Faced with questions during his Senate testimony about an ongoing Pentagon investigation into intelligence tampering by Central Command (Centcom), Centcom commander Gen. Lloyd Austin refused to discuss the matter directly, but did deny that he’d ever ordered any “skewing” of intelligence reports.
The investigation stems from complaints by analysts at the DIA, the Pentagon’s main intelligence body, who say that Centcom took their reports, edited them so the conclusions were more upbeat about the war against ISIS, and passed them on to Congress and the president as the basis for policy decisions.
The investigation is being conducted by the Inspectors General, who have already informed Congress, based on their preliminary findings, that the intelligence reports they’ve received were likely “reworked” to defend Centcom’s position that the war is going well.
Centcom is struggling to figure out what their official stance on this is, initially defending the skewing of the intelligence as totally within their purview as the ones managing the war, and now insisting that the edits they made were totally innocuous and that the reports remained pessimistic.
Gen. Austin insisted that he would take unspecified “action” if the allegations turn out to be true, but Centcom’s narrative on the matter suggests that they consider anything they did to manipulate intelligence as totally their call, and they seem to be viewing the probe as an unwelcome intrusion.
Having a hard time spinning the usual web of lies on this one, huh?
For a long time now the Executive and Legislative branches have pretty much given the military a free hand. But it seems the Generals have over-stepped and got caught lying to their nominal bosses. Perhaps now, the Executive which supposedly presides over the military will clean house and retire many of the "free thinkers" in the Pentagon, both military and civilian. The military needs to be on a very, very short leash.
Since the military can't clean its own house, its time we demand that the pensions of all retired generals be reduced to that of the lowest starting salary of teachers in the United States. Maybe this punishment of the untouchables will motivate some more of them to become whistleblowers and help us clean up their mess. It has already become obvious that they need to recruit non-U.S. citizens, and former criminals (after already lowering the requirements of those wishing) to join the military in order to have brainless / soulless soldiers to fight their terrorist provoking wars. Our children will be the ones to suffer and pay for the Pentagon's idiocy and that of our unpatriotic, Israeli-centric politicians.
Sorry but the President is only the Commander in Chief if US is in a Declared War;
and even then Both Houses, the peoples House of Representatives , and the Elites Congress, are the true military leaders.
No General outranks a Senator or a peoples Representative, and the President even if T war is responsible for his actions in cartying out that war to those two Houses.
A president can be impeached right in the middle of a war if the need arose.
A President can demote any military man without having to ask for military permission but if called upon by our elected Representatives he must answer for that action.
How far the american public’s mindset is from its true Constitutional roots is unbelievable, as none of what I wrote above applies to those who rule instead of represent in Washington DC today.
The public at large is incapable of governing itself; hell we now have polls showing people are favorable to a military coup, the dumb f’s do not realize the coup was years ago.
When a cop shoots beats harrasses and intimidates by color of uniform alone you damned well know you lve in a Police State.