On Monday February 10, 2014, I went to Mo's Deli in Aventura to hear a talk by Shoshana Bryan of the Jewish Policy Center. Ms. Bryan analysis is always spot on and I have learned a lot about foreign policy by following her column and that is why I went to hear her. After her presentation, she took questions for about a half hour and one of the question I posed was "tell me something about Benghazi that I don't know." Her reply answered my question and explained why Benghazi occurred and why the regime has been slow (and I'm being generous using the word slow) in investigating and reporting what and why it happened and why the cover up continues.
Her explanation centered around Stinger missiles. Stinger missiles can be carried by a single person and allow that person to bring down an aircraft. American military aircraft have a defensive system that can protect them from stingers, but civilian aircraft do not and so the stinger is a great terror weapon that can not only down civilian aircraft, but as a result close airports. Stingers were given to the Muhajideen in Afghanistan to fight the Russians and after we invaded Afghanistan, we paid as much as $100,000 per missile to recover those that remained so they would not be used against us. As many as 20,000 of these missiles were missing in Libya and apparently began showing up in the hands of the rebels in Syria. Although the rebels have been using these against Syrian aircraft, at least two Turkish aircraft have been shot down. The US has been quiescently supplying the rebels in Syria with weapons shipped from Libya through Turkey to the rebels in Syria. As the civil war in Syria has progressed, much of the fighting has been taken over by jihadists including Al Qada and its affiliates from all over the Muslim world, all wanting to overthrow Bashir Assad and replace him with a jihadist type government.
The Russians are deathly afraid that some of these stingers will wind up in the hands of Chechans, fighting with the rebels and then carried back to Chechnya and used as a terror weapon against Russian civilian aircraft and even close Moscow's civilian airport.
Why was Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi? He was meeting with the Turkish consul general over controlling arms shipments to the rebels, especially the smuggling of Stingers. The meeting was held in Benghazi rather than Tripoli, because of the clandestine nature of these shipments. Shortly after the meeting ended and the Turkish consul general has left, the terrorist attacks began. Al Qada affiliates, who obviously want Stingers and heavy armaments to continue, were behind the attacks.
We all know about what followed and the lies the regime told, blaming it on an obscure anti Islamic video. It also wasn't a couple of guys who'd had a few beers and decided to go kill some Americans. It was a group of well armed terrorists wanting to protect the flow of Stingers and heavy weapons to Syrian rebels and beyond. Not only did the regime want to support the myth that Al Qada was on the run to win a presidential election, but it did not want the public to know about the weapons going to Syria, especially the Stingers.
Please pass this own to you friends. Comments are always welcome. The word needs to get out about the lies and cover up. I plan to write more frequent and shorter postings.
