His Excellency Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
In care of the Russian Mission to the United Nations at New York

Copy to: US Representative Michael Honda

17 September 2013

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you very much for your excellent address to the people of the United States through the editorial page of the New York Times on the twelfth anniversary of the attacks of 11 September 2001. I hope that your effort to give a wake-up call to my fellow Americans achieves its intended result and brings them back from the abyss into the safe confines of international law and our own law of the land, the Constitution of the United States. Such exemplary statesmanship as yours is required to unlock the vast potential of the USA to lead as a sovereign equal among sovereign equals. (Update 8 December 2013: A copy of President Putin's letter follows the text of this letter.)

You are kind to refer to the USA’s habit of forceful intervention into the internal affairs of other nations without any mention of the fraud that accompanies such force – not to mention the collateral hypocrisy.

Let me recall the silence of both President George W. Bush and President-elect Barack Obama in late 2008 when the Zionists illegally used white phosphorous on the civilian population of Gaza in Palestine, just as US forces had previously done to the civilian population of Fallujah in Iraq. The Zionists had broken a ceasefire on Election Day in the USA, but only the expected Palestinian retaliation received headline news by the Zionist-controlled news media and only as a pretext for the disproportionate Zionist retaliation against the retaliation. Now, nearly five years later, we must endure Obama’s principled stand against chemical weapons! From experimentation on unsuspecting civilians in the homeland to use of Agent Orange in Vietnam to use of Depleted Uranium in Iraq and the chronic environmental degradation by corporations, the history of the use of deadly chemicals by the USA is truly sad!

There has been much talk in the USA about President Obama’s “red line” of chemical weapons which, if crossed, will bring a valiant military attack from afar on Syria. But let me remind you of another “red line” that actually deserves respect. The Nuremberg Principles, which were written by Robert Jackson, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, have long been enshrined as international law but still await application upon states that have conspired against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic by waging war through mercenary and clandestine forces for nearly three years. My own government of the USA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom, among others including the Zionist state, have committed the supreme war crime of initiating aggressive war against Syria. I have heard that the late US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was in Benghazi last year to coordinate illegal shipment of Libyan weapons to foreign invading forces (“rebels”) inside Syria, and that the current crisis of alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian military forces was staged both to distract attention from this particular Benghazi aspect of the on-going war crimes against Syria and to give the appearance of acting against Syria according to the highest of moral principles. (Update 12 January 2014: Please see William Wertz articles below.)

The question of US private contractor involvement in Syria must also be weighed and considered in a serious way, particularly in light of Leon Panetta’s estimate of private contractors in Iraq, which was erroneous by whole orders of magnitude when he signed the report of the Iraq Study Group in 2006.

And so, Mr. President, if your wake-up call does not work directly, perhaps the resultant howls that I now hear will achieve your intended result, and hopefully these howls will help the citizens of the USA to smoke out the praxis of evil in our midst. Sadly, the uncertainty and the troublesome implications of military intervention in Syria weigh heavily on all of us. How can one respond to the poor reaction of the White House and others to your message to the people of the United States? The Obama administration just said that Russia’s credibility is on the line. Such hypocrisy needs a reply.

Let me, a citizen of the USA, propose a next step as a citizen’s response to your sincere reaching out to the people of the USA. I hope and pray that you will give this proposal your serious consideration. This proposed step will have the effect of knocking down the war-mongers and fear-mongers a peg or two in a non-violent way and, hopefully, bring the officials in Washington to their senses.

Here’s the proposal: You should openly challenge President Obama and the citizens of this planet Earth to walk in the shoes of Edward Felt, a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 on the morning of 11 September 2001. Emergency dispatcher John Shaw said he received a call from Felt who told him that he had locked himself in the lavatory for protection and was using his cell phone to alert authorities to the hijacking. But a Canadian mathematics professor, Alexander Keewatin Dewdney, has pointed out that the fuselage of a heavy commercial jet is a kind of Faraday cage that prevents or inhibits electronic signals, and inasmuch as the lavatory is a kind of Faraday cage inside of a kind of Faraday cage, and for other reasons demonstrated by Dewdney in his aerial cell phone experiments (http://physics911.net/projectachilles/), Felt’s call was impossible to make. Yet Mr. Shaw received a call from a Mr. Felt, which the news media quickly echoed. And Felt’s family recognized his voice when the FBI played a recording of his lengthy conversation with Shaw. How can this be explained?

The answer to this question is telecommunications piracy featuring impersonation by high-tech real-time digital voice morphing. This diabolical technology may also very well explain the intercepted messages around which the accusations of use of chemical weapons by Syrian military forces revolve. As you probably already know, this technology would, with the right preparation (the Zionists call this a “work-up”), enable the famous Lebanese singer Farouz to pick up a telephone and sound exactly like President Bashar al-Assad, whether to order a pizza or an attack! Indeed, Lebanon has had many valuable lessons learned about Zionist telecommunications piracy over the past eight years. These valuable lessons ought to be shared and not censored. (Update 28 November 2013: see Al-Manar report below on a briefing on this issue by the Government of Lebanon for the international community.)

Real-time digital voice morphing is the new peril of our present age. It needs to be demonstrated openly for all to see and understand. Then, and perhaps only then, will the nations of the Earth finally see the wisdom of conducting a new and a real investigation of 9/11 and even the downing of Egypt Air Flight 990 on 31 October 1999. A demonstration of real-time digital voice morphing can be done in an amusing and delightful way, perhaps by you, Mr. President, from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly in the coming weeks. The bottom line is, people must be made aware of this problem in a dramatic way, so that with that awareness they can take appropriate measures to deal with it in the past, present and future in the interests of the common good of mankind.

Very truly yours,

Stephen M. St. John

Post Office Box 720274
San José, California 95172
stephen@show-the-house.com
stephen.m.st.john@gmail.com

The New York Times

Op-Ed Contributor

A Plea for Caution From Russia

What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria

By VLADIMIR V. PUTIN

Published: September 11, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=0

MOSCOW — RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.

The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.

Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government. The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organizations. This internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world.

Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.

From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.

No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack — this time against Israel — cannot be ignored.

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”

But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.

No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.

The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security. Thus a growing number of countries seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you. We are left with talk of the need to strengthen nonproliferation, when in reality this is being eroded.

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.

A new opportunity to avoid military action has emerged in the past few days. The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian government’s willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction. Judging by the statements of President Obama, the United States sees this as an alternative to military action.

I welcome the president’s interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.

If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

Vladimir V. Putin is the president of Russia.

Al Manar

Lebanon: Foreign, Telecom Committees Take up Israeli Spying

Local Editor

http://image.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1&cid=23&frid=23&eid=122956

MP Abdullatif Zein, chairman of Lebanese Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Committee, chaired on Thursday the joint session of the Foreign Affairs and media and communications' committees, to study the Israel's espionage activities on Lebanon.

The session was attended by 27 Ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic commissions invited to the meeting, i.e. the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, EU countries, the countries participating in UNIFIL and the representative of the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon.

Lebanese Ministers and MPs were also present.

Parliament's Media and Telecommunications Committee Chairman, MP Hassan Fadlallah, said that both committees convened in session today upon House Speaker Nabih Berri's call to pursue the Israeli spying dossier.

"Ambassadors of the UN Security Council's permanent members, of the EU and of the UNIFIL were asked to attend so as to be informed of the Israeli violations and spying activities," he said.

During the session, Fadlallah said that diplomats took notes that they shall present before their countries.

"The attack on a sovereign country in this way goes beyond international resolutions and conventions, as it includes an assault on freedoms and privacies," Fadlallah said and noted that the presented report during the session proved Israeli spying operations on UNIFIL and Embassies.

"It is not true that we are weak and incapable of doing anything. If the government decides to take actions it will do a lot, for we have major potentials," he explained and affirmed Lebanon's capability to face such an aggression and protect its privacy.

Caretaker Foreign Minister also spoke during the session and said that Lebanon cannot remain silent over this violation.

He made clear that the Ambassadors were informed of the situation in order to convey the seriousness of these spying activities.


Source: NNA	28-11-2013 - 21:49 Last updated 28-11-2013 - 21:49 \| 554 View

It's Time to Get Real About the Al-Qaeda Benghazi Connection
January 11, 2014 • 9:28AM

By William F. Wertz, Jr.

On Dec. 28, 2013 the New York Times published an article by David Kirkpatrick entitled "A Deadly Mix in Benghazi," falsely claiming that Al-Qaeda was not involved in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission and CIA annex in Benghazi. David Kirkpatrick now reports that the State Department is moving to apply the terrorist designation to two Libyan organizations, Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi and Ansar al-Sharia in Derna, and also to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia. The designation reportedly will also apply to Sufian bin Qumu, the head of Ansar al-Sharia in Libya based in Derna and to the head of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, Seifallah ben Hassine, who is believed to be in Libya.

At a State Department briefing on Jan. 8, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki nonetheless claimed that these branches of Ansar al-Sharia are not official affiliates of al Qaeda.

The reality, as documented in the fact sheet initially produced by LaRouchePAC in January 2013 and then updated on May 4, 2013, is that it was well known to anyone who wished to know that Obama knowingly allied with the al-Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) led by Abdelhakim Belhadj, Sami al-Saadi, Khalid al-Sharif and Abd al-Wahhab Mohammad Qaid in Libya to overthrow Qaddafi and that the attack on the U.S. mission and CIA annex on Sept. 11, 2012 was carried out by Obama's allies under orders from the leader of core Al-Qaeda, Al-Zawahiri.

The LIFG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department, the UN, and the UK. Sufian bin Qumu, the head of Ansar al-Sharia, was a member of both Al-Qaeda and the LIFG.

Breitbart.com, citing an April 24, 2011, article in the New York Times, reports that Abu Sufian Qumu was once considered an ally to the current administration during the toppling of Libyan President Colonel Moammar Qaddafi.

But that is only part of the story. Qumu is essentially a subordinate of the top leadership of the LIFG.

Furthermore, what is being blacked out is that three months prior to the attack on Benghazi, Abu Yahya al Libi, the younger brother of Abd al-Wahhab Mohammad Qaid, was killed by a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan, and that just prior to Sept. 11, 2012, Al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri produced a video calling for revenge to be exacted for this assassination. Abu Yahya al Libi was a member of LIFG and a leader in Core Al-Qaeda.

Furthermore, it is known that all decisions regarding al-Qaeda deployments in Libya were made by Al-Zawahiri.. Al-Zawahiri sent his personal emissary Abd al-Baset Azzouz to Eastern Libya in 2011, where he recruited at least 200 al-Qaeda operatives prior to the attack on Benghazi.

It has also been reported that another al-Qaeda/LIFG operative, Faraj al-Chalabi, was arrested in Libya in connection with the Benghazi attack, but then later released by Libyan authorities. It is believed that he traveled to Pakistan immediately after the attack in Benghazi with documents seized from the mission. Since 1998 Al-Chalabi has been wanted for the murder in Libya of Germans Silvan and Vera Becker in 1994. Also, named in his indictment was Osama bin Laden.

As reported by LaRouchePAC, one of the key Al-Qaeda operatives in Libya is Wisam bin Hamid, leader of Libya Shield. In March 2012, he held a demonstration in Sirte, Libya, at which the head of Al-Qaeda in Magreb, Mokhtar bel Mokhtar, was his invited guest. Even David Kirkpatrick's article in the NYT reports that bin Hamid, who was a trusted ally of the U.S., with whom State Department Libya political section chief David McFarland met in Benghazi on Sept. 9, 2012, was complicit in the attack.

When Mokhtar bel Mokhtar later led the terrorist attack on the gas field in In Amenas, Algeria, in January 2013, Algerian authorities reported that Egyptians who participated in that attack had also been involved in the Benghazi attack. These Egyptians have since been associated with the Al-Qaeda Egyptian terrorist group led by Muhammad Jamal, which in October 2013 was designated as a terrorist group associated with Al-Qaeda by the United Nations. An excerpt from the UN designation follows: "Muhammad Jamal formed the Muhammad Jamal Network after his release from prison in 2011 and established multiple terrorist training camps in Egypt and Libya. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has provided funding to the Muhammad Jamal Network (MJN). Muhammad Jamal set up a training camp in Libya where Libyan and foreign violent extremists were trained. Some of the attackers of the U.S. Mission in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, have been identified as associates of Muhammad Jamal, and some of the Benghazi attackers reportedly trained at MJN camps in Libya. The Algerians also reported that they had evidence that Abelhakim Belhadj had prior knowledge of the Al-Qaeda attack on the Algerian gas field. In February 2013 the Algerians declared Belhadj persona non grata.

On October 2, 2013, Tayeb Oqaili, a member of the national initiative in Tunisia working to uncover the truth behind the assassinations of opposition leaders Chokri Belaid and Mohammed Brahmi, made public documents implicating Abdul-Hakim Belhadj of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in the assassinations. Oqaili said: "It was Belhadj who handled the training of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, including the cell that would go on to assassinate Belaid and Brahmi. This confirms that the Libyan leader was involved in both murders."

Two of the documents used by LPAC as resources in investigating the attack on Benghazi are A view to Extremist Currents in Libya by Kronos Advisory, LLC, published on December 16, 2011, and "Al Qaeda in Libya: A profile," published by The Library of Congress in August 2012. What follows are relevant excerpts from those two documents.

From A view to Extremist Currents in Libya:

Many Libyans who were members of the LIFG would become important figures within Core al-Qaeda, particularly after 1998, when the Qadhafi regime effectively quashed their insurgency in Libya and forced much of the group into exile in Afghanistan.

History reveals that inasmuch as al-Qaeda helped train and supported the LIFGs fighters, the LIFG played a critical role preparing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters for operations targeting Western forces.

Gen. Yunus was assassinated late in July 2011 allegedly at the hands of LIFG-affiliated rebels.

On October 6, 2001, the United Nations Security Council added the LIFG to its consolidated list of entities associated with al-Qaeda.

The LIFG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department on December 8, 2004. The announcement of this designation explained: 'Its leadership has had a close association with al-Qaeda. Some senior members of LIFG are believed to be or have belonged to al Qaedas senior command structure, and now are part of the support network of the broader international jihadist movement.

Although AQIM (Al-Qaeda in Maghreb) would focus on advancing al-Qaedas interests in North Africa and the Sahel, Core Al-Qaeda leaders kept Libya out of this franchises operational purview. According to Noman bin Othman, Libyan matters remained subject to 'central decision from al-Qaeda command in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions. He explained, 'Dr. Al-Zawahiri issued orders to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb countries, that is, to the Algerians who took command of the organization, not to interfere in Libya unless ordered to do so by him personally. I also know that Dr. al-Zawahiri considers Libya to be directly tied to Egyptian affairs since it can, in his view, affect the jihadist political situation in Egypt. (P. 23)

'The command in Algeria would not have the prerogative to issue orders, make decisions or take actions regarding the Libyan theater. These orders would be issued from the Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran triangle, specifically by Dr. al-Zawahiri who considers this his personal project; and he dispatched directives (to al-Qaeda in Algeria) not to interfere in Libyan affairs. (P. 25)

From Al Qaeda in Libya: A profile:

Although Al-Qaeda Senior Leadership, based in Pakistan, is most likely building a clandestine network in Libya, al-Qaeda may remain for some time without an official Libyan affiliate, as the terrorist organization continues to prize secrecy and to follow its recent trend of distancing itself from its local affiliates, for obvious security reasons. Ansar al-Sharia, a militia group led by Sufian Ben Qumum, former Guantanamo Bay detainee, could be the new face of al-Qaeda in Libya despite its leaders denial. (P. 2)

Various militias, also known as katibas (battalions/brigades), from throughout Libya are thought to be cooperating with Ansar al-Sharia and probably make up the bulk of al-Qaedas network in Libya, as indicated by the attendance of the first gathering of groups supporting sharia held June 7-8, 2012, at Liberation Square in Benghazi, hosted by Ansar al-Sharia. (P. 3)

Some former members of LIFG may be among those helping to create the al-Qaeda network. (P. 3)
- a katiba commanded by Wisam Ben Hamid and his lieutenant Hayaka Alla that fights under al-Qaedas flag (P. 7)

A December 2011 CNN report states that al-Qaedas leadership has sent experienced jihadists to Libya in an effort to build a fighting force, including veteran operative AA. A CNN source stated that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri personally dispatched AA to Libya in mid-2011 and that AA has since begun recruiting fighters in the eastern region of the country, near the Egyptian border. He now has mobilized more than 200 fighters. AA likely is Abd al-Baset Azzouz. (P. 11)

Presently, Al-Qaeda seems to have opted for a decentralized approach that concentrates on infiltrating local Islamist-dominated militias. For instance, a March 2012 report from Dunia al-Watan, a Palestinian newspaper, published a video-illustrated article describing a military parade reportedly organized by Katiba al-Ahrar Libya (Free Libya), commanded by Wisam Ben Hamid, in the city of Sirt, a former Qadhafi stronghold, that looked like an al-Qaeda-type demonstration. The article pointed at Wisam, a 35-year-old Libyan from the town of Darnah, as the leader of al-Qaeda in Libya. The same article reported that Mokhtar bel Mokhtar, the leader of AQIM in the Sahara, attended the parade as the honored guest of Wisam. However, Wisam was also cited by Thawrat Libyas, a Libyan news outlet, as the leader of Dir Libya (Shield of Libya.). (P. 12)

Indeed, al-Qaeda and former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group have converged on Darnah to train and organize. Hundreds of Islamic militants are in and around Darnah, and there are camps where weapons and physical training are available to activists. Senior al-Qaeda operative Abd al-Baset Azzouz, sent to the region last spring by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, among them and has been operating at least one training center. (P. 23)

It is probable that Ansar al-Sharia in Libya and in Tunisia are communicating, a fact that points to possible coordination between the two groups. Indeed, their Facebook sites appear similar in design and content, and their leaders, Ben Qumu and Sayfallah Bin Hussein, alias Ayyadh at-Tunsi, likely know each other because they were both al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan and former Guantanamo detainees. (P. 37)

LaRouchePAC to the U.S. Congress: Obama Gun-Running to Syria Is Already Happening

July 3, 2013 • 10:02AM

http://larouchepac.com/node/27204

by William F. Wertz, Jr.

Three recent articles published by Reuters (June 18) and the New York Times (June 22 and June 29) now confirm what LaRouche PAC has asserted for months: Contrary to law and without authorization, the Obama Administration has been running guns from Benghazi to Syria, starting several months prior to the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission and CIA annex on Sept. 11, 2012.

The guns were being run, and continue to be run, by a cut-out of the February 17th Brigade, a "former" member by the name of Abdul Basit Haroun. Haroun is a close associate of the head of the February 17th Brigade Ismael Al-Sallabi and the commander of the February 17th Brigade Fawzi Bukatef, both of whom are quoted in the first two of above-cited articles in defense of Haroun's gun-running.

The February 17th Brigade, founded by the Emir of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Abdelhakim Belhadj, is the militia that was hired by the U.S. to protect the mission in Benghazi. When the attack occurred the February 17th Brigade was nowhere to be found.

The most recent New York Times article confirms that Qatar has been shipping weapons to Syria since 2011, including at least one shipment of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles (MANPADS) from Libya.

Prior to these articles, there was already an abundance of evidence strongly suggesting that the Obama administration, under the auspices of John Brennan, had been running guns to the Syrian opposition from Benghazi since at since 2011. We provide that evidence below.

Following President Obama's June 16 announcement of his decision to openly provide weapons to the Syrian opposition, several bills have been submitted in the Congress to prevent him from doing so, arguing that such a decision requires the approval of Congress in accordance with the War Powers Resolution and the U.S. Constitution. Legislation introduced by Rep. Walter Jones threatens that to provide weapons thus is an impeachable offense. It has also been reported that a number of Congressional committees have rejected proposals by the Administration to fund the arming of the Syrian opposition with funds already allocated for intelligence purposes.

Yet President Obama has already been providing weapons to the Syrian opposition, including weapons from Libya, in collusion with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E., Turkey, and Jordan for over a year. In doing so, he has already committed an impeachable offense in violating the U.S. Constitution. And in the case of weapons shipped to Libya, and from Libya to Syria, he has violated the UN arms embargo.

As perhaps even John Kerry will recall, during the 1980s, when the U.S. Congress cut off funding to the Contras in Nicaragua, Vice President Bush prevailed upon his good friend Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to secretly fund the Contras. This is the same Prince Bandar who funded the first two 9/11 hijackers to arrive in the U.S. And it is the same Prince Bandar, now Director of Intelligence in Saudi Arabia, who has been arming al-Qaeda in Syria.

Obama and his current CIA Director, John Brennan, have been using that same Iran-Contra method, first to illegally arm the al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group in Libya, headed by Abdelhakim Belhadj, and then to arm the al-Qaeda-dominated opposition in Syria. As the authors of the book Benghazi: The Definitive Report point out, "From Oliver North to John Brennan, this is just the way that the system works regardless of the administration. The dead bodies they leave in their wake ... are, at the end of the day, just collateral damage in a war waged by those with political ambitions."

The Evidence of Obama's Gunrunning

On March 7, 2011, the London Independent reported that Obama asked Saudi Arabia to supply arms to the Libyan opposition. He did this despite the fact that the UN Security Council had unanimously imposed an arms embargo to and from Libya on Feb. 26, 2011.

In addition, in the Spring of 2011, Obama approved the provision of weapons by Qatar and the U.A.E. to the Libyan opposition, according to the New York Times (Dec. 5, 2012). Those weapons did not go to the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC), but directly to the LIFG, according to an Oct. 17, 2011 Wall Street Journal article.

The UN Panel of Experts confirmed that Qatar and the U.A.E. violated the UN arms embargo, in reports to the President of the Security Council on March 20, 2012, Feb. 15, 2013, and April 9, 2013.

In respect to Qatar, the UN report states that despite that country's denials, "the Panel stands by its findings that Qatar supplied arms and ammunition to the opposition during the uprising in breach of the arms embargo." The report also points to the collusion of NATO in violating the UN-imposed no-fly zone and arms embargo. Citing flights organized by the U.A.E., the report states that the flights "received deconfliction numbers from NATO, the existence of the no-fly zone and the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council in resolutions 1970 (2011) and 1973 (2011) notwithstanding."

The report confirms that, since the overthrow of Qaddafi, "The Syrian Arab Republic has presented a prominent destination for Libyan fighters. A number of them have joined brigades as individuals or through networks to support the Syrian opposition." ... [M]ilitary matériel has also been sent out from Libya to the Syrian Arab Republic through networks and routes passing through either Turkey or northern Lebanon.... Transfers of military matériel have been organized from various locations in Libya, including Misrata and Benghazi. The significant size of some shipments and the logistics involved suggest that representatives of the Libyan local authorities might have at least been aware of the transfers, if not actually directly involved."

During the same month that Qaddafi was assassinated, October 2011, according to the Daily Telegraph and other sources, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, the head of the Libyan TNC, and Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the Syrian National Council, reached an agreement for military support to the Syrian opposition from Libya. The Emir of the LIFG, Abdelhakim Belhadj, then traveled to Turkey in November 2011 to meet with the Syrian Free Army to provide training and weapons.

That same month, according to the website Albawaba.com and the truthseeker.co.uk, 600 LIFG terrorists went to Syria to commence military training and operations. They were led by Mahdi al-Harati, deputy commander of the Tripoli Military Council under Belhadj. Then, according to Ahmed Manai, President of the Tunisian Institute of Internatonal Relations, and a member of the Committee on Arab Observers in Syria, on Dec. 11, 2011, an agreement was signed in Tripoli among Jalil, Belhadj, Rashid al-Ghannushi (head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Tunisia), Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad Jabber bin Jassim al-Thani, and the number two of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, to provide weapons and fighters to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Stevens Secures MANPADS; Brennan Exports them

According to Benghazi: The Definitive Report, by Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy (New York: William Morrow, February 2013), the operation was run by now-CIA Director John Brennan outside of the traditional command structure, with Obama's approval.

The book reports that the United States had been facilitating, or, at the very least allowing, large weapons transfers from Libya to rebel fighters in Syria. The authors maintain that this did not fall under the purview of a Foreign Services officer in the State Department, such as Ambassador Stevens, but rather, "Stevens likely helped consolidate as many weapons as possible after the war to safeguard them, at which point Brennan exported them overseas to start another conflict."

On Feb. 2, 2012, Andrew J. Shapiro, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said in a speech that the United States was engaged in Libya in the most extensive effort to combat the proliferation of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) in U.S. history. Libya had acquired 20,000 MANPADS, and, according to Shapiro, only 5,000 could be accounted for as of that date. He further reported that many of the weapons were taken by militias, and that many of the militias remain reluctant to relinquish them. Furthermore, he said that "we cannot rule out that some weapons may have leaked out of Libya."

In August 2011, the LIFG's Belhadj led the takeover of Tripoli, thanks to the backing of Qatar, and became the commander of the Tripoli Military Council, in charge of coordinating defense on a national level, under the TNC. On Sept. 4, 2011, he was appointed to the Supreme Security Council. One week after he was appointed to command the Tripoli Military Council, Belhadj (founder of the February 17th Brigade), Ismael al-Sallabi (head of the February 17th Brigade), and TNC head Jalil went to Qatar, where they met with the financiers of the revolution and NATO officials, according to Kronos Advisory, LLC.

On Sept. 27, 2011, ABC News reported that Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch had taken pictures in Libya of pickup truckloads of missiles being carted off by the Libya opposition. He said: "I myself could have removed several hundred if I wanted to, and people can literally drive up with pickup trucks or even 18 wheelers and take away whatever they want. Every time I arrive at one of these weapons facilities, the first thing we notice going missing is the surface-to-air missiles." Richard Clark, former White House counterterrorism advisor and now a consultant to ABC News, said, "I think the probability of al-Qaeda being able to smuggle some of the Stinger-like missiles out of Libya is probably pretty high."

UN Panel of Experts Documents two Shipments

On April 27, 2012, according to the UN Panel of Experts report, Lebanese authorities seized a shipment of arms and ammunition destined for the opposition forces in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Panel inspected the shipment and concluded that "the shipment consisted of Libyan arms and ammunition that were transferred to the Luftfallah II in breach of the arms embargo." The shipment included "SA-24 short range surface-to-air missiles and SA-7b manportable air defense systems, anti-tank guided missiles," etc.

Yet already on Sept. 14, 2012, three days after Stevens was killed, the Times of London reported that a Libyan ship carrying weapons, including SAM-73 surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) for the Syrian opposition, had docked in Turkey. The UN has confirmed that the ship was the al-Entisar. It sailed from Benghazi to Iskenderun, Turkey, where it docked on Aug. 25, 2012, returning to Benghazi on Sept. 3.

Both of these documented shipments to Syria from Libya, and undoubtedly others, occurred after Obama reportedly signed a secret order authorizing the CIA to help coordinate the shipment of weapons by Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the Syrian opposition (See below).

So, on the one hand, beginning in August 2011, the U.S. and U.K. were reportedly trying to secure the MANPADS in Libya; but on the other, the Obama Administration, which approved the illegal provision of weapons by Qatar and the U.A.E. to the LIFG, had enlisted those allies to provide arms and jihadists in the effort to overthrow Assad.

Obama signs "finding;" involvement of senior White House officials

Sometime in early 2012, or perhaps earlier, Obama signed a "finding" that permitted the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support to the Syrian opposition, Reuters reported on Aug. 1, 2012. The news agency added that the U.S. was collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar near the Syrian border, in Adana, Turkey, which is five miles east of Incirlik, a U.S. air base where U.S. military and intelligence agencies maintain a presence.

The arms airlift expanded after the November Presidential elections, according to the New York Times of March 24, 2013 ("Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, with Aid from CIA"): "More than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes land[ed] at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports."

The CIA has been directly involved in this operation, the Times reported: "From offices at secret locations, American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia.

"Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been shipping military materials via Turkey to the opposition since early and late 2012. Simultaneously, arms and equipment were being purchased by Saudi Arabia in Croatia and flown to Jordan on Jordanian cargo planes for rebels working in southern Syria and for retransfer to Turkey for rebels groups operating from there.

"On a string of nights from April 26 through May 4 [2012], a Qatari Air Force C-17a huge American-made cargo plane made six landings in Turkey, at Esenboga Airport. By Aug. 8 the Qataris had made 14 more cargo flights. All came from Al Udeid Air Base 4 in Qatar, a hub for American military logistics in the Middle East.

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

"Through the fall [of 2012], the Qatari Air Force cargo fleet became even more busy, running flights almost every other day in October.... Soon other players joined the airlift: In November, three Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130s landed in Esenboga, in a hint at what would become a stepped-up Jordanian and Saudi role. 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 ... the aircraft were picking up a large Saudi purchase of infantry arms from a Croatian-controlled stockpile."

The Jordanian planes bore the logo of the Jordanian International Air Cargo firm, which, the article reports, is a front company for Jordan's Air Force.

A Gun-Runner Confesses

On June 18, 2013 Reuters published an interview with Abdul Basit Haroun ("Adventures of a Libyan Weapons Dealer in Syria") in which he admitted that he is involved in shipping weapons from Benghazi, Libya to Syria. Haroun said that his first shipment of weapons to Syria was successfully delivered aboard the Entisar in August 2012. An earlier shipment on the Luftfallah II was intercepted on April 27, 2012 by Lebanese authorities. According to Haroun, he now delivers weapons to Syria on chartered flights to neighboring countries, and then smuggles them over the border to Syria.

On June 22, the New York Times published an article entitled "In Turnabout, Syria Rebels Get Libyan Weapons" that reports that the chartered flights are being financed and provided by Qatar: "Many of the same people who chased [Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi] to his grave are busy shuttling his former arms stockpiles to rebels in Syria.... Evidence gathered in Syria, along with flight-control data and interviews with militia members, smugglers, rebels, analysts and officials in several countries, offers a profile of a complex and active multinational effort, financed largely by Qatar, to transport arms from Libya to Syria's opposition fighters."

The Reuters article then quotes Ismail al-Sallabi, the head of the Feb. 17th Brigade, who says: "Abdel Basit Haroun was with us in the February 17 brigade before he quit to form his own brigade." Haroun said that he can collect weapons from around Libya and arrange for them to be delivered to the Syrian rebels because of his contacts in Libya and abroad. "They know we are sending guns to Syria. Everyone knows."

According to the article, Haroun runs his operation with an associate, who helps him coordinate about a dozen people in Libyan cities collecting the weapons. Both said several flights had been chartered to Jordan or Turkey to deliver the weapons. Haroun's associate runs a relief organization, the Libyan National Council for Relief and Support. Haroun said he had no control over which groups received the weapons. However, both he and his associate traveled with their first successful delivery in August 2012 over the Syrian border, to ensure it reached its destination.

The New York Times quotes Fawzi Bukatef, who was the commander of the February 17th Brigade in Benghazi, that the Libyan militias have been shipping weapons to Syrian rebels for more than a year.

The article also states that the weapons are sent on ships or Qatar Emiri Air Force flights to a network of intelligence agenices and Syrian oppostion leaders in Turkey. Qatari C-17 cargo aircraft have made at least three documented stops in Libya this year, the Times writes, including flights from Mitiga airport in Tripoli on Jan. 15 and Feb. 1 and another that departed Benghazi on April 16. The planes returned to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The cargo was then flown to Ankara, Turkey.

Al Udeid Air Base, as of 2010, was the home of 10,000 U.S. personnel and 100 Qataris.

Another article in the New York Times on June 29 entitled "Taking Outsize Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels," further confirms that Qatar has been shipping arms to the Syrian rebels since 2011. "Qatar's covert efforts to back the Syrian rebels began at the same time that it was increasing its support for opposition fighters in Libya." The article further confirms that "a shipment of Eastern bloc missiles [MANPADS] had come from former Qaddafi stockpiles."