No President Obama Doesn’t Support ISIS

Donald Trump is in full-blown conspiracy mode. I defended him earlier this week when the Washington Post accused him of trying to connect President Obama to the Orlando shooting.  Perhaps that was a mistake.

There’s no doubt today that he is floating a theory that President Obama is supportive of ISIS and Hillary Clinton knew about it. Earlier today Camp Trump tweeted out an article that said Hillary Clinton had access to a “secret memo” that showed Obama was supportive of ISIS.

An: Media fell all over themselves criticizing what DonaldTrump "may have insinuated about @POTUS." But he's right: https://t.co/bIIdYtvZYw

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2016

This is an article from Trumpbart, ahem Breitbart, about a document released by Judicial Watch.

Patrick Howley, the author of the article, wrote:

The memo made clear that Al Qaeda in Iraq was speaking through Muhammad Al Adnani, who is now the senior spokesman for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Western and Gulf states were supporting the terrorist group to try to overthrow Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad, who was being propped up by the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese.

In August 2012, a “SECRET” classified memo was sent to various top Obama administration officials and agencies, including to the State Department and to Clinton’s office personally.

“The document is an IAR, an intelligence information report,” said Christopher J. Farrell, who serves on the board of directors of Judicial Watch, which obtained the document. “It is produced by somebody within the Defense intelligence agency (DIA). It is reporting from the field by an intelligence agent” who could be a U.S. government agent, a defense attaché, or a source.

“It’s a report from the field back to headquarters with some intelligence that somebody is willing to bet their career on,” Farrell said.

Farrell confirmed that the report was sent to Clinton’s office, based on the recipient marking “RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC.”

The report identifies Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) as being one of the principal elements of the Syrian opposition, which the West was choosing to “support.”

I’ll stop right there. Look if the memo said the Obama Administration was going to support Al Qaeda in Iraq then that would be a pretty damning piece of evidence. It doesn’t however. I’ve read it. It is an intelligence briefing and towards the end it warns:

This actually warns of the rise of ISIS and their attempt to establish a caliphate. It provides an extensive background of the groups in Syria. It is an intelligence briefing providing information TO the administration. It does not communicate what the administration’s policy is going to be.

Read it yourself, don’t just take my word for it.

There is lots to criticize President Obama for with his handling of ISIS specifically and radical Islamic terrorism specifically, but this isn’t it. This is shoddy journalism and an outright misrepresentation of the document Judicial Watch provided. Based on the evidence they provided we can’t with integrity say President Obama is supportive of ISIS.

Thanks Trump and Breitbart for making me defend President Obama. Sheesh…