In 2003, Clapper, then head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, attempted to explain the absence of WMDs in Iraq by asserting that the weapons materials were "unquestionably" shipped out of Iraq to Syria and other countries just before the American invasion, a "personal assessment" which Clapper's own agency head at the time, David Burpee, "could not provide further evidence to support."[10]
In an interview on December 20, 2010 with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Clapper indicated he was completely unaware that twelve alleged would-be terrorists had been arrested in Great Britain earlier in the day.[11][12]
In February, 2011, when mass demonstrations were bringing down Mubarak's presidency in Egypt, Clapper told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that: "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," ... "They have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt, et cetera.....In other countries, there are also chapters or franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally." [13]
In March 2011, Clapper was heard at the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and commented on the 2011 Libyan civil war that “over the longer term” Gaddafi “will prevail”. This position was loudly questioned by the White House, when National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon qualified his statement as a "static and one-dimensional assessment" and argued that “The lost legitimacy [of Gaddafi] matters".[14]
During the same hearing he was also questioned when he neglected to list Iran and North Korea among the nuclear powers that might pose a threat to the United States
Clapper has an interesting history. Doesn't change the fact that Obama "phoned it in" and left for Vegas.
I don’t trust wiki’s reporting on the frst point. When was the last time that page was edited/updated?
Do you have a link to that wiki page?