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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Investigation reveals CENTCOM general delayed intel on ISIS fight meant for the POTUS
2016-09-23
[CBS] On a rainy day in September 2014, President Obama paid a visit to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida for a briefing from General Lloyd Austin.

Among the topics was the training and equipping of fragile Iraqi security forces to stop the explosive growth of ISIS. The cost of the program was to be $1.2 billion.

After the hour-long briefing, the president addressed the troops. "I just received a briefing from General Austin and met with your commanders, met with representatives from more than 40 nations," he said. "It is a true team effort here at MacDill."

But at the time, CENTCOM’s intelligence operation was anything but unified.

Critical assessments of the Iraqi security forces were regularly being altered by top intelligence brass. Words like "slow," "stalled," and "retreat" were changed to "deliberate" and "relocated." This had the effect of painting a rosier picture in final reports delivered to General Austin and his staff.

But it didn’t stop there. In one instance, CENTCOM’s director of intelligence, Major General Steven R. Grove, blocked a negative assessment of Iraq’s military from the President’s Daily Brief, a top secret intelligence summary viewed only by the president and his closest advisers.
Posted by:Besoeker

#3  Used to be that senior officers were war-fighters. Now many are just place keepers more considerate of their next pay grade than national security. The next guy will handle it, right?
Posted by: Vast Right Wing Conspiracy   2016-09-23 14:02  

#2  Colonel Grove promoted to Brigadier May 2011; promoted to Major General June 2014.

Appears the daily chats with the DNI had the desired effect.
Posted by: Besoeker   2016-09-23 13:49  

#1  Guardian US dated 11 September 2015.
"James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, is said to talk nearly every day with the head of US Central Command’s intelligence wing, Army Major General Steven Grove – “which is highly, highly unusual”, according to a former intelligence official.
Grove is said to be implicated in a Pentagon inquiry into manipulated war intelligence.
In communications, Clapper, who is far more senior than Grove, is said to tell Grove how the war looks from his vantage point, and question Grove about Central Command’s assessments. Such a situation could place inherent pressure on a subordinate, sources said."
Colonel Grove promoted to Brigadier May 2011; promoted to Major General June 2014.
Posted by: Shick de Medici6262   2016-09-23 13:27  

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