John Kerry wakes up to Muslim Brotherhood

If, as the Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin reported earlier this week, the rift between National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Secretary of State John Kerry was bad before, it likely just got worse. During a speech two days after Rogin’s report, Kerry accused Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood of stealing the 2011 revolution.

Can you hear us NOW, John?

Can you hear us NOW, John?

Via New York Times:

Secretary of State John Kerry argued on Wednesday that Egypt’s 2011 revolution was started by tech-savvy young people with no ideological aims before being “stolen by” Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood, who behaved autocratically after winning parliamentary and presidential elections.

Mr. Kerry’s remarks, in an address to the State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council, seemed at odds with the message sent by President Obama last month when he withheld $260 million in aid from Egypt’s military leaders, who forced the Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi from the presidency in July and have overseen a deadly crackdown on dissent. {emphasis ours}

First, we’d like to congratulate Mr. Kerry because he has finally come around to our way of thinking on this issue, though it’s taken him two years, nine months, and four days to get there.

On February 24, 2011, Walid issued a statement entitled: Egypt’s Revolution Robbed. We knew then what Kerry has magically discovered now. The Revolution was officially robbed when the recognized tech mastermind behind it – Wael Ghoneim – was removed from the stage in Tahrir Square in front of millions of people; he was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Yousef Al-Qaradawi.

Wael Ghonim: John Kerry admits Brotherhood stole his revolution.

Wael Ghonim: John Kerry admits Brotherhood stole his revolution.

Did Kerry not know this or was his ignorance politically motivated? It’s difficult to imagine it’s the former. At the time, Kerry was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This leaves us with the more likely conclusion that his decision to appear publicly ignorant was political.

It is therefore logical to conclude that his public stance today, as Secretary of State, is political as well.

This leads us back to Rogin’s article. Consider that Kerry visited Egypt on November 3rd to meet with the new government one day before the scheduled trial of ousted President Mohammed Mursi. According to Rogin, Rice (a direct representative of Barack Obama) wanted Kerry to publicly and privately denounce the trial while there; Kerry did neither.

From Egypt, Kerry traveled to Saudi Arabia. Based on his enlightenment about the Brotherhood, it’s looking quite obvious that he is choosing to side with the Saudis over the Brotherhood in Egypt. Saudi Arabia supports Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Around the time of Kerry’s scheduled visit to Egypt, we wondered if he would fall in line behind Senators John McCain (RINO-AZ), Lindsey Graham (RINO-SC), and Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns. All of these men visited Egypt back in August and called for the release of Muslim Brotherhood prisoners. Burns actually met with jailed Muslim Brotherhood deputy Khairat al-Shater for approximately 90 minutes, presumably to this or a similar end.

Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns: Is he at odds with his boss on Egypt?

Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns: Is he at odds with his boss on Egypt?

This is a significant development indeed because it essentially puts Kerry at odds with his own deputy in Burns. It also serves to further alienate the Obama administration relative to charges that it is supporting the Brotherhood.

Another question needs to be answered as well: When did Kerry experience this transformation and what prompted it?

Ah, to have been a fly on the wall in his meetings with al-Sisi and other Egyptian officials.

It’s also interesting that Susan Rice’s five time lies on September 16, 2012 derailed her nomination for the post Kerry now holds. In fact, two of the Senators who were instrumental in derailing it – McCain and Graham – may be regretful of doing it because they’re with her on this issue.

Said Graham in the Rice vs. Kerry battle over Egypt: “I’m in the Susan Rice camp.”

Nonetheless, even though it’s taken Mr. Kerry more than three years to figure out what took us less than three minutes to figure out, we’d like to welcome him to Nakatomi Plaza. There’s a lot going on in here:

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