Silver Linings to Obamaniac Liars

Last week James Clapper, Mr. Obama's Director of National Intelligence, gave one of the most infamously memorable instances of sworn testimony before the United States Congress.  He set an all-time record because, aside from his name, virtually every two words he spoke after swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth contained at least one blatant, screaming falsehood.

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.

To start with, he expects us to believe that the Muslim Brotherhood is a largely secular group?  Mr. Clapper wouldn't even call a Unitarian Brotherhood secular, even though no living soul can distinguish Unitarianism from pure secularism.

No, the Muslim Brotherhood's beliefs are pithily expressed in their organizational motto:

Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

Perhaps most of the members are more secular in their policy prescriptions?  Nope: even the far-left frothers at the Huffington Post are not only well aware that the Muslim Brothers are, well, Muslim, they know that the official brotherhood campaign slogans are controversial:

As Egyptians head to the ballot boxes today to vote in parliamentary elections, and amid reports of a crackdown against leading opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood, Kate Goodin looks at the campaign trail debate in the Arab press, and particularly in Egypt, on the meaning of the controversial Brotherhood slogan "Islam is the Solution."  [emphasis added]

When the HuffPo admits that something done by a Politically-Correct Disadvantaged Group is "controversial," what they really mean is that it's something that would offend the conscience of Adolf Hitler.

Well, it's good to know that at least the DNI doesn't read the HuffPo; unfortunately, he doesn't appear to read history or his own briefing documents either.  Not too many organizations which have "eschewed violence" have nevertheless assassinated not one but two Egyptian heads of state, to say nothing of countless lesser lights.

As for the future?  This very month, not two weeks before Clapper's "testimony," the Muslim Brotherhood threatened war:

A leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam on Monday that he would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel, according to the Hebrew-language business newspaper Calcalist.

Muhammad Ghannem reportedly told Al- Alam that the Suez Canal should be closed immediately, and that the flow of gas from Egypt to Israel should cease “in order to bring about the downfall of the Mubarak regime.” He added that “the people should be prepared for war against Israel..."

Anything else?  Oh, yes, al Qaeda.  It's true that the Muslim Brotherhood has rejected al Qaeda's calls to Egyptian protestors to use jihadi violence against Mr. Mubarak:

Khaled Hamza, Ikhwanweb's chief editor, strongly condemned statements by jihadist groups affiliated with  Al-Qaeda  concerning the ongoing protests in Egypt, calling for Egyptians to wage violent "Jihad" to topple the regime in Egypt.

Hamza confirmed the Muslim Brotherhood's firm stance against use of violence to achieve legitimate popular demands, rejecting any interference in Egypt’s domestic affairs. He stressed that Egyptians are capable of solving their problem without intrusion, meddling and prying from foreign groups such as Alqaeda and similar groups advocating the use of violence.  [emphasis added]

The Muslim Brothers don't want al Qaeda meddling on their turf - no surprise either, the Iraqi sheiks of the Sunni Awakening didn't appreciate al Qaeda interlopers either.  But what about jihad on infidel ground?

Before Osama bin Laden formed al Qaeda, he belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood.  So did his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri and the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. In addition, the terrorist group Hamas identifies itself as the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestinian branch.

Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda are rivals: they both want to be the ones on top.  That doesn't mean they don't equally hate us.  Hitler and Stalin wound up fighting each other too; did that make either of them less monstrous?

The Big Lie and the Big Cliff

Mr. Clapper utterly disposed of his last shred of credibility, honesty, or decency, to say nothing of his sworn obligation to tell the truth or to defend America from enemies foreign and domestic.  By rights he should have been hauled away in handcuffs for contempt of Congress, perjury, and lying under oath, if not treason.

Even the Obama administration was forced to address his lies, though only with a transparently obvious one of their own:

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.

Yeah, right, that's what he meant to say.  Do they think we were born yesterday?

As appalling as this total lack of any semblance of respect for the truth should be to all Americans, the furor that resulted is actually a good sign.  Consider: for the past fifty years, the mainstream media and others on the Left have been able to spin the truth in a lefty direction without being called on it.

Walter Cronkite famously cast our total victory over the Tet Offensive as a major loss, leading Americans to give up on the Vietnam War; the truth didn't come out until years later.

President Nixon was quite properly forced to resign after illegal campaign shenanigans trumpeted by the media establishment; Kennedy was elected after illegal campaign shenanigans aided and abetted by the media establishment.

More recently, Democratic leaders were permitted to condemn George W Bush for taking us into a war that virtually every last one of them voted in agreement with; they even managed to blame him for claiming that Iraq had WMD when every Democrat bigwig had publicly and openly feared that for the previous decade.

With each generation, the lies had to get bigger.  That's because, slowly, over the decades, Americans became aware of media bias and mentally adjusted accordingly.

Thus, to get their audience into the desired leftist mindset, opinionmakers had to move ever further to the left.  Moving left far enough takes you off the end of rationality, fact, and common sense.

Once you go over the edge, even the most politically-ignorant and apathetic person wakes up and shouts, "You lie!"  The Big Lie leads directly off a Big Cliff.

With his testimony to Congress, DNI James Clapper has fallen off that cliff.  If he is not summarily sacked and arrested on criminal charges, the Justice Department and the entire Obama administration will go over the edge with him.

What happens when the main body of the American people realizes that they cannot trust one single word their government says, even on such an existentially vital issue as identifying enemies who have sworn to murder us in our beds by any means possible?  We're about to find out - but it's better that we face up to a horrifying truth than stay asleep comforted by happy lies.