RUSH: “ISIS has a ‘large cadre of Western fighters’ who could attack in the West and is continuing to inspire sympathizers with no ‘direct links’ to ISIS to attack on their own as it did in Orlando, the director of the CIA [John Brennan said]. … Brennan also says despite all the efforts by the US against ISIS, it has not stopped the group.  ‘Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,’ Brennan said. …

“‘In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.'” Now, wait.  Obama said just yesterday (or the day before, I don’t know) that we’re beating ’em hands down, that their numbers are shrinking, their influence is waning. We got ’em on the run! They’re at their weakest point since Obama started dealing with them.  And this guy, the CIA director, just threw Obama overboard today.  Let’s go to the audio sound bites.  It was a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, and these are opening remarks, the first of two bites…

BRENNAN:  Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach.  The resources needed for terrorism are very modest, and the group would have to suffer even heavier losses on territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.

RUSH:  I know.  I know what some of you are saying.  “Rush, this is all a ruse to get more money in the budget ’cause it’s budget time in Washington.”  I understand that.  I understand that.  And when you have to factor something like that in it’s another bit of evidence of the corruption that exists in Washington, DC, and the fact that they can’t trust anything. Even on something like this, we have to say, “Well, wait a minute. Maybe he’s…” You know, who’s right? 

Obama tells us we’re beating ’em, they’re dwindling, despite the Orlando and San Bernardino attacks. It’s conflicting.  And this guy, the head of the CIA comes up and says, “Oh, no, no! It’s worse with ISIS. My God!” It’s budget time in Washington.  What are we supposed to believe?  What are we to do when we don’t trust any of these institutions anymore or people in them?  Here’s the next bite, opening remarks, CIA director John Brennan…

BRENNAN:  We judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks.  ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West.  And the group is probably exploring a variety of means for infiltrating operatives into the West, including in refugee flows, struggling routes, and legitimate methods of travel.  Including Orlando, San Bernardino, and elsewhere, ISIL is attempting to inspire attacks by sympathizers who have no direct links to the group.

RUSH:  See, what do you mean “no direct links”? Just because they’re not card-carrying members?  He means, “Well, they’re doing it in ISIS’ name.” It doesn’t sound like to me that their influence is waning.  We know they’re getting into the country.  We know they’re getting in here because of our immigration and refugee policy.  Let’s go back and listen to Obama, September 10, 2014.  This is Obama talking about our plans to stay on ISIS…

OBAMA 2014:  The counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partners’ forces on the ground.  This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us while supporting partners on the front lines is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.

RUSH:  Well, I mean, that’s two years ago. But just yesterday or whenever he went out and did that speech when this program started, he again talked about ISIL, and he was ripping into Trump and ripping into everybody for talking about how he doesn’t label them for what they are. 

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RUSH:  After the Orlando shooting, Obama said, “ISIL is under more pressure than ever before.  ISIL continues to lose ground in Iraq.  All told, ISIL has now lost nearly half the populated territory it once controlled in Iraq, and it will lose more.”  The CIA director today says they’re bigger than ever, they’re stronger than ever, they’re stealthier than ever, and they’re getting into this country in greater numbers than ever.  Who are we to believe here?

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RUSH:  So John Brennan, the CIA director, testifies before Congress today.  That’s under oath.  That’s under oath.  Obama was not under oath yesterday.  Look, I… Folks, I’m making a deal out of this ’cause I don’t know what’s right anymore. I don’t know what true anymore.  All we know is what our eyes tell us.  We know isn’t it true, didn’t a lot of people vote for Obama for a lot of reasons?  One of the reasons people voted for Obama was they thought that his election would end any idea that there was racism, in this country. 

This country can elect an African-American as president, and it could have been a racist country, and we’d get rid of that problem.  A lot of people were hoping and praying that that’s what Obama’s election would mean, and that’s all.  They weren’t voting for policy Obama policy-wise,  because Obama was pretty much running an empty-canvas campaign, based on feel-good, unity, and all this.  There was another quite sizable group of people that said, “We’re electing a guy named Barack Obama.  Maybe that might send a message to Islam that we’re not a problem; they don’t need to be mad at us.” 

Well, how’s that working out? 

I think in both instances people that voted for Obama in both cases have been sorely disappointed.  But it was just yesterday… If I got the time frame right.  Was it yesterday Obama went out and did the speech?  Was it Trump that we JIPped?  Yeah, it was two days ago.  It was two days ago.  Here’s what Obama said.  He said, “ISIL is under more….” This is the press conference where he ripped into Trump and everybody for getting mad at him for not using the phrase “militant Islamic terrorism,” or “extremist Islamic terrorism,” and Obama’s getting all defensive.

“Why won’t I use the term?  Well, ’cause, what? Is it supposed to beat ’em?  We go out there, we call ’em that name, they’re gonna give up?  Is that what it?”  You know, totally missing the point.  The reason we want to hear you say it because we want to know you consider ’em an enemy, too.  And it’s obvious he doesn’t.  He’s got a romanticized version of Islam that does not include terrorism in it.  All these acts of terrorism are coming from nonplayers that are doing it in the name of Islam, but it isn’t true.  They’re not Islamists.  That’s what we’re supposed to believe. 

Anyway, here’s what he said.  He was not under oath; Brennan was.  “ISIL is under more pressure than ever before.  ISIL continues to lose ground in Iraq.  All told, ISIL has now lost nearly half the populated territories it once controlled in Iraq, and it will lose more.  ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well.  As ISIL continues to lose territory, it also continues to lose the money that is its lifeblood.  As the result of our strikes against its oil infrastructure and supply lines, we believe that we’ve cut ISIL’s revenue from oil by millions of dollars per month.”

Wasn’t…? Wait a second, now.  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait just a second.  When did we start hitting their oil infrastructure?  Right.  Donald Trump’s responsible for that, right?  I mean, Obama purposely avoided it.  When did we start hitting their oil infrastructure? What, is Obama appropriating that as his idea now?  Well, anyway, I don’t want to get too off point here.  “As a result of our strikes against the oil infrastructure and supply lines, we believe that we’ve cut ISIL’s revenue from oil by millions of dollars a month.

“In destroying the storage sites where they keep their money, we’ve deprived ISIL of many millions more.  Cutting off ISIL’s money may not be as dramatic as military strikes, but it’s critically important, and we are seeing the results.”  Now, Director Brennan mere hours ago told the Senate that the US has not reduced ISIS’ terror reach and capability a smidgen.  And Obama only started bombing ISIS oil installations when he was shamed into it largely by the Trumpster.  Obama was, in fact, saying it wouldn’t matter. 

“We not gonna do that! We’re not gonna destroy the oil.  The world needs the oil.  We need the oil for the global warming people to have something to oppose.  John Brennan’s out there saying that ISIL “is working to smuggle them into countries, perhaps among refugee flows or through legitimate means of travel. Brennan also noted the group’s call for followers to conduct so-called lone-wolf attacks in their home countries. … He called ISIS a ‘formidable adversary’ but said the US-led coalition has made progress combating the group over there which had to surrender large swaths of territory.”

I don’t see… Folks, whether you call it ISIS, whether you call it the Muslim Brotherhood, whether you call it Al-Qaeda, whether you call it Al-Qaeda in Yemen, whatever you call it, they are on the march.  They are taking over Europe by way of terror and threats and intimidation, and I’m not aware of any of these kind of terror attacks occurring before Obama became president.  But those instances are increasing here, too.  We’ve had the Fort Hood massacre.  We’ve had the San Bernardino massacre. 

We’ve had a bunch of attempts.  We’ve had this thing in Orlando.  And in the midst of all of it, we’re not permitted to correctly identify it.  You wonder: Who are we to believe? You know, Brennan spoke under oath today describing this threat from ISIS, totally undercutting what Obama said.  Then you realize it’s budget time in Washington, so who are we to believe?  And even that, whether we don’t believe any, we still know that these terror attacks are happening.  And we are learning very quickly that it doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it beforehand. 

We’re not allowed to examine social media to find intelligence with these people tipping their hands, explaining what they’re gonna do or what they’d like to do, their motivations. We’re not allowed to factor it in, because we’re not allowed to delve into Muslim communities, our investigative units like the FBI are not permitted to, by statute.  It’s the strangest thing.  So much of life in America defies common sense.  So much that’s happening… Those of you who are say 50, 45, you can’t imagine things like this happening when you were in your teens or your early twenties.

In your careers, just starting, you can’t imagine this kind of thing happening.  I have people say to me all the time, “Rush, this has happened overnight.  Like, one day I wake up and I find out that the things I believe are all of a sudden in the minority in this country?  When did this all happen?” You know, it does appear to be that it has basically happened while we were sleeping.  We woke up in the midst of the Obama presidency, and everything seems to be turned upside down.  And it’s being called “progress” or “change for the better” or t”ransformation” or what have you. 

Meanwhile, there’s more misery nationwide than you can shake a stick at.  There are more unemployed people that want to work than you can shake a stick at.  There are more people frozen in their standard of living and not increasing their standard of living. They’re not adding to their wealth. They’re losing jobs, losing income. The health care system’s been blown to smithereens.  You don’t know what you can trust there.  You know you can’t afford it.  Even if you have a job, you’re worried you’re gonna lose it. 

If you have savings, you’re worried somebody’s gonna take it or you’re gonna have to tap into it before you intended to and it’s gonna be gone.  Meanwhile, you turn on the TV and see a president’s happier than he can be!  You see a president, see a Democrat Party that think things have never been better, while their supporters continually enraged and angry and mad and taking it out on people.  You wake up and find out that you were responsible ’cause you’re an American or Christian for what happened in Orlando!

You scratch your head and say, “Wait a minute, what?” People actually believe this.  They’re not just saying it for political advantage to advance an agenda.  Some of these people actually believe this stuff.  How do you deal with this kind of ignorance, stupidity, prejudice, bias, bigotry, which is all on the left in these examples I’m giving? 

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This Obama.  This is from Tuesday afternoon.  We’ve heard the CIA director today, John Brennan, testify under oath before a Senate committee that ISIS is as big and bad as ever and that they’re infiltrating America via our refugee program and immigration, and that we should be very concerned.  And this is exactly the opposite what Obama said two days ago.  So again I ask: Who are we to believe?  And I mean that.  Look, I… The CIA director’s under oath.  

The CIA director just threw Obama under the bus.  But it’s budget time in Washington at the same time.  And the CIA has many budgets, including the black budget that nobody ever sees.  Got all kinds of money in it for black ops that nobody ever sees and that we never know.  But it still has to be appropriated.  Here we have the first of two.  This is Obama at the Treasury department.  This from the press conference where he got all defensive about people accusing him of never using the term “militant Islamic extremism” or “terrorism.” 

OBAMA:  All told, ISIL has now lost nearly half of the populated territory that it once controlled in Iraq.  And it will lose more.  ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well. Assisted by our Special Operations Forces, the coalition of local forces is now pressuring the key town of Manbij, which means the noose is tightening around ISIL in Raqqa as well. 

RUSH:  Well, all well and good. But it’s not what we were told today by the CIA director.  The next one… 

OBAMA:  Our coalition continues to be on offense, ISIL is on defense, and it’s now been a full year since ISIL has been able to mount a major successful offensive operation in either Syria or Iraq.  As ISIL continues to lose territory, it also continues to lose the money that is its lifeblood.  As a result of our strikes against its oil infrastructure and supply lines, we believe that we’ve cut ISIL’s revenue from oil by millions of dollars per month.  In destroying the storage sites where they keep their cash, we’ve deprived ISIL of many millions more.  Cutting off ISIL’s money may not be as dramatic as military strikes, but it is critically important, and we’re seeing the results. 

RUSH:  Okay, now, don’t be distracted by the details. Because those details could be true, and ISIS could still be inspiring attacks here.  The point is, the president’s intention, after Orlando, was to comfort the nation. “Hey, look, this stuff? Don’t be concerned about it! We’re beating ’em.  I mean, they’re lashing out. These are last gasps.”  But, on the other hand, they continue to happen.  Regardless what ISIL’s strength or weakness is, acts of terror continue to happen that we somehow don’t seem able to stop.  So these efforts to calm everybody and comfort us, and then the CIA director goes out there and directly contradicts this.  It’s not good.