ABC's Jonathan Karl is on a tear — and his editorial bosses at ABC seem determined to ignore him.
As Scott Whitlock at NewsBusters noted earlier today, Karl on Friday "grilled White House press secretary Josh Earnest ... about claims that al Qaeda had been 'decimated,'" mainly because it hasn't been. Instead, it seems like there are at least ten times as many versions. The network televised none of the exchange. Tonight, NB's Curtis Houck wrote that ABC was among the networks which ignored how "several sources in the intelligence community disputed President Obama’s comments" about how they had supposedly underestimated the ISIS/ISIL threat. It turns out that ABC was silent even though Karl wrote a scathing column this afternoon which named specific names (bolds are mine):
3 Times Obama Administration Was Warned About ISIS Threat
Did the intelligence community underestimate ISIS or did the president?
In his "60 Minutes" interview, President Obama seemed to put the blame on the intelligence community, saying, “I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.” At the White House daily briefing, Press Secretary Josh Earnest cast the net quite a bit wider.
“Everybody was surprised to see the rapid advance that ISIL was able to make from Syria across the Iraqi border,” said Earnest. “To be able to take over such large swaths of territory in Iraq did come as a surprise.”
... But for nearly a year, senior officials in the U.S. government have been warning about the alarming rise of ISIS, or ISIL as the terrorist group is also known, and the inability of the Iraqi government to confront the threat.
Here are three examples ...
Karl then names Brett McGurk, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran; Robert Beecroft, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq; and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, U.S. Army Director, Defense Intelligence Agency. Now for some specifics.
In November 2013, McGurk, per Karl, "was quite specific about the extent of the threat," citing "the group’s alarming campaign of suicide bombings, its growing financial resources and its expanding safe haven in Syria."
The ABC reporter observed that in January, Beecroft, reacting to the fall of Fallujah to ISIS/ISIL, told ABC's Martha Raddatz that "It's a very precarious situation," and that "a misstep anywhere could set off a larger conflict in the country."
Finally, Karl noted that in February 2014, Flynn "warned (that) the group would likely attempt to take over even more territory" — which they have.
Karl doesn't have to belabor the obvious. The President can't credibly claim that his intelligence people were caught flat-footed. The only alternative remaining is that he and others in his inner circle willfully chose to ignore them.
That ABC is choosing to ignore Karl's work speaks volumes for its twisted — and dangerous — priorities.
The network's choices shouldn't be a surprise. After all, these are the same people who have refused to make available for purchase the TV miniseries "The Path to 9/11," which appropriately placed blame on the Clinton administration for its failure to kill Osama bin Laden when it had several chances to do so.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
