Former Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen Michael Flynn (Ret.) said that some of President Obama’s prior claims about al Qaeda’s strength didn’t match with the intelligence in an interview excerpt broadcast on Thursday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel.
“You could not look at the facts as they were with the size, scale, numbers of organizations, the network that we saw, the thickening — the thickening of lines between different groups, groups in Pakistan, groups in Yemen, groups in East Africa, groups in the Maghreb, the Mali area. Factually, we knew that those lines were thicker and those organizations were more robust” he stated.
Flynn was then asked how the president could make claims about Al Qaeda’s core being decimated, to which he stated “for me to sit here and tell you why he says what he says, I don’t know. What I know the intelligence said, was not necessarily what we hear.”
He continued, “I would say. from my perspective, it was just the opposite. You can’t sit here and say that al Qaeda was defeated, when we’re still looking at elements of al Qaeda that are conducting operations.”
Flynn was then asked about President Obama’s May 1, 2012 assertion that,”the goal that I set — to defeat al Qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild — is now within our reach.” He said “I wouldn’t say we are [within reach]. I can’t sit here and tell you that we are.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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