The Pronk Pops Show 292, July 9, 2014, Story 1: Next Year Obama Will Be Impeached Over The CIA Covert Operations in Benghazi — Shipping Arms To Syrian Rebels — MANPADs, for man-portable air-defense systems — Can Shoot down Airliners — Republicans Will Dump Boehner As Speaker — Videos

The September 11, 2012 attacks on the special diplomatic facility and the CIA Annex in Benghazi were provoked by Obama’s efforts to restrict weapons flows to Syrian rebels for fear that success by muslim jihadists in Syria would undermine/discredit the central message of Obama’s reelection campaign–Osama is dead and al Qaeda is on the run. Let me connect the dots for you.

We will start with Obama’s January 2012 State of the Union address. That marked the first rollout of his catch phrase abouttrouncing the muslim jihadists.

President Obama last night in his State of the Union address signaled what he’ll run on this year, and he’s going to take that message on the road with stops in five battleground states over the next three days. Last night’s speech, focused on economic fairness with the president trying to sound like an optimistic populist. He delivered the speech with the confidence of a president who, in his most complete way yet, took credit for what he believes are his best accomplishments — killing Osama bin Laden, ending the war in Iraq, the auto industry’s turnaround, private-sector job growth (especially in manufacturing), cutting the deficit by more than $2 trillion, and new rules for Wall Street.

He also insisted that “Al Qaeda was on the run.”

However, Syria quickly was emerging a a problem that would pose a potentially significant risk to his campaign.

A couple of days following Obama’s State of the Union, a report in the Australian noted that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were going to fund Syria rebels:

SAUDI Arabia and Qatar have agreed to fund the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to afford weapons in its fight against President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian dissident has told The Times.

Opposition figures held a secret meeting with Saudi and Qatar officials after an Arab League meeting in Cairo last weekend. All the Gulf countries decided then to pull their observers from a monitoring mission that has been widely criticised for being toothless.

“The Saudis are offering their support in any way,” said the dissident, who asked not to be named.

Until now the Free Syrian Army has been funded largely by individual donors, many of them in the Syrian diaspora, enabling small arms to be bought on the black market in Lebanon.

And this decision involved Libya:

“At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians [opposition] requested “assistance” from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.”
“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.” (January 29, 2012).

The Obama Administration’s efforts to undermine the Syria’s Government extend back into 2011. A blog by Professor Michael Chossudovsky reported the following in August 2011:

A Syria policy committee chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton involves the participation of Ambassador Robert Stephen Ford, CIA director David Petraeus, Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Derek Chollet, Principal Deputy Director of Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff at the State Department.
Under Jeffrey Feltman’s supervision, the actual recruitment of terrorist mercenaries, however, is carried out in Qatar and Saudi Arabia in liaison with senior intelligence officials from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and NATO. The former ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar, who remains a key member of Saudi intelligence, is said to be working with the Feltman group in Doha.

Prince Bandar, a Saudi, was the key interlocutor in this process. He has had longstanding, close ties with John Brennan, who was a senior deputy in the National Security Council during this period. The Saudis made it very clear to the United States that they were going to ramp up their support for rebels in Syria, working in concert with Turkey, and that they wanted the Untied States to support this effort. Specifically, they wanted US assistance in gathering weapons that could be moved from Libya to Syria via Turkey.

The CIA, working with the NSC and the State, put together the proposed plan during February. By early March 2012, the plan had been approved, signed off by President Obama and briefed to a select group in Congress (according to Sy Hersh, only 8 members of the House and Senate were briefed). CIA Director David Petraeus was sent to Turkey to brief the plan and kick things off:

Petraeus met Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for closed-door talks focusing on the crisis across the border in Syria.

Petraeus, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, also discussed the latest developments in neighbouring Iran and efforts to counter Kurdish rebels attacking Turkey from safe havens in northern Iraq, said NTV television channel.

US embassy spokesman T.J. Grubisha said Petraeus met with Erdogan and Turkish National Intelligence Organisation chief Hakan Fidan and “discussed areas of mutual concern, including regional security issues and counter-terrorism cooperation.

“They foresee even closer and more fruitful cooperation on the region’s most pressing issues in the coming months.”

Erdogan has been fiercely critical of the Syrian regime’s year-long crackdown on the opposition and has called on President Bashar al-Assad to quit.

The talks were not part of Erdogan’s official itinerary. The premier’s office declined to comment on the report.
Agence France Presse — English
March 13, 2012 Tuesday 5:31 PM GMT
CIA chief meets Turkish PM on Syrian crisis

The person who would see the implementation and execution of this new clandestine policy was Ambassador Chris Stevens, who arrived in Tripoli to take up his duties on 12 May 2012.

Shoulder fired surface to air missiles aka MANPADS previously collected as part of a State Department directed program were still in Libya. Starting in June of 2012, some of these missiles made their way to Syria rebels. Al Arabiya reported on 31 July 2012:

Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute, as the U.N. General Assembly said it will hold a meeting on the crisis in Syria this week.

NBC News reported Tuesday night that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighboring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence. 
Indications are that the U.S. government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles. But some U.S. government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defense systems, to be supplied to the rebels. 

In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.

To understand the curious reaction of the Obama Administration, you must first understand the discrepancy between what the intelligence community was reporting and the propaganda the media was spreading. If you only had access to media reports during the July-August 2012 period, you would think that the rebels were growing in strength and were only weeks from overthrowing Assad. Had this happened, it would have been vindication of Barack Obama’s support of the so-called Arab Spring.

But the intelligence community analysts, especially at DIA, were telling a very different story. Two trends were emerging. First, the rebels were faltering. Second, and more alarming, the muslim extremists–groups like al Nusra and Al Qaeda in Iraq and ISIS–were gaining strength. By the end of August there was genuine worry in the Obama National Security team that his claim, “Al Qaeda is on the run” could blow up in his face.

The problem was Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The Saudis were generously funding the Al Qaeda linked groups and Turkey was facilitating the delivery of some of this aid. It was necessary to adjust the program and gain the Turks agreement to stop providing weapons to the Islamic extremists. Word that Obama was getting cold feet leaked out and sources with close ties to the Saudis leaked the following to Al Arabiya in an effort to put pressure on President Obama and his team:

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing US support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, US sources familiar with the matter said. Obama’s order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence “finding,” broadly permits the CIA and other US agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad. This and other developments signal a shift toward growing, albeit still circumscribed, support for Assad’s armed opponents – a shift that intensified following last month’s failure of the UN Security Council to agree on tougher sanctions against Damascus. The White House is for now apparently stopping short of giving the rebels lethal weapons, even as some US allies do just that. But US and European officials have said that there have been noticeable improvements in the coherence and effectiveness of Syrian rebel groups in the past few weeks. That represents a significant change in assessments of the rebels by Western officials, who previously characterized Assad’s opponents as a disorganized, almost chaotic, rabble. US media reported earlier in the year that the CIA was vetting arms supplied by Gulf Arab states and Turkey to ensure weapons did not fall into the hands of al-Qaeda. But Islamist militants have gained ground in Syria nonetheless, with several media reports in the past fortnight pointing to a growing al-Qaeda presence within the rebellion. Precisely when Obama signed the secret intelligence authorization, an action not previously reported, could not be determined.

The political operatives at the White House were taking no chances. CIA Director Petraeus was dispatched back to Turkey to ensure that the program supporting the rebels was more tightly controlled and that the Islamic extremists were cut off. According to the Cihan News Agency, Petraeus arrived in Turkey on 2 September:

United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director David Petraeus arrived in Istanbul on Sunday.

Petraeus’s private plane landed at the Istanbul International Airport with an army flight.

He is expected to hold talks with Turkish officials over the Syria crisis and fight against terrorism.

This is the second unannounced visit by the top US spy to Turkey in the last six months.

The message delivered was direct–Turkey was to ensure that no further weapons were provided to the Islamic rebels until after the election of Barack Obama.

We have further evidence of the coordination of this effort with the US Embassy in Libya. According to the Accountability Review Board, State Department Commmunicator, Sean Smith, was dispatched to Benghazi. It was anticipated that Ambassador Stevens would be coming to Benghazi within the next week. Smith’s job was to ensure he could communicate securely with Washington. Smith went to Benghazi while Stevens remained in Tripoli, awaiting an update/brief from CIA Director Petraeus on the results of the meeting with the Turks.

Unfortunately, someone on the Turkish side let the Islamic rebels know that they were being cutoff and blamed it on America. The info was communicated to them sometime after 4 September. That lit the fuze that led to the attacks on 11 September. Leaders of Ansar Al Sharia and Al Qaeda were going to show the United States that there was a cost for interfering in their holy war against Assad.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton failed to anticipate this result. When the attack commenced, both State and the White House were panicked. They immediately realized that this attack could blow a hole in the Obama narrative that Al Qaeda was on the run. There was no other alternative but to pretend that this was not a terrorist attack and that it had nothing to do with US clandestine support for rebels is Syria.

http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/77229/the-prelude-to-benghazi/

 

 

Syria’s FSA reportedly got surface-to-air missiles, U.N. to convene over crisis

Wednesday, 01 August 2012

By AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES

Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute, as the U.N. General Assembly said it will hold a meeting on the crisis in Syria this week.

NBC News reported Tuesday night that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighboring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.

Indications are that the U.S. government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.

But some U.S. government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defense systems, to be supplied to the rebels.

In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.

Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.

And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future, according to Reuters.

Some conservative U.S. lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the U.S. government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.

The White House, at least until now, has taken a considerably more cautious approach.

As of last month, U.S. officials warned that if any Middle Eastern nation was “even considering giving arms to the Syrian opposition,” it ought to “take a measured approach and think twice about providing arms that could have unintended consequences.”

Nonetheless, even at that time, U.S. and allied officials acknowledged that some Arab officials were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots.

Following the fall of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, some intelligence experts estimated that as many as 10,000-15,000 MANPADs sets were looted from Libyan government stockpiles. The whereabouts of most of these are unknown.

Many U.S. officials have been wary of the notion of arming Syrian rebels with MANPADs, noting that they could be easily turned on targets other than the Syrian government, including civilian airliners.

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the CIA provided sophisticated shoulder-fired Stinger missiles to Islamic militants seeking to oust Soviet troops.

The missiles proved deadly against Soviet helicopter gunships, but subsequently became a major headache for U.S. and western counter-terrorism agencies when anti-Soviet militants morphed into anti-Western militants.

Recent intelligence and news reporting has suggested a growing number of militants, including some affiliated with al-Qaeda, have traveled to Syria to try to join anti-Assad forces. U.S. officials have said, however, that they do not believe the militants yet play a dominant role in the Syrian opposition.

Meanwhile, the U.N. General Assembly said late Tuesday it will hold a meeting on the crisis in Syria this week and diplomats say it will likely vote on a Saudi-drafted resolution that condemns the Security Council for failing to take action against Damascus.

The 193-nation assembly’s press office said the meeting on Syria’s 16-month-old conflict would occur at 10:00 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Thursday.

U.N. diplomats told Reuters the assembly was expected to vote on a draft resolution that voices “grave concern at the escalation of violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, in particular the continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights.”

The latest draft, dated July 30, was penned by Saudi Arabia, which is openly supporting the rebel forces fighting to oust Assad.

The draft resolution would also have the assembly “expressing grave concern at the Syrian authorities’ threat to use chemical or biological weapons.” Damascus recently acknowledged having chemical arms, but said it would only use such weapons if it was attacked by foreign powers.

The assembly meeting comes after Russia and China on July 19 used their Security Council veto powers for the third time to strike down a Western-backed draft resolution that would have threatened Syrian authorities with sanctions if they failed to halt the violence.

The Saudi draft resolution would also have the assembly “deploring the Security Council failure to agree on measures to ensure the Syrian authorities’ compliance with its decisions” calling for an end to the violence. That condemnation, Western envoys say, is aimed at Moscow and Beijing.

Unlike Security Council resolutions, which can be legally binding, General Assembly resolutions are non-binding. But there are no vetoes in the assembly and only a simple majority is needed to pass them.

Western diplomats say they hope a strong majority vote in the assembly for a resolution condemning Syria and the Security Council would increase the pressure on Russia and China to stop shielding Assad from sanctions.

The Saudi resolution also reiterates the Arab League’s calls for Assad to step down and allow a political transition to a democratic government.

The draft text urges both the government forces and rebels to stop the violence, though it focuses its criticism on Assad’s government.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari has repeatedly accused Nassir Abdul Aziz al-Nasser of Qatar, president of the General Assembly, of using his position to push the Qatari national agenda.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/01/229669.html

• The president ignored a law – which he signed last year – requiring him to notify Congress 30 days before releasing anyone from Guantanamo Bay

• The Obama administration never told Capitol Hill until after Bergdahl was in American custody and the US Taliban prisoners were preparing to leave

• A former federal prosecutor told MailOnline that while the 30-day-notice law is probably unconstitutional, putting enemy combatants back in a position to harm Americans is an impeachable offense

• A White House insider said Obama administration officials didn’t anticipate how controversial Bergdahl’s rescue would be, and compared it to the 1981 release of 52 US hostages in Iran

• Since Saturday several of Bergdahl’s former military comrades have said he was an Army deserter, and some have speculated that he also aimed to join with the Taliban in Afghanistan

• An official Pentagon report concluded in 2010 that Bergdahl ‘walked away,’ so little effort was made to retrieve him, according to the AP

(Daily Mail) – Barack Obama broke a federal law that he signed just six months ago when he authorized the release of five high-ranking Taliban terror targets from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in exchange for the return of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, senior congressional Republicans claimed today.

And the president may also have written a new chapter in the case for his own impeachment, according to a former federal prosecutor who helped bring the 1993 World Trade Center bombers to justice.

FAX BLAST SPECIAL: Impeach Obama NOW!

‘The return of senior terrorists to the Taliban [is] … a “high crime and misdemeanor”,’ author Andrew C. McCarthy told MailOnline.

His book ‘Faithless Execution: Building the case for Obama’s impeachment,’ is set to be published Tuesday.

President Barack Obama made Jani and Bob Bergdahl happy by rescuing their son but was the operation part of a highly suspect maneuvering by the military and White House?