The Army general at the center of questions over whether U.S. Central Command analysts selectively edited intelligence reports will next serve at the Pentagon, the DoD announced Tuesday.
Maj. Gen. Steven Grove, currently director of CENTCOM’s 1,000-plus analysts, will next serve in another type of analysis job, this time as director of the Army’s Quadrennial Defense Review Office, which produces reports assessing future threats and how the Army should prepare them.
Last summer, more than 50 analysts complained that CENTCOM purposely altered their reports, which found among other things, a rising extremist threat in Iraq, which would become the self-proclaimed Islamic State. The Pentagon’s Inspector General currently is investigating those claims and its findings are expected any day.
The Daily Beast first reported on the extent of the complaints about how CENTCOM, which is responsible for the Middle East and Afghanistan, handled internal analysis.
On Feb. 15, the Pentagon named his replacement, Maj. Gen. Mark R. Quantock who currently serves as the military deputy for National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Springfield, Virginia, just south of the Pentagon.
Grove arrived at CENTCOM in June 2014 for the two-year assignment and Quantock is expected to take over some time this summer, CENTCOM officials told the Daily Beast.
—Nancy A. Youssef