It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, between the pressures of my academic pursuits coupled with the chaos of the political landscape…I became both overwhelmed and disgusted and began to question whether I’d ever return to these pages again. But after, thankfully, having a chance to (briefly) catch my breath; I realize that what’s at stake is too important to silence my own voice. However, due to the magnitude of issues facing Our Country both here and abroad, this is going to be a two-part series.
In this installment I’ll cover Foreign Affairs, including: The attack on the US consulate in Libya and what was known by whom and when, the State Department’s continued denial of any “talks” with Egypt to negotiate the release of the, “Blind Cleric,” The US State Departments Rules of Engagement (ROE) and the part that they played in the Libyan tragedy, and finally, Iran’s nuclear program.
Part 2 will delve into the Domestic Matters causing unrest here on our own soil. We’ll begin with illustrating the “campaigner-in-chief’s” complete lack of leadership as evidenced by his response to learning of the tragedy that occurred at the Libyan Embassy (hint: it involves an Air Force 1 flight to Vegas and a political rally/fund-raiser), the continued cover-up of the Fast and Furious fiasco and the latest high-ranking official involved who just resigned today, the egregious conflict of interest when the Puppeteer, himself, george soros’s shell company, SCYTL, was approved to tally the results of the overseas votes. And the absolutely appalling lawsuit brought by the obama administration attempting to restrict our Military personnel from voting in the 2012 election. I’ll explain what America’s MOST recent credit downgrade will mean for the Dollar and the implications and potential for abuse built into the NDAA. Lets get into it.
Middle East-Libyan President admits it was orchestrated.
American diplomats were warned of possible violent unrest in Benghazi three days
before the killings of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three members of his team, Libyan security officials say.
The claim came as the country's interim President, Mohammed el-Megarif, said his government had information that the attack on the US consulate had been planned by an Islamist group with links to al-Qa'ida and with foreigners taking part.
However, the American ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, insisted that the killings had resulted from a demonstration against a film about the Prophet Mohamed, replicating protests in Cairo, which had been "hijacked" and got out of control.
The Independent has reported diplomatic sources who said that the threat of an attack against US interests in the region was known to the US administration 48 hours before it took place. The alert was issued by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but not made public. A State Department spokesman maintained: "We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the US Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent."
But President Megarif told the American station National Public Radio: "We firmly believe that this was a pre-calculated, pre-planned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the US Consulate. A few of those who joined in were foreigners who had entered Libya from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria."
A senior official of the biggest militia in Benghazi, the February 17th Brigade, told CNN that he had warned US diplomats of a rapidly deteriorating security situation in Benghazi three days before the attack. "The situation is frightening, it scares us," he said he had stressed during the meeting. Mr. Stevens had been back in Libya for only a short time before US security officials decided it would be safe to make the journey to Benghazi during the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The British consulate in the city was shut after an ambush of a convoy carrying Dominic Asquith, the UK ambassador, in which his bodyguard were injured. The UN and International Committee of the Red Cross offices had been bombed and there had been a spate of political assassinations.
However, Ms. Rice denied the Benghazi attack was pre-planned. She said: "Our current best assessment... is that... it was a spontaneous – not a premeditated – response to what had transpired in Cairo. "A small number of people came to the consulate. It seems to have been hijacked by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons... And it then evolved from there." Mr. Stevens was separated from his protection team during the attack. He was found, it is thought unconscious, by locals who took him to hospital where, doctors said, he died from smoke inhalation.
The Americans who escaped from the consulate made their way to a "safe house" at a supposedly secret location. That, too, came under mortar fire. Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, who had taken an eight-strong American rescue team that had arrived from Tripoli to the safe house, said "I don't know how they found the place to carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries." On Sunday, the head of Libya's national congress said about 50 people had been arrested in connection with the attack on the US consulate, though the interior ministry put the figure far lower.
The secret talks to release the “Blind Cleric,” the mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombings in 1993.
After more than 20 years out of commission in a U.S. prison, the “Blind Sheikh” is suddenly back in the news amid demands from Egypt that he be released and a report by TheBlaze that the Obama Administration may be considering engaging in a dialog about a possible relocation of the radical Islamist cleric.
Yesterday evening, the Blaze reported based on sources close to the Obama Administration that the State Department has discussed internally whether to engage in talks to transfer custody of “The Blind Sheikh,” aka the radical Islamist cleric named Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted after the World Trade Center attack in 1993 on charges of plotting a campaign of assassinations and bombings.
Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison, has been described as the “Pope of Jihad,“ though his own followers refer to him as the ”Emir of Jihad,” according to prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, the former federal prosecutor who was the lead prosecutor in the Blind Sheikh case.
Below is a condensed timeline of the clerics movements since 1989:
November 1989: Al Qaeda Leader
Rahman assumes control of the international jihadists’ arm of Al Qaeda following the assassination of his former mentor, Abdullah Azam. Some suspect Osama bin Laden himself of orchestrating this assassination and subsequent shift of power, in order to consolidate power over Al Qaeda to himself.
July 1990: Journey to the United States
Rahman travels to the United States on a CIA-approved visa. He rapidly assumes control of Al Qaeda’s resources in the United States. Peter Lance describes Rahman’s impact on American homegrown terrorism:
“Prior to that time—1988, ’89—terrorism for all intents and purposes didn’t exist in the United States,” says Corrigan, the retired JTTF investigator. “But Abdel Rahman’s arrival in 1990 really stoked the flames of terrorism in this country. This was a major-league ball player in what at the time was a minor-league ball park. He was . . . looked up to worldwide. A mentor to bin Laden, he was involved with the MAK over in Pakistan.” In Corrigan’s view, the arrival of the blind Sheikh was “a real coup for the local crew members like Shalabi, Nosair, Abouhalima and Ayyad.”
Before long, Rahman was preaching at three separate mosques: the al Farooq at Atlantic Avenue; the Abu Bakr on Foster Avenue in Brooklyn — a mosque his radical followers soon took over — and the dingy Al-Salaam (Mosque of Peace), located on the third floor of a Jersey City building above a cell-phone store.
Shalabi, whose help Ali Mohamed sought before his Afghan war leave, welcomed the Sheikh with open arms, even installing him in a Brooklyn apartment.
November 17, 1990: Visa revoked
The State Department catches up with Rahman, revoking his tourist visa.
April 1991: Permanent Resident
Rahman is granted “permanent resident” status in the United States. The State Department reacts with alarm, because Rahman is on a terrorist watch list. They attempt to revoke his permanent resident status.
March 6, 1992: Green card revoked
Rahman is allowed to reenter the United States to appeal the decision to revoke his permanent resident status. He fails on the appeal, and his card is revoked. Following this setback, he applies for political asylum in the United States. Thanks to what McCarthy describes as a comedy of errors on the part of the United States immigration authorities surrounding Rahman’s status, he manages to maintain his residence in the United States in spite of being arguably the leading terrorist in the country for several years. The 911 commission later details this comedy of errors in full after a substantial investigation.
February 26, 1993: World Trade Center Bombed
In the first of many attempts to destroy the World Trade Center, a truck bomb is detonated below the base of the North tower of the World Trade Center. It fails to bring the structure down, but kills six people and wounds thousands. Four people are immediately arrested afterwards in connection with the bombing. They are all followers of Rahman’s.
June 24, 1993: Rahman Arrested in United States
The Blind Sheikh and his co-conspirators are arrested for “seditious conspiracy,” or making war against the United States, on charges ranging from the World Trade Center bombing to an unrealized plot to bomb major landmarks and assassinate major individuals in New York City. The indictment covers virtually his entire range of activities from the late 1980′s through 1993. McCarthy, the prosecutor of the case, explains:
What happened was, after the bombing, we immediately arrested four people who were involved in just the bombing, and then I took over the investigation, because we also found out that the same cell was planning a series of simultaneous attacks against New York City landmarks. We investigated that for the ensuing three months or so, eventually including him. He was arrested in the summer 1993, even though he wasn’t tried until January or October of 1995.
We wanted to do a case that told the historical story of the cell. We arrested him and indicted him in 1993 – it was a charge for seditious conspiracy, which is waging war against the United States, and it went from the late 1980s until we arrested them in the summer of ‘93, and it included everything including the training that went before the trade center bombing, the trade center bombing, and the landmark bombings.
October 1, 1995: Convicted
Omar Abdel Rahman is convicted of seditious conspiracy, as well as numerous other crimes, including attempting to mastermind the assassination of then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. His plot to blow up major landmarks, including the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge is foiled. He is sent to serve out a life sentence at the Butner Federal Medical Center, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner. His terrorist network in the United States is crippled.
May 26, 1998: The Fatwa That Brought Down the Twin Towers
At a press conference hosted by Al Qaeda, a note smuggled out of Rahman’s jail cell is read to a gathering of top Al Qaeda leaders, and journalists. The note reads as follows, according to New York Magazine:
A fatwa of the captive Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman … “To all Muslims everywhere: Destroy their countries. Tear them to pieces. Destroy their economies, burn their corporations, destroy their businesses, sink their ships, and bring down their airplanes. Kill them in the sea, on land, and in the air.”
---Your brother Abdel Rahman, from inside American prisons
September 11, 2001
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center collapse after being hit by two airplanes hijacked by members of Al Qaeda. Subsequent analysis explains that the theological justification for the attacks was provided by Rahman’s fatwa three years earlier. Osama Bin Laden himself makes this argument.
State Department’s ROE “Rules of Engagement” that declared “no ammunition” edict for the prohibition of ammunition for the Military personnel guarding the Libyan Embassy.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt laid the blame for the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the Benghazi, Libya American mission on Hillary Clinton and the State Department:
“The State Department just allowed our guys to get killed. If you approve no bullets in guns for the mission security guards and an outhouse for a mission, you’re inviting it.”
Earlier, on Howie Carr's radio show Thursday, Colonel Hunt said that the American mission at Benghazi "was like a cardboard building, there wasn't even bullet proof glass." In addition, Hunt said the security guards inside the mission didn't have bullets:
Howie Carr: They weren't allowed to have bullets, is that correct?
Colonel Hunt: That's true. They were private security. The rules of engagement were ridiculous.
Hunt told Breitbart News that the new State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya, approved and signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton since the 2011 fall of Khadafi's regime, severely compromised the safety and security of murdered Ambassador Stevens and all American diplomatic staff in Libya. He also stated that the decision not to staff Benghazi with Marines was made by Secretary of State Clinton when she attached her signature to the State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya document. Breitbart News has subsequently learned that under those rules of engagement, Secretary Clinton prohibited Marines from providing security at any American diplomatic installation in Libya.
Hunt went on to say, "the rules of engagement have been changing drastically over the last 10 years. . . The reason the surge in Iraq worked was we had another 40,000 soldiers and the rules of engagement were changed to allow our guys to shoot. What’s happened in Libya is the final straw of political correctness. We allowed a contractor to hire local nationals as security guards, but said they can't have bullets. This was all part of the point of not having a high profile in Libya."
According to Hunt, the debacle at the American mission in Benghazi is directly the result of Obama's new policies. "The policy of the Obama administration led to this," he said.
"It was the policy of the Obama administration to have a low profile in Libya. That's why the rules of engagement were approved by the Secretary of State to have no Marines at Benghazi, and to have an American contractor hire Libyan nationals to provide security there. The rules were they couldn't have ammunition."
"Obama may not have known the details of the State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya, but his Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor would have. The Secretary of State absolutely would have."
"The Department of State Security are the people in charge of diplomatic security. They enforce the rules of engagement, which are set at Clinton’s level at State. The Department of Defense was told we’re not going to have Marines at Benghazi. Whether it goes higher than the Secretary of State to the President, I don't know."
Hunt added that the rules of engagement specific to each country or military situation are drawn up by State Department lawyers and approved by the chain of command. "There should be a document with Hillary’s signature and the Secretary of Defense's specific to Libya. It was signed after Khadafi fell from power. You'll have to ask the State Department to get the document. They might claim it's classified, but it shouldn't be."
"The State Department has rules of engagement documents that are different for different countries. In our embassies in London and Paris, for instance, it’s always a mystery if the Marines at the embassies have ammunition in their weapons."
Hunt compared the security at the Benghazi mission with security at the recent RNC and DNC.
"The recent political conventions had more security than Ambassador Stevens had in Benghazi. If you carried a sharp stick within a mile of the conventions at Tampa or Charlotte you got arrested, yet you don't give bullets to the guards of our Ambassador to Libya. It wouldn't surprise me if Al-Qaeda bought off some of the Libyan nationals hired to guard our ambassador at Benghazi."
Ambassador Stevens was based at the American embassy in Tripoli. According to a spokesperson at the State Department, he would visit the mission at Benghazi sporadically. No one at the State Department has yet answered this key question:
Why on the anniversary of 9-11 was he at the low security mission in Benghazi when it would obviously have been more prudent for him to have been at the presumably more secure embassy in Tripoli?
At her daily press briefing on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland offered a description of the defenses at the Benghazi mission that appeared to be in conflict with other press reports. In contrast to some reports that said security within the perimeter of the mission was provided by Libyan nationals, Nuland stated that they provided security on the perimeter and that "there was a robust American security presence inside the compound."
QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit more about the security that was at the Embassy? It seems that for an area such as Benghazi, where there was a lot of instability, there were very few guards there. And can you talk about whether the U.S. asked Libya, the Libyan Government, earlier in the week for extra security precaution and whether that – extra security precautions or security personnel and whether that request was fulfilled? It does seem though that there were very few security personnel at this location.
MS. NULAND: I’m going to reject that, Elise. Let me tell you what I can about the security at our mission in Benghazi. It did include a local Libyan guard force around the outer perimeter. This is the way we work in all of our missions all around the world, that the outer perimeter is the responsibility of the host government. There was obviously a physical perimeter barrier, a wall. And then there was a robust American security presence inside the compound. This is absolutely consistent with what we have done at a number of missions similar to Benghazi around the world.
Ms. Nuland, however, failed to elaborate on the specifics or size of the "robust American security" within the perimeter of the mission. Later in her news briefing, she addressed the State Department reasoning for failing to have Marines stationed at Benghazi:
MS. NULAND: There were not marines at this mission.
QUESTION: Why not?
MS. NULAND: They – we have a number of posts around the world. We have – there are embassies without marines, there are other consulates of this type without marines. We make a decision based on the local conditions as to whether that makes sense, but this posture that we had, which was external security by the Libyans and then a strong U.S. security presence – but it didn’t include that particular contingent of Americans – inside, in a number of other missions that look a lot like Benghazi.
QUESTION: Is that for marines coming generally from the mission itself, or does the State Department say, you know, the situation’s really bad right now in this particular section of the world, perhaps we should have marines based here.
MS. NULAND: It’s not a matter of marines necessarily being a qualitatively different way of securing. There are many other ways to secure that are equivalent, too. It depends on the circumstances and it is different in every part of the world, and we evaluate it along with our friends at the Defense Department and other agencies individually, per mission.
Breitbart News attempted to secure a copy of the State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya, but officials at the State Department stonewalled them, as this email correspondence from Friday reveals:
To [State Department Spokesperson]:
(A) Status of my document request for the State Department rules of engagement for Libya?
(B) Can you help me find answers to these two questions:
1. Who provided security inside the Benghazi mission at the time of the 9-11-12 attack, how were they armed, and how many of them were there?
2. Who provided security on the perimeter of the Benghazi mission at the time of the 9-11-12 attack, how were they armed, and how many of them were there?
Michael Patrick Leahy
Breitbart News Contributor
Here is the official response from that State Department spokesperson:
Michael - I do not yet have more information on the rules of engagement document, which as discussed last night, might require a FOIA request. I will let you know as soon as I receive feedback. However, and this also applies to your two follow up questions, we do not discuss security details for the safety of our missions. The two questions below are addressed to the fullest extent possible in both briefings I sent you last night.
[State Department Spokesperson]
On Friday, Breitbart News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department to secure a copy of the State Department Rules of Engagement for Libya.
Look for the State Department to continue to stonewall this request, and resist release of the document until after the election. Its contents will be just too damaging. In effect, the country will be able to see Hillary Clinton's signature on the document that served as Ambassador Chris Stevens's death warrant.
Iran’s nuclear program is directly threatening Israel and it’s an obvious fact that Israel needs to strike first. However, if it happens before the election, obama is assured a 2nd term. Historically, voters stick with the incumbent during times of war...he's manufacturing ALL OF THIS!!
Iran says its nuclear program is designed chiefly to generate electricity and does not have a military component. But several Western countries, including the US, UK and Canada, fear Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and have imposed increasingly strict sanctions, including ones to block Iran's oil exports.
The head of the U.N. nuclear agency said his organization has "serious concerns" that Iran may be hiding secret atomic weapons work. Israel has indicated it is considering a unilateral, pre-emptive strike on Iran to set back the program.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran would be on the brink of nuclear weapons capability in six to seven months, adding new urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear "red line" for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.
Taking his case to the American public, Netanyahu said in U.S. television interviews that by mid-2013, Iran would be 90 percent of the way toward enough enriched uranium for a bomb. He urged the United States to spell out limits that Tehran must not cross or else face military action - something Obama has refused to do.
"You have to place that red line before them now, before it's too late," Netanyahu told NBC's "Meet the Press" program, saying that such a U.S. move could reduce the chances of having to attack Iran's nuclear sites.
The unusually public dispute - coupled with Obama's decision not to meet with Netanyahu later this month - has exposed a deep U.S.-Israeli divide and stepped up pressure on the U.S. leader in the final stretch of a tight presidential election campaign.
Meanwhile, Iran launched a submarine and a destroyer into the Gulf from Bandar Abbas port on Tuesday at the same time as U.S. and allied navies held exercises in the same waters to practice keeping oil-shipping lanes open.
Tehran has repeatedly threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a route for oil exports from the Gulf, if Iranian nuclear sites are attacked by Israel, which believes Tehran is trying to develop an atomic bomb.
The United States, Britain, France and a number of Middle Eastern states are conducting a naval exercise in the Gulf this week, focusing on how to clear mines that Tehran or guerilla groups might deploy to disrupt tanker traffic.
Iran's refitted Tareq-901 submarine and Sahand destroyer were launched on the direct orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official IRNA news agency reported.
On the other side of the country, Khamenei visited the northern coastal city of Nowshahr on Tuesday to watch naval cadets practice planting mines, freeing hijacked ships, destroying enemy vessels and jumping from helicopters, his official website said.
"The armed forces must reach capabilities such that no one can attack the strong fence of the country and the dear people of Iran," Khamenei told army commanders, according to the Iranian Students News Agency.
Iran's Tareq-class submarines are diesel-electric boats that were originally built in Russia in the early 1990s, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a non-profit organization that focuses on security affairs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Tehran was close to being able to build a nuclear bomb, fuelling speculation about an Israeli strike. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.
Publicly, Iranian military officials have sounded relaxed about the U.S. naval exercise.
"This exercise is a defensive exercise and we don't perceive any threats from it," Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told local media.
"We are not conducting exercises in response."
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