Gun Running from Libya to Syria: the 'Al-Entisar,' Ambassador Stevens, Ali Sait Akin & the IHH

The news service Reuters reported that Obama signed an intelligence finding in early 2012 authorizing U.S. support for the Syrian rebels. And according to the New York Times, CIA operatives were on the Turkish-Syrian border this summer helping to steer weapons deliveries to selected Syrian rebel groups, most of them “hard-line Islamic jihadists.”

One of those jihadists was Abdelhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, according to a military official working with Mr Belhadjto quoted by Daily Telegraph, "met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey. "Mustafa Abdul Jalil [the interim Libyan president] sent him there," he said in November 2011.

Abdelhakim Belhadj’s contact with the Syrian Free Army was apparently part of a Lybian delegation to Turkey offering arms and fighters to the Turkish-backed Syrian jihadists. "The Daily Telegraph on Saturday [November 26 2011] revealed that the new Libyan authorities had offered money and weapons to the growing insurgency against Bashar al-Assad. Mr Belhaj also discussed sending Libyan fighters to train troops, [our] source said. Having ousted one dictator, triumphant young men, still filled with revolutionary fervour, are keen to topple the next. The commanders of armed gangs still roaming Tripoli's streets said yesterday that "hundreds" of fighters wanted to wage war against the Assad regime."

So, we have the United-States, Libya and Turkey working together with and through Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj to get weapons into the hands of Syrian jihadists, known to be dominated by Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now let's focus on a specific event: the docking of a Libyan-flagged vessel, the Al-Entisarwhich means "The Victory," at the Turkish port of Iskanderun, 35 miles from the Syrian border, on September 6, 2012.

The Al Entisar was reportedly carrying weapons and bound for Syrian rebels.

Fox News reported that, according a September 14 report by the Times of London, Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo. "Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons, described by the report as the largest consignment of weapons headed for Syria's rebels on the frontlines."

Walid Phares, a Fox News Middle East and terrorism analyst, said, "This is the Libyan ship ... which is basically carrying weapons that are found in Libya."

The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-launched missiles.

According to Fox News, the ship's Libyan captain told the Times of London that "It was reported there was a fight about the weapons and who got what between the free Syrian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood."

The Malta-based news organization MaltaToday reported that Al Entisar was used in 2011 by I-GO Aid Libya, "a Malta-based humanitarian organisation," "supplying a lifeline to rebels in Misurata." Al Entisar, reports MaltaToday, was chartered in 2011 from its Libyan owner to I-GO Aid Libya, then run by businessman Mario Debono "between Malta and Misurata to transport humanitarian aid." .

Contacted by MaltaToday, Mario Debono said that "no weapons were ever transported on board the Al Entishar to Misurata, and the only military equipment, if you may call them so, were bullet proof vests."

Debono said that the ship was returned to its Libyan owner, who in turn chartered it to a new contractor. Who was this new contractor?

Well, the group accused of operating the ship moving the weapons to Turkey is the Foundation for Human Rights, and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), "an islamic Turkish NGO" founded in 1992, and now active in more than 100 countries.

IHH was behind the "Free Gaza Movement," behind the Gaza "aid" flotilla, trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza since 2008. It is a registered charity based in Cyprus, and banned by Israel in 2008.

This islamic Turkish NGO was the one operating the Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of the six-ship the Gaza "aid" flotilla "carrying 10,000 tonnes of medicine, construction materials and education supplies" that was stormed by Israeli troops in May 2010.

"IHH," wrote the BBC, "raises some of its money from Islamic religious groups and has strong sympathy among Turkey's Islamist-rooted ruling party."

According to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the islamic Turkish organization is an overt supporter of Hamas, which an Islamic militant group (founded by the Muslim Brotherhood) that seized power in Gaza in 2007.

According to the BBC, "The ITIC says it also has evidence the IHH has helped provide weapons and funds for 'Islamic terrorist elements in the Middle East'."

There is evidence to suggest that the IHH has been involved in gun-running from Libya to Syria on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Jewish Chronicle Online, Free Syrian Army commanders have indeed told The Times that "a boat containing weapons," (the Al-Entisar?) that docked in Syria the week of September 14, 2012, was "registered to members of the IHH."

Samar Srewel, reportedly an FSA activist who had helped to organise the consignment, reportedly told The Times:

In Syria, rebel groups are fed money, weapons and equipment by the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Carnegie Middle East Center, about a quarter of the 130 members of the Syrian National Council have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

On June 21, 2012, the New York Times reported that since March, there is a game-changing "influx of weapons and ammunition to the rebels."

In May, "Turkish Army vehicles delivered antitank weaponry to the border," according the New York Times, "where it was then smuggled into Syria," upon consultation with the United States.

The Syrian National Council, which has Washington’s blessing and is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, is reportedly trying to organize "the scattered, localized units that all fight under the name of the Free Syrian Army into a more cohesive force."

Military coordinating "councils" across Syria are sharing tactics and information, according to the New York Times, except in the city of Homs, where "the three main military groups in the city do not get along."

Jeffrey White a defense fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy specializing in the military and security affairs of the Levant and Iran, wrote there is about 100 rebel formations ranging in size from a few fighters to a couple of hundred combatants.

Officials of the Obama Administration from the National Security Council have met with Muslim Brotherhood officials and the Syrian National Council, "a creature of the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey," with America's backing, according to Daniel Green, in order to put together and control a pipeline of weapons and information being routed to Syria through the Muslim Brotherhood, in order to "to give the Brotherhood military parity with the Free Syrian Army, which has done the bulk of the fighting, and has remained outside the Syrian National Council."

According to the TIME, the rebels are patronized mostly by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. But they are NOT "on the same page when it comes to determining who among the plethora of mushrooming Syrian rebel groups should be armed."

However, the middlemen of both Qatar and Saudi Arabia operate out of Turkey: "a secretive group operates something like a COMMAND CENTER IN ISTANBUL, directing the distribution of military supplies provided by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and transported with the help of Turkish intelligence to the Syrian border and then to the rebels.

According to the TIME, the Free Syrian Army is nominally headed by Riad al-Asaad, who is based in Turkey. Neither Asaad nor his chief FSA rival General Mustafa Sheikh are party to the Istanbul control room that supplies and arms rebels who operate under the Free Syrian Army banner.

TIME reports that Saudi Arabia’s man in the Istanbul control center is a Lebanese politician named Okab Sakr. The TIME reported that rebel sources who dealt with Okab Sakr say that he was in the Turkish city of Antakya, overseeing the distribution of "small consignments of 50,000 Kalashnikov bullets and several dozen rocket-propelled grenades" to the FSA. FSA sources told the TIME that Okab Sakr was designating the representatives in Syria to whom the Istanbul Center would funnel "Kalashnikov rifles, BKC machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and ammunition" to the Free Syrian Army.

Qatar is reportedly operating via "a major who defected from Assad’s army." The Qataris reportedly have strong ties to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

Al Jazeera's correspondent Ahmed Zaidan has said that the Saudis “don’t want any ties to anything called Muslim Brothers.”

According to Foreign Policy, Saudi's man Okab Sakr supported Jamal Maarouf, more commonly known as Abu Khalid, who leads Syria's Martyrs Brigades, a groupe apparently now fielding around 45,000 fighters. Abu Khalid, writes Ammar Abdulhamid in Foreign Policy, "is wary of Salafi groups, and hates the Muslim Brotherhood."

Abu Khalid's chief rival is Ahmad Abu Issa, founder of the Suqur al-Sham, ("The Falcons of Syria") Brigades.

Ahmad Abu Issa, a Salafi preacher calling for an islamic revolution in Syria, is also no friend of the Muslim Brotherhood. We can see him in this YouTube video denoucing the Muslim Brotherhood’s efforts to take control of rebel coordinating bodies (via Syria survey). He recently co-founded the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Syria, mainly composed of Salafi rebel groups, and also known as Jabhat al-Nusra. (Click here to learn about his sources of funds.)

According to Foreign Policy's Ammar Abdulhamid, the Muslim Brotherhood is "one of the Islamic Front's primary backers." "Some claim," according to the TIME, that Abu Issa's Islamic Front "has ties to al-Qaeda." Ahmad Abu Issa’s Suqoor al-Sham is part of international islamist networks. The group has joined Jabhat Tahrir Syria, or the Syrian Liberation Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), which groups many battle-hardened rebel gangs, such as Al-Farouq Battalions. According to TIME, the Syrian Liberation Front "will likely be the most powerful armed body in Syria." Asked about Saudi's man Okab Sakr, Abu Issa said: “We will not accept becoming tools for anyone, nor do we accept any living being, whether foreign or from within the revolution, acting in a manner to divide revolutionaries.”

Abu Khalid is now receiving some funding from Saudi authorities, according to Foreign Policy, which had historically profund differences with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudis and the Brotherhood are basically competing with each other for the control of the Syrian rebellion. "The Salafists are far more traditional and populist than members of the Brotherhood," writes Ammar Abdulhamid, since the Brotherhood "often come across to ordinary Syrians as too Westernized and elitist."

Nonetheless, the Muslim Brotherhood exerts its influence on the ground through small groups of rebels, along with the Salafists' Islamic Front and the Martyrs Brigades.

Within Syria, it has been a capital offense to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Molham Aldrobi, an executive member of the Muslim Brotherhood and a founding member of the Syrian National Council, now living in Saudi Arabia, said to TIME that “the Muslim Brotherhood does exist in the ground." "We work under the Free Syrian Army umbrella,” he added, and specified that there is "at least one member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Istanbul operations room."

Despite the competition between the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood over the Syrian revolt, it looks as is most the rebel groups gets a smattering of support from the Istanbul control center, according to the TIME.

Turkey acts as a nexus between the Saudis and the Muslim Brother to gain control over Syria.

Foreign Policy wrote that the rebels are now gaining control of more and more Syrian territory, as they are enjoying support from some 3,500 foreign fighters, "mostly from Gulf states, Libya, Tunisia, Chechnya, Somalia, and Sudan."

The bulk of the all of the money, the intelligence, and the weapons passes via Turkey. Abu Issa, Suleiman and Maarouf reportedly spent much of August shuttling between Syria and Turkey.

The Free Syrian Army is actually conducting the rebellion on the ground against the Bashar Al-Assad régime. But the Syrian National Council, largely composed of exiles, claims to be the real head of the rebel groups.

The game plan of the Muslim Brotherhood and its backers in the Obama Administration, according to Greenfield, "calls for a provisional Syrian National Council government followed by another 'Democratic election' that will allow the Brotherhood to reap all the benefits of the rebellion."

Yet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decided to snub the Syrian National Council during an August trip to Istanbul. The Obama Administration has authorized the Syrian Support Group (SSG), composed of Syrian exiles, to fundraise for the Free Syrian Army.

Most of the Free Syrian Army units are facing pressure to take orders from the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, in exchange for weapons (anti-tank weapons and rocket-propelled grenades) and money, reported TIME.

The Obama Administration does its part to help the Muslim Brotherhood by providing intelligence gained from electronic eavesdropping and satellite surveillance to the militias picked by the Muslim Brotherhood, helping it to dispose of rival militias.

In June 2012, the New York Times reported that the CIA was helping direct "automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons," bought by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and smuggled into Syria by the Muslim Brotherhood.

CIA operatives in southern Turkey are "helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, reported the New York Times. Those who smuggle the weapons also decide who gets to use them.

The weapons are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border mostly by Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, officials said to the New York Times. The Obama administration, according to the New York Times, is also "providing satellite imagery and other detailed intelligence on Syrian troop locations and movements".

The Obama Administration does its part to help the Muslim Brotherhood by providing intelligence on the movements of the Free Syrian Army to the Syrian National Council, which is basically an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood.

As in Libya before Gaddafi was overthrown, there is now a coordinated effort by the CIA to guide the Syrian rebels in their campaign against the Bashar Al-Assad régime.

The aftermath of the "intervention" in Libya boosted the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, linked to Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. It spilled Gaddafi's stockpiles of weapons around, and those weapons are now making their way into Syria, where the rebels are being guided by the CIA.

Which brings us back to Benghazi, where the United States were also running guns with the Muslim Brotherhood.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens’ last meeting the night he was killed was with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin.

Ambassador Stevens escorted the Turkish Consul General out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m. local time. Was Ali Sait Akin there to discuss a weapons transfer? Was he warning the American Ambassador about a possible compromise of the Libyan weapons pipeline to Syria via Turkey?

Do we know of any link between Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin and IHH, whose ship, the Turkish islamic organization who had chartered Libyan-flagged Al-Entisar? Remember, the Al-Entisar ducked at the Turkish port of Iskanderun, 35 miles from the Syrian border, on September 6, 2012. Allegedly carrying 400 tons of cargo, while being run by an islamic organization with " a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror.” The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and shoulder-launched missiles.

Keep it simple. Do not add to the complexity now!

Frankly, I do find this interesting.

None the less, it’s not interesting to me NOW.

There is one issue on my mind right now.

Our President watched our Ambassador die in real time, and did nothing about it.

When he has been confronted on that, I’ll be happy to move on.

Branching this story out, merely muddies the waters. In effect, it moves focus off our dead people and who mismanaged things to the point their deaths were possible.

So right now, no thanks. Keep it simple. Focus!

And on top of all that, Syria has one of the worlds largest stockpile of active chemical WMD. And they have the means to deliver those WMD warheads throughout their neighboring countries. Clearly the Obama/Hillary regime is criminally insane.

as far back as the 1950s and 1960s, there was always an element of U.S. Middle East foreign policy that was more foreign policy in furtherance of Middle East interests, than our own

that element has grown, with some seesawing back and forth ever since then, getting worse each decade

and it has reached its zenith (so far, I guess it could even get worse) under the Billary/Bama foreign policy

to the point that no matter what U.S. State Department & CIA resources believe themselves to be doing in places like Lybia and Syrian, they have ZERO control and they are 100% the tools of Middle East interests and their objectives and agendas - Middle East interests that are not our allies, and not any intrinsic “U.S. interest”

if ignorance of the law is no excuse, ignorance of the circumstances is no excuse with respect to our national interests and Hillary should be charged with Treason

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