Remember When

Remember when we had professionals running the country, including national security and foreign relations?

President Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan, speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room on Tuesday, defended James Clapper, the nation’s intelligence chief, for not knowing about the arrests of 12 suspected terrorists in London on Monday.

Clapper, in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer hours after the arrests took place, was unable to answer her question about the situation, which the Associated Press described as the largest counterterrorism raid in nearly two years.

The arrests of the 12 men, ranging in age from 17 to 28, drew major media coverage on Monday, hours before Sawyer interviewed Clapper and Brennan.

“First of all, London," Sawyer said to Clapper in Monday’s interview. "How serious is it? Any implication that it was coming here?"

When Clapper didn’t have anything to say, Brennan jumped in: “You mean the arrests of the 12 individuals by the British early this morning,” Brennan responded to Sawyer. “This is something that the British told us about early this morning when it was taking place.”

Sawyer later told Clapper she was surprised he didn’t know about the events in London.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't," Clapper responded...

Brennan said there was nothing the director of national intelligence was required to do about the raids in London, and consequently he was giving his full attention where DNI action was required.

Yeah, those were the days. No one's asking him to do anything, but it would be nice if he at least had a clue that one of the biggest anti-terror operations had just gone down in the nation of our best allies.