400 US Surface-To-Air Missiles 'Stolen' During Benghazi Attack And Are 'Now In Hands of Al Qaeda'

[big_dog]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by hrmjustin (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: The London Daily Mail

Four hundred American surface-to-air missiles were 'taken from Libya' during the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, a former U.S. Attorney who represents whistleblowers claimed on Monday.

Joe DiGenova, whose wife Victoria Toensing – a former deputy assistant attorney general – also represents Benghazi witnesses and others with knowledge of the terror attack, told WMAL radio that the loss of those missiles is also one the reason the U.S. State Department shut down 19 embassies across the Middle East last week.

We have learned that one of the reasons the administration is so deeply concerned' is that 'there were 400 surface-to-air missiles stolen, and that they are ... in the hands of many people, and that the biggest fear in the U.S. intelligence community is that one of these missiles will be used to shoot down an airliner. 400 missiles, surface-to-air missiles, taken from Libya.'

Asked if the missiles are now 'in the hands of al-Qaeda operatives,' DiGenova replied, 'That is what these people are telling us.' DiGenova said his sources are 'former intelligence officials who stay in constant contact with people in the Special Ops and intelligence community.'





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390642/400-surface-air-missiles-STOLEN-Libya-Benghazi-attack-says-whistle-blowers-attorney.html

[OilemFirchen]

1. Bullshit.

[rug]

2. DiGenova = bullshit.

Besides, how many consulates have 400 SAMs?

[dipsydoodle]

8. See reply #6.

.

[OilemFirchen]

9. Well...

one less than before, I guess.

[quadrature]

36. the rumor from day one...

was that Stevens was in Benghazi
to buy missiles from ???persons
and
then ??? transfer the missiles to
persons in Turkey for eventual transfer
to ???persons in Syria.

this rumor is more or less consistent
with previous rumors

[CanonRay]

3. Why would there be surface to air missles at a consulate?

Not even an embassy, not that it makes any more sense, but a consulate. What nonsense.

[dipsydoodle]

6. See August 3rd here on DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023399883

[rug]

10. Good grief!

Stevens' last meeting on Sept. 11 was with Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi "to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

27. This isn't the first time I have read that...

... I did some sluething in the weeks following the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, and that is what kept coming up, that Stevens was in Benghazi, and not at the embassy, due to him overseeing or finalizing an arms shipment/sale of Libyan/Gaddaffi surplus arms to Turkey.

[OilemFirchen]

12. Oh my!

Business Insider quotes Jake Tapper, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston of CNN... and Fox News... on a bunch of unsourced crapola.

And now Joe and Vicky, courtesy of the Daily Mail.

I'm convinced!

[Socal31]

7. Actually it makes a lot of sense.

The CIA team was there handling weapons from the Libyan battlefield, attempting to reclaim them. Some people believe they were actually smuggling them to the Syrian rebels at the time, but I will stick to more grounded facts.

"In November The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. mission in Benghazi "was at its heart a CIA operation."

In January, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress that the CIA was leading a "concerted effort to try to track down and find and recover ... MANPADS [man-portable air defense systems]" looted from the stockpiles of toppled Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-secret-cia-mission-in-benghazi-2013-5#ixzz2btifWfba


These devices (not that these have been proven to be US-sourced, but US-supplied weapons rarely have US license plates) have been used multiple times recently:

"BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels shot down a military helicopter in the country's east, killing eight government troops on board as President Bashar Assad's troops battled opposition forces inside a sprawling military air base in the north for the second straight day, activists said Monday"

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-shoot-down-regime-helicopter-east-054433904.html


And here is two months after the incident:

Three amateur videos have emerged that purport to show rebels shooting down a Syrian military helicopter outside Aleppo. The videos appear roughly consistent with a claim, posted to Facebook by the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a rebel umbrella group, that “The Free Syrian Army has downed an attack helicopter using anti-aircraft weapons in the Sheikh Salman area in the western countryside

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/27/videos-appear-to-show-syrian-rebels-shooting-down-military-helicopter/


And guess what happens during our Yemen drone bombardment over the last week?

"Yemeni tribesmen shot down an army helicopter killing eight soldiers, on Tuesday, during a clash over repairs to a main oil pipeline blown up by saboteurs, a tribal chief said.

The armed tribesmen clashed with troops in Wadi Abida, in the lawless eastern province of Marib, as gunmen prevented maintenance teams from fixing the export pipeline blown up last week, the chief told AFP."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/yemen-army-helicopter_n_3714060.html



Now, 400? Who knows. But I do believe that when the CIA agents went back to the weapons depot, they led some unsavory people to the honey-pot. And that is dangerous as all hell.


Edit: Who can forget the American kid fighting alongside AQ who was near a freshly downed chopper, claiming he had a part in it?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/03/us-army-vet-fought-with-al-qaeda-in-syria-feds/

[freshwest]

44. 'The CIA team was there handling weapons from the Libyan battlefield, attempting to reclaim them.'

That was my first thought, after reading the story linked at Post #6. They were trying to prevent further mayhem, not supply Syrians to make more war. And when you wrote:

'Some people believe they were actually smuggling them to the Syrian rebels at the time, but I will stick to more grounded facts.'

I will wait for that, too. It's not in our best interests to play around in Syria. It is a land connecting Russia and western powers as well as extremists. Russia, despite strong ties to Syria might have sent mixed signals last year:

Pentagon: Russia Recalls Attack Helicopter Shipment to Syria

A Russian vessel transporting military helicopters meant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military has reversed course and appears headed back to its home nation, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

As that shipment of attack copters is returning to Russia, the Pentagon said Moscow is preparing to send three warships to Syria--one more than initially revealed.

It was not immediately clear why the Russian ship had reversed course, but U.S. officials have been pressing their Russian counterparts to stop arming Syrian rebel fighters. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that U.S. officials have pressed their Russian counterparts to stop sending the attack helicopters, which human rights activists say aid in "crimes against humanity."

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/dotmil/2012/06/19/pentagon-russia-recalls-attack-helicopter-shipment-to-syria

It appears that a lot of people do not want to get involved in Syria on one side or the other, including Obama. Graham does want us to jump in, just as surely as McCain wanted to get into Iran. Following through on PNAC, maybe.

While some always claim religion is involved, I don't know how Saudi Arabia actually sees this conflict. Americans seem to see Israel and all its neighbors in terms of religion. I don't think the rulers of those nations are into religion except to fire up people. That is not good.

For good or bad reasons, it seems that Saudi Arabia wanted out last year:

Saudi Arabia closes embassy, recalls staff from Syria

Saudi Arabia has shut down its embassy in Syria and has withdrawn all its staff, the foreign ministry announced Wednesday in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

"Due the developments in Syria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has shut down its embassy in Damascus and withdrawn all its diplomats and staff there," said the statement.

Saudi Arabia, which has repeatedly pressed for world action against Damascus and called for rebels to be armed, was one of six Gulf monarchies to expel Syria's ambassadors and withdraw their own in February.

At least 8,500 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120314-saudi-arabia-closes-embassy-recalls-staff-damascus-syria-assad

AFAIK, there is no love lost between our partner Israel and Syria. At one time, people in Lebanon felt that Syria was involved in their own civil war fighting against their government and did not appreciate it.

There are things going on in the background that the American public doesn't get to see, nor do we seem to have long memories or attention spans. I don't see, and that's just my opinion, that we have any pressing need to get into the Syrian mess. Obama has resisted, while the GOP hawks have called for boots on the ground.

How do we know this is not just more media spin to say that we need a hawkish foreign policy?

I don't trust the reactions to this story as if it's all going to go just the way some think it should.

Thanks for sharing your 'sleuthing' on this. The more dimensions, the more we may understand who is manipulating us to things that are not in our best interests.

Did you find anything that said that engagement in that area is some sort of necessity for the USA?

My disclaimer, as always, is that I do not, and have not ever served in the military nor have I worked in the government. I'd like more effort put into our situation at home and less on other countries.

Just sayin'

[James48]

4. Media matters debonks that.

Simply not true.

We don't ever store that many missiles in one place anyway.
Trust me- I know.


http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/13/fox-builds-claim-of-clinton-dishonesty-on-omiss/195376

[starroute]

14. Also this

http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/04/30/who-are-the-right-wing-medias-benghazi-lawyers/193842

Victoria Toensing and her husband and legal partner Joseph diGenova are pushing claims that anonymous State Department and CIA "whistleblowers" have been blocked and threatened by the Obama administration to prevent their testifying on the September 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya. Toensing and diGenova are longtime Republican activists, and Toensing has a history of pushing dubious claims and falsehoods into the media. . . .

Toensing And diGenova Both Served As Advisers To Romney In 2008. The two previously supported and advised the campaign of Fred Thompson. . . .

The Pair Has A History Of Investigating Democrats And Defending Republicans Under Investigation. . . .

Toensing Attempted To Link The Resignation Of David Petraeus To The Benghazi Attack. . . .

Toensing Pushed Media Falsehood That Plame's CIA Status Was Widely Known On D.C. "Cocktail Circuit." Toensing and co-author Bruce Sanford promoted the false claim -- popular in right-wing media circles -- that Valerie Plame's CIA status was known "on the Washington cocktail circuit" prior to its disclosure by columnist Robert Novak.

[Iliyah]

18. Got it Starroute!

One of the names did sound familiar which equals to RW conspiracy theorist.

[DainBramaged]

17. 400 missles in cases

sure

[leveymg]

20. That was not a regular Army depot. Normal rules don't really apply in Eastern Libya.

[Iliyah]

5. From now to 2014 thru 2016

BS will prevail. 400 surface-to-air missiles I'm pretty sure a few would have been used already and the GOP would be on it like white on rice way before now.

[Jim__]

11. Joe DiGenova and his wife Victoria Toensing have always been full of shit!

[Pterodactyl]

13. Obviously not true.

The attack in Libya was based on a racist video, not missiles.

[leveymg]

15. Of the estimated 20,000 MANPADs in Libya, only a quarter have been accounted for. 400 is just the

tip of the iceberg, and it's entirely possible that the CIA compound in Benghazi was storing that number. Most would have been SA-7s of various vintages, with a smaller number of more sophisticated SA-18/24 types The only question is, stored for what purpose?

[OilemFirchen]

22. "...it's entirely possible that the CIA compound in Benghazi was storing that number"

Yes, of course. In the underground bunker next to the Dinosaur Zoo.

[leveymg]

29. Are you denying the CIA compound part or the loose SA-7s part, or both?

Why? They're both well-documented. You merely have to put them together, and the odds aren't bad the parts fit together. It's entirely possible that collected MANPADs were being stored there - the question is, for what purpose.

[OilemFirchen]

34. I don't deny that the CIA was using this as an outpost.

I suspect that some arms were funneled through it, piecemeal. There is absolutely no credible evidence to suggest that there were copious quantities of anything in the buildings, other than spurious charges by frustrated wingnuts and emoprogs.

No, there were not 400 SAMs being stored there. The omnipotent CIA, capable of counting your pubic hairs through leaden underwear would stockpile weapons in a consulate? I'm embarrassed for any thinking individual who believes such stupidity.

[leveymg]

39. There were two adjacent compounds about a half-mile apart. One was a rented guest house and office,

where Stevens stayed while visiting the area, the other was the CIA's local safehouse with several outbuildings. There were something like 30 CIA guys who showed up for evacuation at the airport the following morning. There was certainly space for that many weapons in the CIA compound. The facilities are not in question. The fact that the CIA was involved in collecting MANPADs is not in question.

Give us a better reason to think this part is so implausible.

[OilemFirchen]

41. None of those buildings were storage depots.

None of them.

You'd have us believe that the CIA would stockpile missiles floor to ceiling in a modest building with virtually no fortification, smack-dab in the middle of a hot zone.

I don't need a "better reason" for shit. There were not 400 SAMs stolen from that compound. It did not happen. You've been had.

[leveymg]

42. Here's the aerial photo. There are 14 storage units in 2 rows right next to "The (CIA) Annex"

[sulphurdunn]

16. This is the same Toesing who claimed

the Lewinsky BJ compromised national security but the Plame outing did not. Not to say that what her hubby says is false, or that unnamed "former intelligence officials" aren't credible sources, or that a morning radio show is not the best venue for subverting national security, but neither would it be remiss to conclude that he is full of shit and possibly an advance shill for the Jeb Bush crime family's 2016 presidential bid.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. ROFL...the severity of ODS one must have to believe DiGenova is off the charts

I'm sorry. The patient is terminal.



DiGenova via Toensing through the Daily Mail! This is a new one for utter stupidity.

[leveymg]

21. One thing that doesn't pass the sniff test is the conection between embassy closures & SA-7s

Shoulder launched anti-aircraft missiles are pretty much useless against targets like buildings, especailly fortified ones like US Embassies. It makes zero sense to close US Embassies across a wide area just because a bunch of looted Libyan SA-7s are loose and probably in Syria.

[OilemFirchen]

23. Thus you agree...

that "the loss of those missiles is also one the reason the U.S. State Department shut down 19 embassies across the Middle East last week" is excrement.

A brief cognizant lapse on your part?

[leveymg]

26. That part doesn't make any more sense to me than your conclusion that

this is all excrement just because one piece of it smells that way. The standards of logic and proportion still apply in my universe.

Seems more likely this, if not an actual attempt to poison the well, is an opportunistic attempt to get ahead of the curve of events and claim credit for it. I actually think it's likely that some passenger jet, somewhere, is going to get shot down before long by a Libya surplus surface to air missile.

[OilemFirchen]

28. "The standards of logic and proportion still apply in my universe."

In which 400 SAMs are stored in a marginally-fortified housing complex in the middle of a war zone.

Perhaps your universe's "proportion" slightly distorts its "logic"?

[leveymg]

30. The CIA operates and moves arms in and out of war zones all the time. That's their job.

What is disproportionate or illogical about that?

[OilemFirchen]

38. Maybe this?

400 of these:



stolen from here:

[leveymg]

40. That's a picture of the rented villa where Stevens stayed when in E. Libya. The CIA compound is

a separate set of buildings, referred to as "The Annex" with a row of storage buildings right next door. Here's an overhead view:

[OilemFirchen]

43. The residence and an adjacent building were attacked.

That's where they were stockpiling munitions?

[leveymg]

45. Both compounds were attacked. The 2 CIA guys died at The Annex.

If I were stockpiling SA-7s, I wouldn't keep them by the pool at the Ambassador's house.

As I said, there was plenty of room in the CIA warehouses. That place kinda reminds me of the old InterArms warehouses near the river in Alexandria.

On edit: looking at the layout of the neighborhood, can you see why the original cover story about a demonstration getting out of hand is implausible if you consider that both compounds were attacked, and that there was an ambush along the way as the survivors of the diplomatic residence tried to make their way over to The Annex?

[OilemFirchen]

47. You're obviously much more attuned to the details of the conflagration.

As such, I'll not argue the minutia. Suffice it to say that your obsession with the details has you convinced that this improbable meme, cooked up by Benghazi Truthers, is tenable and, thus, worth arguing.

Me, at this point, not so much. I've moved from discourse to apathy, pity to disgust. Here's hoping you've satisfied your craving for salacious conspiratorial tripe.

Enjoy the buzz!

ETA: With your addendum, I see that your goal was not to discuss this laughable fiction but to re-invigorate a dead "scandal". What a fuckload of wasted time.

[leveymg]

48. The facts I present are not based in some skewed meme cooked up by GOP Truthers.

GOP Congressmen certainly tried to politicize Benghazi and exploit the death of the US Ambassador and two CIA contract employees for their own partisan reasons, and that's f-cking shameful.

But, Rep. King didn't make up these facts, which are not in dispute. What they did was craft a false narrative, a meme as you correctly put it, as a way to score partisan political points.

Some people in Washington apparently haven't learned a thing from these experiences, and never will. They can only deny or obscure the facts. It's unfortunate that so many people allow themselves to be manipulated into denial.

[grasswire]

35. oh leveymg, what a sobering thought

Of course you are right.

[leveymg]

37. Look at who these sorts of weapons are being shipped to, whether by us or the Qataris, no matter.

Once the various jihadis and tribal militiamen and mercenaries get tired of chewing each other up, what do you think they're going to do, voluntarily turn in their unused MANPADs, TOWs, and join the Peace Corps to dig irrigation wells? They are professional soldiers who, in some cases, have been fighting under the black and white or green and white flags since Bosnia, and don't know any other trade.

I can foresee nothing but more killing and continued denial coming of this policy of regime change for years to come.

[GliderGuider]

25. Yes, that tripped my BS detector as well. On the other hand,

Inside every BS smokescreen story is usually a grain of truth. What is it in this case? We can't tell from our living rooms.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

24. Was Ollie North in the area?

[Zen Democrat]

31. I guess the notorious Joe and Vickie were let out of the asylum again! Creepiest couple ever.

[John2]

32. What ever

the U.S. was doing in Benghazi and Libya was probably secret. It apparently was basically a CIA covert activity, which is only known to the Intelligence Committees in both Houses of Congress. They were probably working with some real scrupulous characters like they did in the past with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, within Afghanistan, during the Russian invasion.

When you partner with groups like that, they will stab you in the back, because those groups have a different agenda, than the U.S., Israel and NATO. These groups definitely want more Western weapons, to accomplish their goals if the West is stupid enough to trust them.

They are Terrorists, and the biggest liars, thieves and murderers on the planet. They will do anything to get them too. Those same people are in Syria too. They are use to killing people, regardless of who they are. They are even massacring the Kurds now. They don't mind attacking Israel either. While the neocons want regime change in the Middle East, they seem to want it more in the U.S. That is what happen when you trust snakes.

[grasswire]

33. Joseph diGenova and his wife are known liars, and Bush FIXERS.

Liars. And ghouls.

[Beacool]

46. I wouldn't trust those two if they said the sun rises in the East.

They are RW shysters who became known for going after Clinton in the 90s. I would like objective confirmation of their claims before I believe them.

[hrmjustin]

49. Locking-sorry but this article is from yesterday and we have a 12 hour rule in LBN.

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