Serious disquiet is growing in some Washington quarters over the foreign policy conducted by the Obama White House, particularly the alliance forged with al-Qaeda to overthrow the government of Libya, and now, the government of Syria, to be followed, of course, by Iran. Many fear that the policy of continuous war, besides bankrupting America, could lead to a world war, specifically a thermonuclear war.

The Obama Administration has tried to cover up the true facts about Benghazi and the murder of the American envoy and three members of the diplomatic staff. The policy of allying with al-Qaeda, and covering up that alliance and its consequences, is an impeachable offense. It violates the oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic”.

That is why, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hospitalized and could not attend the December 11 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, former UN envoy John Bolton accused her of faking illness to avoid giving testimony. Bolton said the manner in which Clinton’s illness was revealed ‘was not transparent’ and hence appeared to be a ‘diplomatic illness’ (Israeli intelligence later claimed that she met with an accident in Iran; see accompanying piece). Bolton’s charge was vehemently denied by the State Department. Clinton later wrote to the committee that she would respond to its questions in January. Diplomatic circles affirm that the White House was not exactly keen to make her testify.

The recent report issued by the Senate Homeland Security Committee states that DNI Clapper offered to provide the committee with a detailed timeline regarding the development of the talking points used by UN Ambassador Susan Rice, but failed to do so despite repeated requests. The timeline has reportedly not been delivered “because the Administration has spent weeks debating internally whether or not it should turn over information considered ‘deliberative’ to the Congress”. The President thus appears to be moving in the direction of covering up by asserting executive privilege regarding so-called ‘deliberative’ discussions.

The following fact sheet [updated Jan 1] presents available evidence from the public domain. A serious Congressional investigation would uncover far more.

The Case of Libya

The evidence in the case of Libya is overwhelming. Under the guise of humanitarian intervention, President Obama ordered American military forces to create a no-fly zone, provide close air cover for and approved the provision of weapons to al-Qaeda groupings to overthrow Muammar Qaddafi. This was in violation of the US Constitution and the War Powers Resolution.

The opposition in Libya was dominated by the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), created in the 1990s by Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who fought with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1992. (On Feb. 15, 2011, the LIFG changed its name to Libyan Islamic Movement for Change.) After Kabul fell in 1992, Belhadj moved to Sudan with Osama bin Laden.

In 1995, British MI6 approached the LIFG, many of whose leading members resided in the UK, to carry out a coup against Qaddafi. After the coup and four assassination attempts against Qaddafi failed, many members of the LIFG were jailed in the Abu Selim prison in Tripoli. Four leading members of the LIFG, who later participated in the overthrow of Qaddafi, escaped back to Afghanistan in 1998 where they provided training to al-Qaeda in camps situated in Jalalabad and Kabul.

Kronos Advisory LLC in its Dec. 16, 2011 report ‘A View to Extremist Currents in Libya’ reported that most LIFG fighters fought with bin Laden in Afghanistan and trained at the OBL-sponsored Torkham Camp on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. LIFG fighters played a critical role preparing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters for operations targeting Western forces.

A note contained in the 9/11 Commission Report reveals that the so-called mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Shaykh Mohammad, claimed to have provided members of the LIFG with computer training.

LIFG member Abu Anas al-Libi was indicted along with Osama bin Laden for the August 7, 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He is now believed to be operating clandestinely in Libya.

JTF-GTMO detainee assessments reveal the LIFG's guesthouse in Jalalabad, Afghanistan was visited by many prominent terrorists, including in 2000 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who later became the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In 2001, when the US invaded Afghanistan, Belhadj (who had returned to Afghanistan in 1998) fled to Tora Bora with Osama bin Laden. Sami al-Saadi, the spiritual leader of the LIFG, remained in Kabul to fight the US forces. Both eventually escaped. Two other LIFG members who later participated in the overthrow of Qaddafi were arrested by the Pakistanis and handed over to the US. They were Abul Hakim al-Hasadi and Abu Sufian bin Qumu, both originally from Derna, Libya. Al-Hasadi, who had fought for five years in Afghanistan, was sent back to Libya and jailed. When released in 2008, he recruited Libyans to join Al-Qaeda to fight the US in Iraq. Qumu was sent to Guantanamo until he was later returned to Abu Selim prison in Tripoli. He was released in 2010.

In 2004, Belhadj and Sami Al-Saadi were captured by the CIA in Bangkok, Thailand, and returned to Libya, where they were imprisoned in Abu Selim. This was shortly after Tony Blair had organized the recognition of Qaddafi by the West, saying that Qaddafi wanted to join the West in combating al-Qaeda. Al-Saadi, whom Taliban leader Mullah Omar once called the ‘Sheikh of the Arabs’, authored a plan to overthrow Qaddafi.

This plan was found in the home of Abd al-Rahman al-Faquih in Birmingham, UK, during a police raid in the middle of the last decade. Al-Faquih had been convicted in absentia by a Moroccan court for complicity in the May 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca. This same war plan would later be employed against Qaddafi, beginning in February 2011.

In March 2010, due to the intervention of Tony Blair, Saif Qaddafi (Muammar's son) announced the release of Belhadj and 233 other members of the LIFG from Abu Selim as part of a reconciliation of the Qaddafi government with the LIFG and the Muslim Brotherhood. The mediator in this effort, which began in 2005, was the Libyan, Muslim Brotherhood-linked, Qatari-based cleric Ali al-Sallabi. Less than a year after they were released, Belhadj and the other members of the LIFG became the core of the opposition to Qaddafi. According to the Wall Street Journal, bin Qumu began training jihadists in Derna in April of 2011.

LIFG Designated a Terrorist Organization

At the time of the operation to overthrow Qaddafi under the cover of a UN resolution, the LIFG was designated a terrorist group by the US State Department, UK Home Office, and United Nations Security Council.

On September 25, 2001, President Bush signed an executive order to freeze the LIFG's assets in the US. In December 2001, LIFG was added to the terrorism exclusion list. On December 8, 2004, LIFG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department. An excerpt from the US State Department report reads as follows:

“On November 3, 2007, senior Al Qaeda leaders announced that LIFG had officially joined al-Qaeda. Activities: Libyans associated with the LIFG are part of the broader international terrorist movement. The LIFG is one of the groups believed to have planned the Casablanca suicide bombing in May 2003. Spanish media in August 2005 linked Ziyad Hashem, an alleged member of the LIFG's media committee, as well as the imprisoned amir Abdallah al Sadeq (aka Belhaj), with Tunisian Islamist Serhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, the suspected ringleader in the 2004 Madrid attacks”.

According to Kronos Advisory LLC, in 2011, Belhadj admitted that he was called twice by Fakhet weeks before the Madrid bombings. He said he did not answer the phone, but called Fakhet's Jordanian business partner instead. The Spanish investigation named him a co-conspirator.

Excerpts from the UN resolution: “LIFG commanders, including Abu Yahya al-Liby and the now-deceased Abu al-Laith al-Liby, have occupied prominent positions within Al-Qaeda's senior leadership. On 3 November 2007, LIFG formally merged with al-Qaeda. The merger was announced via two video clips produced by Al-Qaeda's propaganda arm, Al-Sahab. The first clip featured Usama bin Laden's (QI.B.8.01) deputy, Aiman Muhammed Rabi al-Zawahiri (QI.A.6.01), and the second featured Abu Laith al-Liby, who then served as a senior member of LIFG and a senior leader and trainer for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan”.

Obama arms the Enemy

According to a Dec. 5, 2012 New York Times article, in the Spring of 2011 President Obama approved providing weapons by Qatar and the UAE to the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, led by Abdel Hakim Belhadj. According to a Wall Street Journal article on Oct. 17, 2011, 20,000 tons of weapons were provided not to the Transitional National Council, but directly to militias run by Belhadj in 18 shipments. A dozen other Qatari-funded shipments came to Libyan rebels allied with the LIFG via Sudan. The shipments continued in September even after the fall of Tripoli.

According to the New York Times article, Obama insisted that the weapons should not be weapons produced in the US so that they would not be traceable to the US. The newspaper says these weapons are now being shipped to Al-Qaeda in Syria and Mali. Most likely these weapons were used to kill Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans.

Perpetrators of the Benghazi Attack

Before Qaddafi was overthrown by the al-Qaeda affiliated LIFG, the military wing of the Transitional National Council (TNC) was initially run by Gen. Abd al-Fatah Yunis, but he was assassinated on July 28, 2011. Some believe the assassination was carried out by Ansar al-Sharia, headed by bin Qumu. According to Associated Press a deputy of Yunis, Mohammed Agoury, stated that the February 17 Brigade was behind the assassination.

Once Qaddafi was driven from Tripoli, the former emir of the LIFG, Belhadj, became the military commander of the Tripoli Military Council. The Benghazi Military Council was run by Ismael al-Sallabi, an ally of Belhadj and the brother of Ali al-Sallabi, spiritual leader of the revolution. In August 2011, Belhadj and Ismail al-Sallabi accompanied TNC Chairman Jalil to Qatar, where they met with the financiers of the revolution and NATO officials (Kronos Advisory LLC).

Three military brigades operating in the Benghazi area - Ansar al-Sharia, Libyan Shield, and the February 17 Brigade (the latter two in coordination with the Libyan Ministry of Defense) participated in the attack on the United States mission and a CIA annex in Benghazi, killing US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on the 11^th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. All three were the chief American combat allies in the drive to overthrow Qaddafi. All were linked to al-Qaeda which was held responsible for the Twin Towers attack.

Ansar al-Sharia, led by Abu Sufian bin Qumu, a former al-Qaeda Guantanamo detainee; the Libya Shield, which met the Marines who came from Tripoli at the airport and accompanied them to the CIA annex, led by Wisam bin Hamid, identified by the Library of Congress as possibly the head of al-Qaeda in Libya; and the February 17 Brigade, which provided security for the mission, led by Ismail Sallabi, are all run by the al-Qaeda-affiliated LIFG. The other organization implicated in the attack is the British-run Blue Mountain Group, a private security firm that employed Libyans.

Ansar al-Sharia

The leader of the Ansar al-Sharia (ASS) brigade in Benghazi and Derna that actually carried out the assault on the US mission and CIA annex in Benghazi on 9/11/12, is Sufian bin-Qumu. As the Senate Homeland Security Committee's report issued on Dec. 30, 2012 states: “The group took credit on its own Facebook page for the attack before later deleting the post”. The same report says individuals affiliated with Ansar al-Sharia were allegedly involved in storming the Tunisian consulate in Benghazi on June 18, 2012. According to his Guantanamo detainee assessment report, Qumu received monthly stipends from one of the financiers of the original 9/11/2001 attack:

“Detainee's alias is found on a list of probable Al-Qaida personnel receiving monthly stipends. His alias was found on al-Qaeda's 11 September attacks financier Mustafa Al Hawsawi's laptop as an Al-Qaeda member receiving family support”. Further, “Detainee is assessed as a former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a probable member of Al-Qaeda. The detainee is assessed as a MEDIUM to HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies.

“Prior history: he served as a tank driver in the Libyan armed forces as a private. The Libyan Government states he was addicted to illegal drugs/narcotics and had been accused of a number of crimes including murder, physical assault, armed assault and distributing narcotics. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In 1993 he escaped and fled eventually to Afghanistan and trained at Osama Bin Laden's Torkham Camp. After Afghanistan he moved to Sudan where he worked as a truck driver for one of OBL's companies. He joined the LIFG and was assigned to the military committee. He left Sudan, allegedly withdrew from the LIFG in 1998 and returned to Afghanistan. Captured in 2001, he was sent to Guantanamo”.

The report says he has admitted associations with al-Qaeda/LIFG facilitator  Ayyub Al Libi, Abu Abdullah al Sadiq (nom de guerre of Abdel Hakim Belhadj, LIFG leader), and Abu Al Munihir, a.k.a. Sami Al Saadi, who drew up the war plan to overthrow Qaddafi in the mid-2000s.

An August 2012 report from the Library of Congress, ”Al-Qaeda in Libya: A Profile”, reports that in June 2012, Ansar al Sharia held a demonstration in Benghazi attended by several other militias including Free Libya, which it reports is Libya Shield, and the al-Sahati Brigade, headed by Ismael al Sallabi. The Library of Congress report states these militias ‘probably make up the bulk of al-Qaeda's network in Libya’.

Libya Shield

The last signed diplomatic cable from Ambassador Stevens back to the State Department in Washington, dated Sept. 11, 2012 described a tense Sept. 9 meeting in Benghazi between US security officials and two leaders of Libya Shield, Wissam bin Hamid (misidentified as Wisam bin Ahmed) and Shaykh Muhammad al-Garabi, in which they argued that if the Muslim Brotherhood candidate for Prime Minister, Alwad al Barasi, should win, he would appoint the commander of the February 17 Brigade, Fawzi Bukatif, as Minister of Defense.

“Bukatif's appointment”, the memo says, “would open the MOD and other security ministries and offices to plum appointments for his most favored brigade commanders - giving February 17 and Libya Shield tacit control of the armed forces”. On the other hand, if Jibril, whom the US government was supporting, won, “they would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently providing”.

According to al-Fetn.com, Bin Hamid fought against American forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan before returning to the Benghazi-Derna area of eastern Libya to “ally” with Washington to overthrow and execute Qaddafi. The same al-Fetn.com reported in late October 2011 that bin Hamid became the head of a newly formed “supreme board of the Libyan mujahideen.”

The Library of Congress notes that bin Hamid is widely identified as the actual head of al-Qaeda in Libya. He also held a demonstration in Sirte in March 2012, which was attended by the head of al-Qaeda in Maghreb in Sahel, Mokhtar ben Mokhtar. Yet, his Libya Shield militia was entrusted with security for the US mission in Benghazi, and the Sept. 9, 2012 meeting likely gave the group the travel plans of Ambassador Stevens, who arrived in Benghazi on Sept. 10 for a scheduled several-day visit. According to the Senate Homeland Security Committee report, US Government security personnel who arrived at the Benghazi airport from Tripoli were delayed for at least three hours by Libya Shield. “The exact cause of this hours-long delay, and its relationship to the rescue effort, remains unclear and merits further inquiry.”

The reports asks: “Was it part of a plot to keep American help from reaching the Americans under siege in Benghazi?” The attack on the CIA annex only began after Libyan Shield fighters escorted a Marine rescue team from the airport to the location hours after the initial attack on the US mission where Ambassador Stevens was killed.

February 17 Brigade

According to Joan Neuhaus Schaan, a fellow in Homeland Security and Terrorism at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, the February 17 Brigade, which provided security for the US Mission in Benghazi, was founded by Ismail Sallabi, a known member of al-Qaeda and the LIFG. Both the Kronos Advisory LLC report  of Dec. 16, 2011 and a Brookings Doha Center policy briefing dated May 2012, entitled “Libyan Islamists Unpacked: Rise, Transformation, and Future,” also report that Sallabi heads the February 17 Brigade based in Benghazi.

On Sept. 16, 2011 the Guardian identified Sallabi as the head of the Benghazi Military Council, counterpart to the Tripoli Military Council led by Abdel Hakim Belhadj. According to Al Arabiya News, the commander of the February 17 brigade is Fawzi Bukatif.

According to al-Hayat, Belhadj was in Benghazi in April 2011, where he helped organize the February 17 Brigade. Included in the security force for the Benghazi mission proper, were four members of the February 17 Brigade, described by a State Department source as “a friendly militia which has basically been deputized by the Libyan government to serve as our security, our host government security.” An additional 16 militia members were part of the quick-reaction security team based at the CIA compound described as the mission's “annex.”

Ismael al-Sallabi (brother of Libya's leading Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamist, Ali al-Sallabi) also leads the Martyr Rafallah Sahati Brigade, which began as a battalion of the February 17 Brigade. The Brigade's commander, Shaykh Muhammad al-Garabi who is also associated with Libya Shield, met with US officials on Sept. 9, along with Wisam ben Hamid of the Libya Shield.

The State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) report questions whether the February 17 Brigade guards at the US mission ever alerted the February 17 Brigade barracks less than 2 km away from the mission about the attack. The Senate Homeland Security Committee report notes that US annex personnel attempted to contact the February 17 Brigade to ask for assistance upon being notified about the attack on the mission. When they left for the mission they made a second attempt to contact the February 17 Brigade. Both attempts were of no avail.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee report states that “US Department of State personnel were concerned about the involvement of members of the February 17 Brigade in the extrajudicial detention of US diplomatic personnel in at least one incident in Benghazi.... Some US personnel also questioned the Brigade's loyalty to the Libyan government and their capacity or desire to safeguard American interests.”

Moreover, the contract between the State Department and the February 17 Brigade had expired by the time of the attack. On August 29, 2012, the principal US diplomatic officer in Benghazi wrote that “In early September, a member of the February 17 Brigade told another Regional Security Officer in Benghazi that it could no longer support US personnel movements. The RSO also asked specifically if the militia could provide additional support for the Ambassador's pending visit and was told no.”

Blue Mountain Group

The Blue Mountain Group, a British security firm that hired local Libyans is also suspect. The ARB report indicates no guards were present outside the compound immediately before the attack ensued and that a member of the Blue Mountain contingent responsible for guarding the perimeter may have left a gate open, allowing the assailants to gain access to the mission facility unimpeded. The Senate Homeland Security Committee report indicates: “After an improvised explosive device (IED) was thrown over the wall of the US facility in Benghazi on April 7, 2012,... a spot report on the day of the event stated that shortly after the event two individuals were questioned. The suspects included one current and one former guard employed by Blue Mountain Group.”

The United Kingdom is known to have been a safe-haven for the LIFG throughout the 1990s and up until October 2005 when the UK finally designated it as a terrorist organization. In October 2001, the Bush administration provided Libya with the names of Libyan militants living in the UK. On February 8, 2006, the US Treasury Department designated five individuals and four entities including the Sanabel Relief Agency, based in the UK for their roles in financing the LIFG. On October 30, 2008, the US Treasury Department designated three additional UK-based individuals for raising funds for the LIFG. According to the Treasury Department's press release regarding the designations, the UK “is the greatest source of funding for the LIFG.”

Abdel Hakim Belhadj

Any serious investigation of Benghazi must look closely at the role of Abdel Hakim Belhadj, emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and, after Qaddafi’s overthrow, commander of the Tripoli Military Council. As such, he was given responsibility, as of Aug. 30, 2011, for the security of all foreign embassies in Tripoli, including the US Embassy, until he stepped down as commander of the TMC to form his own political party (Watan) in May 2012. He was also put in charge of coordinating defense on a national level.

On Nov. 17, 2012, the Saudi-based publication Arab News published an article by Ali Bluwi, reporting that the attack on the Benghazi mission was carried out in revenge for the killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi, a senior Libyan member of al-Qaeda, killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan in June 2012. The article said US Ambassador Chris Stevens “prevented Abdel Hakim Belhadj from assuming the portfolio of defense or interior in Libya.”

Further, according to former Muslim Brotherhood member Walid Shoebat, Belhadj is the al-Qaeda operative that Libyan expatriates claim was the principal organizer who directed the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

On May 31, 1997, the LIFG published a letter of support to Omar Abdal Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his involvement in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. In this letter, LIFG emir Belhadj warned the “tyrant Americans” to take heed of the growing anger among Muslims. Both an attack on the International Committee for the Red Cross Red Crescent in Benghazi on May 22, 2012 and the attack on the US mission in Benghazi on June 6, 2012 were claimed by the Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

Al-Qaeda in Syria

While Belhadj was commander of the Tripoli Military Council, he deployed on behalf of Obama, the British Empire, and Saudi Arabia, to provide al-Qaeda military personnel, training and weapons in the attempt to overthrow the Syrian government. Numerous news sources, including the Daily Telegraph, have reported that in November 2011, less than a month after the assassination of Qaddafi on October 20, Belhadj traveled to Turkey to meet with the Syrian Free Army, to provide it with training and weapons to overthrow Assad. Belhadj's trip to Turkey was supported by the head of the Transitional National Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil.

According to Albawaba.com and thetruthseeker.co.uk, that same month some 600 LIFG terrorists from Libya entered Syria and began military operations. The individual who leads the Libyan fighters is Mahdi al-Harati, now head of the Liwa al-Ummah Brigade in Syria. According to an Aug. 9, 2012 article in Foreign Policy magazine by Mary Fitzgerald, entitled “The Syrian Rebels' Libyan Weapon,” al-Harati is a Libyan-born Irish citizen, who was a commander of the Tripoli Brigade run by Belhadj during the overthrow of Qaddafi.

The Tripoli Brigade was one of the first rebel units to enter the Libyan capital in August 2011. After Tripoli was taken by the rebels, al-Harati was appointed deputy head of the Tripoli Military Council, serving under Abdel Hakim Belhadj. In late 2011, Harati stepped down as commander of the Tripoli Brigade and as deputy head of the Tripoli Military Council, and left for Syria.

According to Harati, more than 6,000 men across Syria have joined Liwa al-Ummah since its establishment; 90% of its members are Syrians, the rest are Libyans, mostly former members of the Tripoli Brigade and a smattering of other Arabs. According to Reuters, Liwa al-Ummah includes 20 senior members of the Tripoli Brigade.

According to documents obtained and released by former Muslim Brotherhood member Walid Shoebat, an array of records provided to Libyan expatriates from sources inside the Libyan government establish that al-Qaeda operatives in Libya are facilitating the passage of jihadists through Libya to Syria. Specifically, Abdul Wahhab Hassan Qayad, a leading member of the LIFG whose brother, al-Qaeda leader Yahya al-Libi, was killed in Pakistan in June 2012 by a US drone attack, now works in the Libyan Interior Ministry where he is in charge of Border Control and Strategic Institutions. The position allows him to arrange open-border passage for al-Qaeda operatives, facilitating not only the flow of terrorists into Libya, but also al-Qaeda efforts to transport terrorists and weapons into Syria from Libya via Turkey.

Benghazi Attack Precursor to Al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood Coup

On September 12, Mahmoud Jibril was defeated in his quest to become Prime Minister by Mustafa Abushagur by two votes, and the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Alwad al Barasi, became deputy prime minister. When Abushagur failed to gain approval for his proposed cabinet, he was voted out as Prime Minister on Oct. 7. He was replaced by Ali Zeidan whose proposed cabinet was approved on Oct. 31. Half of the cabinet members are now members of the National Forces Alliance and half selected by the Muslim Brotherhood Justice and Construction Party. Thus, the Muslim Brotherhood has succeeded in gaining a major foothold in the new government of Libya just as it has done in Egypt and threatens to do elsewhere due to the deliberate policy of the Obama Administration, the British Empire, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

On September 24, Fawzi Bukatif, commander of the February 17 Brigade, and Ismail al-Sallabi, founder of the February 17 Brigade and also head of the al-Sahati Brigade, were relieved of their commands and replaced by Army colonels.

On November 20, Colonel Faraj Drissi, the Benghazi security chief appointed after the attack on the US Benghazi mission, was assassinated outside his home. On Dec. 16 a senior police source informed the Libya Herald that the suspected assassin, who had been detained by police, identified seven prominent Islamists in connection with the assassination and related attacks. The most significant are: Sufyan ben Qumu, head of Ansar al-Sharia, and Rafallah al-Sahati chiefs Mohammed al-Garabi and Ismael al-Sallabi. Libya's new Interior Minister, Ashour Shuwail, stepped in on Dec. 20 to deny that those named, including Ismail al-Sallabi and the group Ansar Al-Sharia, were being sought in relation to the events in Benghazi. Al-Garabi denied any involvement and Ismael al-Sallabi, speaking from Turkey, also claimed innocence.

Meanwhile, in the capital city of Tripoli, the Libyan military tribunal investigating the assassination of General Abdel Fattah Younis near the city of Benghazi on July 28, 2011, issued a summons to former National Transitional Council (NTC) leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil, ally of Belhadj. Tripoli militia forces immediately blocked roads for three days to protest the court's summoning of Jalil. As a result, the tribunal announced that it was abandoning its inquiry.

What Must Be Done

As many members of the House Foreign Relations Committee pointed out in recent hearings, the issue is the policy of the Obama administration which contributed to causing the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi, and if continued in respect to Syria, threatens to bring the world to the brink of thermonuclear war. Congressional demands for the creation of a select committee to get to the bottom of the Benghazi 9/11/12 attacks must begin with a thorough airing of the ongoing alliance between the Obama White House and al-Qaeda.

This is urgent because in using al-Qaeda to overthrow Assad in Syria, the British Empire, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Obama are pushing the world to the edge of a thermonuclear war with Russia and China. The crimes of Obama are a result of having allied with known enemies of the United States of America. As RSO officer Eric Nordstrom testified before the House Oversight Committee in October 2012: “In my view, the Taliban is inside the building.”

Designating al-Nusra in Syria as a terrorist organization is just a fig leaf.  As reported in the September 11 memo sent by Ambassador Stevens to Washington, Wisam bin Hamid and al-Garabi told US officials on Sept. 9 “fluid relationships and blurry lines” define membership in the brigades in Benghazi. “They themselves were members of multiple brigades, they said.” The same is true in Syria – the entire Syrian opposition is dominated by al-Qaeda.