Obama Intelligence Guy: Muslim Brotherhood Is Largely Secular
So what were you worried about?
The term “Muslim Brotherhood”…is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.
Yuh-huh. Hot Air quotes Politico:
The Brotherhood uses the slogan, “Islam is the answer,” and generally advocates for government in accordance with Islamic principles. The movement has as a broad goal unifying what it perceives as Muslim lands, from Spain to Indonesia, as a “caliphate.”
The group also has ties to Hamas.
Watch and weep:
Clapper is the same dude who in December did not know about the London terror plot when asked by Diane Sawyer. His spokesmouth has issued this “clarification”:
“To clarify Director Clapper’s point – in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under Mubarak’s rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation – he is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.”
To “clarify,” then, it’s a “largely secular” group that is “not a secular organization.” Just so we’re clear.
What’s next? “Al What-a?”
UPDATE: Here’s what’s next — or, at least, what was happening at the same time. Namely, the CIA director making predictions based on what he saw on teevee:
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday morning that there was a “strong likelihood” that Mr. Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.
American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts, which began circulating before he sat down before the House Intelligence Committee.
We are in the very best of hands.
The Obama Administration – The Good Hands People
daleyrocks (479a30) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:02 amAt least he didn’t say that the Muslim Brotherhood, besides being largely secular, is also predominantly a women’s organization.
Joshua (9ede0e) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:04 amHad the Won risen to lofty position of Shinola spokesmodel there would have been no danger of an associate outshining the Sun.
The choice of effin’ Airhead as VP sought to sidestep that outcome, but failed. Half-wit hermaphrodite Big Sis, fail.
James Clapper a weiner but at a prohibitive cost, peals of hysteric laughter.
gary gulrud (790d43) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:12 amThis raises the question of whether Obama is a secret Muslim or merely incompetent.
Arizona Bob (e8af2b) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:18 amLeon Panetta was getting his intelligence reports on Egypt by watching CNN, so it’s all good.
daleyrocks (479a30) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:19 amCBO dude testifies ObamaCare implementation will cost us 800,000 jobs. Suh-weet!
daleyrocks (479a30) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:21 amThe “spokesmouth” [heh] didn’t say the Brotherhood is “largely secular”, it said that the “political system…under Mubarak’s rule… is largely secular in its orientation”.
The political system, not the Brotherhood itself.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think Clapper, the entire Obama administration, and the press are willfully blind here, but the clarification is not as wildly absurd as Clapper’s original statement.
A general comment: while the CIA and other intelligence groups are being portrayed as ignorant top to bottom, I can’t shake the feeling that there are people, out in the streets and down in the bowels, who knew exactly what was going to happen — but they’ve learned over the past decade or so to keep their mouths shut and head down. It’s the politicals at the top who punish the truth that keep tripping over their tongues.
DJMoore (dfc510) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:39 amIt seems that the administration response to the Egyptian unrest is quite different from their reaction to the same thing in Iran not that long ago. In Iran the crowds were objecting to actual election irregularities – so it was more clearly a desire for a democratic process. In Egypt it seems to be anybody’s guess what the real identity of the revolution is or which direction it might go.
Is this a fair comparison?
If so, then Obama seems to be highly consistent in one thing. When considering an enemy of America (like Iran), Obama will refuse to support opponents of that government. But in the case of an American ally he will immediately support any opposition to the government, call for new elections, or urge the ruler or leader to abdicate.
At last Obama is bringing the predictability we need.
Gesundheit (cfa313) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:46 amOnly an intellectual could be so stupid.
SGT Ted (5d10ae) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:49 amGotta say, Jones, Jennings and Dunn were a hoot but Intelligence Chief?
Obie, you slay me.
gary gulrud (790d43) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:53 am“The political system, not the Brotherhood itself.”
DJMoore – That was the attempted walk balk and exactly what the post says.
daleyrocks (479a30) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:54 amWhere has Janet Incompetano been during this mess? It’s not like her to keep her feet out of her mouth.
daleyrocks (479a30) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:56 amThe comments by Clapper really make me wonder what his function is. Panetta, we know, is a hack placed there to keep the CIA from doing to Obama what they did to Bush. No worries, though, the analysts (98% of them) are all lefties anyway.
Mike K (8f3f19) — 2/11/2011 @ 7:56 amJordan is reporting that Mubareak has left the country and has stepped down
EricPWJohnson (598bf5) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:06 am***
John Bibb (193f6e) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:07 amSmart power in action–Jimmy Carter style–should work out well. 1979 Iranian crisis Deja Vu all over again.
***
Rocketman
***
The boots on the ground at CIA must be wondering if they should look into a career change. No one can work for such an incompetent as Clapper and not feel their work is for naught. Remember, as every news outlet in the nation was reporting on the London bombers arrest, Clapper was Clueless and Brennan had to cover for him.
Add to that a DoJ that immediately started looking into criminal prosecutions of CIA agents under Bush, and you have an agency that is now totally disfunctional. But hey, all those who want to bomb U.S. cities are simply participating in manmade disasters. Don’t ever call a jihadi a jihadi in this administration.
Panetta? He’s a Clintonian hack that was given a job that was out of his league. As far as the “media broadcasts” that the Oval Office seems to be very intuned to these days would be none other than Al-Jazeera. And we all know how U.S. friendly they are.
I agree with Andrew McCarthy, if this is what our intelligence agencies produce, perhaps Paul Ryan should start there in cutting their $400 BILLION budgets.
retire05 (63d9af) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:08 amMubarak has stepped down and is being reported he has left Egypt.
Since his estimated wealth is $70 BILLION, he should live quite well. No need to worry about his.
Exit Mubarak
Enter the Muslim Brotherhood.
retire05 (63d9af) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:09 amIt could be argued that the Muslim Brotherhood is largely secular, since the “Muslim” part is only 6 letters, while the “Brotherhood” part is 11 letters.
Otherwise, it would seem self-evident that a group named for a religion is pretty much religious. It would be like having an American Christian Party and claiming that it is a secular group since two thirds of it is American Party.
Gesundheit (cfa313) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:10 amWe can expect that, given the chance, the Muslim Brotherhood will fill the polling places with their equivalent of the New Black Panther parties representatives and surprise! A new Islamic theocracy will appear.
Bill G. (e67b88) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:12 amAnd then Ja-No will tell us “The system worked.”
So, Mubarak has been deposed by the military. Are military coups good now? I mean, after Honduras it seemed they weren’t. I get so confused.
And is it Eurasia or East Asia we’re fighting?
Kevin M (298030) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:24 amThis Clapper guy should go back to making those Clapper Light switches. At least they were useful.
Arch (24f4f2) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:26 amRemember, as every news outlet in the nation was reporting on the London bombers arrest, Clapper was Clueless
Maybe that’s why Panetta has taken to watching CNN…
Otherwise, it would seem self-evident that a group named for a religion is pretty much religious.
I agree in this situation, but it all depends on how you want to wage the propaganda/disinformation campaign. I believe, for example, that there was a “Christian” Something or other party in Germany that wasn’t very Christian, for example; and we know that whenever a country has “Democratic” or “Republic” in its name, odds are that it isn’t.
There are 2 major reasons why one can hear these things are not just go berserk:
MD in Philly (3d3f72) — 2/11/2011 @ 8:35 am1) God is sovereign
2) There is no reason to believe that the rest of the governments of the world aren’t ruled by equally incompetent people.
As with Major Hassan, the murder of Sadat by the MB and Qutb’s influence on Zwahari and Al Qeada were entirely “secular” . Recall the whitewash report about the “Alu Akbar” Army murderer refused to use the words “Islam” nor “Muslim”. Clapper has marinated in the military’s blindness to the evils of Islam and the MB in particular for so long that this isn’t really surprising. Only suprising he is not SecDef with this bunch. He fits right into the blind stupidity of the Obama Administration. But it goes beyond them; it’s the whole DC establishment that will not discuss the evil and dangers of Islam. The Bush Administration fired Steven Coughlin because he told the truth about ISlam.
Bugg (9e308e) — 2/11/2011 @ 10:28 amHow true, MD! Plus Western leaders like Merkel and Cameron are stepping up to fill the leadership void in America. So that’s good.
DRJ (fdd243) — 2/11/2011 @ 10:28 amI wonder if Panetta can explain the ending of Lost for me? Or what’s the best thing to watch on Tuesdays at 8 PM?
East Bay Jay (2fd7f7) — 2/11/2011 @ 11:52 ambtw, i meant to say this earlier, but didn’t. how dumb is it to allege that a group called the muslim brotherhood is not religiously motivated. i mean they have the word “muslim” in their name!
seriously, if you saw a bunch of people and they called theselves the christian crusaders, wouldn’t you think that christianity might be a little important to them? Or if they were the brotherhood of evil mutants… oh, wrong subject.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 2/11/2011 @ 2:43 pmTo publicly state that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular” requires either testicles the size of basketballs, or brains the size of blueberries.
Or maybe — gee, I wonder if it’s possible — they (the administration) really are so all-encompassing arrogant as to pull the most obvious and pathetic baffle-them-with-b.s. ploy imaginable.
Ergo: they don’t care what YOU think, because THEY are going to tell you what to think.
Icy Texan (5e635f) — 2/13/2011 @ 7:20 am