'U.S. intelligence' has become oxymoron

It's been 18 months since Director of National Intelligence James Clapper showed the world he has no clue as to the existential threats facing the United States of America.

But he's still on the job.

It was in February of 2011 that Clapper made the astonishingly ignorant statement, in sworn testimony before the U.S. Congress, that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is a secular, heterogeneous group that is pursuing the betterment of the political order and pursuing social justice in that country.

So off base was Clapper's assessment that even the Obama administration quickly distanced itself from it.

The rest is history, as they say.

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The slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood remains, as always, "Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; jihad is our way; dying in the path of Allah is our highest hope."

Today, the newly empowered Muslim Brotherhood leaders in Egypt are calling for the violent annihilation of Israel. Some also calling for jihad against the U.S., which continues to send more than $1 billion in foreign aid to Egypt. There are more Christians in Egypt than anywhere else in the Middle East, and they are now subject to institutional persecution.

Just 18 months ago, though, the man in charge of U.S. intelligence was telling Congress the following: "The term 'Muslim Brotherhood' ... is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaida as a perversion of Islam."

Watch the video for yourself if you have the stomach for it.

Do you feel safer knowing this guy is on the job?

It's not like this was his only slip-up.

• In an interview on Dec. 20, 2010, with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Clapper was completely unaware that 12 would-be terrorists had been arrested in Great Britain earlier in the day.
• Just a month after embarrassing himself before one congressional committee, he was doing it again. In March 2011, Clapper testified to the Senate Committee on Armed Services and commented on the Libyan civil war that was raging. He assured the committee that "over the longer term" Moammar Gadhafi "will prevail." By August, Gadhafi was not only overthrown, he had been raped and murdered in the streets.
• During the same Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Clapper also forgot to mention Iran and North Korea among the nuclear powers that might pose a threat to the United States.

Given Clapper's track record on intelligence matters, you'll no doubt be relieved to know that he doesn't put much stock in the likelihood of Iran developing nuclear weapons nor Israel's likelihood of striking Iran to prevent that eventuality.

A few months ago, Clapper told Congress that it's "technically feasible" for Iran to build nuclear weapons, "but practically not likely." Why not? He believes Iran is reconsidering its weapon of mass destruction program thanks to diplomatic efforts.

I don't want to suggest to you that the man in charge of intelligence for the U.S. government is a nincompoop, but I believe his track record speaks for itself.

This, sadly, is par for the course within the Obama administration – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

From Barack Obama on down, however, they do see, hear and speak evil where it does not exist. But when existential evil is staring them straight in the face, they behave like it will go away if they pretend it's not really there.

What do you do with an intelligence chief who is batting .000 in his predictions? You change the batter.

What do you do with a president who appoints yokels like this? You change the batter.