Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is a secular organization.
Clapper said the Egyptian opposition group, which many American commentators have expressed fears of coming to power in a post-Mubarak Egypt, is a “very heterogeneous group, largely secular.”
Clapper said that the group “has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam” and “have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt.”
He also said the the Muslim Brotherhood, which has branches in many Muslim countries, has “no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally.”
Terming the organization “largely secular” attracted immediate criticism, including from NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, who called the statement “a wild misreading of this organization.”
Source: The Daily Caller
Remember, this is the same dolt who showed up to an interview with Diane Sawyer without any knowledge of the terrorist arrests made in London earlier that day:
Back to Clapper and Egypt... Clapper's idiocy was only surpassed by CIA chief Leon Panetta's statement that Egyptian president Mubarak would likely be stepping down on Thursday. Panetta - who, again, is the head of the CIA - was basing his "assessment" on media reports and not (again, we're talking about the CIA chief here) on "intelligence."
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday morning that there was a “strong likelihood” that Mr. Mubarak would step down by the end of the day.
American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts, which began circulating before he sat down before the House Intelligence Committee. But a senior administration official said Mr. Obama had also expected that Egypt was on the cusp of dramatic change. Speaking at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, he said, “We are witnessing history unfold,” adding, “America will do everything we can to support an orderly and genuine transition to democracy.”
Source: Mediate
