The Weapons Of Benghazi
BY Herschel Smith9 years, 3 months ago
In response to this piece Kris Paronto wrote me a nice note. He’s playing the long game, and I think he knows that we’ll eventually find out the truth – all of it. I’ll never tire of explaining as I have before that my military readers knew within 24 hours that this was the result of a well-planned, well-coordinated combined arms attack with the use of crew served weapons. It was no spontaneous riot and it wasn’t an accident. Again, we knew that virtually immediately, the administration talking points notwithstanding.
Now to what we’ve officially learned in the last several days.
On the third anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist attack, emails reviewed by Fox News raise significant questions about US government support for the secret shipment of weapons to the Libyan opposition.
During the Spring of 2011, as the Obama administration ramped up efforts to topple the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a licensed American arms dealer, Marc Turi, his business partner formerly with the CIA, senior US military officials in Europe and Africa as well as a former staffer for republican Senator John McCain considered logistics for arming the rebels, according to the emails exclusively obtained by Fox Business and Fox News.
Turi is facing federal trial this December on two counts that he allegedly violated the arms export control act by making false statements. Turi denies the charges, and alleges there was a rogue weapons operation run with the knowledge of Mrs. Clinton’s state department.
The email dated March 22, 2011 was sent by Admiral James Stavridis, when he was the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, from his government email account to Turi’s business partner David Manners.
The email was also copied to General Carter Ham, then head of the defense department’s Africa command. Stavridis vouches for Manners as a United States Naval Academy classmate and “former CIA Officer with deep connections throughout the near Middle East.”
Also copied on the email is Mike Kostiw who worked for Senator John McCain until February 2011 on the Senate Armed Services committee. It is not known from the emails reviewed by Fox whether the parties responded, or whether others were brought into the discussion.
Stavridis tells Manners “The person in charge of the operation from a US DoD perspective is General Carter Ham, the commander of AFRICOM…Clearly, what you are describing is a State Department lead.”
General Ham headed the effort logistically, while the entire idea was sponsored by the State Department. For his silence, General Ham was given a golden parachute.
I had previously said:
As to what I suspect – but cannot yet prove – the movement of weapons to terrorists was becoming hard to hide, and the whole operation had ripened to the point of rottenness. Stevens had to be moved out and told to shut up about what he knew. Even if the administration didn’t plan the military operation to take down the consulate at Benghazi, they nevertheless used it to hide their tracks.
The administration didn’t know how long the attack would last, and so there was certainly a QRF on the European continent that could have been sent, even if it turns out they would not have arrived in time to assist Stevens and the team with which you deployed, Kris. Furthermore, there could also have been air assets within theater that were brought to bear, and perhaps even another QRF closer than Europe.
General Ham – who quietly went into the night with no explanation – knows something. Leon Panetta knows something. General Petraeus knows something. No one is talking, but one day we will find out the truth of Benghazi, how a small team was left to perish because it was more expedient for the political life of the administration. One day we will know.
That day inches ever forward. Now I want to know where the QRF and air support was, and don’t tell me again that there wasn’t any except for a few Delta boys in Tripoli – it’s insulting. As for the Obama administration, it’s criminals in clown cars all the way down.