“US Central Command has seen the Congressional Joint Task Force initial report and we appreciate the independent oversight provided,” Raines said. “We are reviewing the findings of the initial report; since the Joint Task Force investigation is ongoing, as is the DOD IG's [Department of Defense Inspector General] investigation, we will refrain from further comment at this time.”
House of Representatives committees convened the task force after a whistleblower claimed in May 2015 that CENTCOM leaders were engineering intelligence products to present an unjustly positive outlook on US efforts to train Iraqi Security Forces and fight Daesh.
Additionally, CENTCOM press releases, statements and testimony in front of the US Congress were significantly more positive than the events on the ground, the Joint Task Force explained.
Despite the whistleblower complaint, neither CENTCOM nor the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence took steps to improve the analytic problems, the report pointed out.
The Joint Task Force along with the US Department of Defense is continuing to investigate the whistleblower allegations, and the findings are only preliminary, the report stated.
