Spotlight: Pentagon chief demands truthful intelligence after allegations of alterations

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday that Defense Secretary Ash Carter has instructed his undersecretary of defense for intelligence to make clear to military officials that he expects "unvarnished, transparent" intelligence.

The demand came after allegations that quite some intelligence reports were changed to exaggerate progress against the extremist group the Islamic State (IS).

Shortly after the IS took full control of the strategically vital city of Ramadi in Iraq in May, questions were raised regarding whether the U.S. anti-IS strategy failed.

"No, I don't think we're losing," said U.S. President Barack Obama.

For a long time, the Pentagon has been telling Americans that despite occasional "tactical setbacks", the counterterrorism operations in Syria and Iraq, where the IS is still occupying vast portions of land, are making headway.

One year into the military campaign against the IS group, a cohort of U.S. intelligence analysts complained that their reports on the campaign were altered by senior officials to present a rosier picture.

Early in July, two senior analysts at the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) filed a written complaint to the U.S. Defense Department inspector general, saying that their reports on the anti-IS campaign, some of which were for Obama, played down the real significance of the threat posed by the militant group.

The complaint claimed that CENTCOM seniors, including the director of intelligence and his deputy, had whitewashed the situations on ground to fit the Obama administration's public narrative that the U.S. is winning the battle against the IS.

In an exclusive report released late Wednesday, the U.S. news website The Daily Beast said the complaint was now supported by another 50 analysts.

"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," The Daily Beast cited one defense official as saying.

Still under investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general, the allegations could remind many of previous charges around 2002 that U.S. senior officials cherry-picked intelligence about Iraq's supposed weapons program.

Calling the move by the sizeable cadre of protesting analysts a "revolt", some of those analysts reportedly said the final version "manipulated" by CENTCOM higher-ups did not accurately reflect their conclusions.

The analysts take a more pessimistic view about how military efforts to destroy the groups are going, reported the Daily Beast.

Apart from removing some key elements of intelligence reports, the complaints alleged that senior leaders at CENTCOM created "an unprofessional work environment" by forcing analysts to self-censor their reports.

For those reports regarded as too negative in the assessment of the war, they simply disappeared down the chain of command, the Daily Beast cited several analysts as saying.

"Some felt it was a product of commanders protecting their career advancement by putting the best spin on the war," the Daily Beast reported.

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