By: Cliff Kincaid

Accuracy in Media

The Obama Administration is facilitating the activities of foreign jihadists and al Qaeda throughout the Middle East, while claiming that it is fighting al Qaeda and that the organization has been “decimated.” This monumental deception is being carried out not only by the administration but its supporters. It is a crime that has cost four American lives in Benghazi and three in the kidnapping and hostage crisis in Algeria.

The George Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP) is running interference for the Obama Administration by attacking those, like Senator Rand Paul, who are trying to expose the suicidal policy.

In an item headlined, “Senator questions Secretary of State about right-wing conspiracy theory,” CAP says Paul used Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “to advance a bizarre right-wing conspiracy theory involving alleged gun-running from Libya to Syria, via Turkey.” The basic facts about the so-called “right-wing conspiracy theory” have been reported by The New York Times, hardly a right-wing propaganda organ. And the “conspiracy” also involves Qatar, the host and sponsor of Osama bin Laden’s favorite television channel, Al Jazeera, now poised to get into 40-50 million American homes through the purchase of Al Gore’s Current TV.

The New York Times reported that the Obama Administration “secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar” in 2011 and that “Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants.” These rebels stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, killing four Americans, in a major foreign policy scandal that continues to this day. It was the reason for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing featuring the Rand Paul-Hillary Clinton exchange.

It’s true that the paper claimed the U.S. was somewhat caught off-guard by the arms going into the hands of anti-American jihadists. But that is hard to believe, considering that Qatar, the sponsor of “Terror TV” Channel Al Jazeera, is a close ally of the Obama Administration. The administration has approved the entry of “Al Jazeera America” into the U.S. media market, even though Qatar evaded the law requiring federal approval of a foreign acquisition of a U.S. company that has national security implications. Obama’s Department of Justice refuses to enforce the law that requires Al Jazeera programs to be labeled as foreign propaganda when aired in the U.S.

Any notion that all of this is happening by accident has been undermined by an additional report from the Times that the CIA was using Turkey and “a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood” to send weapons to Islamists fighting the regime in Syria. The weapons were being “paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” the paper reported.

By ignoring these facts, which have not been disputed, the Center for American Progress (CAP) is playing a role in the current controversy and scandal which is comparable to what the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) did in regard to U.S. policy toward China in the 1940s. The IPR was an unofficial arm of the State Department which facilitated the Communist takeover of China in 1949. The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee found the IPR to be “an instrument of Communist policy, propaganda and military intelligence.”

CAP can be said to be an unofficial arm of the State Department that is facilitating the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of such countries as Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The evidence shows that the administration is working hand-in-glove with avowed enemies of the United States. As bad as this is, the jihadists getting U.S. support through Turkey and Qatar will eventually turn their attention to the U.S. homeland, setting the stage for another 9/11 attack. When they do so, the new “Al Jazeera America” will be their mouthpiece, in the same way that Al Jazeera ran a story describing the Mali terrorists as “gentle.”

In fact, the kidnapping and murder of three Americans by al-Qaeda terrorists in Mali is clearly another manifestation of this policy because the arms the U.S. helped send to the “rebels” in Libya may have been used by these same terrorists to kill the American hostages.

It is in this context that Rand Paul asked Hillary Clinton, “…it’s been in news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that they may have weapons. And what I’d like to know is, the annex that was close by, were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons, and were any of these weapons being transferred to other countries, any countries, Turkey included?”

Clinton responded, “Well, Senator, you’ll have to direct that question to the agency that ran the annex. And I will see what information is available and…”

Paul interjected, “You’re saying you don’t know?”

Clinton: “I do not know. I don’t have any information on that.”

This is stonewalling of the worst kind. Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State and has to be knowledgeable of the policy that she is helping to implement.

There was a time, as noted, when Congress had committees and subcommittees which examined the betrayal of American interests by investigating domestic groups like the IPR. Today, the Center for American Progress openly pushes the same agenda as the Muslim Brotherhood and other enemies of the United States and members of Congress have no way to officially question what they are doing and why.

Except for a few members such as Senator Paul, Congress is asleep at the switch, unable or unwilling to even question the ongoing betrayal. Indeed, Rep. Michael McCaul, the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has been silent regarding the illegal Al Jazeera purchase of Al Gore’s Current TV.

Please call the House Homeland Security Committee office at 202-226-8417 and ask Chairman McCaul to investigate Al-Jazeera’s ties to terrorist groups killing Americans.

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.