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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29 2014, @08:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29 2014, @08:02PM (#99748)

    > but at any rate we have a concrete example that training and supplying "moderate" rebel groups can come back to bite us in the ass.

    I don't see how you get from the US giving rocket launchers to the Taliban to a handful of university students using boxcutters to take over a couple of airplanes.

    Sure, after we decided to invade afghanistan we ended up facing what weapons had survived the ~20 intervening years, but if we hadn't decided to invade we never would have ended up on the wrong end of those weapons.