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Claire, You Beat Me To It
I had just sat down to start my “Clapper Must Go” piece when I saw that Claire had already posted a piece with exactly the same title. Suffice it to say that I agree 100% with her conclusion. So does John Podhoretz, who called Clapper’s comments on the Brotherhood
one of the most reckless and irresponsible statements ever made publicly by an American official at a critical and delicate moment. If one of the key figures in the making of the administration’s foreign policy is already making excuses for the Muslim Brotherhood, the president needs to signal immediately that the United States does not view this evil and destructive force with rose-colored glasses. Hard to say how Obama can do that in a way that will be meaningful and still allow Clapper to remain in his office.
So just what the hell was this? A simple gaffe? Too detailed. A calculated sound byte intended to give the Brotherhood a false sense of security? Oh, they’re feeling secure, all right. Between this clown and CIA Director Leon Panetta getting his Mubarak intel from CNN, US intelligence is the gift that keeps on giving.
There are two possibilities, and they’re both appalling. One is that Clapper knew everything he was saying was a gross distortion of reality but said it anyway, thereby deliberately misleading the American people and giving aid and comfort to a group whose interests are completely antithetical to those of the United States. The other is that Clapper is genuinely ignorant of the agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood, a thought that is just about as unnerving as can be imagined.
If it needs to be to pointed out to the Director of National Intelligence that Google is his friend, we are in a boatload of trouble, folks. I wish I was kidding.
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BERLINSKI > Clapper Must Go
LEVY > A Muslim Brotherhood Primer
Published in General
Judging by Wikipedia, his background is in signals intelligence, so it may be fair to say he has no background in analysis at all.
So Obama has screwed up the domestic economy and destroyed our reputation abroad. Ineptitude on this grand scale would be comic if it were a Peter Sellers movie. It’s a good thing that Manchurian Candidate stuff was laid to rest a long time ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if his former chief of staff started calling for reparations for slavery next.
One needs no background in analysis to know the real truth about the Muslim Brotherhood. It was a deliberately misleading statement. Obama chose his advisors and spokesmen wisely — they share his world views and disdain for the idea of American exceptionalism while completely embracing cultural relativism. No surprises here.
The galling part is that Bush laid the groundwork for this type of mindset to flourish. He jumped quickly after 9/11 to push the “Islam means peace” narrative. Our nation has been steeped in that for almost a decade & sadly, it’s been absorbed.
The bipartisan consensus that CAIR is the Muslim NAACP, that the threat to America is limited to Al Qaeda and a few others, and that power moderates these groups groups and their views (as was supposed to be the case when they mainstreamed Sinn Fein, oops) was only slightly adjusted when the White House finally decided that CAIR being an unindicted coconspirator with Hamas meant that they and the FBI and probably other agencies should not take their cues on the Muslim community and Muslim relations from them.
Establishment Washington is clueless. It insulated Bush from the FBI investigations related to CAIR and the outcome was softballed to avoid embarrassing Bush. So much bad information has been pumped into establishment Washington from so many places, including our echo chamber opposition media, that a believer that 9/11 was a hoax is more at home in federal offices today than a believer that Islamists represent a serious threat.
Cuz when your SES catches word that you are a racist, life gets hard really fast.
For those of you younger than 55, the name Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho) probably means nothing. He led the left wing charge against the American intelligence community. A McGovern Democrat, in the wake of Nixon’s fall, he was the principal player in the destruction of the intelligence apparatus built during WWII. The power of the Democrats and the timidity of the Republicans have made it impossible to have any semblance of accurate intelligence ever since.
The litany of events like this continues to grow. Even IF the Obama regime falls, where will the courage to rebuild this network come from? Oh yes, the Republicans.
The Obama Administration is establishing the story (the fairy tale) that they didn’t really know how Egyptian “democracy” would turn out. Because if they knew now, ahead of time, well, they would’ve…done something…absolutely…. But, of course they didn’t know….
I think we should be reminded that Clapper, Panetta, Mullen (to some degree), et al, are speaking on behalf of the Obama administration. Their “expertise” and titles are supposed to give weight to their false claims. They are deliberately trying to reframe the debate by redefining the actors. They can’t fully back Mubarak/Sulieman, because they represent oppressive authoritarian rule. Plus, Sulieman has some political baggage with his participation in the rendition program under Bush, overseeing the “torture” of an Al Qaeda suspect whose information helped justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Despite continuing the rendition program, Obama doesn’t want to appear to endorse enhanced interrogation or indirectly justify going into Iraq by openly supporting Sulieman. I think the intel Obama’s been given and various published sources overwhelmingly suggests the Muslim Brotherhood cannot gain a foothold in Egypt or anywhere else. What’s really telling is who is not getting on the “MB is cool” crazy train. Also, note that the press secretary – who is unelected/unconfirmed by the Senate, therefore unaccountable – is doing the heavy lifting in explaining the White House’s actions and policy statements. Obama is trying not to leave his fingerprints.
The second term of the Carter presidency gives a shout-out to Stansfield Turner !
I still spit on the ground every time his name is mentioned.
Clapper needs to step down or be forced to resign.
But it isn’t just him. It appeared Clapper, Panetta, and Mueller were struggling to stay on the same page. They kept hesitating and looking at each other before answering a question.
Apparently they didn’t get the same talking points and canned answer crib sheet before the hearing. Apparently they were unprepared and did not know how to answer questions without possibly contradicting each other.
After almost three weeks this admin:
Given the US has little or no influence on events in Egypt, this is indicative of gross incompetence and shameless political opportunism. This is also what I’ve come to expect from this admin.
Being president is much harder than being a community organizer, isn’t it Mr. Obama? Even harder than righteously criticizing from the Senate floor and in front of news cameras.