Bad day for the “Intelligence Community” here in Washington. CIA chief Leon Panetta opined that Mubarak was very likely going to resign in a few hours, while DNI (Director of National Intelligence) General James Clapper declared the Muslim Brotherhood “largely secular” and has “eschewed violence.” These analyses from our mastodontic Intel establishment no doubt encouraged the president to gush about living through an historic moment in world history, and to proclaim that young people were primarily to praise for the epic events of the day.
Except that Mubarak didn’t resign, and the Brothers aren’t secular and have long embraced and practiced violence, and we don’t yet know exactly what history is being made, let alone who is making it.
Oh, well…tomorrow’s another day. Indeed this afternoon is another day, as Clapper’s spokespeople assured us that he really knows all about the Brotherhood, and is “well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.”
Pity he didn’t say that to Congress.
Not that I blame him personally. Not at all. He, like Panetta, just repeated what the experts in Spookland told them, and it’s invaluable for us to know that. We have been reminded yet one more time that our “intelligence” experts are operating on the basis of some amazingly politically correct and demonstrably false stereotypes that have very little to do with the often ghastly realities of the real world. Those stereotypes include the (false) conviction that Sunnis and Shi’ites can’t work together, that the root problem of the Middle East is Israeli intransigence, that even the most fanatical Muslims (i.e. the Iranian tyrants) are amenable to reason and “really” want to make a deal with us, and that Mubarak can be overthrown by the news media and demonstrators, especially young ones. The Panetta statement is a form of wish-fulfillment, not serious intelligence. Serious intelligence officers were obliged to tell him, and he was obliged to tell Congress, that we did not know what Mubarak was going to say.
The men and women who are responsible for this latest intelligence failure come from the same bureaux and agencies that fed us the ridiculous National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran had stopped its quest for atomic bombs, after all. The latest nonsense is of a piece with the earlier stuff.
But telling the truth about our knowledge of Mubarak’s intentions would have revealed that we lack important sources at the highest level of the Egyptian regime. I hope we’re better connected to the Egyptian Army leaders.
Clapper’s gaffe is considerably more worrisome, because it suggests that the analysts are trimming their sails to the winds of appeasement blowing out of the White House. Remember that President Obama lobbied to have the Brothers attend his Cairo speech in June, 2009. This rightly concerned a lot of people, because it suggested that he was either sympathetic to them or that he believed he could sway them with his “special gift” of gab, the same model he applied to Iran. But the Brothers have been preaching hatred of the West, and the mission of jihad in order to recreate the Caliphate, for more than eighty years. It isn’t bloody likely they’ll abandon their mission just because they heard a speech. It seems to me that serious analysts would warn that Brotherhood statements in the midst of the tumult are not to be taken as true reflections of their intentions, and would want to remind policy makers that the Ayatollah Khomeini, before consolidating power in Tehran, swore up and down that he did not want political power at all, and surrounded himself with Westernized intellectuals of a decidedly secular bent.
Where are Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy (characters created by Vince Flynn) when you need them?
….and if they’re not free, maybe Mr. Flynn would be available? Anything’s (much) better than what we saw Thursday.
There is a true and tested principle in science called Occam’s Razor. In simple terms it means that in the absence of evidence to the contrary usually the simplest explanation of a phenomenon is the correct one. The advanced literary analogy to this principle is if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, then it is a duck. The Lucifer Brotherhood, in the absence of any evidence of a Pauline conversion, must be regarded as the blood sucking vermin that they have been and continue to be. Despite the anatidanian characterstics of the metaphoric bird, Mr. Panetta has chosen to refer to it as an elephant. I doubt that Mr. Panetta is a naive simpleton. So, one must ask, cui bono?
Indeed.
From my birds eye view, within the heart of the conflict, I take qualified umbrage, directing my ire at the fools and knaves operating deep within the bowels of Washington.
To be sure, Israelis are well aware that the first target is the Little Satan. The jihadi Brothers have been waiting patiently for decades ! to gain access to the heart of the Middle East-Egypt-in order to march onto Jerusalem.Therefore, readers must assume that our leaders understand what is at stake AND are preparing (albeit quietly) accordingly.It won’t be pretty….
However, US citizens have NO idea what is in store for them, right after the Brothers gain further affirmation that (through the grace of Allah) the US is no longer the big player in the region, let alone the world stage.
To wit, the Iranian Hitler and his Brother counterparts(yes, Shia and Sunni DO morph their jihad) will be on the march.DEEPLY burrowed Hizballah and Hamas cells, within EVERY city in the US, will be ordered to strike.Those who think that exploding buses, restaurants, malls are ‘only’ part of the Middle East landscape are hallucinating.
Therefore, I urge a ‘peoples revolution’ in the US.A million or so patriots must march on Congress and demand the truth.For IF they do not they will rue the day. Exploding jihadists have a way of waking up the masses, however, US citizens won’t have a clue how to deal.
Forewarned IS forearmed.I implore all to make sure that you know how to protect yourselves!!
One more salient point-within Michael’s thesis, that a pivotal link in Obama’s world view lies the real possibility that he passed secrets to the Russians against the wishes of the Brits, is surely on target.Such an action dovetails squarely into Obama’s familial history.
Who doesn’t know that Obama HATED the Brits for their colonial past with a passion(returning Churchill’s bust was a big clue)on behalf of his Kenyan lineage?Who doesn’t know that his mama was a die hard Soviet lover(she worked/studied on their behalf) and that uncle Frank was a LIFELONG communist?
Who indeed?Obama surely does.
Erez Israel is a sacred venue protected by powers outside of our meager understanding. History has shown that time and time again. All efforts to destroy it have and will be futile. Those who salivate in their fantasy of throwing the Jews to drown in the sea had better pause and reconsider their foolish dream. But they will not. As Dr. Ledeen said in the past borrowing from the Italians, the mother of fools is always pregnant. Once again they will be humiliated should they embark on their favorite hobby, collective mass suicide attacks. I suspect after the events in Egypt, if it embraces any form of fundamentalism, a major conflagaration is in the offing. Israel had better be aware that in such an eventuality they will not have an ally in the White House. In fact, quite the contrary. Israel should fundamentally examine it relationship with the US and determine whether it can be at the mercy of four year American election cycle with sworn friends and sworn enemies coming in and out of office. I doubt even the brilliance of the Jewish mind can withstand such schizophrenia. I, on my part, dream of a day when I can return to my country of birth, Iran, and lead a group of friends to Erez Israel in an attempt to erase the ugly impressions that the everyday Israeli has come to accept about the Iranians and show them that, for the most part, they have a friend in the neighborhood.
from your lips to God’s ears radish
dido, Israel is the affirmation of higher powers indeed; the powers of civilization, nothing incomprehensible about it. It persists based an idea and “ideas are bulletproof”; the Hebrews wrote down their stories and pondered their place and their purpose from the very beginning, learned from others and never let go of their contribution to the complexity and diversity of our world (and how vast is their contribution); they refused to become someone else’s creature and were willing to suffer and fight for their freedom from bondage and oppression. Israel has come back to prove that what resides in the souls of men supersedes and is more enduring than its material manifestation. Israel must and will stay; Iranians and Arabs (though some do not realize it now) too will be better for it.
A test of any democracy is its recognition of Israel (sans its specified borders; for those are matters of livelihood, soil, blood and water, real people on the ground; Israel must resolve those with justice based on the principle that “all men were created equal”; nothing less is expected of it and will endure and be accepted by democracies)
But I do not agree that United States will abandon Israel. These stories about a secret, neo-socialist, afro-radical-Christian Muslim, the President of the United States otherwise embodying 52 percent of American voters, is nothing but the apex of uncivil discourse that now and then inflames American politics. It is simply petty politics.
Obama is a center-left product of Harvard; that’s all there is to it and when push comes, they too will not let Israel be run over (Clintons are now married to Jews you know)
I am out of these blogs; I did not find a foothold to make this a career and must settle for something less than understanding the human condition. What I have written in the past few days were a return to a teacher’s own core ideas going astray in particulars; I hope it has served these pages well. V out.
funny how it wasn’t britain that abandoned young barry, it was his father and then his mother..
go figure.
Mr. Ledeen,
Your final paragraph is too kind to the intelligence community. They don’t tell the president what they think he wants to hear; they tell him what they want to say, their world views. It has nothing to do with what is happening, what conditions are; it is all about what they believe. This they have in common with their brethren in the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, The Department of Energy, the Justice Department, the Department of Education, the Department of energy, the Food and Drug Administration, the Treasury Department, and on, and on. The list is very long and things are very bad. These organizations have become entrenched nests of ideologues completely indifferent to facts, conditions around them, or the directives and thrust of any administration of transient politicians that happen to be passing through their tribal areas at the moment. Some, a Bush administration for example, are more inconvenient than others, but they too can be outlasted. Are there thinking, objective people within them? Of course, but all administrations, including Obama’s where there is a congruence of world views with the tribes, have treated them with entirely too much deference. We – the world and the United States – needs honest, law abiding (they are different), hardnosed, realists in Washington. We are running out of time. Hosni Mubarak may have bought a lot of people in a lot of places a little this afternoon. Good for him. I wish I believed there was someone in Washington who could use it wisely.
Excellent description of the bureaucracies that actually rule us in all the little ways that form the totality of our existence. The fact that one Agency and three of the Departments you mentioned are entirely superfluous could give one hope if we had people in DC with the correct tools. I recommend double bitted axes so they can cut government on the back swing as well as the down strokes. Nah,….I don’t believe it’ll happen either.
This presidency will be remembered as the “unexpected” administration.
Nothing bad is EVER expected, doncha know…
Excellent surmising of our present maladministration. I do not recall a time where a rise or a fall or a this or a that was so “unexpected” in my lifetime.
Yeah, who could’ve guessed “unexpected” would replace “unprecedented” in this administration’s “Most Popular Word” category? It’s so…..unexpected.
I feel it is going fast enough thank you.
lol
good piece Mr Leeden. the obama and co. aren’t polished enough o form a circus even though they are all clowns.
I still think obama is actively promoting the muslim brotherhood (not just in Egypt) and the poor staff have to spit out those claims to keep their pathetic positions. bent over.
marching orders will be issued friday during prayers.
The most corrupt administration in the history of the United States. It’s going to be the death of us.
The Obama Regime, led by the Prince of Fools himself, obviously doesn’t care about the “death of the us”. It appears from Obama’s actions that he is, in fact, orchestrating our demise.
I don’t believe the Obama Adm is acting out of ignorance.
It is a deliberate attempt to destroy the USA.
The USA has no respect in this world. Obama put the cap on this opinion with his actions this past week. He is a puppet and we need to get rid of this man and anyone connected with him.
Also, perhaps this whole Egypt thing was on purpose and we were behind it all…to give the Muslim brotherhood a place to take hold in the government.
. They all know exactly what the brotherhood is.
I fear that we are in for a rough time between now and 2012. If he wins in 2012, we are truly gone.
The ignorance, the stupidity, the wishful thinking of liberals and progressives, and even many conservatives on what is happening in Egypt is making me ill. The Egyptian military may save the day in spite of the big BO trying to legitimize the Muslim Brotherhood but even the Egyptian military will not be able to hold off the inevitable for ever.
None of this should be a surprise. All levels of government are riddled top to bottom with progressives, and simply voting in November cannot possibly be enough to rid ourselves of their persistently evil contamination and existential threat to America.
Compare and constrast voting here with voting in an Islamic regime….
At best, we should classify America’s forced regime change in Iraq as a grand experiment, and leave it at that. Bush and his neoconservatives were always but one step removed from progressives, albeit with a somewhat different rationalization for their actions.
As far as classically liberal democracy goes, it has now been repeatedly demonstrated that neither Iraq nor by extension any Islamic geopolitical entity such as Egypt will ever graduate beyond the version of a “two wolves and a sheep voting on dinner” veneer portrayed by purple thumbs at the ballot-box. The culture of Islam will simply not allow anything else. Why we are enjoined to keep pretending otherwise is due to progressives’ overwhelming power over the public dialogue that is allowed in the West, including its ostensibly alternative conservative punditry.
In both types of instances we see the triumph of narrative and theory over reality. Unfortunately, the wages of sin means that sooner or later, God’s reality rises up and bites you in the butt when you least expect it.
This has to be the most blind fully ignorant, self-sacrificing moment in foreign policy since the CIA declared that Iran lost interest in nuclear weapons in 2002, the very year when they went into full production. One has to wonder at the sheer silliness of these idiots…..or more suspiciously, if they are not in the pay of enemies.
DO AMERICANS HAVE A CLUE?
On the one hand.
1. My Muslim faith.
2. Islam was revealed. (Cairo speech. Only a Muslim thinks Islam was revealed).
3. Sweetest sound on earth is the call to prayer.( See 2 above).
4. Refers to the Koran as the Holy Koran.
5. Gives Muslims credit for the contributions to civilization of Irish Monks and the inventions of the Chinese.(Cairo speech).
6 Claims Muslims have always been a part of America.
7. Refers to Muslim leader of Iran as The Supreme Leader.
8. ” Refers to Christians as bitter clingers”
9. Silence during the Iran uprising against the Islamic theocracy but is front and center demanding that the anti-Islamist Mubarak resign.
10.Insists that the Muslim Brotherhood (the creators of modern Islamic terrorism) must have a seat at the table in a new government in Egypt.
11. Doesn’t oppose the triumphal Mosque at Ground Zero.
12. His Director of Intelligence claims the MB is secular.
13. His father was a Muslim.
14. His step-father was a Muslim.
15. His mother married two Muslims.
16. He was raised as a Muslim.
17 In 2006 he campaigned with his Sharia-loving cousin Odinga in Kenya.
18. Is an expert practitioner of Taqiyya
On the other hand
He claims to be Christian
you can add he is backing the outser of the president of the Ivory Coast, a christian. the opponent who used election fraud is muslim.
it / he claimed that the USA was a muslim country.
he wants to bring the muslims in to run or ruin NASA.
he invites T. Ramadan to the USA after he was banned by the sprevious state department.
he breaks fast during ramadan with the muslims in the white house.
he has a close relationship with GOOGLE and it is a googled exectutive tweeting his way to bring the muslim brotherhood to power in egypt.
has not done anything in favor of Israel.
I don’t think he is a Muslim. He’s an athiest, or more accurately, a me-ist. You are correct that his sympathies are with Muslims, but because he has been long indoctrinated to favor anything that is anti-American, not because he is a practicing Muslim.
There isn’t really any evidence that he was a practicing Muslim, except perhaps for a few years between the time he was 6 and 10 in Indonesia, and then only because of his step father. That isn’t nearly enough to make a person a Muslim. His mother was his primary influence and what she taught him was America-hatred (and probably marxism), not the Islam religion. And until he was 19, he was in the care of his grandparents with no Muslim influences. At Occidental and Columbia, he had Pakistani roommates who probably influenced him culturally, but after that he was in Chicago and Harvard Law School. By the time he got out of the latter, only a deeply committed religious person could possibly be anything but an athiest. There are no signs he is deeply committed to anything but himself, power and marxism. It just doesn’t float that he is a Muslim.
He is a power-mad, athiestic, marxist, America-hating, pathologic narcissist to the bone. There isn’t room for a single religious thought in that brain.
You forgot one: Egypt Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Nile-TV in regards to Obama confirming he is a Muslim
Obama has stood with Egypt’s freedom-fighters in the liberation square not with the thugs running them over. where have you stood? that matters too.
In fact that matters far more than piecing together pedantic enumerations but that single one: to stand with green revolutionary forces.
If you are in US in and around DC:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=176206272423485
All talk from the right? Only US government is at fault? where were you? Where were the American supporters of the Iranian revolution in 2009? Waiting for government bureaucracies to lead the way?
come and support both causes. Stop enumerating and start protesting to get obama change that policy too. Revolution!
reza stop lecturing us please. lots of us have been supporting freedom for the Iranian people for decades…and we criticized Bush, Clinton et al the same way we are now criticizing Obama.
mired in small politics, bickering and bashing….
Great passions are reserved for “culture wars” and little for the real war that is what I see.
If that cannot be seen then my lectures are not so inappropriate; by reading this page, my voice seems pretty lone in a chorus of self-approval at least in this particular matter. All standing on the wrong side of history in Egypt back then to local small scale politics.
Generals fight the last war and analysts rehash their last failures but time does not stop for us.
now let us spread the news come and protest and leave alone Obama’s inner-faith anatomy; they have dissected the man to bits and pieces; he is the president of the United States, you like or not, vote for someone else next time.
I don’t have much time for typing and retyping and once appearance here and other right wing blogs was precisely to lecture the way out of a fundamental wrong. Glad that it came across that way.
v for vendetta
ps: not a statement about any particular person, certainly not your own tireless work for Iran and your fine sons in Iraq.
“to stand with green revolutionary forces.”
you can’t make this stuff up
And in the United States, claiming to be a Christian is all that matters. There is nothing more inspiring for people around the world, then the concept of religious freedom. Europeans came to America to escape religious oppression and forced beliefs by such state-affiliated Christian churches as the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. The U.S. was the first western nation to be founded predominately by Protestants — not Roman Catholics. That fact alone expresses America’s willingness to experiment with the novel and a defiance of tradition. If you think the order of ideas arising in people’s minds has some positive correlation to the one’s weight of importance of those ideas, then the First Amendment of the US Constitution says a lot of the 17th century American’s value in not being forced into religious beliefs. If Barrack Obama says he is a Christian, then by God he is a Christian.
The Obama administration is setting us up for another 9/11 or OKC style event all the way down to Napolitano’s “see something says something” is is actually making us LESS secure, in that real threats that get reported are now being diluted with false and erroneous BS spreading thin our resources..
The Obama administration is setting us up for another 9/11 or OKC style event all the way down to Napolitano’s “see something says something” that is actually making us LESS secure, in that real threats that get reported are now being diluted with false and erroneous claims spreading thin our resources..
“Those of us with sons or daughters in uniform” would be better. They are no longer children. When I was on active duty I always hated the hand-wringing over “our kids” like we were a bunch Little Leaguers. (Granted, that was mostly phony sentiment from those who scorned us anyway, not like this case).
American democrats should make it clear that they support only the people with the same ideas as the founders, starting with
“all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
So because Islamic groups follow Islam and Islam does not grant equal rights and opportunities to non-Muslims in an Islamic society (bahis in Iran, everyone in Saudi Arabia) US must be opposed to Islamic groups. The difference, the gap is so wide, so fundamental that there can be no compromise. This does not mean US is against Muslims. Muslims are entitled to their personal faith but when a political group advocates Islam as a political ideology then they are against what US stands for, unless, it is made clear that they do not adhere Quaranic verses that support this and other reactionary ideas. I hold the same views toward fundamentalist political Christians.
Political correctness is only one side of the problem; the other side is that one with dirty hands cannot stand on principles with clarity and absoluteness. The US should make it clear that it supports the brave Egyptians in liberation square and elsewhere. (they are not chanting “independence-freedom-Islamic republic”, there is no Khomeini as sunnis have no religious royal class, US has positioned itself correctly with the revolution unlike 1953-1979 in Iran, Egypt has no oil, US has a 1.5 billion string, this is 21st century not middle of the last…. let us not be afraid, let us support them and steer them toward the righteous path and not the dark path of political Islam…)
Above of all not tell anyone quietly “what are you waiting for, put it down” but “we are with you”. Once and for all let us break with realpolitik.
Green movement in Iran will demonstrate to support Egyptian freedom-fighters. The google executive there Wael said that they stand with Iran’s greens after speaking to crowds.
Americans! are you coming to streets for Egypt? or are you going to sit and hope they are crushed following your worst fears rather than their best hopes?
“The Lucifer Brotherhood, in the absence of any evidence of a Pauline conversion, must be regarded as the blood sucking vermin that they have been and continue to be”.
Lucifer is a Latin word, an interpretative mistranslation of the Latin Vulgate. This was accomplished by Jerome under the orders of Pope Damascus in AD 382. It appears in no other version and from this mis translation springs forth thousands of years of theology without any basis in the Hebrew language, its origin.
Lucifer translates literally into Light Bringer, and in contrast the role of Satan is actually more of prosecuting attorney, such as in the book of Job.
It will be these mistranslations during the few hundreds years formation of the new testament, and attempting to force merger of old and new testament that modern theologies surrounding Satan are formulated.
There are many popular theologies existing today that have no basis in the actual original language, or writings. Many books were simply left out that did not fit the interpreted beliefs of early roman emperors, popes and ruling classes, and what we have today are corrupted versions of agreed upon theologies.
Technically calling a group the Lucifer brotherhood would indicate bringers of light, providers of knowledge and wisdom.
Good point. On the other hand, calling them the “Satanic Brotherhood” would be apropos, since (from a Christian perspective) they operate entirely by Law with no Gospel whatsoever. They would judge us according to the dictates of Allah, find us guilty, and condemn us all to death.
One problem with the U.S. Government’s view on the Middle East is that they – being modern liberal humanists – refuse to believe that anybody else takes religious beliefs seriously. It’s gotten us into trouble before and it looks like it did it again.
Very observant, Alex. As a wog I try to be quite careful in my choice of words and it was exactly in that spirit that I used the attribute as they are the bringer of light in the form of a blazing torch inserted in the nether parts of an apostate or an unbeliever in compliance with the luciferous sharia’a.
He’s not as bad as Carter yet. Remember, it wasn’t just Iran that went south in the late 70s. Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola, and Nicaragua all succumbed to Soviet-inspired coups. Carter’s treatment of Taiwan was the same kind of ally-slapping and enemy-kissing that Mr. Ledeen sees in Obama.
JFK was the worst. If Nixon had won in 1960, gov’t workers might never have unionized. There’d have been no Berlin Wall, no Bay of Pigs, no Cuban Missile Crisis, and no Vietnam War.
But, yeah, Obama’s coming up on the outside.
How are we ever going to broom the intel agencies? State has been in severe need of a purge since 1949, and we haven’t managed it at all. Did Rummy get much done at the Pentagon? Not enough. And Justice has been in the news a lot, thanks to Christian Adams.
How do we fix this?
This is what happens when you have pc (politically corrupt) idiots at the helm of our ship going into a hurricaine! Idiotic, morons leading our country. We need a miricle.
What I’m still wondering is why DNI (Director of National Intelligence) General James Clapper still has a job? But what bothers me most is, does he really believe what he said and, also, who actually GAVE him this information and thought it was accurate? Clapper’s statements really shook me yesterday and it just proves that the Obama administration does not have a clue as to the type of danger we are really facing with radical Islam.
Clapper is saying what obama wants him to say …who knows if he believes it.
sHillary Clinton’s words don’t seem to hold any conviction either.
This is not incompetence. Clapper knows what he is saying. Obama is trying to set the American people up to accept the Muslim Brotherhood as an acceptable power player.
Prior to being fired for his politically incorrect positions in the U.S. Dept of Defense, Stephen Collins Coughlin was a lone voice crying in the woods about our unwillingness to identify the true nature of JIHAD, and Islamic terrorism. His Masters thesis is brilliant and I suggest you download it if you can find it. It is entitled: “TO OUR GREAT DETRIMENT”: IGNORING WHAT EXTREMISTS SAY ABOUT JIHAD. His whole premise is that we just dont get it and if we dont, we WILL get it, unfortunately. How we need his wisdom now, in view of the ignorance and incompetence on display all over Washington D.C.
This thesis was published in July of 2007 as one of the requirements for the Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence at the National Defense Intelligence College. Wonder where Stephen is now????
Mr. Ledeen:
“Otherwise, how do you explain the great apology tour? Or the bowing to tyrants, whether short or tall?”
Rank amateurism and his peculiar upbringing on his part coupled with abysmal briefings from the Protocol Office at State.
But as to Clapper’s assertion which was walked back at light-speed, I’m going to play “Devil’s Advocate”.
I presume that the Boyz in Spook World HQ have gamed Egypt out and have decided that the M-B is going to have a big part of the post-Mubarak political scene, if not running the show. Even if Mubarak manages to get re-elected, the guy is in his eighties an has prostate issues, so even if the crowds don’t force him out, Allah will, and sooner rather than later.
Now if you grant that the M-B is likely going to take over, they will come into power as every other suppressed opposition has everywhere else…with a giant chip on their shoulder. The USA is a very big part of that chip for our support of Mubarak, (to say nothing of the “Israel Thing”, which is always good for stirring up another 10,000 glazed-eye crazies over).
The M-B will doubtless consolidate their power by spooking Egyptians with the fears of the “Enemies” foreign and domestic that “threaten” them. This is also from the succesful coup-leaders’ playbook, is it not?
So, from the Langley Sweat-Lodge’s and the Odministartion’s POV, if we start the rhetorical “War of Words” against the M-B now, we will only be giving them ammunition with which to consolidate and entrench their popular support once they get their camel in the tent.
You have to remember one salient fact about Middle Eastern politics…the region’s political leaders nearly always get caught in the web of their own rhetoric.
There’s no good reason that we should do likewise.
If we start howling that the M-B is a terrorist organization now, then we accomplish little more than tie our own hands and restrict our own politico-diplomatic maneuver room.
At any rate, I suspect that that is the thinking in Spook Central.(At least I HOPE that it is).
For all their caterwauling, I doubt very much that the crowds in Tahir Square are yammering to have a go at the Israelis or us. They might be fed up with Mubarak, but they’re not crazy enough to think that he’s worse than having the IDF all up in and all over their bizness.
And Egypt has a great big self-installed “Wogs, Be Cool! Button”…the Aswan High Dam and Lake Nasser behind it…(Thanks, Soviets!).
A seismic wave producing bomb or bombs dropped close enough to breach the thing, and the Mother Of All Floods comes down the Nile and washes Egypt and the Egyptians into the Mediterranean. Yahweh’s Own Traditional Egyptian Political Problem Solver.
“War is Hell” and all that…
the muslim brotherhood are the consummate community organizers. they are ready to take control in Egypt.
depending on their support or tolerance by the military they may show their hand sooner or later. once they are in position it is only a question of time.
Clapper Is a FOOL.
How about “willful bungling” as a theory for BHOs handling of Egypt ? If Egypt falls into Islamist hands does it not possibly create another crisis too good too waste scenario ?
Suppression of oil exports or interruption of shipping accomplishes his goal of reducing American’s use of petroleum. The general threat level to the US increases as Islamists gain political footholds and resources — gee, now America isn’t exceptionally safe – just like the rest of the world. Global leveling of a sort, no ?
So Obama has screwed our economy and destroyed our reputation abroad. It’s a good thing the MSM laid to rest those rumors that he’s the Manchurian Candidate type of leader.
Some evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood’s actual thinking is easily available:
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=4603
Clapper is the see-no-evil type, exactly what a man in his position should not be.
So, when a million Egyptians protest for two weeks, we’re upset our SOB in charge of the pyramids won’t resign and go off to, say, Monte Carlo–but apparently we had no problem with the SOBs in Teheran putting down the “revolution. ” So I gather if several million Americans protest for two weeks and shut down Washington, our SOB will resign and go off to, say, Paris? Would the CIA even see that coming? And why did the CIA spokes person who claimed to see the Egyptian “revolution” coming but not the triggering mechanism look like a 19th century school marm out of Dickens novel? Did she have covert status, now blown?
Well, Michael, it looks from here (that’s just north of Tel Aviv) that your beloved US gub’mint is either a bunch of haphazard, turf-protecting ignoramuses or intent on bringing the MB to power in Egypt. Personally, I think it’s some of both – the bureaucrats and intelligence people (so called) are both relatively ignorant and proudly prognosticative (new word), and the top of the Admin – Obie and his advisers – are so addicted to ‘correcting’ History and appeasing those with whom they identify (totalitarians) that this result is inevitable. My apologies for the endless sentence, but at this time I am only hoping that Israel’s leaders are considering on realigning critical alliances, at least in part.
I’m sorry, but I just find it impossible to believe that anybody, no matter intelligence experts, believe the things that Mr. Ledeen says they believe about Islam, the MB, and the entire Middle East. Saying something is far different from believing something, as little lenin demonstrates in vivid color every time he opens his mouth.
Maybe there are a few naifs who just got graduated from Brainwash U. who still think the world works like the marxists have described for the last half century, but, again, it just doesn’t ring true for anybody more than a couple of years out of indoctination camp. (I exclude run of the mill “progressives” since their brains are filled to overflowing with the sugarplums they expect to receive in the near future.)
They don’t say it because they believe it. They say it for one of two reasons: 1. the hand pulling their strings or 2. their ideology.
JAMES CLAPTRAP AND THE SECULAR BROTHERHOOD OF EGYPT
Question for James Claptrap: If the Moslem Brotherhood has so radically and completely reformed itself as to be unrecognizable from its terrible past, not only eshewing jihad but exchanging violent, tyrannical, Islamic values for peaceful, tolerant, democratic secular ones then answer me this: Why is it still called Moslem Brotherhood? Why isn’t it called Secular Brotherhood? Or Democratic Brotherhood? Or Pluralist Brotherhood? Or the anti-Islamic Brotherhood? Need I tell you why Claptrap? Or are you hopelessly clueless like your hapless boss in the White House?
Michael, how financially illiterate is the intelligence community? For I say that commodities are rising because they are seen as safe havens, because
investors don’t have much confidence in currencies, due to balance sheets needing to be revised, because of the sub-prime mortgage crisis dramatically reduced the amount of money thought to be in circulation globally.
The anger the Tea Party folk have towards Wall Street and Washington for the shenanigans which brought about the global financial crisis is equalled, or dwarfed by the anger of those in the developing world.
Mr. Ledeen,
You might credit Leon Panetta with knowing a thing or two.
tom h, i am not blaming panetta, i’m blaming the people who told him what the collective wisdom of the community was. I praised his appointment at the time as you can check.
Now Mubarack has retired we have the talking heads saying the US has to get over there and help Egypt set up a governibg system. Just remember the State Department did a good job of enshrining Shria as the law of the land in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Correction:
Now Mubarack has retired we have the talking heads saying the US has to get over there and help Egypt set up a governing system. Just remember the State Department did a good job of enshrining Sharia as the law of the land in Iraq and Afghanistan.
yes davod, thanks for making that very important point.
It is a critical point he makes. There is also no way to reconcile it with your (or anyone else’s) support for Iraq ‘democracy’ through OIF. Where was Pres. Bush telling his people ‘we go as far as democracy but not as far as Sharia.’ Then again, maybe he did not understand or simply considered Sharia Democracy as a steppingstone to something else.
That is precisely what US must do; to intervene but to intervene correctly.
George W. Bush, set aside the bigotry of low expectations in Western Asia and North Africa, “Islamic world” and the revolution has begun. It will stumble and zigzag but it will succeed. Don’t look at the empty half, a world of possibilities has opened up in the minds of the youth; history is the unfolding of ideas all of which ultimately radiate from a single source which is the capacity and desire of the human mind to envision the boundless expanse of time and space; this capacity refuses to be bottled up, it walks across continents, impossible bridges, it builds and complexfies and will one day send us beyond the stars. There is a reason matter is endowed with consciousness and consciousness with freewill. Freedom is built in the very fabric of existence. How can that be stopped? Those on the side of freedom are on the side of natural order of events and the Universe will reward them for it only they beleive; this deity of freedom will not deliver you salvation only shows you the way to it; there are no miracles other than the ones you bring about yourself. These are ideas of faith too; they are the true natural laws and far more powerful than any “sharia law”, they are worth fighting for.
enough with cynicism and pessimism.
We are all Egyptians today! down with Suleiman and his criminal gang! revolution!
speak for yourself …I am NOT Egyptian. I think they egyptians are in for a nasty taste of “freedom” with a large order of muslim brotherhood.
they were better off yesterday then they will be tomorrow.
I am an optimistic person, but there will not be a democracy in EGYPT. It is way too messed up.
they want sharia …well they got it.
calm down, We all speak for ourselves, natural language is imprecise, hence “we” does not imply every person but by default those more than one (I assure you this “we” stands for millions now) who agree, I did not speak for you.
We (now this “we” refers to all, “you” included) simply do not know the future with certainly, we can only persist in wrong and right, not victory or defeat; deciding that is for fortune, the empress of the world
I did say for the record that no matter what we wish, Mubarak will go and so far I was right, keep score, though I do not have time for blogs, if I have to bet, I bet on Egyptian freedom-fighters and that they will raise your bigotry of low expectations soon enough.
I understand the term and find it repugnant.
If he had to swallow hard to move agressively in Afghanistan, I think that shows at least some sympathy for the Brotherhood activists in Af-pak.
I’ve been hoping that the morons on TV (Clapper, Panetta)are a “front,” designed to mislead the public and our enemies (and allies?), while there are some really saavy guys actually minding the intellgence shop.
ALL HAIL THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC ON THE NILE
On the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most deadly and terrifying in history, Hosni Mubarak went the way of Iran’s tragic Shah as Egypt begins it’s transformation into the Islamic Republic on the Nile. The only walls crumbling are those that divide Mosque and State as a new and more horrible tyranny takes shape arising from a people who hate America, the West and Israel’s Jews and want Sharia law to guide their fate. The Gazaization of Egypt is now underway as the Brotherhood of Evil works its way into power joining with Hamas, Hezbollah and fascist Iran in an alliance of unholy terror.
I’d try a change of moniker to ApolloThinks since only one thing of all those you said is not utter nonsense.
Bozo DNI Clapper’s clueless, dim-witted views on the Muslim Brotherhood–as he sees them some sort of debating club cum charity–are all the more egregious and striking in their utterly dangerous ignorance and political correctness given the fact that the recently elected “Supreme Guide” of the Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan), Muhammad Badi, gave a sermon last October which perceptive observers (but, of course, not the MSM) saw as the Brotherhood’s open declaration of war against the United States, when Badi, reemphasizing the fundamental tenets of Islam, told his followers—a hundred or even perhaps a thousand times more numerous that those of Bin Laden—that every Muslim had the obligation to wage violent Jihad against the U.S (see http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=190894 ).
Get us a President that knows what he is doing! Then clean house at CIA and other Czar fiefdoms.
Obama and his band of clowns are not “blind”to what is happening in the ME…. they know exactly who the MB are and what their ultimate goal is…. the domination of the world. Israel is now directly in the crosshairs, and the MB are preparing for the day when they march across the border and begin their next jihad.
Americans think they are immune from all the bloodshed and violence,but I have a rude awakening for you….. you have terrorists(not homegrown like Nazi Napolitano says)training in your own backyards. When they get the order to begin attacking you,they won’t just walk around with posters and call us names…. their will be bodies in the streets.
WAKE UP PEOPLE…. PREPARE YOURSELVES…. AND PRAY TO GOD
I don’t know where my posts go but I was right on the money about the situation in Egypt. I stated over a week ago that Mubarak had to go and that the military would take over until a new regime could be set up. Mr. Ledeen for all of his knowledge and experience didn’t spell out that simple scenario. We get all this gobbledegook which never comes to fruition. I never get any responses. Fine by me. I’ll just keep telling you all the way it is and the way it’s gonna be. One doesn’t need a degree in geometry to play pocket billiards.
well we old guys have made enough mistakes over the years to realize that a) nobody is a really reliable prophet nowadays, that b) there is no glory in being wrong first, and c) many of the actors don’t know what they’re going to do next, so even Harry doesn’t know. I’m interested in understanding what happened, I’m not a forecaster I”m an historian.
Mr. Ledeen,
Ha! You’re far more than a Historian. Not to be blowing smoke…
The vast majority of us are opiners. Some of us get it right some of the time. Sure the more I speak the more likely I’ll put my foot in my mouth. I really do not like to reread my posts because I find it embarassing but sometimes I am so damn right. I’m looking for that post where I said losing power to Mubarak meant death. Duh, what do I read today? Mubarak wants to die. Ok short of writing a Megillah, which I already did and erased, let me just say I like posting in your articles. I just get PO’d when people write Megillahs and get responses and I don’t. Shalom u’vracha.
My comments disappear and appear too; I asked an expert on blog matters: often for large bloghosts, there are different servers that come on line and go off and with it, comments sometimes appear and disappear. I thought perhaps they are screening perfectly fine posts.
We made a bet and won, that’s all mate. What matters more is that ” we are all Egyptians today” as for tomorrow, we might be all dead. I am glad you and I guessed right this time.
We can lecture men (humility is not one of my favorite virtues) and tell god what to do but cannot read his mind. It is called “computational irreducibility:”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_irreducibility
Great day for Egypt and its people.
Congratulations to you, friends!
Dear Michael, You are too nice and well-read to be in the same “corner” where Glenn Beck, Rush Limbuagh and Mike Huckabee are.
Wishing you a John McCain cum Bill Kristol cum David Frum-like metamorphosis,
With Love,
Malek
Dear President Obama, Thanks to you and only you to help the nasty regimes in Middle East to get thrown away. As we all know, Republicans and Conservatives are always always madly in love with dictators and they are master of enabling such corrupt leaders and no matter how bloody they are.
President Obama, no matter if Conservatives Like D. Cheney and alike keep saying “democracy” 1 trillion times, they don’t mean anything. Yes, Mr. President, the Right and Conservatives are masters of deception, misleading people and getting them excited about the most stupid subject matters to distract people, and we all know how creatively Fox TV delivers Orwellian brain washing.
Once again THANKS TO YOU and your true, honest and AUTHENTIC interest in supporting people out of bondage. And yes, the way you and your team has handled new changes in Middle East without spending over $1 trillion of U.S. tax payers. THANK YOU.
Mr. Ledeen,
I agree with your assessment on our CiC’s actions to our allies, enemies though will say you’re far more kind..
I too hope our Afghan intel is sound, it’s moot. For the new Rules of Engagement hamstrings our soldiers to carry out their duties to their potential, many are being injured, killed because of such P C being carried out in the M E theater.
As for the intel community, I’m REALLY tired of seeing 18-21 year olds being up for/given a TSC when/while attending intel school in the military and or working in the Government sector.
The result this time is a Bradley Manning: A candy ass (‘adjustment disorder’ PLEASE! The guy worked in a white collar-type environment, A/C’d office, 8 hour workday and saw NO COMBAT), immature, self-serving, mentally unstable ignoramus who put himself before country.
Between this and the Nadal Hasan/Ft Hood shooting, the Army has succumbed completely to P C and allowing the enemy within to fester.
It amazes me to see how the WORLD came to support the aspirations of Egyptians one of the most RELIGIOUS people of the world for their freedom from a dictatorship and yet they brushed off the same aspiration of Iranians one of the most SECULAR people of the world for their freedom from brutal chains of a totalitarian Islamic regime!!!
Who is behind this shame?! Let’s think about it….Is it perhaps that infamous “Anglo-Russo” collaborative control of such situation?!!!
The freedom fighting lonely people of Iran like to know…
How many of these millions of “RELIGIOUS” Egyptian protesters were carrying the picture of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brothers, or of Muhammad Badi’, the current Supreme Guide of the same party?? Forget about the 1979-80 upheavals, and just compare this to the four Iranian top opposition leaders (who are supposed to be at the helm of affairs in case the Khamanai-Ahmadinejad regime falls) , Khatami, Mousavi, Karoubi, and Rafsanjani, who continue to insist and believe that there was nothing wrong with “Imam Khomeini”, and that they will follow “the Imam’s path”.
During the 18-day protests in Egypt no slogans such as “Islam is THE solution” and “Israel is THE enemy” were raised … while during the 2009-10 Iranian protests almost all opposition parties and leaders including the so-called “Greens” competed overtly and covertly with Khamanai and Ahmadinejad in order to establish their “anti-Zionism” credentials. Even the Left continued kowtowing to Islam.
The provisional military government acceptable to the “RELIGIOUS” Egyptians has announced that it will honor Egypt’s international commitments including the peace treaty with Israel. No protest leader has objected to this declaration. Does any leader of the Iranian opposition,e.g., Mir Hossein Mousavi, Reza Pahlavi, Masoud/Maryam Rajavi, and … and …have the courage to say that he/she will recognize Israel?
Mousavi, Karubi, Khatami, Rafsabjani and all of the rest of the fascists ruling Iran are part and parcel of this evil Islamic regime, some behave like the evils that they are and some others like the ones mentioned above are like poisonous snakes.
Iranian nation have had SECULAR values for thousands of years and all is in history. These names mentioned here ARE NOT leaders of the movement. People just used them last year in their uprising since it was the right time (election time and all the excuse it brought in itself) for people to go out and fight for their freedom. Reza Pahlavi always and always recognized the legitimacy of Israel as much as Iran in its history always had. The fate of Iranians and Israelis are very much intertwined. Just check history!
Hi, Michael:
Am I missing something in regards to this quote?: “false stereotypes that have very little to do with the often ghastly realities of the real world. . . . that Mubarak can be overthrown by the news media and demonstrators, especially young ones.”
It seems like the “falseness” of this particular point was disproved.
It’s tragicomic that so many individuals are believing something so totally absurd, that the MB and the Iranian Revolutionary government are working together to usher in a world caliphate. That (preposterous) hypothetical government would be completely unprecedented in recorded history, a joint Sunni/Shiite caliphate.
Those who promulgate this lurid fiction apparently possess only the most cursory knowledge of the actors they employ in their wild Sharia-centric nightmares. You would think the Frank Gaffneys of the world, for all their expertise, would be able to answer some basic questions regarding these groups, namely:
1. Is the Ikhwan Sufi or anti-Sufi? (We’ve been told Wahabism is actually the font for world terrorism, but Hassan al-Bannah comes from a well-known Sufi family.)
2. If the Ikhwan is indeed a legitimate religious organization, why does its Gaza wing engage in joint operations with Marxist (read atheist) terrorists? (Since when does Sharia permit this type of military alliance with non-believers?)
3. If Khomeini, as is alleged here, only pal’d around with Marxists for tactical reasons, why is the Iranian government still so cozy with various Marxist groups and governments 30+ years later?
Brilliant!
thanks glenn. and a hug to the instawife