Critical Observer

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The latest brilliant plan to curtail Isis in the Middle East? Give more weapons to current members of al-Qaida. The Daily Beast reported that former CIA director David Petraeus, still somehow entrenched in the DC Beltway power circles despite leaking highly classified secrets, is now advocating arming members of the al-Nusra Front in Syria, an offshoot of al-Qaida and a designated terrorist organization. Could there be a more dangerous and crazy idea?<br />
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Petraeus was forced to respond on Tuesday, the day after his article provoked a firestorm, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that he doesn’t want to arm al-Nusra itself, just “some individual fighters, and perhaps some elements, within Nusra”. He thinks the US could somehow “peel off” these fighters and convince to join the much weaker rebel army that al-Nusra recently decimated. Oh okay, then. He’s in favor of arming only the “moderate” members of al-Qaida: that sounds so much better.<br />
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Let’s put aside for a second that there’s not much difference between arming al-Nusra and arming “some individual fighters, and perhaps some elements, within Nusra.” How the US can possibly “peel off” fighters from a terrorist group is a complete mystery. In Iraq – Petraeus is apparently using part of the largely failed Iraq “surge” as his blueprint here – he convinced some Sunni tribes to switch sides temporarily, but that was with over 100,000 US troops on the ground to do the convincing. Does Petraeus think we should invade Syria to accomplish the same feat?<br />
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The idea that we should add more weapons to the equation, let alone give them to militants who the US considers terrorists, is preposterous at this point. Depressingly, escalating our involvement is the dominant talking point in Washington’s foreign policy circles these days.<br />
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History could not matter less to war planners, as the dangerous cycle of arming dangerous factions in the Middle East and escalating US involvement is about to start anew. The CIA armed the Mujahideen in the 1980s in their guerilla fight against the Soviets, many members of the Mujahideen would end up forming the core of al-Qaida in the 1990s.<br />
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Isis, which was originated inside squalid US prison camps from George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq, and which also has billions of dollars in US weapons and armored vehicles thanks to a series of embarrassing mistakes and battlefield routes of all the foreign militaries we arm, eventually turned on al-Qaida. So now an ex-CIA director is suggesting that we also arm a part of al-Qaida directly, since they are now the enemy of our (larger) enemy.<br />
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Remember that one of the reasons the US claimed it could go ahead and bomb Syria without any congressional authorization in the first place was because of the allegedly ultra-dangerous “Khorasan Group” which was a group of supposed terrorist masterminds within al-Nusra, and that the US was in “imminent” danger from this previously non-existent group. The US has continued to target with al-Nusra with missiles in recent months.<br />
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Continually ignored in the debate over arming Syrian rebels, is that the CIA itself produced a study that concluded that arming any rebel force, whether they are a notorious terrorist group or not, is generally a bad idea. The study found that most of the time such attempts either fail spectacularly or backfire in the face of the US, even if they initially succeed. This study, which is still classified, was apparently disregarded by the Obama administration and there’s no proof Congress even saw it when voted to arm the “moderate” rebels in the first place.<br />
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There’s also the much larger question over the Obama administration’s continued refusal to require a war authorization from Congress. As the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui first pointed out, how could this half-baked plan possibly square with the administration’s already-absurd theory that the declaration of war against al-Qaida allows them to indefinitely go to war with Isis as well?<br />
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Petraeus is likely not the only one who thinks this plan to work with and arm members of the al-Nusra front is a good idea. There are probably many faceless officials and spooks who are pushing the same agenda in Washington, but Petraeus is the only one with enough clout to go ahead and say it out loud (since we already know he is above the law). Now you can expect a bunch of fresh hot takes explaining how Petraeus is right and we should be arming al-Qaida.

Petraeus: Arm Al-Qaida. Al-Nusra Terrorists

The latest brilliant plan to curtail Isis in the Middle East? Give more weapons to current members of al-Qaida. The Daily Beast reported ...

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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Benghazi attack could have been prevented if US hadn't 'switched sides in the War on Terror' and allowed $500 MILLION of weapons to reach al-Qaeda militants, reveals damning report</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Citizens Committee on Benghazi claims the US government allowed arms to flow to al-Qaeda-linked militants who opposed Muammar Gaddafi</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their rise to power, the group says, led to the Benghazi attack in 2012</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">The group claims the strongman Gaddafi offered to abdicate his presidency, but the US refused to broker his peaceful exit</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">The commission, part of the center-right Accuracy In Media group, concluded that the Benghazi attack was a failed kidnapping plot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">US Ambassador Chris Stevens was to be captured and traded for 'blind sheikh' Omar Abdel-Rahman, who hatched the 1993 WTC bombing plot</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented – if the U.S. hadn't been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'The United States switched sides in the war on terror with what we did in Libya, knowingly facilitating the provision of weapons to known al-Qaeda militias and figures,' Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told MailOnline.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">She blamed the Obama administration for tacitly approving the diversion of half of a $1 billion Qatari arms shipment to al-Qaeda-linked militants.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Remember, these weapons that came into Benghazi were permitted to enter by our armed forces who were blockading the approaches from air and sea,' Lopez claimed. 'They were permitted to come in. ... [They] knew these weapons were coming in, and that was allowed..  </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The intelligence community was part of that, the Department of State was part of that, and certainly that means that the top leadership of the United States, our national security leadership, and potentially Congress – if they were briefed on this – also knew about this.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The weapons were intended for Gaddafi but allowed by the U.S. to flow to his Islamist opposition.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="The Citizens Committee on Benghazi released its interim findings on April 22, 2014 in Washington. Pictured are (L-R) Clare Lopez, Admiral (Ret.) Chuck Kubic, Admiral (Ret.) James 'Ace' Lyons, former CIA officer Wayne Simmons and civil rights attorney John Clarke" class="blkBorder img-share" height="419" id="i-a7de0e5e" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D4500E400000578-425_634x419.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Citizens Committee on Benghazi released its interim findings on April 22, 2014 in Washington. Pictured are (L-R) Clare Lopez, Admiral (Ret.) Chuck Kubic, Admiral (Ret.) James 'Ace' Lyons, former CIA officer Wayne Simmons and civil rights attorney John Clarke</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="On September 11, 2012 armed terror-linked militias attacked U.S. diplomatic outposts in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans and driving the United States out of that part of the country" class="blkBorder img-share" height="419" id="i-a72a0e54" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D4511C000000578-131_634x419.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On September 11, 2012 armed terror-linked militias attacked U.S. diplomatic outposts in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans and driving the United States out of that part of the country</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'The White House and senior Congressional members,' the group wrote in an interim report released Tuesday, 'deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that provided material support to terrorist organizations in order to topple a ruler [Muammar Gaddafi] who had been working closely with the West actively to suppress al-Qaeda.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Some look at it as treasonous moves,' said Wayne Simmons, a former CIA officer who participated in the commission's research. 'And our men and women had to follow what many purport as, qualify as treasonous moves.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Retired Rear Admiral Chuck Kubic, one of the commission's sources, told reporters Tuesday that those weapons are now 'all in Syria.'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Gaddafi wasn't a good guy, but he was being marginalized,' Kubic recalled. 'Gaddafi actually offered to abdicate' shortly after the beginning of a 2011 rebellion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'But the U.S. ignored his calls for a truce,' the commission wrote, ultimately backing the horse that would later help kill a U.S. ambassador.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kubic said that the effort at truce talks fell apart when the White House declined to let the Pentagon pursue it seriously. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'We had a leader who had won the Nobel Peace Prize,' Kubic said, 'but who was unwilling to give peace a chance for 72 hours.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In March 2011, Kubic said, U.S. Army Africa Commander General Carter Ham told NBC News that the U.S. military was not actively targeting Muammar Gaddafi. That, Kubic revealed, was a signal to the Libyan dictator that there was a chance for a deal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gaddafi responded by 'verifiably ... pull[ing] his forces back from key rebel-held cities such as Benghazi and Misrata.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Christopher Stevens served as the U.S. Ambassador to Libya from June 2012 to September 11, 2012 when he was killed in the attack" class="blkBorder img-share" height="444" id="i-a8880e65" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D4511C800000578-835_634x444.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Christopher Stevens served as the U.S. Ambassador to Libya from June 2012 to September 11, 2012 when he was killed in the attack</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 23 that it mattered little why the Benghazi diplomatic compound was attacked: 'What difference, at this point, does it make?'" class="blkBorder img-share" height="442" id="i-ab190e79" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D2DD85600000578-573_634x442.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Honorable? Far from it. Elite Criminal Kingping is more appropriate.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January 23 that it mattered little why the Benghazi diplomatic compound was attacked: 'What difference, at this point, does it make?'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gaddafi wanted only two conditions to step down: permission to keeo fighting al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the lifting of sactions against him, his family, and those loyal to him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Obama administration's unwillingness to help broker a peaceful exit for the Libyan strongman, 'led to extensive loss of life (including four Americans)' when al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities in the city of Benghazi,' the commission told reporters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The White House and the National Security Staff did not immediately respond to questions about the group's findings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'We don't claim to have all the answers here,' said Roger Aronoff, whose center-right group <a href="http://www.aim.org/aim-column/material-support-to-terrorism-the-case-of-libya/" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Accuracy in Media</a> sponsored the group and its work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'We hope you will, please, pursue this,' he told reporters. 'Check it out. Challenge us.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Retired Admiral Chuck Kubic said the White House refused to let the Pentagon pursue a peaceful exit for Muammar Gaddafi: 'We had a leader who had won the Nobel Peace Prize, but who was unwilling to give peace a chance for 72 hours'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The commission and AIM filed 85 document requests under the Freedom Of Information Act, hitting the Department of Defense, State Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency with demand after demand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But most of its information has come from insiders with deep knowledge of the flow of weapons in Libya and elsewhere in the African Maghreb.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Admiral James 'Ace' Lyons told the group that he believes the raid on the Benghazi compound was intended as a kidnapping exercise, aimed at snatching U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and demanding a prisoner swap for the 'blind sheikh' Omar Abdel-Rahman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Abdel-Rahman is serving a life sentence in federal prison for planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center garage in New York City. He also masterminded a plan, later foiled, to blow up the United Nations, both the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building where the FBI had a base of operations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A senior FBI source, Lyons said Tuesday, 'told me that was the plan.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The attack, history shows, grew in intensity and resulted in the deaths of Stevens and three other U.S. personnel. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lyons also said U.S. claims that it lacked the resources to mount a counterattack in time to save lives is false. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'I'm going to tell you that's not true,' he said. 'We had a 130-man unit of forces at Sigonella [AFB in Italy]. They were ready to go.' </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The flight time from Sigonella to Benghazi is roughly an hour.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Killed: An image captured by a cellular phone camera shows the arrest of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte, Libya on October 20, 2011" class="blkBorder img-share" height="470" id="i-a8ce0e6a" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D45118C00000578-886_634x470.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Killed: An image captured by a cellular phone camera shows the arrest of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte, Libya on October 20, 2011</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Former CIA officer Clare Lopez accused the U.S. government of allowing arms to flow to al-Qaeda militants who opposed Gaddafi in 2011, 'switching sides in the war on terror'" class="blkBorder img-share" height="450" id="i-ac4a0e85" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/22/article-2610598-1D44FFE000000578-574_634x450.jpg" width="634" /></span><div class="imageCaption">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Former CIA officer Clare Lopez accused the U.S. government of allowing arms to flow to al-Qaeda militants who opposed Gaddafi in 2011, 'switching sides in the war on terror'</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of the group's claims strain credibility, including the assertion that the Obama administration's early effort to blame the Benghazi attack on a protest against a crude anti-Muslim YouTube video 'appears to have been well-coordinated with U.S.Muslim Brotherhood organizations as well as Islamic state members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those groups, the commission noted, 'all joined in condemnation of the video, and, even more troubling, issued calls for restrictions on Americans’ free speech rights.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But Simmons, the former CIA officer, criticized the Obama administration on the familiar refrain of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exclaiming in a Senate hearing that it mattered little why the Benghazi facilities were struck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'They believed they were going to be saved, that they were going to be rescued, but they weren't,' Simmons said of the four Americans who died.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'I know who made the decision, in my heart of hearts, to leave our war fighters there and be blown up. And then to have one of the most powerful politicians in our country sit there and say, "What difference does it make?" – should be an alarm bell for all Americans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'It haunts me,' Simmons said. 'I play that line over, and over, and over, and over in my mind.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The group has called for a Select Congressional Committee to investigate the Benghazi episode. A total of 189 House members have signed on to a bill that would create the committee, which would be bipartisan and have sweeping powers to subpoena the executive branch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">House Speaker John Boehner, Lopez said Tuesday, 'he blocked it. One has to wonder if he and Congress have had some sort of briefing on what happened.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kubic insisted that Congress is unable to break logjams in the Obama administration and find out what happened in the days leading up to and following the Benghazi attack without a new committee.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">'If they don't have strong subpoena power, if they don't have the ability to do long-term cross examination, it won't work,' he said.</span></div>
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By David Martosko, U.S. Political Editor, Daily Mail</div>
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REPORT: US Switched Sides in 'War on Terror'. Funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Benghazi attack could have been prevented if US hadn't 'switched sides in the War on Terror' and allowed $500 MILLION of weap...

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Petraeus: Arm Al-Qaida. Al-Nusra Terrorists

REPORT: US Switched Sides in 'War on Terror'. Funding ISIS and Al-Qaeda

Yemen officials say al-Qaida seizes key areas of Aden