These types of things do tend to turn on a dime, so I’m willing to cut Panetta some slack if it weren’t for him coming back to say he was referring to media reports. What? You are going to make an assertion in a Congressional testimony saying there is a “strong likelihood” that Mubarack was going to step down based on media reports?
Wow, I can do that. I understand media reports are part intelligence gathering, especially if you don’t have good sources of human intel on the ground. It isn’t something you should rely on though.
Now we have a White House that is in disarray.
Second then there is Director of Intelligence James Clapper who thinks Muslim Brotherhood is secular. That is obviously not the case. Perhaps he needs to pay more attention to media reports. Now he has to clarify his remarks.
All of this demonstrates yet again that the Obama administration wasn’t ready for the bigs. President Obama really did botch his 3:00am phone call.
Update: Mubarak resigns, cedes power to military council.