International security

Key Reasons Behind CIA Head's Revelations That US Has Inflamed Middle East

The outgoing administration of US President Barack Obama overestimated the outcome of the Arab Spring, in expecting democracy to take root in the Middle East, CIA Director John Brennan said on CNN's Axe Files podcast on Monday.

He added that although the people in the region wanted individual freedom, "the concept of democracy is something that really is not engrained in a lot of the people and the cultures and the countries out there." "I think there were very, very unrealistic expectations in Washington, including in some parts of the administration, that the Arab Spring was going to push out these authoritarian regimes and democracy is going to flourish because that's what people want," he elaborated.