Why Obama Cant Say His Spies Underestimated ISIS
On 60 Minutes, the president faulted his spies for failing to predict the rise of ISIS. Theres one problem with that statement: The intelligence analysts did warn about the group. Nearly eight months ago, some of President Obamas senior intelligence officials were already warning that ISIS was on the move. In the beginning of 2014, ISIS fighters had defeated Iraqi forces in Fallujah, leading much of the U.S. intelligence community to assess they would try to take more of Iraq. But in an interview that aired Sunday evening, the president told <http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-28/obama-says-u-s-underestimated-i slamic-state-s-syria-gain.html> 60 Minutes that the rise of the group now proclaiming itself a caliphate <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/29/isis-risks-everything-to-d eclare-a-caliphate.html> in territory between Syria and Iraq caught the U.S. intelligence community off guard. Obama specifically blamed James Clapper, the current director of national intelligence: Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that, I think, they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria, he said. Reached by The Daily Beast after Obamas interview aired, one former senior Pentagon official who worked closely on the threat posed by Sunni jihadists in Syria and Iraq was flabbergasted. Either the president doesnt read the intelligence hes getting or hes bullshitting, the former official said. Clapper did tell <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-we-underestimated-the -islamic-state-james-clapper-says/2014/09/18/f0f17072-3f6f-11e4-9587-5dafd96 295f0_story.html> The Washington Posts David Ignatius this month that he underestimated the will of the ISIS fighters in Iraq and overestimated the ability of Iraqs security forces in northern Iraq to counter ISIS. (He also said his analysts warned about the prowess and capability of the group.) Still, other senior intelligence officials have been warning about ISIS for months. In prepared testimony <http://www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Flynn_02-11-14.pdf> before the annual House and Senate intelligence committees threat hearings in January and February, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the recently departed director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the group would likely make a grab for land before the end of the year. ISIS probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014. Of course, the prediction wasnt exactly hard to make. By then, Flynn noted, ISIS had taken the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and the demonstrated an ability to concurrently maintain multiple safe havens in Syria. The ability of ISIS to hold that territory will depend on its resources, local support, as well as the responses of [Iraqi security forces] and other opposition groups in Syria, Flynn added. He noted that while many Sunnis likely opposed ISIS, some Sunni tribes and insurgent groups appear willing to work tactically with [ISIS] as they share common anti-government goals. Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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