Lack of intelligence: What CIA chief said is ‘never going to happen’ is happening in Iraq and Syria

When CIA Director John Brennan — then the White House counterterrorism adviser — laid out the Obama administration’s new approach to fighting Islamist terrorism on June 29, 2011, he mocked conservatives who suggested that Islamist extremists were plotting to re-establish a caliphate across the Middle East.

Here’s what he said:

Never going to happen? Here’s what the Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday:

“A transnational jihadist group now controls a swath of territory across northern Iraq and Syria, creating a de facto Sunni Islamic ‘caliphate’ in its wake as it pushes south toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.”

Remember when we were promised that Obama’s election would put the smart people in charge?