NY Times Benghazi Bombshell: Attack spurred by anti-Islam Video

[OnyxCollie]

25. It's not the first time the Times defended the status quo.

Saying that the attack was blowback for a torture/assassination program casts a bad light on the administration. Better to say that it was simply those crazy Mooslims gettin' all worked up 'cause someone made fun of their god.

Nothing to see here. Move along now...

SUBJECT: CODEL MCCAIN MEETS MUAMMAR AND MUATASSIM AL-QADHAFI
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/08/09TRIPOLI677.html#

CLASSIFIED BY: Joan Polaschik, Charge d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy
Tripoli, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)
¶1. (C) CODEL McCain discussed security, counterterrorism, and
civil-nuclear cooperation during August 14 meetings with Libyan
leader Muammar al-Qadhafi and his son, National Security Advisor
Muatassim al-Qadhafi, stressing the need for Libya to fulfill
its WMD-related commitments and to approve a Section 505
end-user agreement in order to move forward on bilateral
military and civil-nuclear engagement. While Muatassim
al-Qadhafi reiterated long-standing Libyan requests for security
assurances from the United States and emphasized Libya's
interest in the purchase of U.S. lethal and non-lethal military
equipment, Muammar al-Qadhafi was notably silent on these
subjects. The elder Qadhafi made a point of expressing his
satisfaction with the improved U.S relationship and his hope
that the relationship would continue to flourish. CODEL
McCain's discussion of the Megrahi case was reported ref A. End
summary.

THE MEETING

¶2. (SBU) CODEL McCain (R-Az), including Senator Joe Lieberman
(I-CT), Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senator Susan Collins
(R-SC) and Senate Armed Services Committee Staffer Richard
Fontaine held back-to-back meetings August 14 with Libyan
National Security Advisor Muatassim al-Qadhafi and Libyan leader
Muammar Al-Qadhafi. Libyan officials NSC Director Dr. Hend
Siala, MFA Department of Americas Secretary Ahmed Fituri and MFA
Office of Americas Director Mohamed Matari also attended the
meetings, as did Charge and Pol/Econ Chief (notetaker).

MUATASSIM MEETING SECURITY FOCUSED

¶3. (C) Characterizing the overall pace of the bilateral
relationship as excellent, CODEL McCain opened its August 14
meeting with National Security Advisor Muatassim al-Qadhafi by
noting the drastic change that the relationship had undergone
over the last five years. "We never would have guessed ten
years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by
a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi," remarked Senator Lieberman. He
stated that the situation demonstrated that change is possible
and expressed appreciation that Libya had kept its promises to
give up its WMD program and renounce terrorism. Lieberman
called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting
that common enemies sometimes make better friends. The Senators
recognized Libya's cooperation on counterterrorism and conveyed
that it was in the interest of both countries to make the
relationship stronger. They encouraged Libya to sign the Highly
Enriched Uranium transfer agreement by August 15 in order to
fulfill its obligation to transfer its nuclear spent fuel to
Russia for treatment and disposal. [Note: The Libyan Government
subsequently informed us of its intent to sign the agreement on
August 17 and has begun taking good-faith steps to do so

4.(C) Muatassim welcomed the high-level visit, describing it as a good sign for the relationship - a relationship that Libya wants to develop. He explained to the Senators the recent requests that the National Security Council had made to procure defense equipment. He stated that there were three categories of requests: one which was approved by the USG, another which awaited congressional approval, and a third which waited USG agreement. He reiterated the refrain he conveyed to Secretary Clinton during his April visit (ref C) -- Libya has not been adequately rewarded for its decision to give up WMD and needed some sort of security assurance from the United States. He emphasized the need for Libya to purchase U.S. non-lethal equipment in order to enhance its defense posture.

Libya/US: Investigate Death of Former CIA Prisoner
http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/05/11/libyaus-investigate-death-former-cia-prisoner

(New York) – The Libyan authorities should carry out a full and transparent investigation of the reported suicide of the Libyan prisoner Ali Mohamed al-Fakheri, also known as Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, Human Rights Watch said today. Al-Libi, who was held in secret US and Egyptian detention from late 2001 to at least 2005, was found dead in his cell in Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Human Rights Watch spoke with him briefly in the Tripoli prison on April 27, though he refused to be interviewed.

After his arrest in Pakistan in late 2001, al-Libi was sent by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to Egypt in 2002, under the procedure known as “rendition.” According to a CIA declassified cable and a US Senate report, he was tortured in Egypt and gave false information about a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda that Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, used in his speech to the UN Security Council on the planned war with Iraq. Al-Libi was later held by the CIA in a series of secret prisons in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

~snip~

Al-Libi was returned from US custody to Libya in late 2005 or early 2006 and was detained at Abu Salim prison. The Abu Salim prison authorities told Human Rights Watch in April 2009 that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the State Security Court, a court whose trial proceedings fail to conform to international fair trial standards.

Human Rights Watch briefly met with al-Libi on April 27 during a research mission to Libya. He refused to be interviewed, and would say nothing more than: “Where were you when I was being tortured in American jails.” Human Rights Watch has strongly condemned the CIA’s detention program and documented how detainees in CIA custody were abused, but, like other human rights groups, was never granted access to prisoners in CIA custody.

Was Benghazi Killing of Ambassador Stevens, 3 Others "Blowback" for Secret U.S. Assassinations?
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/1/was_deadly_benghazi_killing_of_ambassador

JACK MURPHY: Sure. There’s a number of different contributing factors that led to these attacks. When we start to talk about the blowback effect, we do also have to understand that this was a group of people, the Ansar al-Sharia militia, that wasn’t particularly fond of Americans to begin with. There was a large number of foreign fighters, these international jihadists, who were amongst that group the night of the attack. But what hasn’t been talked about very much in the media is that there were covert operations being run inside Libya, targeted killings against militia members, al-Qaeda-affiliated personnel, also involving securing weapons that had fallen into the militia hands, that we didn’t want them to have in the post-war Libya that was destabilizing the Libyan transitional government. But there were a series of operations over the course of the summer and even that week of September in the run-up to the attack.

AMY GOODMAN: U.S. government allies were also assassinated, were killed.

JACK MURPHY: You’re talking about the British embassy that was attacked?

AMY GOODMAN: No, I was talking about what led up—what so angered the Libyans as they were moving—as we were moving into September 11th of that year.

JACK MURPHY: Well, allegedly, there was even a CIA asset that was targeted and killed in that first week of September prior to the attack.

AMY GOODMAN: By who? Killed by?

JACK MURPHY: By the United States military, by special operations personnel.

AMY GOODMAN: A CIA asset killed by U.S. personnel.

JACK MURPHY: Allegedly. And this phenomena has happened previously in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to prove for certain that this individual was an asset, but you can only imagine what’s going through the heads of the militia members as they feel that they’re working hand in hand with the Americans and then all of a sudden the Americans kill one of their people. And this was—this was definitely one of the events that led to the special operations forces actually kicking up the hornets’ nest in Libya, and it was a contributing factor that led to the attack in Benghazi.