U.N. report covers up Obama role in arming terrorists
Bombshell revelations show how secret administration policy is fueling conflicts
JERUSALEM
– Questions remain about the Obama administration’s role in supplying
arms to Libyan rebels as a United Nations report released this week
reveals the weapons from Libya to extremists proliferating at an
“alarming rate,” fueling conflicts in Mali, Syria, Gaza and elsewhere.
During the fight against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in 2011, it was
widely reported the Obama administration coordinated foreign arms
shipments via cut outs to the Libyan rebels.
In December 2012, the New York Times reported that after discussions
among members of the National Security Council, the Obama administration
backed arms shipments to Libyan rebels from both Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates.
American officials told the Times that the UAE first approached the
Obama administration during the early months of the Libyan uprising,
asking for permission to ship American-built weapons that the U.S. had
supplied for the emirates’ use.
The administration rejected the request to ship U.S. weapons, instead
urging the emirates to ship foreign weapons to Libya that could not be
traced to the U.S., the Times reported.
“The U.A.E. was asking for clearance to send U.S. weapons,” one
former U.S. official told the Times. “We told them it’s O.K. to ship
other weapons.”
The Times further reported in 2012 the White House “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.”
There is more evidence of the Obama administration OKing arms to
Libyan rebels. In March 2011, Reuters broke the story that Obama had
signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for
rebel forces seeking to oust Gadhafi, quoting U.S. government officials.
Reuters noted the order was a principal form of presidential
directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central
Intelligence Agency.
That same month the U.K. Independent reported that “the Americans
have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in
Benghazi.”
Now the United Nations reports weapons initially sent to Benghazi are
spreading from Libya at an “alarming rate,” fueling conflicts in Mali,
Syria and beyond.
The report by the U.N. Security Council’s Group of Experts said the
North African state had become a key source of weapons transfers in the
region, specifically blaming Qatar and the UAE for arming the rebels.
While not referencing the U.S. support for the arms transfers, the
U.N. experts said they had found that Qatar and the UAE had breached the
arms embargo on Libya during the 2011 uprising by arming the rebels.
The experts said Qatar had denied the accusation, while the United Arab Emirates had not responded.
“Some 18 months after the end of the conflict, some of this materiel
remains under the control of non-state actors within Libya and has been
found in seizures of military material being trafficked out of Libya,”
according to the report.
The U.N. cites cases, both proven and under investigation, of illicit
transfers from Libya to more than 12 countries and also to terror and
criminal groups, including heavy and light weapons, man-portable air
defense systems, small arms and related ammunition and explosives and
mines.
Benghazi-gate
Reuters reported the U.N. experts who penned this week’s report said
transfers of arms to Syrian rebels had been organized from various
locations in Libya, including Misurata and Benghazi, via Turkey or
northern Lebanon.
“The significant size of some shipments and the logistics involved
suggest that representatives of the Libyan local authorities might have
at least been aware of the transfers, if not actually directly
involved,” the experts said.
Confirming WND’s exclusive reporting for over a year,
the New York Times last month reported that since early 2012, the CIA has been aiding Arab governments and Turkey in obtaining and shipping weapons to the Syrian rebels.
While the Times report claims most of the weapons shipments
facilitated by the CIA began after the latest presidential election,
Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND have said U.S.-aided
weapons shipments go back more than a year, escalating before the Sept.
11, 2012, attack on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi.
In fact, the Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND since
last year describe the U.S. mission in Benghazi and nearby CIA annex
attacked last September as an intelligence and planning center for U.S.
aid to the rebels in the Middle East, particularly those fighting Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The aid, the sources stated, included weapons shipments and was being coordinated with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Days after the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens,
WND broke the story
that Stevens himself played a central role in recruiting jihadists to
fight Assad’s regime in Syria, according to Egyptian and other Middle
Eastern security officials.
Stevens served as a key contact with the Saudis to coordinate the
recruitment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic fighters from North Africa and
Libya. The jihadists were sent to Syria via Turkey to attack Assad’s
forces, said the security officials.
The officials said Stevens also worked with the Saudis to send names
of potential jihadi recruits to U.S. security organizations for review.
Names found to be directly involved in previous attacks against the
U.S., including in Iraq and Afghanistan, were ultimately not recruited
by the Saudis to fight in Syria, said the officials.
Last month’s New York Times article has bolstered WND’s reporting,
citing air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries
and the accounts of rebel commanders describing how the CIA has been
working with Arab governments and Turkey to sharply increase arms
shipments to Syrian rebels in recent months.
The Times reported that the weapons airlifts began on a small scale
in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanding
into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows.
The Times further revealed that from offices at “secret locations,”
American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for
weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia.
They have vetted
rebel commanders and groups to determine who should receive the weapons
as they arrive.
The CIA declined to comment to the Times on the shipments or its role in them.
The Times quoted a former American official as saying that David H.
Petraeus, the CIA director until November, had been instrumental in
helping set up an aviation network to fly in the weapons. The paper said
Petraeus had prodded various countries to work together on the plan.
Petraeus did not return multiple emails from the Times asking for comment.
Both WND’s reporting, which first revealed the U.S.-coordinated arms
shipments, and the Times reporting starkly contrast with statements from
top U.S. officials who have denied aiding the supply of weapons to the
rebels.
In February, the White House flatly denied involvement in arming the
Syrian rebels, going so far as to say the Obama administration rejected a
plan by former Secretary of State Clinton and then-CIA Director
Petraeus to help arm the rebels.