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U.S. NEWS A3
Friday 26 February 2016
House chairman: Military files, emails deleted amid probe
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., speaks at a House ployees from CENTCOM re- to “get closure on exactly
Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, sponded to the survey. the extent of this allega-
Feb. 25, 2016. The official spoke on con- tion,” he cannot control
dition of anonymity to dis- the pace of the watch-
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) close details of the internal dog’s investigation.
survey. He said that while the in-
Continued from front cent of Central Command ducted between August A report on the survey is- vestigation proceeds, intel-
analysts believe there are and October of last year, sued in December 2015 ligence officials continue to
“While it would be inappro- problems with the integrity approximately 120 em- indicated that 40 percent look into ways to improve
priate to discuss the details of the intelligence analyses of those who responded at the process of producing
of that investigation, I can and process. CENTCOM answered “yes” the assessments, and he
tell you that as a matter of “To me, it seems like 40 per- to the question: “During the noted that the DIA’s om-
CENTCOM policy, all senior cent of analysts who are past year, do you believe budsman had looked into
leader emails are kept in concerned at CENTCOM that anyone attempted to a particular incident.
storage for record-keep- — that’s just something distort or suppress analysis The New York Times, which
ing purposes, so such re- that can’t be ignored,” on which you were working first disclosed the inves-
cords cannot be deleted,” Nunes said. in the face of persuasive tigation, reported that
Raines said. It’s unclear if A senior intelligence of- evidence?” the probe began after at
emails written by lower- ficial said that each year Asked whether he consid- least one civilian DIA ana-
level staff were also main- the DNI conducts a sur- ered 40 percent an unusu- lyst told authorities he had
tained. vey at all 17 U.S. intelli- ally high number, Lt. Gen. evidence that officials at
Nunes, R-California, also gence agencies to gain Vincent Stewart, director Central Command were
said the Office of the Di- feedback on the integrity, of the Defense Intelligence improperly reworking con-
rector of National Intel- standards and objectiv- Agency, told the commit- clusions of assessments pre-
ligence briefed the com- ity of the process used to tee that he did. pared for President Barack
mittee on a survey indicat- analyze intelligence. In the Stewart said that while it Obama and other top
ing that more than 40 per- most recent survey, con- would be favorable for all policymakers.q
Nevada governor withdraws name
from Supreme Court consideration
MICHELLE RINDELS Barack Obama a chance
Associated Press at breaking Senate Repub-
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Ne- licans’ planned blockade
vada’s Republican gover- of any election-year confir-
nor said Thursday he is not mation.
interested in being consid- “Earlier today, I notified
ered for the U.S. Supreme the White House that I do
Court at this time, and he not wish to be considered
has told the White House at this time for possible
so. nomination to the Supreme
Brian Sandoval, Nevada’s Court of the United States,”
first Hispanic governor and Sandoval wrote.
a supporter of abortion “The notion of being con-
rights, issued a statement sidered for a seat on the
the day after highest court in the land
The Washington Post re- is beyond humbling, and
ported the White House I am incredibly grateful to
was considering him as a have been mentioned.”
potential replacement for He offered no reason for
the late conservative Jus- his decision. Sandoval, 52,
tice Antonin Scalia. is a former federal judge
The choice of Sandoval and popular second-term
could have given President governor.q
