Oliver North comments on what's worse, the mess in Egypt or the mess in Washington.

  

Quoting Oliver North’s column Numbness on the Nile in Human Events today on the current situation in Egypt, the key evaluation he made was: ““Good intelligence is essential, and poor intelligence is disastrous; it is a lesson American administrations have been relearning since Pearl Harbor.”

Oliver North Lt. Col. (Retired) USMC, has the unique advantage of an experienced eye on international politics and how our government deals with it. Here is the current state of affairs as commented by three department heads charged with the responsibility of gathering intelligence.

WASHINGTON -- On Thursday morning, the heads of America's intelligence services went to Capitol Hill to testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on worldwide threats to the United States. We won't know what was said in the committee's closed sessions until it's leaked by one of the participants. But to paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, based on their public testimony, what we now know about what our intelligence services don't know ought to alarm us.
 
The director of national intelligence, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, stunned the committee by describing Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood -- the organization that has co-opted pro-democracy protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square -- as "a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaida as a perversion of Islam. ... They have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt."
 
This statement was so at variance with reality that DNI spokeswoman Jamie Smith subsequently was compelled to issue an explanation: "To clarify Director Clapper's point, in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under (Hosni) Mubarak's rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation. He is well aware that the Muslim brotherhood is not a secular organization."

Shortly after Clapper's astounding claim, CIA Director Leon Panetta told the committee, "There is a strong likelihood that Mubarak may step down this evening." He then went even further by noting that such a development "will be significant in terms of where the hopefully orderly transition in Egypt will take place." It turns out he was dead wrong on both counts.
 
In response to Rep. Sue Myrick's question about the Muslim Brotherhood's role in perpetrating violence against the U.S. and our allies, FBI Director Robert Mueller contradicted the DNI by observing, "Elements of the Muslim Brotherhood here and overseas have supported terrorism." He then had the good sense to decline going further in public, offering instead to "provide further information" in closed session.