Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2015, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)
forces in regime change in Libya and Syria.
The pattern of regional destabilization followed a uniform template across each country that erupted into simultaneous armed revolt in February and March 2011. The Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Syria were all marked by a stage process: first, the "twitter factor", propaganda emanating from opposition exile groups abroad (most of it in France, UK and Qatar) and nearly simultaneous calls for "days of rage"; second stage, escalating violent street demonstrations and "third-force" sniping that killed both police and protesters. Final stage: splits and battles among factions of the security services. Sniping turned mass demonstrations into angry mobs that set fire to official buildings and looted government arsenals, triggering street battles that became the focus of global media coverage dominated by images of civilian casualties broadcast by Qatari state owned media. A recent Carnegie Endowment report acknowledges:
While Qatar and France are now known to have been actively engaged from the earliest days of the regional uprising, the US role remained largely in the background. The Ghadaffi government was actively engaged in dismantling its nuclear and chemical weapons stocks, and had largely repaired diplomatic relations with the United States after decades of tensions and several near-brushes with war.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/LibyaChronology As 2011 dawned, 28 foreign oil companies were operating in Libya, including Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Conoco, with production levels steadily rising. BP reached a joint offshore production agreement to begin drilling off the Libyan coast.
At the start of that same year, Kerry was actively wooing Syrian President Assad.
But that period of outward calm was to be shattered when the Petraeus-Clinton faction took control over MENA policy, and regime change was brought simultaneously to Syria, along with Libya and Tunisia. The project was most aggressively led by covert operators on the ground from France and Qatar, to a lesser extent involving the U.S., U.K., Saudi Arabia, UAE and Turkey in funding, coordination, propaganda and logistics and support. Ongoing programs run by CIA and State Dept. were ballooned, and there were a lot of meetings, but mostly Washington watched events unfold as third-force special forces units (mostly Qatari) led armed opposition in Libya and Syria. In March 2011, President Obama signed a classified "finding" coordinating efforts with Qatar and several other countries to overthrow Qaddafi.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/30/us-libya-usa-order-idUSTRE72T6H220110330 A similar directive was signed ordering covert operations in Syria.
In April, 2011, Chris Stevens arrived in Eastern Libya where he took a lead role in organizing opposition militia. At the time of Stevens death on September 12, 2012, Ghadaffi had been killed the previous October after retreating to his tribal homeland in Sirte, and the Libyan army had dissolved. Opposition militia were in charge of the rest of the country and arms stocks. By that stage, there was an active pipeline set up for Islamic fighters and looted Libyan heavy arms -- along with shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles (MANPADs) -- flowing into Syria by way of Turkey. That movement of MANPADs was first confirmed in a Times of London article published two days after the attack on the US compound in Benghazi. See,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/28/1137620/-Times-of-London-Shipload-of-Looted-Missiles-From-Libya-Arrives-in-Turkey#
The death of Stevens and the spread across the region of heavy arms and Jihadist Libyan fighters armed and trained by Qataris using Saudi and Gulf money forced President Obama to reconsider the policy. CIA Director Petraeus, who was confirmed in September 2011 to succeed Leon Panetta, resisted winding down the operation. In a showdown White House meeting the following October, Petraeus was supported by Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Panetta. Obama's decision to wind down what has been referred to as "Operation Zero Footprint" came after discussions with national security advisor Tom Donilon. The rift within the Administration was first made public during Senate hearings the following February. See,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/us/politics/panetta-speaks-to-senate-panel-on-benghazi-attack.html?_r=0 Petraeus' ongoing affair with his biographer was exposed, and Secretary Clinton's resignation graciously accepted after the Inauguration. The rest, as they say, is history.
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