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Benghazi Index
Posted on 12/06/2012 10:49:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Oopsie! In what has to be one of the least-shocking outcomes of Barack Obama's Libyan adventure, the New York Times reports that his administration secretly gave approval of weapons shipments to Libyan resistance fighters, only to learn that the weapons ended up arming Islamist terror networks. Who could have seen that coming, right?
The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.
No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported. The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of the Qaddafi government.
Maybe we can offer an alternative headline for this: Reporting that might have been valuable before the election. Tammy Bruce tweeted:
A month after the election the NYT tells us: “U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands” nytimes.com/2012/12/06/wor…
— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) December 6, 2012
This is yet another indictment of the Obama approach to decapitating regimes. In the immediate aftermath of the fall of Qaddafi, the administration didn’t hesitate to favorably compare the outcome in Libya to that in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of American troops were used to secure the gains after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The NYT provides a post-mortem on that strategy courtesy of a former State Department adviser on the region:
The Qatari assistance to fighters viewed as hostile by the United States demonstrates the Obama administration’s continuing struggles in dealing with the Arab Spring uprisings, as it tries to support popular protest movements while avoiding American military entanglements. Relying on surrogates allows the United States to keep its fingerprints off operations, but also means they may play out in ways that conflict with American interests.
“To do this right, you have to have on-the-ground intelligence and you have to have experience,” said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser who is now dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, part of Johns Hopkins University. “If you rely on a country that doesn’t have those things, you are really flying blind. When you have an intermediary, you are going to lose control.”
And when you don’t have any way to control what happens on the ground, you can bet that “control” will be the first thing to go. The US knew that Islamist terrorists operated in eastern Libya for years before Obama came into office. Al-Qaeda recruited heavily in the region for its fight against the US in Iraq. Decapitating Qaddafi meant losing pressure on AQ and other Islamist terror networks, and flooding the area with uncontrolled weapons almost guaranteed that the already-organized terror networks would hijack them from other less-organized resistance movements.
But this brings up another important question. The Obama administration knew that the Islamist terror networks ended up controlling many if not most of these weapons, and had become much more dangerous as a result. If that’s the case, how could they possibly have left the consulate in Benghazi as unprotected as it was?
Ping.
And having armed Al Qaeda in Libya to successfully depose Gadhaffi, they then rounded up the arms in Benghazi and shipped them to Al Qaeda in Syria to depose Assad!
What could possibly go wrong?
It was intentional.
Very interesting.
And why would the NYT suddenly drop this little bombshell on their boy Barry?
Warning shot that he’d better toe the line on Socialism a whole lot better in his second term? Or an implied threat if dead-tree media does not receive a financial bailout?
Was Ambassador Stevens running guns to the jihadist rebels who murdered him?
Was Syrian weapons shipment factor in ambassador’s Benghazi visit?
A mysterious Libyan ship — reportedly carrying weapons and bound for Syrian rebels — may have some link to the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Fox News has learned.
Through shipping records, Fox News has confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means “The Victory,” was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun — 35 miles from the Syrian border — on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.
On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m. local time.
“This is the Libyan ship ... which is basically carrying weapons that are found in Libya,” said Walid Phares, a Fox News Middle East and terrorism analyst. “So the ship came all the way up to Iskenderun in Turkey. Now from the information that is available, there was aid material, but there were also weapons, a lot of weapons.”
The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPG’s and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.
Aug 1, Damascus: Free Syrian Army rebels fighting the Assad regime obtained nearly two dozen man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), NBC News reported on Tuesday night. The missiles were delivered to them via neighboring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.
Syrian Rebels Claim They Shot Down Fighter Jet With A Missile
November 28, 2012 3:00 PM
Syrian rebels claim they shot down a MiG fighter jet not far from the Syrian-Turkish border on Wednesday. Along with the downing of a military helicopter on Tuesday, it would appear to be one of the first times rebels have successfully used a kind of weapon called a MANPAD, or portable, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile that can hit a plane in fight.
Then another video was released, this one showing a bearded man in a heavy coat and sunglasses describing how he shot down the plane with a rocket that’s resting on his shoulder. He calls it an “Igla,” which is the Russian name for an SA-16 or an SA-18.
So, what does "president" Barry have to do, kill somebody? No, wait Ted Kennedy did that and nothing happened to him.
The fighter says the rebels seized the weapon when they overtook a Syrian army base earlier this month. Rebels have seized similar weapons before but this is the first time they appear to have used this particular system successfully.
Benghazi Barry...what a tactician!
I don’t suppose the American public, its collective head up its collective a$$, will realize how wrong it was to reelect the marxist-middle-eastern-cultist?
I don’t suppose the Republicans will start impeachment proceedings any time soon?
I don’t suppose the networks will run crawlers 24/7 “Obama committed treason. American public duped.”
Nah.
And these don’t include the OTHER weapons filtered through Turkey that made their way to hamas in Gaza through Egypt.
Lebanon halts ship with arms ‘destined for Syria’
Latest update: 29/04/2012
The Lebanese navy on Saturday intercepted a ship sailing from Libya with weapons believed to be destined for Syrian rebel forces, security officials said. The cargo included machineguns, artillery shells and rocket launchers.
Labelling on one box said it contained fragmentation explosives, and several identified them as coming from Libya.
One was marked “Tripoli/Benghazi SPLAJ”, referring to LIbya’s formal name during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi - the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
Another was stamped Misrata, the Libyan town which formed a base for rebels who overthrew Gaddafi last year in one of several uprising which swept the Arab world.
Front-line Syrian rebel group linked to al Qaeda, U.S. believes
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/02/4454648/front-line-syrian-rebel-group.html#storylink=cpy
Posted Sunday, Dec. 02, 2012
QALAT AL MUDIQ, Syria — When the group Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for car and suicide bombings in Damascus that killed dozens of people in January, many of Syria’s revolutionaries said the organization was a creation of the Syrian government, designed to discredit those who opposed the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Nearly a year later, however, Jabhat al Nusra, which U.S. officials believe has links to al Qaeda, has become essential to the front-line operations of the rebels fighting to topple Assad.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/02/4454648/front-line-syrian-rebel-group.html#storylink=cpy
Not only does the group still conduct suicide bombings that have killed hundreds, but it also has proven to be critical to the rebels’ military advance. In battle after battle across the country, Nusra and similar groups do the heaviest front-line fighting. Groups that call themselves the Free Syrian Army and report to military councils led by defected Syrian army officers move into the captured territory afterward.
The prominence of Nusra in the rebel cause worries U.S. and other Western officials, who say its operations rely on the same people and tactics that fueled al Qaeda in Iraq — an assertion that is borne out by interviews with Nusra members in Syria.
Among Nusra fighters are many Syrians who say they fought with al Qaeda in Iraq, which waged a violent campaign against the U.S. presence in that country and is blamed for suicide and car bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis since the U.S. troops left a year ago.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/02/4454648/front-line-syrian-rebel-group.html#storylink=cpy
I presume these were the weapons the administration repeatedly claimed we weren’t shipping?
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