Obama Administration “Clarifies” Director James Clapper’s Remarks On Muslim Brotherhood

Back in December the administration had to defend Director of the Office of National Intelligence James Clapper.  Today they have to clarify and correct his remarks.

The Obama administration exudes competence and engenders confidence, doesn’t it?

As reported by Jake Tapper at ABC News

The director of the Office of National Intelligence James Clapper today told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – which seeks Egypt to become an Islamic state ruled by sharia law – is “a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”

The Muslim Brotherhood is quite obviously not a secular organization.

Jamie Smith, director of the office of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence later said in a statement to ABC News: “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.”

How much the Muslim Brotherhood has eschewed violence and decried al Qaeda is subject to debate. Critics of the group point to its ties with Hamas, a terrorist organization according to the US State Department, for instance.

A Council on Foreign Relations background on the Muslim Brotherhood recently stated that “like other mass social movements, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is hardly a monolith; it comprises hardliners, reformers, and centrists, notes terrorism expert Lydia Khalil.  And some hardline leaders have voiced support for al-Qaeda or use of violent jihad. For instance, as recently as 2006, Khalil points out, a member of Brotherhood elected to parliament, Ragib Hilal Hamida, voiced support for terrorism in the face of Western occupation. Instances like these  raise questions over the group’s commitment to nonviolence.”

In December Clapper raised eyebrows when he couldn’t answer a question from ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer about the arrests of 12 suspected terrorists in London hours before.

After initially claiming Sawyer’s question was too “ambiguous,” the Obama administration acknowledged that the retired Air Force Lt. General had not been briefed about the arrests at the time of the interview.

“I am concerned that the DNI’s assessment does not agree with recent public statements by senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood nor does it agree with the organization’s publicly stated goals,” Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said in a written statement, describing the group as “radical.”

“They’re as secular as Billy Graham and the pope are secular,” former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said.

It makes one feel all warm and fuzzy.  We are in the best of hands.

Related:

STUMPED… Caught on Tape – US Intelligence Chief Clueless On London Terror Arrests

During Interview (Video)Napolitano Defends Obama’s Intel Chief: “He Didn’t Have to Know About London Terror Plot”

Obama Administration Warned About Unfolding Crisis in Egypt in Late 2010… Did Nothing

 

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