"Intelligence" can be defined as an individual’s capacity to gather and apply knowledge, a measurement of understanding and wisdom, or strategic information deemed valuable to a corporate or government entity. In our country, the efforts of all intelligence agencies–foreign, domestic and military--are coordinated and supervised by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper. The DNI is the top advisor from the intelligence community to the president. Mr. Clapper demonstrated on 10 February an astounding lack of qualification for his job, and failure in all three definitions above.
In response to the Egyptian uprising, and the likelihood that the next Egyptian government may be partially or largely controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, Clapper characterized the organization as "a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam."
This group which "eschewed violence" was responsible for the assassination of Egypt’s prime minister Mahmud Nokrashi in 1948, four attempts on the life of Egyptian president Nassar, and the successful assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981. Mohammed Badie, current Supreme Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, said "History is not written in ink, but in blood."
This "largely secular" group states its goals in its own words: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur-an is our law. Jihad is our way. Martyrdom in the way of Allah is our highest hope." The web site of the CIA, which Clapper is purported to oversee, describes the Muslim Brotherhood as a "religious-based party."
This group, which "decried al Qaeda," shares al Qaeda’s goal of worldwide Islamic domination. Muslim Brotherhood leader Badie promised in 2010 to "continue on the path of Sayyid Qutb." Qutb was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and spiritual founder of al Qaeda. The Muslim Brotherhood differs from al Qaeda only in tactics. While al Qaeda prefers violent overthrow, the Muslim Brotherhood purportedly would rather infiltrate national governments and take over from within. However, this does not square with their record of assassinations, nor their funding of terrorist groups like Hamas.
As for "heterogenous," the Muslim Brotherhood may have a wide range of radical islamist in its ranks, but one would be hard-pressed to find any Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, or Amish members.
In short, our Director of National Intelligence is sadly lacking in that commodity which he directly oversees. He publicly characterizes the dangerous and radical Muslim Brotherhood as a peaceful, secular, moderate organization. If the Muslim Brotherhood had hired a publicity agent, they could not have asked for more favorable press.
More serious than the incompetence of a single high-level member of the administration is the probability that this fairy tale of a finding is merely the first step in welcoming, then normalizing relations with, the possible next ruling party of the Egyptian government. Clapper could be preparing the ground for a close relationship between the United States and a radical islamist government dedicated to our nation’s destruction. It’s bad enough if the Obama administration believes its own nonsense. Worse if they know better, and are concealing the truth from us.
