Geeting It Wrong...!
Calls to Fire US Intelligence Dir. for Muslim Brotherhood Gaffeby Hillel Fendel
Frank Gaffney, president of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, said that James Clapper should be fired for his egregeious (sic) misreading of the extremist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood organization.
Clapper, head of U.S. National Intelligence, told reporters on Thursday that the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist Islamic organization with hundreds of thousands of members, is “largely secular” and has “eschewed violence.”
Front-running Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, among others, was outraged. "For heaven’s sake, where did he get that?!," he said on Foxnews. "They’re as secular as Billy Graham and the Pope are secular. The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most radical, Islamic jihadist groups. Going back to the 1920s, this is a group that is nothing but radical.”
Gaffney told Newsmax, “I think this is grounds for insisting upon his resignation, because, if that is the considered opinion of the top intelligence professional in the United States, clearly the United States government is being very badly misinformed about the seemingly eminent (sic..imminent) takeover of the Egyptian government by what I believe is as dangerous an organization as anyone on the planet.”
Gaffney added that he had never heard anyone describe the Muslim Brotherhood as secular, and noted that it seeks to recreate an Islamic caliphate and impose Islamic law throughout the world.
Terrorism expert Steve Emerson, executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, said that Clapper’s statement is “bad information [and] dangerous if it’s implemented and used as policy… No one’s going to fire him, because this is probably consistent with some of the other people in the administration. But it offers the most extensive insight into the thinking of top administration officials about the Muslim Brotherhood. And it shows they’re under dangerous delusions that, if implemented, could be seriously averse to U.S. national interests.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has “pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt, etc.,” Clapper told a Congressional committee. “In other countries, there are also chapters or franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally.”
At the same hearing, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the opposite: “Obviously, elements of the Muslim Brotherhood here and overseas have supported terrorism.”
Newsmax’s Ken Timmerman, author of books on Middle East threats in the Middle East, called Clapper’s remarks “stunning,” and advised him to “start reading the volumes of intelligence reports that have been filed by every U.S. embassy in the Muslim world that has ever had dealings with the Muslim brotherhood.”
The National Intelligence unit corrected Clapper’s remarks shortly afterwards. "To clarify Director Clapper's point,” spokesman Jamie Smith said, “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.”
As published online at Arutz Sheva, 13 February 2011
Labels: Egypt, Troublespots, United States
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, February 13, 2011
<< Home