U.S. Knows Benghazi’s Links With Al-Qaeda

The 2007 report found that the area leading from Benghazi to Tobruk passing through the city of Darnah was home to the highest concentration of terrorists, jihadis and suicide bombers—in the world.

[Speaking Truth To Power]

Who really are the Benghazi “rebels,” that Europe and Washington are giving aid and comfort too? Are there intolerant jihad extremists connected to Al-Qaeda amongst them?

At the start of this Libyan conflict, Colonel Muammar al-Quathafi claimed the armed insurrectionists, who some call “rebels,” from Benghazi, were working with Al-Qaeda. Western leaders, and more importantly the establishment media,
scoffed at his statements. However, ironically, al-Quathafi’s assertion has credibility—and proof from an unlikely source: a 2007 study produced at West Point Military Academy.

The aim of the West Point study, written by U.S. Army Colonel Joseph Felter and Brian Fishman, was to assess the nationality and background of foreign fighters, jihadis, or, mujahedin, including suicide bombers, who had trekked through the Syrian border, into Iraq between 2006 and 2007, to fight against American soldiers.

Colonel Felter is a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Fishman is a fellow, at both, the New America Foundation and at the Combating  Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

The data was analyzed from over 700 personnel files—that belonged to Al-Qaeda— but were seized by American military forces, in September, 2007, then, brought to West Point for analyses. The treasure trove of information, highlighting the national origin of the fighters, of Al-Qaeda was found in a desert encampment
outside the northwest Iraqi town of Sinjar.

The Sinjar records reveal some shocking realities about the area of Benghazi, where the so-called “rebels” are based. First, the report found that the area leading from Benghazi to Tobruk passing through the city of Darnah was home to the
highest concentration of terrorists, jihadis and suicide bombers—in the world.

The West Point report notes: “Both Darnah and Benghazi have long been associated with Islamic militancy in Libya,” and those who’ve been in heated “tribal” and theological conflict with the government of Colonel al-Quathafi.

Here it’s worth noting: Benghazi was home to the monarchy al-Quathafi replaced. Many in Benghazi have never forgiven him, especially, since he isn’t of “royal blood” arising from humble beginnings. The reports discusses former battles the al-Quathafi government had, in the mid-1990’s, with these very elements. Interestingly enough, the report lists Riyad, Saudi Arabia, in second place, in terms of terrorists per capita–but far behind the Benghazi area as a
hotbed for recruiting violent extremists.

The report reads “Both Darnah and Benghazi have long been associated with Islamic militancy in Libya, in particular for an uprising by Islamist organizations in the mid-1990s. The Libyan government blamed the uprising on “infiltrators from the Sudan and Egypt” and one group—the Libyan Fighting Group (jama-ah al-libiyah al-muqatilah)—claimed to have Afghan veterans in its ranks. The Libyan uprisings became extraordinarily violent.”

This astonishing study fits perfectly with the American diplomatic cables leaked to whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The leaks point out that many in Benghazi had received “religious and ideological training” in Afghanistan, among other
places. It also said “By contrast with the mosques in Tripoli and elsewhere in the country, where references to jihad are extremely rare, in Benghazi and Derna they are fairly frequent subjects.”

This Sinjar Report, done at West  Point, should stop this current debate dead in its track to arm these so-called “rebels.” How in the hell can the U.S. and the West justify arming Libya’s Al-Qaeda faction, which, most likely already has the
blood of dead American soldiers on their hands? This would be comical, if it weren’t for the lethal implications at work here.

What’s going on? Since someone around the White House must know this, why are they helping known terrorists—and thinking of arming them? What will the families of 9-11 victims think when they find out we’ve aided and abetted those
who’re in league with Al-Qaeda?

This information makes me wonder about the 1988 Lockerbie Bombing Case, when 270 people were killed when their plane was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland. Colonel al-Quathafi has long been damned by many who say he ordered the bombing, like his former foreign affairs minister who recently defected. Couldn’t this be indicative of the work of those who have similar views as those of Benghazi?

The worst condemnation here should be reserved for those in establishment journalism. Why isn’t this story plastered across every newspapers and being broadcast across the television and radio spectrum? Several of those media pillars, who we’re told represent “journalism’s finest,” have signed on to the outrage of Western warmongering intervention in Libya. A BBC reporter evenasked Senator John McCain “What are we going to do” about Quathafi?

How is it so-called “mainstream” media figures—those who we’re told are the legitimate journalistic exemplars—that have research assistants at their beck and call couldn’t find out something so astonishingly important?

But, alas, this is indicative of the same failure, by mainstream media, we saw during the lead-up to the Iraq invasion. The misery of the last decade could’ve been avoided if media did their jobs and searched out truth. Will corporate
media’s failure to do so here, again, lead us over a bloody cliff in Libya?

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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