Dark Forces: The Truth About What Happened in Benghazi (42 page)

Appendix II: United Nations Inventory of Weapons Found on the
Letfallah II

ARMS AND AMMUNITION SEIZED ON BOARD THE
LETFALLAH II

Source:
United Nations Security Council, final report of the Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1973 (2011) concerning Libya, Marc
h
9, 2013, S/2013/99; 77; citing information received from “Lebanese authorities.”

Notes

PROLOGUE

  
1
  Rebecca Shabad, “Inhofe rips ‘outrageous lie’ on Benghazi,”
The Hill
, Feb. 3, 2014.

  
2
  U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “Review of the Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Facilities in Benghazi, Libya, September 11–12, 2012,” Jan. 15, 2014. Hereafter, Jan. 2014 SSCI report.

1. FROM TERRORIST TO FRIEND

  
1
  To get a sense of the high tension of these engagements, readers can listen to the audio exchange between AWACS flight controllers and two F-14 pilots, and much more, at the Reader’s Guide page for this book. http://www.kentimmerman.com/darkforces.htm. The Reader’s Guide contains many additional features not found in the print edition of this book, including documents cited in this book, unique photographs, hyperlinks to source articles, and more.

  
2
  Reagan’s interchange with a much younger Helen Thomas can be watched via the Reader’s Guide.

  
3
  Interview with Thomas Fortune Fay, an attorney representing U.S. victims of the La Belle bombing, Dec. 6, 2006. German attorney Andreas Schulz told a Berlin court that Qaddafi admitted to ordering the La Belle bombing in a conversation with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief foreign policy advisor, Michael Steiner. See “Qaddafi admitted 1986 Berlin bombing—claim,” Agence France-Presse, May 15, 2001.

  
4
  I was based in France at the time, where the refusal by French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac—who pretended to be a friend of the United States—to grant overflight rights to the U.S. aviators became a public spectacle. Chirac’s action forced the F-111s launched from the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at Lakenheath Air Base in England to take a long detour around Spain and Portugal, adding 1,300 nautical miles, additional refueling, and three hours to the flight in each direction. Pilot fatigue contributed to missed targets and stray bombs, which killed several hundred civilians.

  
5
  Kenneth R. Timmerman, “The Semtex Scandal,”
Middle East Defense News/MEDNEWS
, April 16, 1990.

  
6
  Al-Hayat (London), October 20, 1995, cited in Gary C. Gambill, “The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group,”
Jamestown Terrorism Monitor
, volume 3, issue 6, March 23, 2005.

  
7
  “The Shayler Affair: The Spooks, the Colonel and the Jailed Whistle-blower,”
Observer
, August 9, 1998.

  
8
  George Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
(New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 288.

  
9
  Ron Suskind, “The Tyrant Who Came in from the Cold,”
Washington Monthly
, October 2006.

10
  Glen Owen, “Ex-Spy is BP’s Lawrence of Arabia,”
Daily Mail
, Sept. 6, 2009.

11
  Interview with senior British diplomat, Tripoli, March 4, 2004.

12
  Interview with senior British diplomat, Tripoli. See also Michael Smith, “Blair may take credit, but it was all down to an MI6 spy in a Bedouin tent,”
Daily Telegraph
, Dec. 22, 2003.

13
  Qaddafi’s translator and aide de camp, Muftah Misoori, described these events to me in Sirte, March 3, 2004.

14
  Suskind, “Tyrant.”

15
  Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
, 289.

16
  Interview in Sirte, March 4, 2004.

17
  Abdelaziz Barrouhi, “Le dauphin de Kadhafi sous surveillance,”
Jeune Afrique
, Feb. 10, 2009.

18
  “For the Urgent Personal Attention of Musa Kusa,” letter from Mark Allen, Special Intelligence Service, June 19, 2003. This letter was among a trove of secret intelligence documents, some of them bearing the signatures of Mark Allen and Steve Kappes, discovered in the office of Musa Kusa in Tripoli after the fall of the Qaddafi regime in September 2011 by researchers from Human Rights Watch. See Human Rights Watch, “Delivered into Enemy Hands: U.S.-led Abuse and Rendition of Opponents in Qaddafi’s Libya,” September 2012, 187. See also Human Rights Watch, “US/UK: Documents Reveal Libya Rendition Details,” September 9, 2011.

19
  William J. Broad, David E. Sanger, and Raymond Bonner, “A Tale of Nuclear Proliferation: How Pakistani Built His Network,”
New York Times
, Feb. 12, 2004. See also Raymond Bonner, “Dubai Company Denies Tie to Nuclear Spread,”
New York Times
, Feb. 13, 2004.

20
  Human Rights Watch, “Delivered,” 187.

21
  Judith Miller, “How Gadhafi Lost His Groove,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 16, 2006.

22
  Interview with Representative Curt Weldon, Sirte, March 3, 2004. Weldon heard this story from Ukranian Foreign Minister Constantine Grushenko in Kiev shortly after Kuchma had returned from Tripoli.

23
  Interviews with DeSutter and top aides, February–April 2004.

24
  House Committee on International Relations, “Weapons of Mass Destruction, Terrorism, Human Rights, and the Future of U.S.-Libyan Relations,” Testimony of Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance, Paula DeSutter, March 10, 2004.

25
  Interview with former CIA officer, Ishmael Jones, Feb. 3, 2009. “Jones” wrote a scathing critique of the CIA’s risk-averse management and top-heavy bureaucracy. Ishmael Jones,
The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture
(New York: Encounter Books, 2008), which referred mockingly to Kappes as “Mr. Suspenders.”

26
  Interview with retired CIA station chief who worked with Kappes, Nov. 15, 2006.

27
  Interview with Duane (Dewey) Clarridge, Sept. 19, 2007.

28
  Human Rights Watch, “Delivered,” 177.

29
  Leaked Stratfor email, Jamie Smith to Fred Burton, Sept. 14, 2011, http://english.al-akhbar.com/gi-files/966063insight-libya-info-about-opposition-leadership-ly0700.

2. THE MAKING OF AN AMBASSADOR

  
1
  U.S. Consulate Jerusalem, “Aid Agencies Consider Assistance to Address Humanitarian Crisis,” March 16, 2006, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2006/03/06JERUSALEM1009.html.

  
2
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Qadhafi Hosts Sarkozy Following Departure of Bulgarian Nurses,” July 27, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/07/07TRIPOLI641.html.

  
3
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libyan Reaction to AQ-LIFG Merger,” Nov. 7, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/11/07TRIPOLI945.html.

  
4
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libya: Follow-Up on Access to Returned GTMO Detainees,” SECRET, Dec. 13, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07TRIPOLI1039.html.

  
5
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “GoL Further Protests Planned Transfer of Libyan Detainee at GTMO to U.K.,” Dec. 13, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07TRIPOLI1040.html.

  
6
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “U.S. Companies Win $2 Billion Worth of Infrastructure Contracts as Reward for Political Relationship,” Dec. 18, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07TRIPOLI1053.html.

  
7
  United States Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors Office of Inspector General, “Report of Inspection, Embassy Tripoli, Libya,” Report Number ISP-I-09-01A, December 2008, 6.

  
8
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libya’s National Security Council: Experiencing Growing Pains,” Dec. 27, 2007, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/12/07TRIPOLI1063.html.

  
9
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Libyan Reaction to AQ-LIFG Merger.”

10
  Interview with Senator Joe Biden, Sirte, March 2004.

11
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Follow up on Human Rights Activist Fathi El-Jahmi,” March 4, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/03/08TRIPOLI183.html.

12
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Fathi el-Jahmi’s Son Asks Embassy to Stop Visiting Him,” June 27, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/06/08TRIPOLI506.html.

13
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Embassy Visits Human Rights Activist Fathi el-Jahmi,” Feb. 21, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/02/08TRIPOLI142.html.

14
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Fathi el-Jahmi and Family Decide He Should Travel to Switzerland for Medical Treatment,” Jan. 22, 2009, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/01/09TRIPOLI47.html.

15
  Jack Murphy and Brandon Webb,
Benghazi: The Definitive Report
(New York: HarperCollins 2013), Kindle edition. Murphy, an ex-Ranger, participated in Objective Massey as well as 2005 raids in Mosul “that killed or captured Libyan foreign fighters.”

16
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Extremism in Eastern Libya,” SECRET, Feb. 15, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/02/08TRIPOLI120.html.

17
  United States Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors Office of Inspector General, “Report of Inspection, Embassy Tripoli, Libya,” 11.

18
  U.S. Embassy Tripoli, “Die Hard in Derna,” June 2, 2008, Confidential/NOFORN, http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/06/08TRIPOLI430.html.

3. “A NEW BEGINNING”

  
1
  Daryl Kimball, “Fact Sheet: MANPADS at a Glance,” Arms Control Association, March 2013.

  
2
  Dean Nelson and Alim Remtullah, “Wikileaks Afghanistan: Taliban used heat-seeker missiles against Nato helicopter,”
Daily Telegraph
(London), July 26, 2010, cited in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_accidents_and_incidents_in_the_War_in_Afghanistan#cite_note-148.

  
3
  Afghan War Logs for May 30, 2007, leaked by Private Bradley Manning; compiled and analyzed by the author from http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010/. The shoot-down is described in report 2A34FD1C-F601-40C8-8483-C8A6A64F818D. Follow-on attacks using MANPADS are logged in reports 9602FBFA-8614-4CE7-B9D9-188B4D4E68B5 and E9E91309-9BCF-45C3-9000-8308D34D1F09.

  
4
  Afghan War Logs., ibid., report identifier E9E91309-9BCF-45C3-9000-8308D34D1F09.

  
5
  Tom Coghlan, “Taliban in First Heat-Seeking Missile Attack,”
Daily Telegraph
(London), July 28, 2007. While a NATO spokesman refused to comment on the attack, the July 22 Afghan War log entry for the attack later included a reference to Coghlan’s article.

  
6
  Afghan War Logs for September 16, 2005, report identifier 77BE60E5-2219-0B3F-9F4E8AB7A08D885D.

  
7
  Andrew C. McCarthy,
The Grand Jihad
(New York: Encounter Books, 2010), 240.

  
8
  “Barack Takes a Bow,”
Washington Times
, April 9, 2009.

  
9
  Michael D. Shear and Kevin Sullivan, “Obama Portrays Another Side of U.S.,”
Washington Post
, April 7, 2009.

10
  Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Obama Egypt Strategy Could Place US at Risk,”
Newsmax Media
, Jan. 31, 2011.

11
  The White House, “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Speechwriter Ben Rhodes, and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough,” June 3, 2009.

4. TEHRAN SUMMER, ARAB SPRING

  
1
  This account is based on contemporaneous interviews with top Mousavi advisors, Green Movement leaders, and former Iranian regime intelligence officers. I reported on these events as they occurred at http://www.iran.org/index2009.html and at
Newsmax Media
: http://www.newsmax.com/Archives/KenTimmerman/90/2009/6.

  
2
  CNN set up a website where viewers could post amateur videos. http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-273227.

  
3
  Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Key Iranian Dissident Riled at Obama’s Approach,”
Newsmax Media
, June 23, 2009.

  
4
  See http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/24/iran.obama.letter/.

  
5
  Obama’s approach of direct talks was not new. The Bush administration held twenty-eight high-level talks with the Iranian regime that mostly went nowhere. Obama was proposing to send the very same State Department official to talk to the Iranians in Geneva in October 2009 who had conducted the last set of failed talks with the Iranians in July 2008. See Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Obama in Wonderland,”
Washington Times
, May 20, 2009.

  
6
  Robert Kagan, “Obama, Siding with the Regime,”
Washington Post
, June 17, 2009.

  
7
  Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Clandestine Iran-U.S. Huddles Seek Mutual Aid,”
Newsmax Media
, April 30, 2009.

  
8
  Interview with the family of Ayoub Adnan Ayoub, Karakhosh, Iraq, Feb. 16, 2011. See also Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Muslim Terrorists Murder 58 Iraqi Christians in Church,”
Newsmax Media,
Nov. 2, 2010, and “Were Iraqi Security Forces Involved in Baghdad Church Massacre?”
Newsmax Media
, March 1, 2011.

  
9
  I went on numerous reporting and mission trips to Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon between 2007 and 2011 to interview Christian refugees. Those stories are available at kentimmerman.com/articles.htm. For the quotes in these paragraphs, see Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Congress to Press Obama on Religious Persecution,”
Newsmax Media,
Jan. 21, 2011.

10
  “Report: Obama’s Muslim Advisers Block Middle Eastern Christians’ Access to the White House,” Breitbart.com, Oct. 25, 2011. Every year since taking office, President Obama has continued the tradition, first established by President George W. Bush, of an annual Iftar dinner at the White House to mark the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Guests at the August 13, 2010, Iftar dinner, for example, included Saleha Abedin, the vice dean of the Muslim Brotherhood–associated Dar El-Hekma college in Saudi Arabia and mother of Huma Abedin; Salam al Marayati, of MPAC; Hasan Chandoo, Obama’s Pakistani companion from Columbia University days; Imam Mohamed Haj Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society; Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America; and many more. See “Expected Attendees at the White House Iftar Dinner,” White House Press Office, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/13/expected-attendees-white-house-iftar-dinner.