Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on UK Terror Arrests: "London?"

 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is the man that informs Obama, daily, of terror threats and incidents. Except he didn't know about the weekend arrests of 12 Islamic terror suspects in London. 

How the hell is that possible? Below is an excerpt of the interview with Diane Sawyer:(video link below)

"First of all, London," Sawyer said. "How serious is it? Any implication that it was coming here? ... Director Clapper?"

"London?" Clapper said, before Brennan entered the conversation explaining the arrests. 

Later in the interview, Sawyer returned to the subject. 

"I was a little surprised you didn't know about London," Sawyer told Clapper. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't," he replied.


After the interview, Clapper's office declined to say whether he knew about the specific disrupted plot but issued a statement: 

Watch the interview at ABC News the question to Clapper comes about the 3/4 mark. Clapper just goes blank - did not have clue!


Typically the DNI decided it was easier to shoot the messenger: 


"The question about this specific news development was ambiguous. The DNI's knowledge of the threat streams in Europe is profound and multi-dimensional, and any suggestion otherwise is inaccurate."(Source link here.)

 
The gentle reader will do well to recall James Clapper back in October: (source link here.)

How could the same officials charged with securing the nation against the very terrorism Mustapha's activities supported (as laid out in court documents filed by federal investigators) have possibly invited him into the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the FBI's training center at Quantico during a six-week "Citizen's Academy" hosted by the FBI as "outreach" to the Muslim community?

(...)

First up was James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence.

...  there is "great merit in outreach, to engage as much as possible with the Muslim community." Subtext: No biggee.

When later asked about the government policy of eliminating the terminology of Islamic jihad from intelligence analysis and collection, Clapper affirmed it to "acknowledge sensitivities" -- a process begun under President George W. Bush and recently extended by homeland security adviser John Brennan. "There's plenty of terminology out there [to convey] the meaning and the message that we need to."
The Director of National Intelligence's meaning-and-message of choice: "homegrown violent extremism."

Read a Big Peace article about the FBI & Kifah Mustapha here.

Related: More no so great news over at BCF