In a move that's extremely unusual for him, President Obama blamed U.S. intelligence for his failure to act sooner in dealing with the ISIS problem. The President, always one to step up to the plate and take full responsibility for things that go wrong during his time in office, on this occasion took a different route and told the American people it wasn't his fault this time....
OK. Now that you've all had your laugh for the day let's get back to reality. It is true that President Obama threw the U.S. intelligence community under the bus on Saturday, saying underestimated ISIS' capabilities and the speed with which they were able to recruit and expand their numbers, as well as their fierceness and fighting abilities.
The President went one step further in blaming the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, for the "oversight."
Except that what the President said wasn't true. Up to date intelligence on ISIS has been included in the President's daily security briefing since the beginning of the year. Part of the problem is that Obama declared ISIS a "JV team" (Junior Varsity) back in January and decided he didn't really need to worry about them. Part of the problem is that according to the Government Accountability Institute, Obama's schedules show he has only attended 42.1% of his Presidential Daily Briefs (PDB) since being re-elected. Of course, the White House denies these numbers but since the President also receives the PDBs via his iPad it's impossible for either side to prove what he did and did not receive. It's not the first time President Obama has been accused of not attending his daily briefings. The same topic surfaced immediately following the Benghazi attacks.
The intelligence community isn't sitting quietly and allowing the President to slander them, however. Sources who remain unnamed (for obvious reasons) are now saying Obama has been provided intelligence information about the terrorist group that has now become ISIS since 2012.
The fact is President Obama failed to act on over a year's worth of intelligence and now wants to blame the people who gave him the information that he failed to utilize. Obama is doing what he is best at - blaming others for his failures.
At least this time it's his own administration and not Bush. Maybe there is hope after all.
Nah....
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