The administration doesn’t have any doubts about the intelligence it’s receiving on the impact of the war against the Islamic State (ISIL), despite news that more than fifty spies have complained to a government watchdog about their reports being politicized.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest deflected questions on Friday about allegations that senior officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency scrubbed negative assessments of anti-ISIL operations. Those charges prompted the Pentagon’s inspector general to launch an investigation into the matter.
“The president does have confidence in the members of the intelligence community,” Earnest told reporters.
He added that the nation’s spies are “very well aware of the high standards” set by the administration, “even if that means the intelligence community has to share with the president some bad news.”
The IG investigation was first revealed last month by the New York Times. A Daily Beast report published on Wednesday noted that more than 50 analysts—in what was described as a “revolt”—had come forward to support the claims that ISIL intelligence was being manipulated.
Asked if President Obama was concerned about the inspector general’s probe, Earnest didn’t answer, claiming that it’s a “matter that continues to be under investigation.”
Members of Congress, however, have taken a different tack in responding to the charges.
“The politicization of intelligence products would be a major issue, and these allegations need to be thoroughly investigated,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, in a statement published Thursday. He promised to use his committee to take “all appropriate action” to ensure that Congress receives “unbiased” spy reports.
The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), also expressed concern.
“I can just say that any allegations of this nature are going to be met with the greatest interest and scrutiny,” he told The Hill.
The White House pointed reporters to the president’s handling of the death of American al Qaeda hostage Warren Weinstein, as evidence that it is not trying to cover-up bad intelligence.
Weinstein was killed by a CIA drone strike while being held captive by the militant group in Pakistan earlier this year.
“The president took the extraordinary step of insisting that information about that operation be declassified so that the American could know exactly what happened,“ Earnest claimed.
The Washington Post reported Thursday, however, that the Weinstein family had “grown frustrated waiting for the Obama administration to deliver on promises to provide results of the investigation of his death and compensate them for their loss.”
US officials told the paper that the CIA may have discovered the whereabouts of Weinstein through drone imagery months before he was killed, but that a surveillance lapse led to the agency losing track of him.
