Senior Pentagon officers have been discovered manipulating reports to paint a rosier picture in the battle against Islamic State terrorists because "this is how the White House thinks," former Illinois Rep. Michael Flanagan told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"The military establishment … is molding the intelligence that they're getting into such a way as the White House wants to hear it," Flanagan, who served as a Republican from 1995 to 1997, told "Newsmax Prime" hosts J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Khan. "They're living with 'the emperor has no clothes' is never the right response and are telling the White House what it wants."
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That means reworking the reports, he said, because the officials want to be around after President Barack Obama leaves in January 2017.
"It's the Chicago guys who do not deal with dissent well and these careerists … have decided that if they want to stay in the Army passed Obama's tenure, they need to play the game and tell him what he wants to hear.
"And what he wants to hear is that we don't need boots on the ground in Iraq, that ISIS is in retreat — and that we're winning by remote control," Flanagan said.
He called the actions by the Pentagon officials, which are now being investigated by the inspection general "dangerous" and "frightening" — especially because the reports now are only viewed by the Obama administration.
"They don't go anywhere except to the White House, and they didn't want to send a report to the White House that the White House didn't want to read," Flanagan told Hayworth and Khan. "That's the astounding part.
"It's not like they were talking to a newspaper or somebody and spun it so the White House would be happy.
"These are classified reports going to only eyes at the White House — and they still had to fix them up so there would not be punishment from the White House."
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