Thread by @JewhadiTM

I’m guessing not many, including @JoeBiden, remember this from 2015. Apparently **General Lloyd Austin engaged in “pressuring CENTCOM intel staff to promote ‘good news’” about the fight against ISIS, “despite much evidence to the contrary. The rumors can now be verified.”

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1336107491663482881

9/17/15: Obama’s Messy Iraq Intelligence Scandal

We've heard tales of 'cherry-picked intelligence' before—it hasn't ended well

observer.com/2015/09/obamas…

“Only the most optimistic Obama backers still portray that year-long air campaign (Operation Inherent Resolve) as adequate, and most security experts agree that ISIS is winning the war on the ground, in part due to American-led air war that’s bombing too little and too cautiously

There is no indication that Western airpower is anywhere near inflicting decisive pain on the Islamic State, while our Iraqi partners, who serve as the ground anvil for the U.S. airborne hammer, increasingly feel left in the lurch by Obama.

Recent reports paint a disturbing picture of a badly distorted intelligence process at CENTCOM headquarters.
The air campaign is led by the Pentagon’s Central Command, which is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, half a world away from its foes.

Rumors have swirled for months of low morale at CENTCOM, as the Pentagon calls it, as Operation Inherent Resolve drags on without a coherent strategy.

Stories of WH interference with CENTCOM headquarters, commonly heard in the military, paint a disturbing picture, with @AmbassadorRice’s bloated & confused NSC waging war against ISIS in a micro-managerial style similar to President Johnson’s failed efforts against North Vietnam

Worse, rumors have mounted for months that CENTCOM’s intelligence staff has been pressured to promote “good news” about the struggle against the Islamic State, despite much evidence to the contrary. Such rumors can now be verified.

The story first hit the press in late August, with reports that CENTCOM intelligence analysts had complained about political pressure being applied by military bosses to skew Iraq assessments.

Recent reports paint a disturbing picture of a badly distorted intelligence process at CENTCOM headquarters, with senior officers directly pressuring analysts to change their assessments to fit the administration’s optimistic take on the war against the Islamic State.

Senior military officers like to toe the official line—you get promoted for “speaking truth to power” in the movies, not in the U.S. military—and clashes with intelligence analysts, especially when they are civilians, are commonplace.

Yet what’s been going on in Tampa far exceeds that, with the term “Stalinist” being used by whistleblowers to describe the command climate there.

**Since March 2013 CENTCOM has been headed by **General Lloyd Austin, an Army four-star who’s widely regarded as an UNINSPIRED POLITICAL ANIMAL EAGER TO CURRY FAVOR WITH THE WHITE HOUSE.

While it’s tempting to think that **General Austin, who is known in the military as a “TOXIC LEADER”, has been leaning on his subordinate to “get results” from his analysts, the problem looks more serious than that.

Reports that James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, talks to Major General Grove almost daily raise troubling questions.

Manipulating intelligence analysis is hardly a new problem inside the Beltway.

Clapper is a very busy man charged with running America’s vast seventeen-agency Intelligence Community. That he makes time practically every day to talk to the CENTCOM intelligence director is, to be charitable, highly unusual.

To any longtime spy, this smacks of political interference from the White House and President Obama.

The Pentagon’s inspector general now has to untangle this mess.

Today **General Austin testified before the Senate’s armed services committee. It was not an inspiring performance, with Austin fumbling basic questions about the progress of Operation Inherent Resolve.

**General Austin’s shambolic testimony was a debacle that raises troubling questions about what’s going on in Tampa as well as in Iraq.

He denied that he ordered intelligence assessments to be skewed, but the Senate’s lack of confidence in **General Austin means that this scandal is far from over. The Senate’s intelligence committee is interested in unraveling the messy CENTCOM spy story as well.”

“**General Lloyd Austin, the commander of U.S. Central Command leading the war on ISIS, told Congress today that only "four or five" of the first 54 U.S.trained moderate Syrian fighters remain in the fight against ISIS.

Christine Wormuth, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, also told the Senate Armed Services Committee that there are currently between 100 and 120 fighters in a program that was slated to have trained 5,400 fighters in its first 12 months.

**Austin told the panel that goal was not going to be met and that options are being explored about how to retool the program which was intended to train moderate Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. So far, $42 million has been spent to develop the $500 million program.

Highly critical of **Austin and Wormuth's presentation, Committee chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) said that in his thirty years onn the committee “I have never heard testimony like this. ... Never."

"I have never seen a hearing that is as divorced from the reality of every outside expert and what you are saying," McCain told **Austin.

He said there was a "disconnect" between **Austin's appraisal of the fight against ISIS and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who last week described the situation in Iraq as "a tactical stalemate."

April 14, 2017: Obama’s General Just Set an ISIS War Plan on Fire thedailybeast.com/obamas-general…

And even as Central Command comes under investigation for allegations that intelligence was altered to offer a rosier picture of the campaign against ISIS, Austin appeared before the committee to give an essentially optimistic overview of the effort.

General Lloyd Austin sits on three boards.

One of them is Raytheon:

From the Pentagon to the private sector

In large numbers, and with few rules, retiring generals are taking lucrative defense-firm jobs archive.boston.com/news/nation/wa…

From 2004 through 2008, 80 percent of retiring three- and four-star officers went to work as consultants or defense executives, according to the Globe analysis. That compares with less than 50 percent who followed that path a decade earlier, from 1994 to 1998.

In some years, the move from general staff to industry is a virtual clean sweep. Thirty-four out of 39 three- and four-star generals and admirals who retired in 2007 are now working in defense roles — nearly 90 percent.

Dozens of retired generals employed by defense firms maintain Pentagon advisory roles, giving them unparalleled levels of influence and access to inside information on Department of Defense procurement plans.

General Austin also sits on the board of Nucor:

General Austin also sits on the board of Tenet: