Sorry, America, Bo ate the president's homework

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In a “60 Minutes” interview on Sept. 28, President Obama was asked if the Islamic State’s march into Iraq was a “complete surprise.” Although he didn’t directly answer the question, the president was quick to point out that Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper had already stated that “intelligence underestimated what was taking place in Syria.”

What Obama failed to mention was that on Feb. 11, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who at the time was serving as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, stated, “Al Qaeda in Iraq, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant . . . probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014, as demonstrated recently in Ramadi and Fallujah, and [by] the group’s ability to concurrently maintain multiple safe havens in Syria.”

That warning came five months before the fall of Mosul and a couple of months after Obama compared ISIS to the “junior varsity.” Mr. President, intelligence didn’t blow this. Your administration did.

The fact that Obama repeatedly ignored the warning is no surprise to me; he probably wasn’t even aware of it. I recently learned through a recent study by the Government Accountability Institute that the president has attended only 42 percent of his daily intelligence briefings.

I know a lot of corporate CEOs. Do you think any of them miss more than half of their company’s most important meetings? How can you blame intelligence when you’re not even present for the majority of their briefings?

In his defense, Obama said he receives the briefings on his iPad. That’s as pathetic an excuse for missing meetings as claiming, “My dog ate my homework.”

He should be embarrassed for trying to throw the intelligence community under the bus. Its warnings could not have been clearer. Flynn, in an open Senate session, warned the president about the capabilities of ISIS and what it was planning.

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