This week you get a bonus post. My good friend, U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement yesterday stating that the Obama Administration knew about the ISIL threat for more than a year.

It is republished in full below:

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Chairman Rogers: Intelligence Community Warned Obama Administration about ISIL for over a Year

“For over a year, U.S. intelligence agencies specifically warned that ISIL was taking advantage of the situation in Syria to recruit members and provoke violence that could spill into Iraq and the rest of the region. In fact, in 2013, the House Intelligence Committee formally pressed the administration for action to address the terrorist threat present in Syria. Additionally, national security experts – both inside and outside the government – repeatedly warned, a year before ISIL’s drive into Mosul, that the Iraq Security Forces faced severe pressure; the House Intelligence Committee held a hearing on that very issue in early 2014.  And we all knew that former Iraqi Prime Minster Maliki had mismanaged his military and gutted the ISF of its top commanders.  Indeed, over a year ago, our Arab League partners sought U.S. support and leadership for a coordinated effort to address the extremist threat in eastern Syria. This was not an Intelligence Community failure, but a failure by policy makers to confront the threat.”