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Obama Admits U.S. Intelligence Didn’t See ISIS Coming

posted by n1 on Monday September 29 2014, @03:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the wasn't-looking,-too-busy-listening dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Time reports on statements made by President Obama during an interview:

When asked about comments by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has said the U.S. overestimated the ability and will of the Iraqi military to fight the extremist group, Obama said, “That’s true,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s absolutely true.”

Obama had already admitted that the rise of ISIS took the U.S. by surprise. “I think that there is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the expectations of policymakers both in and outside of Iraq,”

Statement by the President on Iraq: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/09/statement-president-iraq

 
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  • (Score: 2) by gallondr00nk on Monday September 29 2014, @07:10PM

    by gallondr00nk (392) on Monday September 29 2014, @07:10PM (#99731)

    Good job, I was just thinking of that Adam Curtis blog post when I read the summary.

    We're often encouraged to think of the security services as capable of anything. I suspect the truth is that they're laughably inept - this includes the NSA's various spying programs.

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  • (Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday October 01 2014, @09:05AM

    by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 01 2014, @09:05AM (#100365) Journal

    Yeah they are, the last time they managed to make me lol was about a month ago. It took me a while to grasp that we're already far beyond any point where it mattered whether those “in charge” are inept and/or whether they are complete idiots (yes to both). With the new leakers¹ we'll hopefully learn much more but as far as I can see the organizational, structural, and/or systemic momentum and inertia was large enough years ago to ensure it wont stop. So that's Evil #1.

    Back on topic (and not as a reply to anyone in particular, I'm just adding it here): there's nothing new about the islamic state/the caliphate [wikipedia.org] (have a look at some of those maps and let me mention Spain and Austria), not even that someone got enough of an upper hand to actually take a lot of territory. It's just a while since the last time is all. Yeah religion of ‘piss’ and all that. That's Evil #2 covered.

    Yes, I am aware that most people don't know anything at all about the world they live in or their own cultural past, it's not like I know much either. Long live fanciful ignorance (sarcasm), and that takes care of mentioning Evil #3.

    Oh well :)

    ¹ though they're betting on a different strategy than Snowden, that much is obvious already, so maybe there wont be any more (in my opinion it has been pretty quiet lately) :(

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