Get FREE NRO Newsletters

 

June 11 Issue  |  Subscribe  |  Renew

Close

New on NRO . . .

The Corner

The one and only.

Print   |  Text
 

There’s Willful Blindness, and Then There’s Willful Stupidity

James Clapper, the head of intelligence for the United States of America, has explained to Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.” It further has “eschewed violence,” decries al-Qaeda as a “perversion of Islam,” and really just wants “social ends” and “a betterment of the political order in Egypt.”

I kid you not.

This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is its law and jihad is its way. The MB whose Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, was created for the specific purpose of destroying Israel — the goal its charter says is a religious obligation. It is the organization dedicated to the establishment of Islamicized societies and, ultimately, a global caliphate. It is an organization whose leadership says al-Qaeda’s emir, Osama bin Laden, is an honorable jihad warrior who was “close to Allah on high” in “resisting the occupation.” The same leader who insists that “the history of freedom is written not in ink [i.e., constitutions] but in blood [i.e., jihad].”

If this is what $40 billion–plus buys you, maybe Representative Ryan can make up the rest of that $100 billion by eliminating the intelligence community.

New on The Corner. . .


COMMENTS   96

EXPAND  

   02/10/11 14:38

It's called Taqiyya... the Islamic principle that lying to infidels is permitted in the cause of jihad.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 14:40

Well, what should we expect, when the leader of the free world is an incompetent bozo, who wont hire anyone smarter than himself?

I swear, I talk myself to sleep at night saying: "It took a Carter to get a Reagan....it took a Carter to get a Reagan..."

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 14:46

If Clapper is so bad at what we think his job is, then what is he so good at that got him hired in the first place?

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 14:51

Any way to clap-off this Clapper?

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
Allan
   02/10/11 14:56

So, now you have it, anyone who disagrees with Mr. McCarthy's world view is stupid. Res ipsa loquitor, I guess.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
LAMANCHA
   02/10/11 14:57

The competition has been fierce, but we may have found a winner in our "Useful Idiot" contest!

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   JRapp
   02/10/11 14:57

"the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.”

OK, it took about a minute for the shock to wear off after reading that. Is it scarier if Mr. Clapper is serious and totally naive, or intentionally lying to us? I don't often hope my Government lies to me, but the alternative that the head of our Intelligence is that clueless is frightening.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   JRapp
   02/10/11 14:57

"the Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular.”

OK, it took about a minute for the shock to wear off after reading that. Is it scarier if Mr. Clapper is serious and totally naive, or intentionally lying to us? I don't often hope my Government lies to me, but the alternative that the head of our Intelligence is that clueless is frightening.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 14:58

I suspect that this sort of thinking is one of the very real and potentially catastrophic consequences of near-ideological homogeny in American higher education. Since advanced degrees are, presumably, a prerequisite for those doing even low-level analytical work in the intelligence community, I fear that the IC is crawling with analysts desperate to believe that social injustice is, one way or another, the root cause of most of America's national security problems.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 14:59

In this sorry Administration, they check truth at the door. No flunky wants to tell our Maximum Leader that some large Muslim groups are out to get us.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
Dr. Dog
   02/10/11 15:00

First you must have intelligence in order to be able to lose it. Clapper seems to have beat the author to the suggestion.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:03

Don't forget 'willful blind stupidity,' or 'stupid willful blindness.' Or that we may have a President of the United States who feels closer to the Muslim Brotherhood than to orthodox Christianity.

Who was the wise person (in the Reagan administration) who said "Personnel IS policy?"

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
lgp
   02/10/11 15:03

As a check, compare modern Lutherans to what Luther wrote ... Lutherans seems to have mellowed with time. Perhaps the same can be said here. Time will tell.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:03

Gregory of Yardale:

What is the Arabic term for "infidels lying to themselves while merely PRETENDING to resist the Jihad?"

I ask because, apparently, it is the only way people like Clapper and his boss could consider themselves to be intelligent. Such abject refusal to squarely face inconvenient truths of an unsafe world that are, collectively, otherwise known to the rest of us as "REALITY", renders folks like Obama and Clapper utterly useless intellectually. Their ideas are purely hypothetical, because their logic applies to a made-up set of circumstances that don't actually exist anywhere in the world.

People like that are disqualified to lead humanity, unless they are limited to presiding over CANDYLAND!

When it comes to national security, national defense and collection of intelligence, I think there should be a sign somewhere that reads, "Ostriches Need Not Apply!"

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
Littlebones
   02/10/11 15:06

Allan, I gather you disagree with what Andrew has written. Basically, the article sets out a number of facts, all of which, as you have said, speak for themselves. Which of the statements set out in Andrew's article do you disagree with, and on what basis?

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
 JPK
   02/10/11 15:07

"If Clapper is so bad at what we think his job is, then what is he so good at that got him hired in the first place?"

You can't be serious, right? Did you ever hear of credentialism?

"So, now you have it, anyone who disagrees with Mr. McCarthy's world view is stupid. Res ipsa loquitor, I guess."

Nope. But willfully ignorant, yes. The Brotherhood mudered Saddat, persecutes Coptic Christians, and murdered tourists visting Egypt. All in the name of Jihad. Don't need to have a PHD from Havard or John Hopkins to connect the dots.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:08

Richard Reed:

I have two guesses, and forgive me - I was merely eight when Reagan was first elected, and politics was not one of my regular pastimes.

1) Sec. State Alexander Haig;
2) Chief of Staff Don Regan

I lean toward #2. Please advise.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:14

I feel so much better now that Mr. Clapper has explained what the Muslim Brotherhood is, i.e., the Middle Eastern version of ACORN, the NAACP and the New Black Panther Party all rolled into one. They claim to be working for the benefit of the people, but with a non-traditional approach.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:14

JPK- yes, I was kidding.

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
   02/10/11 15:16

Not sure who originated the saying "Personnel is Policy," but Herbert E. Meyer wrote about it in American Thinker:

External Link 

Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse
Load More Comments

Add a Comment

Already Registered? Log In Here.


The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.


* Designates a required field.
© National Review Online 2012
All Rights Reserved.
Subscriptions
NR / Print
NR / Digital

Gift Subscriptions
NR / Print
NR / Digital
NR Apps
iPhone/iPad
Android

NRO Apps
iPhone
Support Us
Donate
Media Kit
Contact