From Conservapedia

The Arab Spring beginning in 2011 was largely an anti-Western civilization, anti-Zionist movement orchestrated by the Obama administration to topple secular regimes in the Arab world. As a journalistic euphemism, it was intended to evoke reminiscences of the 1968 Prague Spring, or a peaceful demonstration against authoritarian rulers to bring about "socialism with a human face."

It was billed as an effort at democratitization in the Arab Middle East through regime change, along the lines of President George W. Bush's 2003 Iraq war without using US troops. Ultimately it ended in a bloody and humanitarian disaster and led to the rise of the Islamic State, eleven million dispossessed, in excess of 400,000 dead in Syria, and the European migrant crisis. A corollary to the plan was to build the image of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a great world leader and statesman as Obama's successor.[1]

The states of Libya, Yemen and others were destabilized. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton actively intervened in Syria and Libya, funnelling money and weapons to known Salafi jihadi groups. The powers that be remained in control of secular Egypt. Iran, with Western acquiescence, remained firmly on the path to becoming a nuclear power.

... the idea of an “Arab Spring” for the entire Arab world that President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and investor George Soros strongly promoted turned out to be based on a naïve idealism that instead undermined the rule of law and led to anarchy, starvation, and a refugee crisis that hurt citizens more than the dictatorships that preceded it.[2]

Background

The policies of US President Barack Hussein Obama with regard to the Arab Spring seemed to be in the interest of Muslim theocracy, unlike previous American Presidents who have favored governments which are secular and pro-Israel. In August 2010, Obama issued Presidential Study Directive 11[3] which directed his advisers to "manage these risks by demonstrating to the people of the Middle East and North Africa the gradual but real prospect of greater political openness and improved governance". As noted by the Washington Post, just six months later large protests began[4] that later turned into a regional outbreak of violence.

Egypt

Leafets with instructions handed out to Soros-backed terrorists in Euromaiden Square, Kiev were identical to those handed out in Tahrir Square, Cairo three years earlier. On the left printed in Arabic, on the right in the Ukrainian language.

Following the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as a result of the protests, Egypt was controlled by Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood from November 22, 2012 to June 3, 2013. Mubarak was key to upholding the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords, negotiated by President Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin. Morsi, backed by Barack Obama and George Soros, vowed to overturn the 1979 peace agreement.

When Morsi took power he opened the prisons and released members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mohammed Zawahiri. Mohammad Zawahiri is the brother of Ayman Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's #2 guy who, since bin Laden's execution, has been running al-Qaeda from Afghanistan. Mohammad Zawahiri left Egypt for Benghazi and joined up with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, ex-Libyan Justice Minister who very recently was recruited by the French intelligence service to organize the Benghazi uprising.

9/11 protests

The key protest organizer was Mohammed al-Zawahiri along with his Muslim Brotherhood comrades. The 9/11 2012 Cairo protest was centered around demands for the release of Omar Abdul Rahman, also known as “the blind sheik“, who was in federal prison in the U.S. for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The Cairo protest was specifically about the release of Omar Abdul Rahman.[5] The U.S. State Department falsely claimed another motive about a YouTube video insulting Islam. Hours later that fraudulent motive was then used to explain the Benghazi attack.

Gen. Mike Flynn exposes reason for protests

The fraudulent origin of the motive was exposed by documents from within the Defense Intelligence Agency; the head of the DIA was Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

A Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, details that the attack on the Brnghaxi compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.” The document was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted Defense Department “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ ideologies:”

The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.

“A violent radical,” the DIA report says, is “the leader of BCOAR is Abdul Baset ((AZUZ)), AZUZ was sent by ((ZAWARI)) to set up Al Qaeda (AQ) bases in Libya.” The group's headquarters was set up with the approval of a “member of the Muslim brother hood movement…where they have large caches of weapons. Some of these caches are disguised by feeding troughs for livestock. They have SA-7 and SA-23/4 MANPADS."

In 2016 Michael Flynn's knowledge of the factual backstory to Libya and how the Obama/Clinton team misled everyone was the risk that Flynn represented.

Morsi deposed

After smuggling weapons into Gaza for Hamas, Morsi was overthrown by the Egyptian Deep State in June 2013. Since August 2014 Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi rules the country.

Libya

Main article: Libyan War

The original plan was for the fighting to be over in days, with some of the weapons captured at Benghazi to be used in ending Gaddafi's resistance, and some flown to the Turkish staging area at Adana, along the Syrian border, to be used in an uprising against Assad. The singular advantage both Gaddafi and Assad held against an internal uprising is airpower. In Western propaganda this always translates into "using aircraft against civilians." Hence the call for a no-fly zone to make it a fair fight between government forces and rebel forces.

Sarkozy, Cameron, Hillary Clinton, and Obama wanted cover for their actions. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 (UNSC 1970) provided for an arms embargo - no weapons shipped in to either side. UNSC 1973 "authorized" a no-fly zone "by any means necessary," of course the UK, France, and US took to mean regime change, use of aggressive force, and direct arms deliveries to their jihadi rebels on the ground. The Russians didn't see it that way. The betrayal of assurances Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama gave to convince Russia to withhold its veto on the UN Security Council marked a turning point in US-Russia relations. Russia did not assent to NATO's use of aggressive force. The blatant disregard for international law Sarkozy, Cameron, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama flouted, coupled with Obama's drone strikes, caused Vladimir Putin to reaccess other international agreements Russia was party to with Western powers, namely agreements over the Crimea and Ukraine.

15 February. Benghazi uprising begins.[6]

18 February. Joint British-French military assets in place.[7]

19 February. Gaddafi loyalists in Benghazi have all retreated into the Katiba fortress compound.

21 February. Walls of the Katiba compound are breached; local fighting ceases.

22 February. Stratfor reports,[8]

STRATFOR has been hearing about plans in the works by a group of army officers planning to oust Gadhafi, move into Tripoli and reinvent a Revolutionary Command Council to take authority over the country. Now the names that are being thrown around to lead this Revolutionary Command Council include many of the original free officers that helped bring Gadhafi to power in the 1969 military coup. This group is currently lobbying for the U.N. Security Council which is currently in session to approve a no-fly zone that can be enforced by the United States. The army officers trying to lead this coup want to ensure that Gadhafi can’t rely on remaining loyal air force units to bombard them as they make their way into Tripoli. Now Gadhafi is likely betting that global concerns over energy cutoffs from Libya and fears over regime collapse in Libya leading to civil war will likely deter any such plans for a no-fly zone to be enforced by the United States. Still, the opposition, including many of these army officers, appear willing to call that bluff.

On February 23 the Pakistan Observer reports:[9]

"United States, Britain and France have sent several hundred “defence advisors” to train and support the anti-Gadhafi forces in oil-rich Eastern Libya where “rebels armed groups” have apparently taken over.

According to an exclusive report confirmed by a Libyan diplomat in the region “the three Western states have landed their “special forces troops in Cyrinacia and are now setting up their bases and training centres” to reinforce the rebel forces who are resisting pro-Qaddafi forces in several adjoining areas.

A Libyan official who requested not to be identified said that the U.S. and British military gurus were sent on February 23 and 24 night through American and French warships and small naval boats off Libyan ports of Benghazi and Tobruk.

The Western forces are reportedly preparing to set-up training bases for local militias set-up by the rebel forces for an effective control of the oil-rich region and counter any push by pro- Qaddafi forces from Tripoli .

Other reports claim that efforts to “neutralize” the Libyan Air Force were also underway to limit Qaddafi’s rule in Tripoli if not fully uprooted from the country.

Meanwhile, three Indian Navy warships, are also being dispatched to be deployed in the rebel-held areas of Libya .

According to reports the Indian Navy has already sent two warships plus one its largest amphibious vessel INS Jalashwa. According to defence experts “Jalshwa” is the largest ship of Indian Navy which was delivered by the U.S. four years ago. Jalashwa, formaly the USS Trenton, has the capability to embark, transport & land various elements of an amphibious force & its equipped with mechanised landing craft, Sea King helicopters & armed with raders, ship to air missiles & rapid firing guns.

Experts say that Indian ship Jalashwa has a Landing Platform Dock with a capability 1000 fully armed troops. The warship is also used for maritime surveillance, special operations, search & rescue and to undertake other tasks.

The Italian Foreign Minister expressed concern that the number of Libyan refugees trying to reach Italy might reach between 200,000 and 300,000 people.[10] The number would exceed 3 million in coming years before it's all over.

Map showing immigration pathways

On February 25 Hillary Rodham Clinton announced suspension of Libyan embassy operations in Washington. The same day Gaddafi warned former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair by phone, that if his regime were allowed to fall, the jihadis would use Libya as a springboard for attacks in Europe.[11] This is exactly what happened, as Gaddafi predicted: the Islamic State took credit for the November 2015 Paris attacks killing 137, wounding 368, and the February 2016 Brussels bombing killing 35 and injuring 340, and numerous other jihad attacks.

Hillary Clinton directed efforts to remove all US embassy personnel from Tripoli and ordered the embassy closed. Ken Dilanian of the Chicago Tribune reported that the CIA had been on the ground in "rebel-held" areas of Libya since shortly after the US Embassy in Tripoli was evacuated.[12] Hillary Clinton made a series of calls to foreign counterparts to secure passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1970, imposing sanctions and an arms embargo to either side, which the US and allies abruptly violated.

On February 27, 2011 the Transitional National Council (TNC) announcesd in the city of Benghazi its purpose is to act as the "political face of the revolution." French President Sarkozy later said “We created the TNC and without France’s backing, money and weapons, it would not exist.”[13][14] The TNC spokesman made clear to reporters that the Libyan Transitional National Council was not a provisional government and added that the newly formed council was not in contact with foreign governments and did not want them to intervene.[15] The TNC spokesman later said that an airstrike purportedly sanctioned by the UNSC 1973 would not be considered a foreign intervention.[16] On February 28 Hillary Clinton traveled to Geneva, Switzerland for consultations with European partners on Libya. She gave a speech in which she said: "It is time for Gaddafi to go."

Omar Karmi of the UAE The National reported Hillary Clinton as saying that the US was in contact with leaders of the uprising in Benghazi, that the US stood ready to "offer any kind of assistance," and that the US military already deployed naval and air forces into position near Libya.[17]

On March 4, 2011 seven UK SAS (Special Operations Force) commandos and an intelligence officer were taken captive by jihadi rebels in Benghazi when they arrived ahead of time unannounced. The news became public, and is a clear violation of international law, aggressive action and boots on the ground without UNSC vote on the proposed no-fly zone. The UK Defense Minister openly stated the mission was part of Britain's support for regime change.[18] The embarrassing flap was hushed up.

On March 8, 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Special Envoy Chris Stevens as US liaison to the jihadis in Benghazi.[19] Given what was learned of Steven's mission after his death, this action on March 8 could only have occurred after President Obama had authorized covert aide for the jihadis by a Presidential finding. Despite what various news sources later reported, President Obama had already made the decision and commitment to the coalition's ultimate aims - regime change.

On March 13 Secretary Clinton traveled to Paris for a series of meetings with foreign ministers from the G8 countries. Bernard-Henri Levy and Abdul Jalil, former Gaddafi justice minister, are also in attendence.[20][21][22] She secretly adds that aggressive action and not just a no-fly zone will be adequate.

14-16 March. Sec. Clinton participates in a series of high-level video- and teleconferences. She is a leading voice for strong UNSC action in the name of a NATO "civilian protection" (R2P) mission. A majority of NATO member states refuse to participate. Use of aggressive force outside Europe (or even inside Europe) is not why the NATO alliance was founded or continues to exist.

Clinton met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov whose country's veto of UNSC 1973 would derail intervention. Lavrov was misled into believing that by giving NATO a free hand in Libya, Russia could be given a free hand in the Crimea. Clinton secured a deal with Russia abstaining from a veto of UNSC Resolution 1973. The resolution passes the UN Security Council 10-0, with Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstaining.

UNSC 1973 authorized 12 of NATO's 28 members to use its name “to take all necessary measures to enforce compliance with the ban on flights." Obama, Clinton, Camaron, and Sarkozy immediately lifted the phrase, "all necessary measures" to mean regime change, thus nullify the the arms embargo of UNSC 1970. A “pure no-fly zone" is what the Russians had agreed to, and Vladimir Putin noted later during the Crimean annexation that Obama and cohorts "violated the UN Security Council resolution on Libya, when instead of imposing the so-called no-fly zone over it they started bombing it too."[23]

NATO's ostensibly defensive nature, founded on the premise that an attack on one is an attack against all, was transformed into an offensive mercenary force in the service of private French, British, and American commercial interests.[24][25]

On March 19 Sarkozy convened a meeting in the Westin Hotel to solicit agreement for the immediate deployment of military aircraft to stop Gaddafi's efforts to put down the jihadi uprising in Benghazi, and the establishment of a US no-fly zone in the country. Before the meeting was over, French fighter planes had attacked Gaddafi forces outside Benghazi. Italian and Russian participants protested the French government's insistence on convening the meeting before agreeing to air strikes, and then launching strikes before the meeting was over.

The early attack so upset Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who recently signed a Friendship Pact with Libya, he warned of cutting access to Italian air bases vital to French, British, and American warplanes.[26][27] Washington Post later reported Berlusconi "eventually provided air bases as staging grounds for attacks."

French officials claim that meeting participants were informed of the planned airstrike. The strikes clearly had been planned and coordinated with the knowledge of the United States and UK.[28]

That night, the first US airstrikes halt the advance of Gaddafi's forces on Benghazi and target Libya's air defenses. Members of Libya's Christian Coptic community are later decapitated en masse once Secretary Clinton and President Obama's objectives are met.[29]

President Obama armed al-Qaeda rebels who later migrated to Syria to form the Islamic State.(Photo:Reuters).

Obama finally informed the American public on March 21, 2011 that the United States had attacked Libya two days earlier, on March 19, "to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe." The action is a clear violation of US law. US military force can only be used for national security and not humanitarian purposes.

A report from Rep. Dennis Kucinich on March 26, 2011 corroborated the claim of Franco Bechis in Italy that "plans to spark the Benghazi rebellion were initiated by French intelligence services in November 2010."[30][31] Obama surveillance operatives had captured and recorded private communications between Rep. Kucinich and a Libyan official.[32][33]

According to a Hillary staff email on April 14 Secretary of State Clinton traveled to Berlin for NATO meetings. Clinton is the driving force behind NATO adopting a communiqué that calls for Gaddafi's departure as a political objective, and lays out three clear military objectives: (1) end of attacks and threat of attacks on civilians; (2) the removal of Gaddafi forces; (3) [redacted from original]. The German government refuses to go along.[34] On April 15 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Berlin conference accuses the Obama administration of exceeding UNSC 1973 mandate and the agreements at the Paris summit. What started out as a mission to “protect civilians and enforce a no-fly zone,” has been transformed into an effort at "regime change" without having a clear understanding as to the nature of the rebel opposition.

On May 5, 2011 Sec. Hillary Clinton traveled to Rome for a Contact Group meeting. The Contact Group established a coordination system and a temporary financial mechanism to funnel money to the Transitional National Council.

On June 8 Sec. of State Clinton traveled to Abu Dhabi for another Contact Group meeting and holds a series of intense discussions with jihadi and rebel leaders.

On June 12 Clinton traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for consultations and a speech before the African Union, pressing the case for a "democratic transition" in Libya.

On July 15, 2011 Sec. of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Istanbul and announces that the US recognizes the Transitional National Council as the legitimate government of Libya. She also secures recognition of the TNC from the other members of the Contact Group.

In Early August 2011 Hillary Clinton works to construct a $1.5 billion assets package to be approved by the UNSC and sent to the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC).

War of aggression

United Nations Charter, Article 2(4), prohibits the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence” of a member state, and many observers object that Obama's actions violate this prohibition.

Congressional Research Services advises that a no-fly zone imposed against a state that has not carried out an attack on its neighbors may consider the imposition an “armed attack.” CRS warns that even if a no-fly zone does not constitute an armed attack, "that state, and other members of the international community, might consider them a violation of the prohibition of the 'threat or use of force,' as well as of the customary duty of non-intervention in the affairs of other sovereign states."

Sec. Robert Gates warned establishment of a no-fly zone meant attacking Libya.[35]

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough oppose attacking Libya; but Hillary Clinton "won the bureaucratic battle to use Department of Defense resources to achieve what's essentially the State Department's objective... and Obama let it happen."[36] It is rare for a president to publicly go against the advice of his National Security Adivisor in a decision on military intervention, nonetheless Tom Donilon did not resign.

On February 26, 2011 UNSC 1970 passed an arms embargo barring “the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer” of weapons to any party in Libya.[37]

"NATO is an undemocratic body and is not answerable to any constituency of voters. It is through NATO and international organizations that the voting public is being bypassed. The command of the war against Libya has deliberately been reassigned from the Pentagon to NATO as a clever means to bypass public scrutiny and accountability by the U.S. government and all other governments involved in this war."[39][40][41]

On March 23, 2011 UK Air Vice Marshal declares air superiority: the Libyan Air Force “no longer exists as a fighting force.” NATO controls the skies.The next day Sec. Clinton engaged with Sarkozy, Cameron, and others to secure the transition of command and control of the "civilian protection mission" to NATO and announced the transition in a statement. Canada-based sociologist Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya observed,

There is ample documentation by journalists, academics, and human rights groups demonstrating that Black Libyan civilians and sub-Saharan contract workers, a population favored by Gaddafi in his pro-African Union policies, were targets of “racial cleansing” by NATO-backed 'Libyan rebels' who saw Black Libyans as tied closely with the Gaddafi regime.

Many of the so-called 'Libyan rebels', or TNC, that the Obama State Dept. sold to the media and public were a diverse group of outsiders, including Sanusi Islamists, Egyptians from the Muslim Brotherhood, and jihadists from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, Afghanistan and elsewhere (jihadis' whose prime goal in life is to topple the secular regime of their homeland are always on the run seeking sanctuary somewhere). These men were led by two top defectors of the Gaddafi regime, former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil, and former Minister of Interior (secret police) Abdul al-Fatah Younis. Jalil faded from the picture once his role was completed. Younis has worked at Gaddafi's side for 42 years since the bloodless coup of 1969 that deposed the monarchy.

Knowing Gaddafi's days were numbered due to advanced age, Jalil and Younis were seeking to preserve the power they emassed, as heads of Gaddafi's law enforcement ministries, by deposing Gaddafi prematurely using rival tribes internally and outside help from a coalition Hillary Clinton put together of jihadis and NATO. Younis, who made many enemies as Gaddafi's top cop, eventually was murdered by Islamists in the TNC.

On March 27, 2011 an intelligence brief sent to Hillary by Sidney Blumenthal contains clear evidence of war crimes on the part of US-backed rebels. Citing a rebel commander source “speaking in strict confidence” Blumenthal reports:[42]

Secretary of State Clinton was informed her jihadis used summary executions of Gaddafi forces, many who were predominantly black African.

Under attack from allied Air and Naval forces, the Libyan Army troops have begun to desert to the rebel side in increasing numbers. The rebels are making an effort to greet these troops as fellow Libyans, in an effort to encourage additional defections.

(Source Comment: Speaking in strict confidence, one rebel commander stated that his troops continue to summarily execute all foreign mercenaries captured in the fighting…).

Extra-judicial killings are conventionally called “death squads."

On March 29, 2011 Russia and China accused the US of violating international law by exceeding the mandate of UNSC 1973.[43]

On May 20, 2011 the Washington Post reported Obama ignored the legal deadline set by US law that required him to obtain Congressional approval for US military operations in Libya. Under the Nixon-era War Powers Act, the president must obtain Congressional authorization of military action within 60 days, or else begin withdrawing forces.[44][45][46]

In late June Sec. Clinton met with House Democrats and Senate Republicans, basically Send. McCain and Graham, to persuade them to continue support the Libya operation, despite Obama's violation of the War Powers Act and no congressional authorization for use of military force for regime change. On June 30, 2011, Defence Secretary Robert Gates resigned. Leon Panetta moved over from CIA Director as Gates replacement. Michael Morell became acting CIA Director.

On July 8, Clinton sent Asst. Sec. of State for the Near East Jeffrey Feltman, US Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, and a senior director at the National Security Council Derek Chollet, to meet with Gaddafi envoys in Tunis "to deliver a clear and firm message that the only way to move forward, is for Gaddafi to step down." Libyan representatives were confused, as to thinking the US had been an ally in fighting the radical Islamic jihadis, and now the Obama administration was using them to overthrow Gaddafi. On July 17 Alexandra Valiente, living in Tripoli, wrote:

The Coalition of the Willing had come to Libya to spare civilians from Gaddafi’s murderous madness. Four months later, the Libyan crowds have deserted “Liberated Benghazi” and are staging gigantic anti-NATO demonstrations. ... at present, the Libyan people are convinced that such a crackdown never took place and that the Libyan air force never attacked any residential area either in Benghazi or in Tripoli. That portion of the population who believed at first the information relayed through international television networks now thinks very differently. In the meantime, people have had the chance to obtain direct testimonies from family and friends scattered throughout the country and have reached the conclusion that it was all a disinformation campaign....

The Transitional National Council (TNC) has been incapable of constituting a social base. Its provisional capital Benghazi used to be a city of 800 000 inhabitants. In February, hundreds of thousands turned out to celebrate its creation. Today, the “city liberated by the rebels” and “protected by NATO” is virtually a lifeless agglomeration with barely 15 000 inhabitants left, most of whom are people who don’t have the means to leave. The Benghazis did not flee the fighting; they fled from the new regime.

...according to most experts, the number of “rebel forces” has dropped to between 800 and 1 000 combatants, armed to the teeth by NATO, but incapable of playing a significant role in the absence of popular support. It is very likely that there are more NATO Special Forces commandos on the ground than the number of Libyan combatants they are supposed to oversee.[47]

On August 21 jihadis entered Tripoli. Sidney Blumenthal congratulated Hillary:

First, brava! This is a historic moment and you will be credited for realizing it. When Qaddafi himself is finally removed, you should of course make a public statement before the cameras wherever you are, even in the driveway of your vacation house. You must go on camera. You must establish yourself in the historical record at this moment. The most important phrase is: ‘successful strategy.’

Just a few points: The US has pursued a successful strategy in Libya... This was the right course, based on our interests and principles... Do not skimp on the reasons in the US interest...The US has demonstrated its principled belief in the rule of law and acted on...By acting in Libya we have helped advance the cause of democracy and freedom...We have put Assad on notice that the sands of time have run out for him as well. Our successful strategy in Libya stands as a warning that our strategy will work again. Etc. Be aware that some may attempt to justify the flamingly stupid ‘leading from behind’ phrase, junior types on the NSC imagining their cleverness. To refute this passive construction on US policy and help remove it as an albatross from the administration as it enters the election year, do not be defensive but rather simply explain that the US had a clear strategy from the start, stuck with it and has succeeded. Then you can say whatever on future policy — but only after asserting the historic success and explaining the reasons why. This is a very big moment historically and for you. History will tell your part in it. You are vindicated. But don’t wait, help Clio now.” (Blumenthal’s reference to “Clio” is to the Greek muse of history.)[48]

Ben Rhodes is the Assistant to the President for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, and Deputy National Security Advisor to Susan Rice . Rhodes is also the brother of David Rhodes, President of CBS News.

[Secretary Clinton] has been a critical voice on Libya in administration deliberations, at NATO, and in contact group meetings — as well as the public face of the U.S. effort in Libya. She was instrumental in securing the authorization, building the coalition, and tightening the noose around Qadhafi and his regime.[49]

On September 3 Hillary Clinton directed her staff to document the case of Hillary's “brilliance” in providing leadership for the destabilization of Libya. Jake Sullivan wrote the Memorandum, "Secretary Clinton's leadership on Libya":

On August 26, 2011 Sharia law was enshrined in the new TNC draft Constitution.[50] On August 29 CBS News reported the indiscriminate killing of black people by US backed "Libyan rebels".[51]

On September 6 David Petraeus became CIA Director, relieving Michael Morell as acting Director. Morell is immediately hired by David Rhodes, brother of Obama NSC staffer Ben Rhodes as CBS News National Security expert to spin Obama administration talking points.

On September 7 bloomberg.com/news published an editorial authors by Jamie Ruben. On September 10 Blumenthal emailed Hillary the text of Rubin's editorial.:

Hillary Clinton Deserves Credit for U.S. Role in Libya:

View By the Editors –

The unsung hero of the Libya drama in the U.S. is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s actions were critical for several reasons. Most important, she overcame Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s caution about using military force in Libya and his reluctance to support an operation led by France and Britain. ...

Despite the unusual arrangement in which the U.S. was a supporter rather than a leader of NATO’s military operation, she defended intervention before a skeptical Congress and performed the hard slog of daily diplomacy ...

...the decision to support NATO military action in Libya is probably the Obama administration’s most important achievement in international affairs. Although ... the country is a long way from having a stable, representative government... History will surely judge that, by intervening on the side of the rebellion, the West — primarily the governments of France, the U.K. and the U.S. — made a unique and invaluable contribution ... That said, the Obama administration’s decision-making process remains opaque. ...

...by breaking with Gates, Clinton tipped the balance within the administration in favor of action. Without her strong argument ... Washington probably would not have acted. The president’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, was declaring freedom in Libya to be outside the U.S. national interest, and both military and civilian officials in the Pentagon were reluctant to endorse or even opposed U.S. intervention. But Clinton’s push... appears to have been decisive.

...Congress not only opposed sending in ground troops but mostly opposed any U.S. involvement. Obama wisely resisted.

“For better or worse, the Libya model is not likely to be repeated anytime soon. This is not, as some say, because NATO will never again intervene in a situation like Libya’s. After the Kosovo war, many also said NATO would never again act against a dictator to save lives. ...Think about the conditions: ... a rebel army on the ground sought democratic change and espoused Western values; the UN at least loosely endorsed NATO air operations; ...Given those circumstances, it is still hard to explain why there were determined opponents, primarily in the Republican Party, to this mission in the first place.

Throughout most of Obama’s term in office, only a few administration officials have commanded respect and political power on national security matters: Clinton, Gates and General David Petraeus, the most decorated and admired officer of recent times. With Gates now gone and Petraeus in a non-policy role as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Clinton’s power will only increase as the president’s re-election campaign heats up. We hope she recognizes her opportunity and uses it well.[52]

On October 20 Gaddafi was inhumanely executed.

"President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi...Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks"[53]

By law, a covert action requires a Presidential finding. The first Presidential covert action finding Obama issued in support of Muslim jihadis occurred in the early weeks of March 2011. Reuters reported that,Anotherarticle noted Obama had CIA personal on the groundsigning the finding. Adm. Mike Mullen estimated there were about 1,000 rebel jihadis in number.According to a US State Dept. report with this time, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for 23 attacks south of Baghdad , all allegedly carried out under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 's command.

By March 2, 2011, reports arrive by experts identifying weaponry recovered in Gaddafi's Katiba, Benghazi compound. Most equipment is 1970s-80s Soviet equipment, still effective and operational. Some equipment designs date back to World War II. Chinese equipment also is found. A Wired magazine article specifically states, "Most of the weaponry at the Katiba has been removed and handed over to the army," although the Benghazi rebels and TNC had not yet, nor ever were sufficiently organized into an "army." Wired reported, "everything had to be stripped, scrubbed, and reassembled before testing." Much anti-aircraft equipment was confiscated.

On March 20, 2011 NATO's Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, days before President Obama publicly disclosed his decision to intervene, that US the intelligence community knew of al Qaeda and Hezbollah elements among the rebels.[56][57] Two days later a leaked email from Stravidis email to David Manners, business partner of Marc Turi who resigned as a congressional staffer to Sen. John McCain weeks earlier, discussed illegal weapons supply to the TNC per a Hillary Clinton State Department authorization.[58][59] Under the code name “Zero Footprint” Marc Turi drew up the original plan to coordinate the flow of weapons from the US through the intermediary of Qatar into Libya. Those weapons ended up in Libya and Syria destined for the hands of group that later called itself the Islamic State.[60]

By March 28, AP reported on Turkey taking over operation of the Benghazi airport.[61] This was the start of a direct flightline to Adana, Turkey where captured Gaddadi regime weapons were delivered to AQI/ISI jihadis, for the purpose of overthrowing the Assad regime. The AQI/ISI eventually changed its name to the Islamic State. On July 3 NBC reported Turkey gave more aid to the TNC to refurbish Benghazi airport.[62]

On June 21, 2012 the New York Times reported

"C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government...[weapons] are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar."[63][64]

On August 1, 2012 Reuters reported Obama issued a second Presidential covert action finding earlier in that year authorising transfer of captured weapons from Libya to Syria.[65]

under provisions of the presidential finding, the United States was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.

Last week, Reuters reported that, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Turkey had established a secret base near the Syrian border to help direct vital military and communications support to Assad’s opponents. This “nerve center” is in Adana, a city in southern Turkey about 60 miles (100 km) from the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a substantial presence.

Turkey’s moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with growing vehemence. Turkish authorities are said by current and former U.S. government officials to be increasingly involved in providing Syrian rebels with training and possibly equipment.

European government sources said wealthy families in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were providing significant financing to the rebels. Senior officials of the Saudi and Qatari governments have publicly called for Assad’s departure.

Amb. Christopher Stevens was put in charge of the covert operation. The aim is to arm jihadist groups which transformed themselves into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to overthrow Bashar al Assad.

Shortly after Obama's re-election the New York Times reported CIA Dir. David Petraeus had been instrumental in helping to get an aviation network moving to supply ISIS rebels and prodded various countries to work together on it.

“Within three weeks, two other Jordanian cargo planes began making a round-trip run between Amman, the capital of Jordan, and Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, where, officials from several countries said, the aircraft were picking up a large Saudi purchase of infantry arms from a Croatian-controlled stockpile."

Three Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130s landed in Esenboga, in a hint at what would become a stepped-up Jordanian and Saudi role.

Two Jordanian Ilyushins bearing the logo of the Jordanian International Air Cargo firm but flying under Jordanian military call signs made a combined 36 round-trip flights between Amman and Croatia from December 2012 through February 2013. The same two planes made five flights between Amman and Turkey in January 2013.

"As the Jordanian flights were under way, the Qatari flights continued and the Royal Saudi Air Force began a busy schedule, too — making at least 30 C-130 flights into Esenboga from mid-February 2013 to early March 2013, according to flight data provided by a regional air traffic control official.”

“American officials have confirmed that senior White House officials were regularly briefed on the shipments.”

The Snowden leaks detail a program that trained approximately 10,000 jihadi fighters at a cost of $1 billion a year.[66]

“We need Stingers. We don’t need your stupid words.” The article noted "foreign intelligence agencies have bitter experience with supplying Stinger missiles to anti-Soviet freedom fighters in Afghanistan, only to spend years struggling to keep them out of the hands of terrorists."[68]

On March 7, 2011 Ben Knight, reporting from the jihadi rebel side, told an Australian radio audience about the jihadi rebel equipment: "we saw some stinger missiles today."Four days later the Canadian interviewed the rebel appointed as security chief in Derna:

In all likelihood TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a Stinger missile off Long Island in 1996, killing 230 people, which had been supplied to the Afghan mujihadeen in the 1980s by the CIA, and then smuggled back into the United States during the Clinton administration.[69]

On April 4, 2011 Reuters reported that al Qaeda in the Maghreb was in possession of SAM-7s from captured Gaddafi stockpiles. The SAM-7 is a Soviet manufactured version of the American Stinger missile capable of shooting down military or commercial aircraft within a two-mile range.[70] Gen. Carter Ham, head of US Africa Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 7 that “we do estimate that there were as many as 20,000 in Libya before the conflict began.” David Ignatius of the Washington Post reported eight hundred SAM-7s were now in the hands of Boko Haram from Gaddafi arsenals on September 12, 2011 claims a

"former CIA officer wrote his FBI friend that the Niger contacts “have determined locally that the [United States government] doesn’t want to help them” chase down the missiles. “I suspect [the Near East division of CIA] squashed this by their normal bureaucratic warfare,” he speculated.[71]

Brian Ross of ABC News in a report on September 27 that Libya's 20,000 unaccounted for SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles:

"the U.S. State Department has one official on the ground in Libya, as well as five contractors who specialize in 'explosive ordinance disposal', all working with the rebel Transitional National Council to find the looted missiles."[72]

[A] frustrated ex-CIA officer wrote a U.S. military contact: “The missiles are in the hands of al-Qaeda and being distributed. I would really like to know who in the agency was the roadblock and why.”[73]

David Ignatius reported on September 28,

By December David Ignatius of the Washington Post reported an ex-CIA's officer's attempt to track eight hundred shoulder-fired SAM-7s in the hands of Boko Haram hit a “speed bump” at the CIA, apparently blocking communication.[74]

NBC News reported on July 31, 2012 that anti-Assad jihadis had obtained shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles.[75]

Boko Haram sex slaves

In May 2012 Justice Dept. official Lisa Monaco wrote to Sec. Hillary Clinton asking to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization. The designation is needed to grant legal authority for various agencies, such as the FBI or Pentagon, to act. The following month, Gen. Carter Ham, the chief of U.S. Africa Command, said that Boko Haram provided a ‘safe haven’ for al Qaeda in North Africa, and was likely sharing explosives and funds with the group.[76] The group had already bombed the United Nations headquarters in Abuja. Clinton refused despite requests coming from the US Justice Dept, the FBI, and numerous Senators and Congressmen.

On April 4, 2014, 276 African Christian schoolgirls are kidnapped by Boko Haram. The girls were auctioned off by Muslim extremists as sex slaves. The Obama administration was asked repeatedly to designate the group as a terrorist organization so that counterterrorism agencies would have legal authority to counter it.[77] The administration did absolutely nothing, unless one considers promoting a Twitter hashtag discussion an anti-terrorism policy, to help locate and retrieve the girls.

In the last three months of 2016, Fulani Muslims of Nigeria murdered 808 Christians and wounded 57, destrpyed 1,422 houses and 16 churches. Bishop Joseph Bagobiri told Internal kindly Catholic Charities that the terrorists are now using "sophisticated weapons they didn't have before, such as AK-47s of unknown provenance."[78]

Qatar

Hillary Clinton's emails boast of Hillary Clinton engaging with UAE, Qatar, and Jordan between March 18–30, 2011 to seek their participation in coalition operations. Over the course of several days, all three devote aircraft to the mission.

After Gaddafi shut down Libya's Internet system in early March,[79] Qatar had given the revolutionaries access to its satellites.[80]

A week after Gaddafi's murder, Qatar takes credit for sending hundreds of troops into Libya to provide training, communications and strategy. Qatar "acted as the link between the rebels and Nato forces." Guardian adds,[81]

Some, however, express concern at the emirate's support for Islamist elements such as the 17 February Martyrs Brigade, one of the most influential rebel formations, led by Abdel-Hakim Belhaj.

On December 6, 2012 the New York Times confirmed

"Qataris provided weapons, money and training to various rebel groups in Libya [destined for Syria]. One militia that received aid was controlled by [Abdelhakim Belhadj], then leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who was held by the C.I.A. in 2004..."[82]

On January 3, 2013 an arms flight was reported from Qatar to Istanbul destined for Islamic State rebels.

On May 16 the Financial Times reports Qatar has spent $3 billion over the past two years bankrolling the jihadi rebels in Syria.

McCain onboard

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Abdelhakim Belhadj, Sen. John McCain, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Belhadj, a veteran jihadi, was kidnapped by the CIA in 2004 and " rendered " to Libya where he spent 7 years in prison being "rehabilitated." He was released in March 2010 to reactivate the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, of which Ansar al Shariah was part. In August 2011 he was appointed commander of the Tripoli Military Council by the TNC, and in 2015 head of the Mujahideen Shura Council in Derna.

In March 2010 Abdulhakim Belhadj was released from Abu Salim prison in Libya[83] after serving 6 years in custody. Belhadj had brought to Libya under the CIA's extraordinary rendition program in 2004. Belhadj was chased out of Libya by Gaddafi in 1988[84] and arrived in Afghanistan where he joined the Taliban.[85][86] After the Taliban captured Kabul in 1992 he returned to Libya where he and others formed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Belhadj was reported to have followed Osama Bin Laden when the al-Qaeda leader moved the center of its operations from Afghanistan to Sudan in 1996.[87] The relation between LIGF and al-Qaeda was officially confirmed in October 2001, when the UN Security Council designated the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group as a terrorist entity for its association with al-Qaeda, Bin Laden and the Taliban. The UN Security Council specified that the LIFG relation with al-Qaeda was substantiated through the group's involvement in

"the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of", "supplying, selling or transferring arms and related materiel to" or "otherwise supporting acts or activities of" Al-Qaida [...], Usama bin Laden and the Taliban."[88]

[91] The jihadis in Derna were trained by Americans on Barack Hussein Obama's orders. Circulated on #Libya in social media after the Americans left to focus on Syria: “#Derna and the future of her children.”The jihadis in Derna were trained by Americans on Barack Hussein Obama's orders.

In 2002 an arrest warrant was issued for Belhadj by the Libyan authorities after Gaddafi's reconciliation with Western powers and three assassination attempt's on Gaddafi's life by the LIFG. The arrest warrant alleged that Belhadj had developed "close relationships" with al-Qaeda leaders, and specifically Taliban chief Mullah Omar, and to have run and financed training camps for Arab mujahideen fighters.After the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, Belhadj fled and was arrested in Malaysia in 2004 where he was rendered by the CIA to Libya.

Wall Street Journal reported on April 2, 2011 about Americans' training terrorists in the port city of Derna;[92] when the Americans left to concentrate on the Syrian operation, terrorists beheaded people in front of small children as part of their training.[93] The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) is centered in and around Derna and Benghazi. The Sinjar documents[94][95] captured during the Iraq insurgency revealed 20% of all Iraq insurgents came from Derna, Sirte, and Misurata, 82% of which volunteered for suicide attacks. In 2015 twenty-one Christians in Derna were beheaded enmasse.

On February 22, 2012, in a show of bipartisanship, Senators Richard Blumenthal, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham visited Libya and meet with Abdulhakim Belhadj, who was put in charge of training jihadis in Eastern Libya (principally Derna and Benghazi) by the Obama administration for the second leg of Operation Zero Footprint in Syria.

On October 5, 2014, the Shura Council of Shabab al-Islam Derna, Libya declared itself part of the Islamic State. In February 2015 the ISIS jihadis beheaded 21 Christians and distributed an uncut video of the gruesome event to world. On March 2, 2015 Katherine Herrige of FOX News reported that Obama administration senior intelligence officials told her Abdelhakim Belhadj is firmly aligned with ISIS and supports the Islamic State training camps in eastern Libya.

"Critics say Libya's new position as a safe haven for ISIS reflects one of the most significant policy failures of the so-called Arab Spring."

Herridge added that counter-terrorism sources have confirmed that the new support base for ISIS in eastern Libya is now providing "tangible assistance" in the form of training camps around the city of Derna, in addition to a growing number of Libyan fighters joining the terror group in Syria and Iraq.[96]

Benghazi massacre

It is clear in reading Hillary Clinton's emails that, in the glow of the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Hillary embraced the call to spike the football and clearly was planning to use Libya as evidence of her leadership and skill that qualified her to become President.

The attack on US diplomats and CIA officers in Benghazi on 11 September 2012 however, destroyed that dream. The dream became a nightmare and Hillary scrambled to pretend that she was not the mover-and-shaker that destabilized Libya and made it a safe haven for ISIS, uncorking the bottle for the European migrant crisis.

11 September. Benghazi massacre on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

[97] Amb. Stevens was specifically in Benghazi to oversee and facilitate transfer of captured weapons from the Gadaffi regime to groups in Syria which ultimately became the Islamic State . Few people had knowledge of this program beyond Stevens, Clinton, and Obama. Once the mission was completed, Stevens was expendable.

Some Obama officials became frustrated with CIA Dir. David Petraeus as he refused to go along with whitewashing the terrorist attack. Petraeus deputy Mike Morell was given authority over the fake news talking points, and aligned with Hillary Clinton's State Department against Petraeus's desires.

The Benghazi "talking points" were born out of a request from Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, after a closed door briefing on the facts. Ruppersberger asked "what can I say on TV?"[98] Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes emailed that there would be a Deputies meeting the next morning to work out the issues. The administration's "Dream Team" set work writing the talking points to deceive the Congress and he public. The "Dream Team" consisted of: Maj. Gen. Darryl Roberson, Vice Dir. of Operations, Joint Staff; Matt Olson, Dir. of the National Counterterrorism Center; Andy McCabe, Asst. Dir. of Counterterrorism for the FBI, later involved in the Hillary Clinton email coverup investigation; and Linda Weissgold from CIA Office of Terrorism Analysis (OTA). Linda Weissgold testified she changed one such talking point to say that extremists in Benghazi with ties to al Qaeda were involved in “protests,” despite the fact that no such protests had occurred on the day of the attack.[99] The final version called the attacks "demonstrations" that "evolved" after being "spontaneously inspired" by protest at the US Embassy in Cairo. All mentions of terrorism, al Qaeda and previous warnings given by the CIA had been excised.

On Sunday September 16, 2012 with the presidential election less only 7 weeks away, Susan Rice appeared on all 5 Sunday morning talk shows to put out the fake news narrative​ that the Benghazi massacre was a "spontaneous demonstration" rather than a terrorist attack.[100] The White House was fearful of upsetting Obama's chance of winning re-election by leveling with the public and delivering the truth of the matter.

Obama crowing just days after the murder of Americans, "The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."

Two weeks to the day after the attack which killed four Americans including an Ambassador and left many with puzzling and unanswered questions, President Obama declared victory from the speakers platform at the United Nations using the premise of his strawman talking points, "[T]he future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."[101]

On October 2 Secretary Hillary Clinton announcef her selection of appointees to an Accountability Review Board (ARB), tasked with conducting an internal review and whitewash of the Benghazi massacre. The board begins work the same week. The Accountability Board investigators, fearful of besmirching their own reputations and integrity, ultimately never interviewed Clinton.

"Well we considered everything and, um, we did as you know send additional assets from Tripoli. But it was a fast moving, very difficult assault to try to figure out. As you know, the assault on the post ended, there was a gap of time, then the assault on the annex, um, so everybody who had any responsibility was scrambling very hard to figure out what more could be done." Clinton said they did not send assets from outside Libya "partly because of the difficulties of trying to do that...but I think all of this will be examined in the Accountability Review Board because after all we have this independent board to sort through everything."

On October 15 Hillary Clinton first acknowledged that the State Dept. but decided against asking the Pentagon for help:Pentagon assets were never sent because the Defense Department was outside the compartmentalized State Dept/CIA loop that Obama's weapon smuggling operation run from Benghazi to ISIS under the 2012 Presidential covert action finding. The Pentagon had no knowledge of any US presence, State Dept. or CIA, in Benghazi during September 2012.

CBS begins airing Sharyl Attkisson’s Benghazi stories which rely on whistleblower and numerous government-linked confidential sources. These sources report that the Executive Branch is clamping down on leaks to reporters regarding the Benghazi massacre. In the weeks before his murder, Amb. Stevens sent the State Dept. several requests for increased security for diplomats in Libya, CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported. No outside US military help was sent to Benghazi despite the presence of a major naval air base in Sigonella, Italy, less than one hour's flight away. Attkisson obtained some of the Obama administrations's first internal emergency alerts sent during the Benghazi massacre. As the assault began, at 4:05 p.m. ET on September 11, an alert from the State Dept. Operations Center was issued to various government emergency watch lists including the White House Situation Room, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI. Entitled "US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack," the alert reports

"approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (Chief of Mission/embassy) personnel are in the compound safe haven." Another alert an hour later reported: "the firing... has stopped...A response team is on site attempting to locate COM personnel." At 6:07 p.m. ET, an alert was sent with the subject heading "Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack." The US Embassey in Tripoli, says the alert, reported the group "claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."

Petraeus blackmailed

That alert was sent around midnight in Benghazi, hours before the wave of mortar attacks against the CIA Benghazi annex began.

As CIA Dir. Petraeus's interagency relationships deteriorated over his refusal to go along with White House and State Dept. Benghazi talking points, unnamed FBI agents reached out to Republicans in Congress to tell about Petraeus's affair. They eventually land at the office of Republican majority leader Eric Cantor. With the presidential elections about a week away, Cantor stays mum on the Petraeus rumors and instead contacts the FBI about them. The FBI interviewed Petraeus and Broadwell a second time.

On November 1, 2012, with the election less than one week away. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported that the Obama administration did not convene an emergency meeting of the Counterterrorism Security Group during the Benghazi massacre. Attkisson also reported on a draft letter obtained by ForeignPolicy.com, written the very day of the Benghazi massacre, that someone on the US team in Benghazi spotted a member of the local police photographing the inside of the US mission. The letter, intended for the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Benghazi, called for an investigation. Another draft letter written two days before the attack complained of an inadequate local police presence around the compound, requested ahead of Amb. Chris Stevens' arrival.

On November 6 Obama was reelected. Administration officials claim this day is the first time Dir. of National Intelligence Clapper was notified about the Petraeus affair by an unspecified official at the Justice Dept. Clapper called Petraeus and urged him to resign. Administration officials say somebody notified somebody at the White House about the Petraeus affair on Nov. 7. The President is reportedly looped in for the first time on Nov. 8. On Nov. 8, the Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a closed hearing on the Benghazi massacre slated for November 15. Among those called to testify are CIA Dir. Gen. David Petraeus. Petraeus resigned the next day under threat of prosecution by Eric Holder's Justice Dept.

On November 16 Gen. Petraeus gave closed-door briefings to Congress on the Benghazi massacre, and when exactly U.S. officials knew it was a terrorist attack. After the hearing, members emerge saying CIA talking points on the attack were altered. A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, "The talking points about the intelligence assessment that Amb. Rice used were produced by the intelligence community. Officials determined that the unclassified points should use the broader term 'extremists' when referring to those responsible for the attack." On November 27 Susan Rice met with Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham on Capitol Hill to explain her remarks on the Benghazi massacre. Graham said afterword he was "more disturbed now than I was before," and McCain said he was "significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get."

On March 5, 2013 CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported some of the first revelations on "who changed the Benghazi talking points." One source who reviewed the documents said removal of the word "al Qaeda" from the talking points was initiated by one of the "press shops." The source said press officers from the Defense Intelligence Agency, the White House and the FBI were "looped in" from the start and that some of them expressed concerns in writing, that the media would ask follow up questions if certain words or phrases were used. The source added that the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell were included in these emails. A DNI spokesman acknowledged that press officers from his agency and other agencies were looped in and took part in the talking points exchanges, but he said "no [ODNI] press officers suggested the edits of the specific words 'al Qaeda.'"

On March 14 CBS News reported Libyan and US investigators were questioning a suspect long affiliated with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), and believed to have connections to other Islamist radicals. LIGF is one of the main terror groups the Obama administration funded. On April 17 CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported that the House Oversight Committee sent letters to the three federal agencies — the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department — in response to new whistleblower revelations on the Benghazi massacre. The letters instruct how whistleblowers are to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency's official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be "compelled by subpoena to give testimony."

On April 23 Five House Committees issue an interim report on the Benghazi massacre naming Sec.of State Hillary Clinton and other Obama administration officials responsible for reducing security levels at the consulate, contradicting testimony Hillary Clinton gave under oath before Congress. The report issued by the Armed Services, Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Government Reform Committees reaches three major conclusions:

First, Clinton approved security reductions at the consulate, pointing to an April 2012 State Dept. cable bearing her signature. The cable was a formal request from then-Amb.Cretz for more security. In her testimony before Congress in January, Clinton said, "With specific security requests they didn't come to me. I had no knowledge of them." Secondly, the report charges that White House and senior State Dept. officials attempted to protect the State Dept. from criticism by altering accurate talking points drafted by Gen. Petraeus and the intelligence community. The report says that, after a Sept. 15, 2012 meeting, administration officials removed references to the likely participation of Islamic extremists. Third, report contradicts Obama administration claims that the talking points were altered to protect classified information. None of the emails reviewed ever mentioned a concern about classified information.

Whitewash

On April 30 an attorney for a whistleblower on the Sept. 11, 2012 massacre at Benghazi says the Obama administration is impeding her clients and others' efforts to speak.[102]

On May 5 excerpts of an interview investigators conducted with Gregory Hicks, the no. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya who was in Tripoli during the Benghazi massacre are leaked to CBS News. The US diplomat contradicted the Obama White House version.

I never reported a demonstration; I reported an attack on the consulate. Chris [Stevens] last report, if you want to say his final report - is, 'Greg, we are under attack.'...I've never been as embarrassed in my life, in my career, as on that day" (that Susan Rice appeared on talk shows calling the attack the result of a demonstration,) The net impact of what has transpired is, [Rice,] the spokesperson of the most powerful country in the world, has basically said that the president of Libya is either a liar or doesn't know what he's talking about. ....My jaw hit the floor as I watched this."

The next day CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported more details from private testimony in which a team of Special Operation Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 massacre was forbidden from doing so by US Special Operations Command Africa. The US Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour's flight from Libya. On May 8 three US officials stationed in Libya during the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack deliver accounts of the events and aftermath. More criticism against the Obama administration for issuing stand-down orders to Special Operations Forces who were ready to assist.

On May 10 a senior administration official tells CBS News' that the reports that State Dept. officials helped make final edits to the false information given to Congress about the Benghazi massacre - the same false information Susan Rice lied about in her television appearances on Sept. 16, 2012 - were "just false."

On May 11 CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson reported details of approximately 100 interagency government emails, sent on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15, 2012, regarding the content of the talking points used by Susan Rice on the Sunday shows about the Benghazi massacre. The talking points were revised numerous times.

On May 15 the White House releasesd some 100 pages of internal emails showing how CIA talking points originally referenced al Qaeda's links to the Benghazi massacre after revisions, the al Qaeda references were removed.

On March 10, 2014 award-winning news anchor Sharyl Attkisson resigned from CBS, alleging the network was spiking news stories that were unflattering to Barack Obama.[103] In her Best Seller, Stonewalled: One Reporter's Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington,[104] Attkisson goes public with how her work and personal computers had been hacked for more than two years after she began filing stories about the Benghazi massacre.[105] CBS News investigated and found evidence of multiple unauthorized accesses by a third party in late 2012.[106] The hackers were identified by independent experts as a US Government intelligence agency.[107] In March 2015, Attkisson and her family initiated suit against Eric Holder, Patrick R. Donahoe and unnamed agents of the US Department of Justice, the US Postal Service and the United States claiming to have been subjected to illegal surveillance activities.[108][109]

The Benghazi Mission was initially, and mistakenly by media, called “a consulate," or a “consulate outpost.” But there are no State Dept. records of any consulate office in Benghazi.[110] This is why no Pentagon rescue operation was mounted, the Defense Dept. had no knowledge of US assets in Benghazi. The Benghazi weapons smuggling operation to ISIS was a CIA/State Dept. operation authorized by an Obama presidential covert action finding.

"Susan Rice’s comments on the Sunday talk shows were met with shock and disbelief by State Department employees in Washington. The Senior Libya Desk Officer, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, State Department, wrote: “I think Rice was off the reservation on this one.” The Deputy Director, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, State Department, responded: “Off the reservation on five networks!” The Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications, Bureau of Near East Affairs, State Department, wrote: “WH [White House] very worried about the politics. This was all their doing.” [pg. 132][111]

XKeyscore

Xkeyscore monitoring stations globally capable of surveillance of electronic transmissions of anyone including presidents, Supreme Court justices, and members of congress.

On July 8, 2016 the House Select Committee on Beghazi voted on final version of report. The report found

Gaddafi had been a notorious state sponsor of terror for more than three decades prior to 2003, at which point he aquieced and complied with Western wishes, renouncing terrorism, paying reparations to victims, gave up his WMD, and joined the United States in its global war on terror. More accurately, the United States joined Gaddafi in his war on the radical Islamic terrorists. As a secular leader, Gaddafi had been battling the Muslim Brotherhood for decades. The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was an Islamist group the United Kingdom began supporting in 1995 to overthrow Gaddafi. Many were veterans of the Soviet-Afghan jihad, and fought the United States during the Iraq insurgency of 2004-11.

During the period of alliance with Gaddafi in the war on terror (2003-2011), Gaddafi used his oil wealth to purchase the most advanced internet communications surveillance and counter-intelligence technology the West had to offer. His prisons, from which the CIA operated a rendition and torture program, were control centers equipped with the most advanced electronic mass surveillance system throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Arrests could be made within hours after reading an email, monitoring a Skype transmission or Youtube upload, or listening to a phone conversation. The arrestee would be brought to the prison for interrogation. This system functioned in conjunction with multinational technology giants and intelligence sharing agreements with the US intelligence community.

In addition, Gaddafi purchased internet survellience technology from China used for population control. The relationship Gaddafi had with the US IC allowed for the real life design and testing of state-of-the-art mass surveillance technology of social media. In 2011 the Pentagon declared the internet a "domain of war,"[112] alongside air, land, sea, and space, and began recruiting and training for Information War Specialists, or Cyberwarfare Specialists, assigned to the Air Force.

On October 3, 2011 the Obama administration secretly changed longstanding policy. The change created a “loophole” that Sen. Ron Wyden of the Intelligence Committee later says allows the NSA to conduct “backdoor searches,” or “incidental collection,” of US citizens’ domestic communications.[113] On December 27, 2012 Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall warn the public of the “back-door search loophole” or "incidental" collection of innocent Americans. Udall says,

As it is written, there is nothing to prohibit the intelligence community from searching through a pile of communications, which may have been incidentally or accidentally been collected without a warrant, to deliberately search for the phone calls or e-mails of specific Americans.

Sharyl Attkisson

On October 4 in an internal email, the top press side to Attn. Gen. Eric Holder emailed White House operative Eric Schultz calling CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson “out of control."[114]

By October 2012 the Justice Dept. was stepping-up its National Security Division cyber efforts, holding specialized training at DOJ headquarters for the National Security Cyber Specialists (NSCS) network and the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). Immediately after election day, Attn. Gen. Eric Holder hosted a national training conference at Justice Dept. headquarters for the expanded efforts of DOJ's National Security Cyber Specialists (NSCS). On November 13 the FBI initiated a slew of cyber security case investigations that later related to Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News home and work computer intrusions. In December two intelligence-connected sources separately tell Attkisson that she's likely under government surveillance due to her reporting. One source tells her the government has pushed the envelope like never before and that the public would be shocked to “learn the extent that the government is conducting surveillance of private citizens.”

In June 2013 the FBI secretly opened a case on Sharyl Attkisson's computer intrusions under the auspices of 'national security.' The FBI contacted CBS without Attkisson's knowledge, nor contact or interview Attkisson. FBI later ignores multiple FOIA request and other documents.

News of the FBI case involving Attkisson's computer intrusions was circulated internally to the Justice Dept.’s national cyber security group, and grouped with a set of cases opened on 20 November, shortly after the president's re-election in 2012.[115]

On August 7 CBS News publicly announced confirmation of Attkisson’s computer intrusions.

“Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012…This party also used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."[116]



After the Benghazi massacre, when President Obama's jihadi allies turned on him and murdered the US Ambassador, Obama issued a new secret directive ordering intelligence officials to draw up a list of overseas targets for cyberattacks. Obama also suffered much domestic criticism over the Benghazi massacre and, according to The Guardian, the directive also “contemplates the possible use of cyber actions inside the US.”

On April 12, 2013 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court secretly approved the latest FBI request to continue obtaining daily telephone records of millions of Verizon customers.[117] The judge ordered Verizon to turn over the information to the National Security Agency (NSA). This directly contradicted Clapper's March 12 testimony to Congress denying NSA metadata collection.[118]

A secret memo in later exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden discussed how the US, along with British intelligence, is collecting information “directly from the servers of …Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”[119]

In a daily series of leaks, on June 6 UK Guardian revealed NSA unlimited metadata collection under FISA protection. Data collection on 4 million of Verizon customers are collected daily.[120] The following day the Guardian revealed NSA tapping through back doors into US internet companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook with a program called Prism [British GCHQ counterpart = Tempora].[121] An 18-page memo also showed Obama ordering intelligence officials to draw up a list of overseas targets for cyberattacks.[122] Simultaneously in Washington Obama publicly defended NSA wiretapping.[123] The Guardian story was more evidence Obama DNI James Clapper misled Congress and the public about the true nature and extent of domestic intelligence gathering in his March 12 sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The following day documents revealed the NSA's Boundless Informant program, which gives the agency near real-time ability to understand how much intelligence coverage there is on certain areas through use of a "heat map."[124]

Snowden

On June 9, 2013 Edward Snowden stepped forward as the source of NSA leaks published in The Guardian.[125] Introducing himself Snowden said,[126]

“I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal e-mail.



It’s getting to the point you don’t have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody, even by a wrong call, and then they can use the system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you have ever made.”

Training materials provided by Snowden for XKeyscore propgram detailed how analysts use it and other systems to mine enormous NSA databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed. The program covers "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata. Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized FISA warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a 'US person',[127] though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant as long as some identifying information, such as an email or IP address, is known.

NSA analysts, using the XKeyscore program, can search through enormous databases of emails, online chats, and browsing histories of targets.[128][129]

On June 16 Snowden revealed intelligence sharing with Britain's GCHQ (its intelligence agency) intercepting phone and internet communications of foreign politicians who attended two G-20 meetings in London in 2009.

Snowden leaked top-secret procedure steps the NSA must take to target and collect data from "non-US persons" and how it must minimize, or mask the identity of data collected on US citizens.[130]

On June 21 Snowden leaked how Britain's GCHQ taps fiber-optic cables to collect and store global email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories, and calls, and then shares the data with the NSA. Seven of the world's leading telecommunications companies provide GCHQ with secret, unlimited access to their network of undersea cables. The US government paid Britain's GCHQ roughly $155 million over three years to gain access and influence over its spying programs. NSA was found to be paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year to US companies for access to their networks.

On September 5, 2013 a joint investigation by ProPublica, The New York Times, and The Guardian found the NSA is winning its war against internet encryption with supercomputers, technical know-how, and court orders. NSA also has the ability to access user data for most major smartphones on the market, including Apple iPhones, BlackBerrys, and Google Android phones.

In late October it was revealed the NSA tapped the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Der Spiegel reported Obama personally approved wiretapping Merkel's cell phone conversations.[131]

Edward Snowden warned of such abuse played out in 2016 and 2017: an Executive branch with unlimited. unrestrained power to spy on investigative Committees of Congress, political opponents, and even the Supreme Court.

It is clear from the Snowden documents that GCHQ has become Europe's intelligence hub in the internet age, and not just because of its success in creating a legally permissive environment for its operations. Britain's location as the European gateway for many transatlantic cables, and its privileged relationship with the NSA has made GCHQ an essential partner for European agencies. The documents show British officials frequently lobbying the NSA on sharing of data with the Europeans and haggling over its security classification so it can be more widely disseminated. In the intelligence world, far more than it managed in diplomacy, Britain has made itself an indispensable bridge between America and Europe's spies.

In November Snowden leaks revealed thatarticle reported,

In late November the Guardian revealed that the UK government struck a secret deal with the NSA to share phone, internet, and email records of UK citizens. And an NSA strategy document was published revealing the agency's goal to acquire data from "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and expand its already broad legal powers.[133]

On January 24, 2014 Guardian published a Snowden document revealing a GCHQ program called Squeaky Dolphin, which monitors YouTube, Facebook, and Blogger for "broad real-time monitoring of online activity." On February 7 NBC reported UK's GCHQ used "dirty tricks" such as computer viruses and sexual "honey traps" to target adversaries (see 27 October 2009).[134]

On February 18 it was reported the NSA and UK's GCHQ monitored traffic to the WikiLeaks website and considered a move to monitor communications going to or from WikiLeaks and the Pirate Bay.

On February 24 Guardian reported the UK's GCHQ conducts covert operations to disrupt and shape online discourse.[135] On February 28 UK's GCHQ, using a program called Optic Nerve, intercepted and stored webcam images from millions of Yahoo users, then passed them on to the NSA's XKeyscore database.

On March 13 document reveals that, while many foreign governments share information with NSA, few senior officials outside of the intelligence or defense sphere have any knowledge of it.[136]

Revelations published on April 4 showed NSA and UK's GCHQ discussing various methods of deception, use of propaganda, mass messaging, and pushing stories on social media sites. Snowden revealed GCHQ asked NSA for "unsupervised access" to NSA's databases.

On August 29, 2014 the Project on Government Oversight sent a letter to Obama and members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to voice concerns over Executive Order 12333, the primary authority under which the NSA gathers foreign intelligence. Unlike a FISA warrant, the Executive Order provides the government with the latitude to conduct sweeping surveillance on US and non-US persons without judicial review as long as the monitoring is necessary to protect US interests from "foreign security threats," an umbrella term that likely permits the surveillance of any foreign person.[137]

On February 22, 2015 the British Secretive Court rules NSA-UK sharing of bulk metadata before December 2014 was illegal, however, after the Snowden leaks, now that knowledge of the practice is in the public domain, US-UK intelligence metadata sharing is legal.[138] Legal intelligence sharing with foreign agencies is a convenient way for law enforcement in both countries to circumvent constitutional restrictions and obtain information without probable cause or a search warrant. Under a reciprocal agreement, the US can ask the UK to spy on a US citizen or vice-versa (as in the case of Lady Diana Spencer) as a national security prerogative. The UK doesn't need a warrant in the US, nor the US in the UK, and a person's civil rights may be "legally" violated under this loophole. The practice was originated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 by Executive Order allowing British intelligence to wiretap American citizens that Britain feared were monitoring ships leaving harbor in New York and New Jersey, making them vulnerable to U-boats.[139]

John Brennan

John Brennan oversaw stomping out negative press reporting of the Obama administration by harassing journalists. Brennan authored a fake memo which was widely circulated with unmasked names in the closing days of the Obama administration alleging President-elect Trump was a KGB agent and Putin-stooge. On Jan. 12, 2017 a Tweet came from an NSA insider, "Their taking traitor Trump out now."

The Bush-era controversy over warrantless wiretaps was always only cover for the real source where information was gained - Brennan's torture program. At the same time it served public notice Americans had to surrender some freedoms and civil liberties to a group of insiders who knew what was best for them. Legalities didn't matter anymore.

On September 21, 2010 an internal email entitled “Obama Leak Investigations” at “global intelligence” company Stratfor claims Obama's then-White House adviser John Brennan is targeting journalists.[140][141]

"Brennan is behind the witch hunts of investigative journalists learning information from inside the beltway sources,” writes one Stratfor official to another. The email continues: “Note — There is specific tasker from the [White House] to go after anyone printing materials negative to the Obama agenda (oh my.) Even the FBI is shocked. The Wonder Boys must be in meltdown mode…”

“The Wonder Boys” reportedly refers to the National Security Agency (NSA).[142]

On March 7, 2013 the Senate confirmed John Brennan as CIA Director. Brennan, who ran the Bush-era torture program, now was in charge of writing the CIA's response to torture allegations in the Senate Intelligence Oversight Torture report.[143] On May 10 Brennan met with Obama in the White House to discuss CIA's response to the Torture Report.[144] On June 27 the CIA sent a response to the Senate ntelligence Committee Torture Report, attacking the Committee; Sen. Mark Udall issued a statement alleging intelligence officials leaked "inaccurate information" critical of the Committee report. Udall stated that the CIA and the White House "repeatedly rejected requests to discuss the Committee's report.[145]

August 13, 2013 Ghouta chemical attack occurred. Ghouta is a suburb of Damascus, Syria. Obama and Brennan's allies, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, used chemical weapons on civilians. Obama publicly claimed the Assad regime did it.[146] Later reports indicated,

"Top US and Saudi Officials responsible for Chemical Weapons in Syria....Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry. The Strategic Situation, leading up to the Use of Chemical Substances in the Eastern Ghouta Suburb of Damascus on 21 August 2013."[147]

The respected investigative journalist Seymour Hersh later reported Hillary Clinton approved sending captured Libyan stocks of sarin gas to Syrian jihadis.

In October. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com purchased the Washington Post for less than half of his ongoing contract for cloud service with the CIA.[149] The Institute for Public Accuracy releases a statement condemning the move.[150] Washington Post begins promoting Hillary Clinton as their preferred candidate for President in 2016.[151]

On January 6, 2014 Sen. Mark Udall again wrote to Obama asking the president to compel the CIA to comply with Congressional oversight, and "a public statement from the White House committing to the fullest possible declassification of the Committee's study."[152] CIA refused to comply.[153] At some point during the dispute between Brennan and the Oversight Committee, the CIA Inspector General filed a "crimes report" with the US Justice Department about the CIA spying on the Senate; in retaliation, the CIA's general counsel filed a "crimes report" alleging Senate staffers pilfered copies of the Panetta review.[154]

On January 23 Sen. Bernie Sanders asked the NSA if it spies on members of Congress.[155] The NSA replied that Congress is afforded “the same privacy protections as all US persons.”[156] On March 4 McClatchy News reported on CIA was spying on its Congressional oversighters.[157] Sen. Mark Udall writes Obama again:

"As you are aware, the CIA has recently taken unprecedented action against the committee in relation to the internal CIA review and I find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the committee's oversight responsibilities and for our democracy...It is essential that the committee be able to do its oversight work – consistent with our constitutional principle of the separation of powers – without the CIA posing impediments or obstacles as it is today."[158]

On March 11, Senate Democrat Intelligence Committee Chair Diane Feinstein took to the Senate floor to accuse the Obama CIA of violating

"the Fourth Amendment, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as well as Executive Order 12333, which prohibits the C.I.A. from conducting domestic searches or surveillance," and "breaching a constitutional boundary"

of intimidation and spying on the US Senate.Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he supported investigation into Obama CIA hacking of the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee's computers,and notified Brennan and Attn. Gen. Eric Holder that the Capital Police will investigate charges that the CIA ahacked the Intelligence Oversight Committee's computer network.

On July 31 the CIA finally admitted to hacking into Oversighter's computers, and spying on the Senate.[161] Brennan lied to Congress.[162] Democratic Sen. Mark Udall called for Brennan's resignation.[160]

On August 5 public released of the Senate Torture Report was put on hold after the Senate objected to the CIA trying to redact evidence that the agency had misled congressional investigators, a key finding of the report. The report already was nearly one full year overdue.[163]

On October 15 New York Times reported the United States discovered the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq during the Iraq war, and that at least one large stash of the weapons now was under the control of ISIS.[164]

On January 17, 2015 Seen. Feinstein slams the CIA's internal review of hacking and interference with Congressional Oversight, the Panetta review, as a whitewash.[165]

On January 29 the Washington Times published audio recordings of wiretaps from 2011 of Congressman Dennis Kucinich and other Pentagon officials refuting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's claim a genocide was about to take place in Libya and that US intervention was needed.[166]

Syria

Main article: Syrian War

By 2012 Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both were running for president, Obama for re-election in 2012, Hillary to succeed him in 2016. Removing dictators in the Arab Spring was intended to give the impetus to both. But the Benghazi fiasco of September derailed Hillary's chances of remaining on in the State Department in Obama's second term, exposing covert operations, and slowed the progress of overthrowing Assad.

Nevertheless, Hillary established an important donor base in the Middle East who had provided funds for the removal of Assad and Gadaffi,[167] then had a stake in seeing Hillary's election in 2016 through contributions to the Clinton Foundation.[168]

The failure of the quick removal of Assad, along with Obama's complete disengagement of US troops from Iraq earlier, led to the unanticipated rise of the Islamic State in 2014, which further highlighted the failure of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy, and weakened Hillary's 2016 prospects.

Reuters reported on March 11, 2011 ‘a large shipment of weapons and explosives and night-vision goggles … in a truck coming from Iraq’ carrying 'dozens of grenades and pistols as well as rifles and ammunition belts’ was seized at al-Waleed (known in Syria as al-Tanf) southern bordering crossing, some 400 west of Baghdad. The Syrian Government News Agency (SANA) said the weapons were intended ‘for use in actions that affect Syria’s internal security and spread unrest and chaos.’ The driver said the weapons had been loaded in Baghdad and he was to be paid $5,000 to deliver them to Syria.[169]

On March 18 armed protesters in Daraa open fired on regime security forces.[170] Syrian security forces returned fire.[171] What began as a popular movement for greater freedom and democracy was over by April 2011. The continuing war was fueled and funded by outside sources, and foreign fighters entering Syria from Turkey and Northern Iraq. The fighters were principally equipped and funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, although the CIA by June 2011, per Obama's Presidential finding, was supplying jihadist elements with weapons from captured Libyan stockpiles. Airial transport originated in Benghazi and was flown to Incirlik, Turkey. Sea transport originated in Derna, Libya to the Turkish port of Iskenderun, 35 miles from the Syrian border.[172]

On March 23 the Syrian government seized weapons stored in the Al-Omari mosque in the city of Daraa.[173][174] The Daily Mail reported "'an armed gang' of 'peaceful protesters' opened fire on an ambulance, killing 'a doctor, a paramedic and a policeman.'"

"presence of foreign armed elements...The situation in Lattaka is terrible, [on March 26] five people got killed, and there were snipers who shot at the people from buildings...It looks as if certain groups there want to stir up a sectarian conflict to make people afraid and to become more powerful themselves,..."[175]

A blogger in Latakia, Syria, a majority Alewite/Shia port city in northern Syria, posted that there is theevidence that the Syrian uprising was planned by professionalwho were brought in as, regime supporters and Sunni protesters, to create blind hatred and anger.

The following month, Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq, later ISIS], supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, were infiltrated into the southwest Syrian border town of Daraa, a town of 150,000 inhabitants (Western media previously claimed 300,000 protesters were in the streets). 20 Syrian government soldiers are ambushed and beheaded. These are the first known instances of what became the Obama-backed jihadi's trademark. Government troops were lured into the town after rooftop snipers began shooting at police during a civil demonstration. 90 people were killed in the days fighting. This also marked the end of internal civil opposition to the regime. For the next half decade, Syria's "Civil War," as it was referred to in Western media, is a war between the Syrian Army and foreign jihadists backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the Gulf states.

Jisr ash-Shugur massacre took place on June 6, 2011. 120 Syrian regime personnel were executed by supposed "unarmed peaceful opposition protesters." Many were beheaded and their bodies thrown from a bridge into the Orontes river.[176] The atrocity is videotaped and uploaded to YouTube, later censored by Western cyberwarfare information specialists.

On July 18, 2011 former Clinton administration State Dept. Spokesman Jamie Rubin, husband of CNN’s Christiane Amanpour emailed Hillary Clnton:

Again, congratulations are in order...It is a pleasure to see the State Department again leading the administration on this. Syria, too......the White House doesn’t seem like it cares very much. In general, the NSC seems uncomfortable with creative applications of American power and influence. And we all know the military and the Pentagon resist limited military operations, especially airpower-only engagements. So, it must be you and your colleagues at State. Well done. . . . even a small success like the one that is coming in Libya will turn around the steady decline in American influence in the region and around the world. I suspect that you know this, but European elites, Gulf elites, East Europeans and many others regard the Administration as weak.

On November 27, 2011 the Telegraph reported that the new Libyan authorities offered money and weapons to the insurgency against Bashar al-Assad.[177]

[Abdulhakim Belhadj] also discussed sending Libyan fighters to train troops, the source said. Having ousted one dictator, triumphant young men, still filled with revolutionary fervour, are keen to topple the next. The commanders of armed gangs still roaming Tripoli's streets said yesterday that "hundreds" of fighters wanted to wage war against the Assad regime.

"Everyone wants to go. We have liberated our country, now we should help others," said the commander of the 'Fighting Village' brigade, "This is freedom. This is Arab unity".[178]

Increasing volumes of video footage have been uploaded to YouTube of Syrians calling on Libyans to join their fight. In a clip backed by dramatic musical effects, a veiled Syrian woman entreats men from Misurata, the west Libyan city that fought off a month-long siege by forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi, to come to save her country."

A leaked email stated that by December 7, 2012 Special Operations Forces from US, UK, France, Jordan, and Turkey were already on the ground in Syria training "opposition forces" and ready to act within 2–3 months.[179]

The Northern Syria jihadi corridor (in grey). Weapons and foreign jihadis enter Syris from Turkey through the jihadi corridor.

Just as France and the UK were the driving forces in persuading Obama and Hillary to get behind Libyan regime change, so to were Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey the driving forces behind Syrian regime change. In Libya, Gaddafi's African unity policy and development bank threatened established French and UK commercial investments. In Syria, Iranian support and the sanctuary given to Hezbollah - basically a standing contingent of the Iranian Quds Force on Israel's northern border[180] - threatened both the Saudi kingdom and Israel. In both cases, Libya and Syria, Obama's policy of leading from behind - giving aid to minor allies who started unnecessary wars - had catastrophic consequences for the men, women, and children on three continents, victims of the parochial ambitions of minor state actors and ambitious career opportunists.

Overall, on a covert level, it had been a co-ordinated strategy from the beginning, to get rid of Gaddafi and Assad at once. First Gaddafi, then with captured weapons caches and experienced, fired up jihadis, ship them off to dispose of Assad, with Qatar and the US in the background as players since the UNSC 1970 was passed. Gaddafi took a little longer than anticipated, most thought he'd be out by April 2011, but it took until October. UK & France would bow out in the Syrian operation, where Saudi Arabia and Turkey stepped forward to play leading roles. And this was expected to be a tougher and slightly more enduring fight, six months behind schedule, but unlike Gaddafi, Assad still retained WMD, as well.

When the history of this era is finally written, the biggest misperception and misnomer to emerge is the Syrian Civil War. There never was a Syrian Civil War. The first shots fired were by foreign actors intent upon regime change.

"Al Qaeda is on our side"

Jake Sullivan[181] to Hillary Clinton: Al Qaeda is on our side. to Hillary Clinton: Al Qaeda is on our side.

In January 2012 a Saudi diplomatic cable reads that the Kingdom "must seek by all means available and all possible ways to overthrow the current regime in Syria," expressing fear of Russian intervention if it cannot be done quickly, and noted "there is a lack of ‘desire’ and not a lack of ‘capability’ on the part of Western countries, chief among them the United States, to take firm steps...”[182]

On February 12, 2012 Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama,[183] emails Sec. Clinton to notify her "[Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria. Otherwise, things have basically turned out as expected;"[184] the only legal basis Obama has for the use force (2001 AUMF) is to destroy Al Qaeda and associated groups.[185]

Wikileaks released document 18328 Hillary Clinton email archive covering the week of April 22–29, 2012, NEW IRAN AND SYRIA 2.DOC. The email lays out a justification and strategy for the anti-Assad campaign.[186] Adventure film maker Bernard-Henri Levy told al-Arabiya TV, "What we did in Libya is more doable in Syria."[187]

On July 30, 2012 The Guardian reported,[188]

these were not average members of the Free Syrian Army. Abu Khuder and his men fight for al-Qaida. They call themselves the ghuraba’a, or “strangers”, after a famous jihadi poem celebrating Osama bin Laden’s time with his followers in the Afghan mountains, and they are one of a number of jihadi organisations establishing a foothold in the east of the country now that the conflict in Syria has stretched well into its second bloody year.

They try to hide their presence. “Some people are worried about carrying the [black] flags” ...

...[they] are working closely with the military council that commands the Free Syrian Army brigades in the region. “We meet almost every day,” he said. “We have clear instructions from our [al-Qaida] leadership that if the FSA need our help we should give it. We help them with IEDs and car bombs. Our main talent is in the bombing operations” ...

“The FSA lacks the ability to plan and lacks military experience. That is what [al-Qai