A new book written by the Central Investigative Agency's deputy director has claimed that the United States intelligence agencies "badly misjudged" Al Qaeda's ability to take advantage of the political chaos in the Middle East and regain strength across the region in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death.
Senior U.S. officials had earlier acknowledged failures to anticipate the Arab Spring movement that toppled several governments in the Middle East and North Africa but former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell claimed that the intelligence agency compounded those errors with optimistic assessments that the turmoil would prove to devastating to Al Qaeda, reported The Washington Post.
Morell noted in the book that the Arab Spring instead, proved to be a boon to Islamist extremists across both the Middle East and North Africa.
The acknowledgement marked one of the bleakest evaluations of CIA's performance during that tumultuous period by an official who occupied a top position in the organization at the time.
The book, titled 'The Great War of Our Time,' traces Morell's three-decade career at the CIA but focuses largely on the agency's counterterrorism missions and the often-ensuing political fallout since 9/11 attacks.