Panetta: Obama’s policies contributed to rise of ISIS

Policy decisions by President Obama contributed to the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), former CIA director Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

{mosads}Panetta was asked on MSNBC about Obama’s statement to “60 Minutes” last month that the intelligence community “underestimated what was taking place in Syria” with regards to ISIS.

“As CIA director, you always can use better intelligence, but I think what happened here was a combination of intelligence plus policy decisions that fed into what we have now in ISIS,” said Panetta, who also served for a time as Obama’s Defense secretary.

Panetta cited the “failure” of Obama to reach a deal that kept U.S. troops in Iraq after 2011. He said the lack of an American presence in Iraq, plus the lack of support for the country’s government from surrounding countries, created a vaccum for ISIS to fill as the group gained strength in Syria.

He noted that ISIS took the Iraqi city of Fallujah in January, months before the White House raised major public concern about the militants or took military action. 

“Once Fallujah fell, that should have been a wakeup call that we were not just dealing with a bunch of rabble rousers, we were dealing with a very sophisticated terrorist operation,” Panetta said.

Panetta has been critical of Obama’s Iraq and Syria policy in a series of interview around his new book, Worthy Fights. 

He also had harsh words for the Secret Service.

“They started to get lazy, they started to stand back, and they’re not at the top of their game, and that’s dangerous for the first family, it’s dangerous for the president and they have got to get somebody on top of them who’s making sure that every day they are testing their capability to be able to protect the president,” he said. 

Panetta worked with Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden throughout his time in Washington, and was asked which would make a better president.

“They both could do the job as president,” he said. “I think Hillary Clinton, because she’s out there, is somebody that I think could be a very strong president.”