Last fall, 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command formally complained that their reports on ISIS were being inappropriately altered to put a positive spin on their analysis.
We can add one more intelligence analyst to the list after yesterday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing: CIA Director John Brennan.
During his anti-gun, anti-GOP tirade Tuesday, President Barack Obama boasted that his anti-terror strategy is “making significant progress” and that SIS is “on defense” and “under more pressure than ever before.” The remarks were reminiscent of the disinformation White House chief-propagandist/aspiring novelist Ben Rhodes has become known for.
The spy chief contradicted Obama’s positive spin on the Islamic State’s supposed containment at the hearing, saying in prepared remarks that ISIS remains “a formidable, resilient and largely cohesive enemy.” Worse yet, nearly two years after the U.S.-led campaign began, we haven’t even put a dent in their world-wide capabilities.
“Our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,” Brennan said. “The group would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.”
“The enemy is getting stronger and we’re getting weaker,” Senator Lindsey Graham told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News’ On the Record Thursday night. “Brennan is saying, ‘in spite of what you hear from the president, I am being overloaded in terms of trying to protect the nation from ISIL fighters. No matter what the president’s telling you about Iraq and Syria, there are more of these guys than I can handle.'”
Graham continued, “There are going to be less FBI agents in 2017 than there were in 2013. We’re destroying our defense budget. What Brennan is telling you is that the president is not being honest with you about the nature of the threat. We are actually being overwhelmed.”
Asked if he thinks Obama is lying, Graham said, “I think he’s delusional about the status of ISIL and I think he intentionally underestimates the threat because he’s trying to show that his policies are working when they’re not.” The senator added that “he has this model of trying to lead from behind…it is collapsing. There are going to be more attacks in America because when we capture somebody under President Obama, we read them their rights rather than gather intelligence.”
Van Susteren began the segment showing a compare and contrast of Brennan and Obama’s remarks.
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