ABC News is reporting that a spokesman for DNI James Clapper has "clarified" remarks made by the intelligence chief before the House Intel Committee yesterday.
Among other things, Clapper claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood was a "largely secular" organization that had "eschewed violence."
White House spokesman Jamie Smith:
To clarify Director Clapper's point - in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under Mubarak's rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation - he is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization." How much the Muslim Brotherhood has eschewed violence and decried al Qaeda is subject to debate. Critics of the group point to its ties with Hamas, a terrorist organization according to the US State Department, for instance.
Does the administration believe no one watches video? Clapper clearly was not talking about the Egyptian government being secular. He was saying the Brotherhood was largely secular. If anything, the clarification makes Clapper out to be even more ignorant.
The Brotherhood has "eschewed" violence as a tactic, not as a question of conducting jihad. As I point out in my piece at FrontPage.com today, the supreme leader of the Brotherhood urges other Islamists to carry out war with the west - even women. They have never renounced violence, only dropped it temporarily as a tactic of jihad.
Clapper has got to spend more time with his family, don't you think?
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