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Harith al Nadhari recorded an audio eulogy for Mohammed al Zahawi, the leader of Ansar al Sharia Libya, shortly before his own death. Shortly before his own death in a US airstrike on Jan. 31, Harith al Nadhari, a senior sharia official in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), recorded an audio eulogy for another slain jihadist, Mohammed al Zahawi. Ansar al Sharia Libya confirmed earlier in the month that Zahawi, the group's leader, had died of wounds he suffered while fighting in Benghazi. And Nadhari wanted to make it clear that al Qaeda considered Zahawi to be...

The Islamic State has expanded its presence in the failed state of Libya, and if not confronted, the terror group may be able to gain strategic territory in its quest to form an Islamic Caliphate, according to the Washington Institute’s Andrew Engel. While the United States and its allies are focused on Syria and Iraq, IS (commonly referred to as ISIL or ISIS) has its eyes beyond that fight. The report, titled The Islamic State’s Expansion in Libya, says Libya’s ex-ambassador to the Emirates Aref Ali Nayed is worried that if Washington does not act, IS will use Libya to...

Susan Rice pushed back on critics of President Obama's foreign policy Friday as she unveiled the White House’s new national security strategy. Rice, the White House's national security adviser, said in a speech at the Brookings Institution that the nation is “stronger than we have been in a very long time” despite the bitter debates raging in Washington. “Too often, what's missing here in Washington is a sense of perspective. Yes, there is a lot going on. Still, while the dangers we face may be more numerous and varied, they are not of the existential nature we confronted during World...

The director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lieutenant General Vincent R. Stewart, warned during congressional testimony yesterday that the "security challenges" the US faces are "more diverse and complex than those we have experienced in our lifetimes." Stewart delivered his remarks to the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing devoted to assessing worldwide threats. While Stewart addressed diverse national security issues, much of his written testimony was focused on what was once called the global war on terror. Al Qaeda in Syria may "expand its territory," while threatening the West The Islamic State's advances in Iraq and Syria...

A U.S. Marine veteran who grew up in Sierra Vista was one of nine people killed in Libya by a gunman in an apparent attack by the Islamic State. David Berry, a 34 year-old combat veteran who was working for a Virginia-based security contractor, was the sole American who died in Tuesday’s attack. Berry grew up and spent most of his early life in Sierra Vista, attending Buena High School and graduating from Tombstone High School in 2000. He enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately after high school and earned promotions to become a gunnery sergeant. He was deployed to...

Unknown gunmen have seized control of a defunct Libyan oilfield in an attack that left at least 12 people dead, at least four of them foreigners, the oilfield's commander says. The gunmen, possibly Islamists, attacked the remote al-Mabruk oilfield south of Sirte on Tuesday night. The oilfield, part-owned by the French company Total, has not produced oil for more than a year.

Egypt has enough foreign exchange on hand to cover six weeks’ of its imports (US$7.8 billion in liquid reserves, against a $5.5 billion monthly import bill). It would have run out of cash in June except for emergency loans from Saudi Arabia, which backs the Egyptian military but abhors the Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi won Egypt’s presidential election last month. Total reserves are listed at $15 billion, but this includes gold, International Monetary Fund (IMF) drawing rights and other non-liquid items. The economic context is necessary to make sense of Egypt’s politics: it points to an important conclusion,...

According to Arabic News Channel TV14 and reported on by Egypt Daily News, Obama’s relationship with recently deposed Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi goes far deeper than mere support as a democratically elected President. Per TV14, Obama conducted secret negotiations with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood outside of normal diplomatic channels. According to sources cited by TV14, Obama secretly transferred eight billion dollars to the Muslim Brotherhood—not the Egyptian government—as payment to guarantee that a large portion of the Sinai Peninsula be turned over to the terrorist organization Hamas, an avowed enemy of both the United States and Israel.

The chairman of a special House committee created to investigate the 2012 Benghazi tragedy on Monday instructed his staff to review secretly recorded tapes and intelligence reports that detail Hillary Rodham Clinton’s role in advocating and executing the war in Libya, opening the door for a possible expansion of his probe. Rep. Trey Gowdy’s decision to seek a review of the materials, first highlighted in a series of Washington Times stories last week, carries consequences for the 2016 election in which Mrs. Clinton is expected to seek the presidency. It could also move the committee to examine the strained relationship...

It’s been formally acknowledged that U.S. NATO ‘ally’ Turkey is providing safe haven to leaders of Hamas, a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) so designated by the U.S. State Department. By its very definition, an FTO should be considered declared enemy of the U.S. Despite this, Turkey doesn’t appear to be paying any price. Another player in all this is the small nation of Qatar. It is desperately trying to play both sides of a political fence as leaders of Hamas – to include the terrorist organization’s political leader Khaled Meshaal – has been forcibly relocated to Turkey. The reason these...

The absence of strong Western leadership against the Boko Haram terror state has created an opportunity Iran seems ready to exploit. The Premium Times of Nigeria reports that Iran is stepping forward to offer assistance to the African Union against the savage caliphate spilling out of northern Nigeria into Cameroon and menacing the entire region: ... Abdollohian said the activities of the Boko Haram militants and that of Al-Shabaab in the Somalia were similar to that of Al-Qaeda and the ISIS and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. ... Iran was willing to share its experiences on terrorist activities...

Pentagon officials were so concerned with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's push in 2011 to back Libyan rebels against Muammar Qaddafi that they opened their own back-channels with Qaddafi to try and prevent the U.S. from entering the civil war, according to a report that cited newly uncovered audio tapes.

It really breaks your heart when you see trust that is so cynically manipulated “We came, we saw, he died.”—Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laughingly gloating over the death of Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) Clinton was in Tripoli earlier this week for talks with leaders of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC). [A] reporter asked if [Clinton thought] Qaddafi’s death had anything to do with her surprise visit to show support for the Libyan people. “No,” she replied, before rolling her eyes and saying “I’m sure it did” with a chuckle. —Corbett Daly, “CBS News” 10/20/11 “... there was a distortion...

The Islamic State announced its arrival in Libya in brutal fashion this week with the slaying of an American contractor in a suicide attack on a Tripoli hotel, an act that will make it harder for Washington to continue ignoring the conflict and chaos raging in this North African country. Until now the United States and the European Great Powers have been content to look the other way as Libya had descended into violence and anarchy. Four years ago, NATO bombed the rebels to victory in their war against Muammar Qadhafi, then packed its bags and left the country to...

Top Pentagon officials and a Denis Kucinich do distrusted Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, they opened their own dialogue with the Libyan regime. Their communications with the Gadhafi regime was an effort to avoid war. Tapes of conversations between them and the Gadhafi regime were found in Tripoli. The authenticity of the tapes have been verified by the participants on the tapes reveal confidential conversations with Gadhafi’s son and another top official in Libya. The tapes have been reviewed by the Washington Times. The tapes show that in unfiltered conversations with top Libyan leaders, that criticisms of Hillary were...

Top Pentagon officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2011 march to war in Libya that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime in an effort to halt the escalating crisis, according to secret audio recordings recovered from Tripoli. The tapes, reviewed by The Washington Times and authenticated by the participants, chronicle U.S. officials’ unfiltered conversations with Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s son and a top Libyan leader, including criticisms that Mrs. Clinton had developed tunnel vision and led the U.S. into an unnecessary war without adequately weighing the intelligence community’s...

Exclusive: Secret tapes undermine Hillary Clinton on Libyan warJoint Chiefs, key lawmaker held own talks with Moammar Gadhafi regime First of three parts Top Pentagon officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State ...

Rep. Trey Gowdy came out swinging at Tuesday’s hearing of his Select Committee, laying into Democrats for playing political games and blasting the State Department for refusing to produce documents and for preventing witnesses from testifying before the committee. ... At the hearing, the State Department’s liaison officer to Congress said that more documents would be produced in the coming days, including emails from Secretary of State Clinton – giving the lie to oft-repeated Democrat claims that everything relating to Benghazi was already on the public record. ... two very real stand-down orders were issued that night by Secretary Clinton,...

White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes was dealt two major political blows, each on the same day. On one front, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer (Ret.) appeared on the O’Reilly Factor and broke some shocking news about the case of Bowe Bergdahl. On another front, legal watchdog Judicial Watch has reported that it has obtained documents as a result of its FOIA lawsuit against the State Department. Last April, Rhodes was revealed as the author of the infamous ‘smoking gun’ Benghazi email that instructed then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to claim a demonstration took place in Benghazi before the...

January 27, 2015 Press Release As prepared for delivery This committee exists because the House of Representatives voted for it to exist and in the process made it very clear what is expected. If you have not read the House resolution authorizing this committee, I would encourage you to do so. For those asking for a roadmap, or the scope of the investigation, or asking what the committee intends to look into, the resolution passed by the House of Representatives, including seven Democrats, answers all of those questions. The Resolution asks this committee to investigate: “all policies, decisions and activities”...