Pelosi’s Choice For Intelligence Head – He Ain’t So Bright

When Silvertre Reyes was named as the compromise candidate for head of the Intelligence Committee, the Democrats expressed a sigh of relief. But after an interview with CNN, they should be afraid. Very afraid.

The new Democratic Intelligence Committee head is not the smartest, or observant, guy in the room. He was interviewed on who was Al Qaeda. HE FAILED. He was interviewed on who was Hezbollah. HE FAILED.  So the new “Intelligence” committee chair does not know the basics about the biggest protagonists to national security. Wonderful. Bet he is good at fund raising.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam — Sunni or Shiite — Reyes answered “they are probably both,” then ventured “Predominantly — probably Shiite.”

That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon. via CNN.com

Later on in the article, the writer used a wonderful analogy. It would be like the Baseball Commissioner not knowing the difference between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Yikes.