The Muslim Brotherhood gets a PR makeover from the Obama administration

[Valin]

The Telegraph:

Nile Gardiner
2/11/11

Unsavoury organisations usually pay large amounts of money to glitzy PR firms to improve their public image. In the case of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood however, the Obama administration has offered its services for free. US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper gave an extraordinary testimony on Thursday before a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, where he described the Islamist group as a peaceful, “largely secular” organisation that “eschewed violence.” In Clapper’s words:

“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 Qaeda as a perversion of Islam… there is no overarching agenda, particularly in the pursuit of violence…”

(Snip)

After the remarks sparked outrage, the DNI issued a statement clarifying them, but to little avail. As former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton put it on Fox News, the comments were “perhaps the stupidest statement made by any administration in U.S. international history.”

(Snip)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF0_LYuolIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgVQ9zwkLec

[clearvision]

Clapper's speaking record is not so good.