Dark Forces: The Truth About What Happened in Benghazi (43 page)

11
  U.S. Department of State, Daily Briefing for Jan. 4, 2011.

12
  The White House, “Previewing the Upcoming State Visit of President Hu of China,” Briefing by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Jan. 14, 2011. A search of the White House Press Office website finds only a dozen or so mentions of “Tunisia” before this date, none of them related to the disturbances.

13
  Josh Gerstein, “Has Obama been riding Mubarak over rights?”
Politico
, Jan. 28, 2011.

14
  Craig Whitlock, “U.S. reexamining its relationship with Muslim Brotherhood opposition group,”
Washington Post
, Feb. 2, 2011.

15
  Robert Spencer, “Barack Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood,”
FrontPage Magazine
, Feb. 2, 2011, http://www.aina.org/news/20110203104344.htm.

16
  George Soros, “Why Obama has to get Egypt right,”
Washington Post
, Feb. 3, 2011.

17
  “Qaradawi Guards Ban Google’s Wael Ghonim from Cairo Stage,”
Middle East Online
, Feb. 18, 2011, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=44456.

18
  U.S. Department of State, “Congressional Budget Justification—Summary Tables for Fiscal Year 2012.” See also Marjorie Ann Brown, “United Nations System Funding,” Congressional Research Service, Jan. 15, 2013, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33611.pdf.

5. QADDAFI, THE ENEMY

  
1
  Paul Schemm, “Battle at army base broke Gadhafi hold in Benghazi,” Associated Press, Feb. 25, 2011.

  
2
  “Deadly ‘Day of Rage’ in Libya,” Al Jazeera, Feb. 18, 2011.

  
3
  Mariam Fam and Ola Galal, “Libya Violence Deepens as Protestors Claim Control of Second-Largest City,” Bloomberg News, Feb. 21, 2011.

  
4
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenga_Zenga.

  
5
  Interview with Amnesty International researchers who visited Abu Selim prison, April 29, 2004.

  
6
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Qadhafi Development Foundation on Negotiations for Release of LIFG Members,” March 4, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/03/08TRIPOLI182.html.

  
7
  Ben Wedeman, “In eastern Libya, citizens buoyant and cautious as they await Gadhafi’s move,” CNN news blog, Feb. 21, 2011.

  
8
  Alistair MacDonald, “Cameron Doesn’t Rule Out Military Force for Libya,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 1, 2011.

  
9
  Ryan Lizza, “The Consequentialist: How the Arab Spring Remade Obama’s Foreign Policy,”
New Yorker
, May 2, 2011.

10
  Robert M. Gates,
Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War
(New York: Knopf, 2014).

11
  Lizza, “The Consequentialist.”

12
  Email from U.S. defense contractor, Benghazi, Libya, March 18, 2011.

13
  Michael Waller, blog post, Oct. 7, 2008, http://jmw.typepad.com/political_warfare/2008/10/video-shows-qaddafi-praising-obama-as-a-brother-and-fellow-muslim.html.

14
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Musa Kusa Seeks Cooperation on Africa, al-Qaeda—and POTUS Meeting with al-Qadhafi,” May 3, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09TRIPOLI362.html. For the compensation fund demands, see U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Lipstick on a Pig: Libya Renames Claims Compensation Fund,” May 21, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09TRIPOLI413.html.

15
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “FM Kusa Nonchalant on Return of Libyan GTMO Detainees,” June 22, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/06/09TRIPOLI494.html.

16
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “The Cast of the Jamahiriya: Background Information for NEA AA/S Feltman’s Visit to Tripoli,” July 21, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09TRIPOLI590.html.

17
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libyan Reaction To Claims Settlement Agreement Positive, High Expectations For U.S. Influence on Al-Qadhafi,” Aug. 28, 2008, http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=08TRIPOLI666&q=sarkozy.

18
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Qadhafi Personally Welcomes Lockerbie Bomber,” Aug. 23, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/08/09TRIPOLI686.html. See also Mark Isakoff, “U.S., British officials benefited from thaw in Libya relations,” NBC News, Feb. 28, 2011.

19
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Qadhafi in Rome: The ‘Man of History’ Visits the Eternal City,” June 18, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/06/09TRIPOLI492.html.

20
  Clare Morgana Gillis, “Contempt for Gadhafi unites diverse rebels,”
USA Today
, March 30, 2011.

21
  Praveen Swami, Nick Squires, and Duncan Gardham, “Libyan rebel commander admits his fighters have al-Qaeda links,”
Daily Telegraph
(London), March 25, 2011.

22
  Memorandum for Commander, United States Southern Command, “Update Recommendation to Transfer to Control of Another Country for Continued Detention (TRCD) for Guantánamo Detainee, ISN: US9LY-0557DP,” April 22, 2005 (JTF GTMO Detainee Assessment of Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamouda Bin Qumu).

23
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libya: Family Visit for Returned Gitmo Detainee Confirmed,” Jan. 3, 2008, 08TRIPOLI14. See also 07TRIPOLI1039, the Dec. 13, 2007, cable cited in chapter 2; still classified cable 07TRIPOLI 1060, Dec. 25, 2007, describes the Christmas Day prison visit; and Holly Watt, “WikiLeaks: Guantánamo detainee is now Libyan rebel leader,”
Daily Telegraph
(London), April 26, 2011. Most U.S. government documents refer to him as “Hamouda.”

24
  “Al Qaeda in Libya,” ibid., 17; original source:
Al-Ahwal
(Tripoli), May 5, 2012, http://www.facebook. com/photo.php?fbid=371532919560380&set=a.353682918012047.78426.353433611370 311&type=1&theater.

25
  Lauranne Provenzano, “Liasons dangereuses entre AQMI et les insurgés libyens,”
Jeune Afrique
, March 30, 2011. For an English language version, see http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/25/143013.html.

26
  Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 7, 2011, http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3156632.htm.

27
  Email exchange with the author, July 3, 2013.

28
 
La Lettre du Continent
, n°531, Dec. 20, 2007, cited in Zobel Behalal and Solene Margerit,
Le développement piégé: les transferts d’armes et le développement au Tchad (2005–2010)
, CCFD-Terre Solidaire, Paris, January 2012, 37.

29
  Interview with former advisor to French President Sarkozy, Oct. 20, 2013.

30
  Charles Levinson and Margaret Coker, “Inside a Flawed Spy Machine as Gadhafi’s Rule Crumbled,”
Wall Street Journal
, September 2, 2011.

31
  The bin Laden profile, titled “This Man Wants You Dead,” appeared in late June 1998 in
Reader’s Digest
, just three weeks before bin Laden and al Qaeda burst onto the international scene with the twin truck bombing attacks against the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, http://kentimmerman.com/news/rd_OBL.htm.

32
  A September 1987 cable from the U.S. embassy in London recounted the Younis Khalis caper; U.S. intelligence officers involved in the effort to track down the missing missiles told me two months later that Younis Khalis had been “ambushed,” no doubt trying to cover for his venality. See “Afghanistan: how the Stingers were ‘confiscated,’”
Middle East Defense News (MEDNEWS)
, Nov. 2, 1987.

33
  U.S. Embassy Abu Dhabi, “Iraq and Iran Key Topics in MbZ Meeting with Admiral William J. Fallon,” Sept 25, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/09/07ABUDHABI1595.html.

34
  Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, “Proposed Charging Letter,” March 21, 2013, http://www.pmddtc.state.gov/compliance/consent_agreements/pdf/Raytheon_PCL_13.pdf.

35
  Mark Hosenball, “Exclusive: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels,” Reuters, March 30, 2011.

36
  Jonathan Allen and Meredith Shiner, “Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates win no love on Capitol Hill,”
Politico
, March 30, 2011.

37
  Interview with Representative Pete Hoekstra, June 24, 2013.

38
  Interview with Senator James Inhofe, Sept. 25, 2013.

39
  Interview with Ambassador Ali Aujali, July 9, 2013.

6. INTO THE DANGER ZONE

  
1
  Corbett Daly, “Clinton on Qaddafi: ‘We came, we saw, he died,’” CBS News, Oct. 21, 2011.

  
2
  Mario Montoyo, “Mission to a Revolution,”
State
, November 2011, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/178204.pdf. Montoyo named the ten DS agents who accompanied Stevens to Benghazi as Brian Haggerty, Kent Anderson, Josh Vincent, Chris Deedy, James Mcanelly, Jason Bierly, Ken Davis, Mike Ranger, and Keith Carter. Montoyo himself was the tenth.

  
3
  March 2014 UN Panel of Experts report, S2014/106, 92.

  
4
  Department of State, Accountability and Review Board Report, December 2012, 14. Hereafter, ARB report.

  
5
  House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, prepared testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb, Oct. 10, 2012, 2–3.

  
6
  Levinson and Coker, “Inside a Flawed Spy Machine.”

  
7
  “Feltman meets with Libyan rebels,” Associated Press, May 23, 2011.

  
8
  Murphy and Webb,
Benghazi: The Definitive Report
.

  
9
  Yazan al-Saadi, “US Mercenary ‘Took Part’ in Qaddafi Killing; Sent to Assist Syrian opposition,”
Al Akhbar
, March 19, 2012, http://english.al-akhbar.com/contenat/blackwater-veteran-took-part-Qaddafi-killing-asked-us-help-syrian-opposition. The online version has links to the original emails.

10
  Christian Aniort, “Carcassonne: Temoignange de l’Espouse de l’Epouse de Pierre Marziali, tué en Libye,”
La Depeche du Midi
, March 19, 2011; Kareem Fahim and Maia de la Baume, “Head of French Company Is Killed in Libyan City,”
New York Times
, May 12, 2011.

11
  Communications with a U.S. defense contractor in Benghazi, March 19, 2011, Sept. 11, 2013.

12
  James Risen, Mark Mazzetti, and Michael S. Schmidt, “U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands,”
New York Times
, Dec. 5, 2012.

13
  Ibid.

14
  Interview with Simon Henderson, July 3, 2013.

15
  Chris Stephens, Robert Tuttle, and Caroline Alexander, “Qatar may win big if Libyan rebels prevail,”
BusinessWeek
, July 14, 2011.

16
  Mussab Al-Khairalla, “Qatari plane supplies ammunition to Libyan rebels,” Reuters, Aug. 6, 2011.

17
  U.S. Embassy Doha, “Synchronizing USG Engagement with Qatar on Critical Infrastructure Protection,” SECRET, May 20, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/05/09DOHA329.html.

18
  U.S. Embassy Doha, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “ADM Olson Discusses Military Relationship with Senior Qataris During Doha Visit,” March 9, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09DOHA204.html.

19
  Boeing Corporation, “Boeing Delivers Qatar’s 2nd C-17 Globemaster III,” Sept. 10, 2009, http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=20295&item=832.

20
  Ashraf Abdul Wahab, “Gunmen at Tripoli Airport prevent Qatar Airways plane landing,”
Libya Herald
, Aug. 4, 2013.

21
  United Nations Security Council,
Final report of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1973 (2011) concerning Libya
, March 20, 2012, S/2012/163;§94–96. Hereafter the March 2012 UN Panel of Experts report. The panel was reauthorized and made a second “final report” the following year, and a third in March 2014.

22
  Ibid., 69–70: “Rebuttal from the State of Qatar.”

23
  Ibid., §98–100.

24
  Ibid., §121–26.

25
  The White House, “Report to Congress on United States Activities in Libya,” June 15, 2011.

26
  Bruno Waterfield and Richard Spencer, “Libya: Col Qaddafi still has quarter of chemical weapons stockpile,”
Daily Telegraph
(London), April 28, 2011.

27
  Graeme Smith, “General’s family drives wedge of suspicion into Libya’s rebellion,”
Globe and Mail
, Aug. 2, 2011.

28
  Ali Shuaib, “Libya says ex-deputy PM suspect in general’s killing,” Reuters, Nov. 28. 2011.

29
  Rami al-Shaheibi, “Officer accuses fellow rebels in Libya killing,” Associated Press, July 29, 2011.

30
  Adrian Blomfield, Damien McElroy, and Ruth Sherlock, “Islamists blamed for killing General Abdel Fattah Younis as Libya’s rebels face up to enemy within,”
Daily Telegraph
, July 30, 2011.

31
  Leela Jacinto, “Shifting loyalties among Libya’s Islamists,”
France 24
, Aug. 10, 2011.

32
  “Al-Qaeda in Libya: A Profile,” Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, and U.S. Department of Defense, Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, Irregular Warfare Support Program, August 2012, 8.

33
  http://libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.com/2012/08/05/libya-the-libyan-last-report-01082012/.

34
  Interview with John Maguire, Nov. 5, 2013.

7. HOUSE OF WAR

  
1
  John T. Bennett, “Hillary Clinton pressed on negotiating with Islamic militants in Afghanistan,”
The Hill
, Oct. 27, 2011.

  
2
  The White House, Remarks by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan at CSIS, May 26, 2010.

  
3
  “Belgistan? Sharia Showdown Looms In Brussels,” Christian Broadcasting Network, March 15, 2012.