In a meeting with the Washington Times Editorial Board, White House Counter-Terror Adviser John Brennan was forced to contradict his contention that Jihad had nothing to with violence and immediately stormed out of the office.

Brennan caused a stir at the end of May when he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that we should not describe the terrorists in religious terms. During his speech Brennan described violent extremists as victims of "political, economic and social forces," but said that those plotting attacks on the United States should not be described in "religious terms.