US President Barack Obama ignored early warnings about the rise of Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in 2011 and 2012 because they did not fit his re-election “narrative,” according to the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“I think that they did not meet a narrative the White House needed. And I’ll be very candid with you, they just didn’t,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead.”
“I think the narrative was that al-Qaeda was on the run, and [Osama] bin Laden was dead,” he added. “‘They’re dead and … we’ve beaten them.’”
The comments further give credence to the critics’ assertion that the Obama administration has continuously downplayed Daesh even as the terror group expanded its territory in Iraq and Syria.