succeed in anything as bizarrely complex as a murder and then subsequent cover-up.”

    “Yes,” agreed Parks sulkily, “it’s where that particular mainstay of conspiracy theory falls down. I hate to admit it, but governmental deviousness is usually better explained by incompetence, vanity and the need to protect one’s job at all costs.”

    Fforde, Jasper (2007-07-31). The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime (p. 222). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

    nk (dbc370) — 9/11/2015 @ 5:24 am

  20. “From my experience of government departments,” said Jack, “they couldn’t order the right size of staples, let alone succeed in anything as bizarrely complex as a murder and then subsequent cover-up.”

    Jacobo Arbenz, Rafael Trujillo, Rene Schneider, Salvador Allende, Orlando Letelier, Ronni Moffit, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and dozens more.

    ropelight (e0a81c) — 9/11/2015 @ 6:16 am

  21. Arbenz stepped down, the Espaillat bros already had it in for Trujillo, the same with Schneider, Letelier well I’ll give you that one,

    narciso (ee1f88) — 9/11/2015 @ 6:28 am

  22. “… governmental deviousness is usually better explained by incompetence, vanity and the need to protect one’s job at all costs.”

    Usually. Not always.

    nk (dbc370) — 9/11/2015 @ 6:41 am

  23. Sadly, I have no idea who those guys are. I must be a murder by government rookie.

    Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 9/11/2015 @ 6:43 am

  24. Guatemala, Dominican Republiv, Chile, the last was of those four was an american who had associated with the anti pinochet left, ‘but it wasn’t personal, just business’

    narciso (ee1f88) — 9/11/2015 @ 6:46 am

  25. Hoagie, if you’re interested, read the following excerpt from Wikipedia which will give you a pretty good idea of the general direction a stroll down this dark and twisting path leads. Best Regards.

    The 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état was a covert operation carried out by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. Code-named Operation PBSUCCESS, it installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed dictators who ruled Guatemala.

    A popular revolution against the U.S.-backed dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944 had led to Guatemala’s first democratic election and the beginning of the Guatemalan Revolution. The elections were won by Juan José Arévalo who wanted to turn Guatemala into a liberal capitalist society. He implemented social reforms which included a minimum wage law, increased educational funding and near-universal suffrage. Arévalo’s defense minister Jacobo Árbenz was elected President in 1950, and continued the social reform policies, as well as instituting land reform, which sought to grant land to peasants who had been victims of debt slavery prior to Arévalo. Despite their moderate policies, the Guatemalan Revolution was widely disliked by the United States government, which was predisposed by the Cold War to see it as communist, and the United Fruit Company (UFC), whose hugely profitable business had been affected by the end to brutal labor practices. The attitude of the U.S. government was also influenced by a propaganda campaign carried out by the UFC.

    U.S. President Harry Truman authorized Operation PBFORTUNE to topple Árbenz in 1952, with the support of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García, but the operation was aborted when too many details became public. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected U.S. President in 1952, promising to take a harder line against communism; the close links that his staff members John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles had to the UFC also predisposed him to act against Árbenz. Eisenhower authorized the CIA to carry out Operation PBSUCCESS in August 1953. The CIA armed, funded, and trained a force of 480 men led by Carlos Castillo Armas. The force invaded Guatemala on 18 June 1954, backed by a heavy campaign of psychological warfare, including bombings of Guatemala City and an anti-Árbenz radio station claiming to be genuine news. The invasion force fared poorly militarily, but the psychological warfare and the possibility of a U.S. invasion intimidated the Guatemalan army, which refused to fight. Árbenz resigned on 27 June, and following negotiations in San Salvador, Carlos Castillo Armas became President on 7 July 1954.

    The coup was widely criticized internationally, and created lasting anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America. Castillo Armas quickly took dictatorial powers, banning all political parties, torturing and imprisoning political opponents, and reversing the social reforms of the Guatemalan Revolution. A series of U.S.-backed authoritarian governments ruled Guatemala until 1996. The repression sparked off the Guatemalan Civil War between the government and leftist guerrillas, during which the military committed massive human rights violations against the civilian population, including a genocidal campaign against the Maya peoples. The coup has been described as the definitive deathblow to democracy in Guatemala.

    ropelight (e0a81c) — 9/11/2015 @ 7:32 am

  26. 15. The Army is getting rid of a bunch of captains and majors; if you are a captain or major, in intelligence, and you’d rather not leave the service, about the last thing you’d want to do is tell the truth about intelligence assessments.

    The Dana who values keeping his job (f6a568) — 9/10/2015 @ 9:53 am

    Not to worry, Dana. I hear the Chinese are making attractive job offers to all the intel professionals whose personal data they stole from OPM.

    They’re making it very convenient. You have to pay for your own flight to Beijing as well as your hotel room, but they’ll take care of everything and just use the last credit card you used to make travel arrangemensts on Orbitz or Priceline since they know whether or not it’s expired.

    Also, they’ll wave the employment physical since they have everyone’s medical records.

    Steve57 (a36142) — 9/12/2015 @ 12:31 am


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