Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) led the congressional charge against the Pentagon’s use of retired military analysts to shill for the Iraq war on TV — a program that was exposed in that Pulitzer-winning New York Times report.
Now the Pentagon Inspector General’s office has withdrawn a report into the affair, which had largely exonerated the department, finding that it “did not meet accepted quality standards for an Inspector General work product.” And DeLauro isn’t mincing words about the news.
In a hard-hitting statement, DeLauro declares that “the American people have been mislead (sic) … by the very people charged with investigating how this program was allowed to proceed.”
The withdrawal of the report, she says, “calls into question the integrity” of the IG’s office. And she asks “whether this was just another example of a Bush Administration office putting political considerations ahead of the public good.”
DeLauro continues:
“I am particularly troubled by the fact that the Inspector General has no plans to further investigate the matter or issue a new report. This decision calls into question whether the IG has adequately complied with the requirements my colleagues and I included in last year’s defense authorization measure requiring a report on the matter.”
We were troubled by that too. And something tells us we haven’t heard the last of this.
Here’s the full statement:
DeLauro Statement on Reversal and Removal of Pentagon Propaganda Report
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn. -3) issued the following statement on the decision by the Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General to withdraw a report it issued regarding the Pentagon’s propaganda program revealed last year. Last year, DeLauro, led a coalition of Members to press for the investigation (to view the request letter, please click here) and joined with colleagues to successfully include language in the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the IG to submit a report to Congress.
“That the conclusions in the initial report were made without interviewing key senior Pentagon officials who devised and managed this domestic propaganda program and with inadequate investigations of the relationships between the retired military analysts and defense contractors is unacceptable. This calls into question the integrity of the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s Office – charged with eliminating waste, fraud and abuse at the department, as well as promoting integrity and serving the public interest – their ability to carry out investigations and whether this was just another example of a Bush Administration office putting political considerations ahead of the public good.”
“I am particularly troubled by the fact that the Inspector General has no plans to further investigate the matter or issue a new report. This decision calls into question whether the IG has adequately complied with the requirements my colleagues and I included in last year’s defense authorization measure requiring a report on the matter.”
“For the second time, the American people have been mislead. First by high-ranking officials within the Pentagon operating a program aimed at deceiving the American people, and now by the very people charged with investigating how this program was allowed to proceed. I will continue to work to ensure that this matter is fully investigated so the American people have a complete picture of what happened and so that Congress can take any additional steps necessary to ensure it does not happen again.”
