President Obama appeared to criticize intelligence agencies over the rise of the Islamic State -- and now intelligence agencies appear to be hitting back.
In a series of leaks since the Sunday broadcast of Obama's 60 Minutes interview, unnamed intelligence officials have said they began warning the White House late last year about the militant threat in Syria, and the poor state of Iraqi security forces.
"Some of us were pushing the reporting, but the White House just didn't pay attention to it," a senior American intelligence official told The New York Times. "They were preoccupied with other crises ... This just wasn't a big priority."
It's a familiar pattern. Previous presidents, including George W. Bush, have also been on the receiving end of intelligence leaks after criticism of their performance.
During the 60 Minutes interview, Obama noted that "our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria" with respect to the Islamic State. Obama also echoed Clapper's comment that "we overestimated the ability and the will of our allies, the Iraqi Army, to fight."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president was not blaming intelligence agencies, but expressing "how difficult it is to predict the will of security forces that are based in another country to fight ... That's difficult business, and ultimately, at the end, becomes a prediction."
0 comments:
Post a Comment
All content except noted photos and videos copyright © 2023, King Angela Uyi Creations.
All rights reserved. *Any images or videos not listed as mine are copyright to their respective owners and were used under creative common license or fair use standards. IF A PHOTO OR VIDEO IS YOUR MATERIAL AND YOU DO NOT WISH IT TO BE ON THE SITE, PLEASE EMAIL Us angelaeuyi@gmail.com AND WE WILL REMOVE IT IMMEDIATELY. Content created and maintained by King Angela Uyi.