Former CIA Director: We Were Surprised by Arab Spring

Leon Panetta says CIA was caught flat-footed and didn’t ‘really understand what was going on’

May 20, 2021

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Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the spy agency was caught flat-footed when the popular revolts and armed insurrections known as the Arab Spring swept across North Africa and the Middle East in the early 2010s.

“Obviously, we made a couple of mistakes that I have always stuck in my mind,” Panetta said in a wide ranging intervie…

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