Fast & Furious On Steroids: Weapons Sent To Libyan Rebels With U.S. Approval ‘Fell’ Into Islamist Hands

Oops. And if there’s “no evidence” that these weapons were linked to the attack in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Stevens, then why did the Obama Administration try so adamantly to blame it on a months-old poorly made anti-Mohammed film? …

By JAMES RISEN, MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, The New York Times – “WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.

But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported. The weapons and money from Qatar strengthened militant groups in Libya, allowing them to become a destabilizing force since the fall of the Qaddafi government.

The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from other countries.

The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.

The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers on the ground in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were ‘more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam’ than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamist Rebels In Syria May Be Using American-Provided Weapons To Slaughter Christians – “As if ‘Benghazi-gate’ was not sufficiently horrific, in a cruel twist of fate, American-backed Islamic insurgents in Syria are now thought to be using their CIA-supplied weaponry to kill Christians. Video footage of a November first attack posted on YouTube shows members of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ executing 28 men that were initially claimed in French Press reports to be members of the Syrian army. However, the President of the US-based, Christian relief group, the Religious Freedom Coalition, William Murray, claims to have positively identified at least two of the victims as belonging to the Syrian counterpart of his relief ministry, a claim supported by an independent human rights activist.” Read more.