The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic (36 page)
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Authors: David Limbaugh
BOOK: The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic
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John Bolton noted the obvious—that affording a “swaggering, international bully boy” like Russia a big role in mediating the conflict and in shaping post-Gaddafi Libya would amount to a “massive humiliation for the Western alliance.” Of further concern to Bolton and many others, neither America nor its NATO allies had done anything to strengthen pro-Western voices in Libya and help them come to power instead of some new rogue regime.
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Stanley Kurtz suggested a rationale for Obama’s inexplicable policy: R2P. “Obama’s willingness to cede so much to the Russians reflects the fact that he is far less interested in achieving and enforcing regime change in Libya, than in using this intervention to advance the utopian plans of his hyper-internationalist advisers,” Kurtz said. By ceding Russia de facto control over Libyan oil and gas resources, Kurtz argued, Obama would avoid sending in U.S. troops while “bolster[ing] the development of a post-American world order—with an R2P-enforcing U.N. exercising a larger military role.” While that would enhance Russia’s ability to bully Europe, Obama, according to Kurtz, was “less concerned about those sorts of strategic considerations than about advancing the vision of a world policed by a U.N. freed of U.S. domination.”
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THOUSANDS OF SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES DISAPPEAR29
It’s hard to conceive that the administration helped to oust the Libyan regime without any plan for preventing terrorists from seizing its weapons. But at the end of September, ABC News reported that after Gaddafi’s downfall, Libya descended into lawlessness as fighters—including some from al-Qaeda—poured into the country. “Amid this lawlessness, thousands of Libyan surface-to-air missiles that could potentially shoot down civilian aircraft disappeared,” ABC reported. The White House said it would expand a program to secure and destroy Libya’s huge stockpile of these missiles, but at the time the U.S. State Department had only one official on the ground in Libya, along with five contractors who were experts in “explosive ordinance disposal.”
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ABC News reported that U.S. officials and security experts were concerned that missing heat-seeking missiles could end up in terrorists’ hands. Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said he’d seen people driving off with truckloads of missiles from weapons facilities when he visited Libya in March 2011, and then again in September. “Every time I arrive at one of these weapons facilities, the first thing we notice going missing is the surface-to-air missiles,” he explained. “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…. In Libya, we’re talking about something on the order of 20,000 surface-to-air missiles. This is one of the greatest stockpiles of these weapons that has ever gone on the loose.” Chillingly, Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism advisor, 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.”
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Less than a month later, ABC News reported that some of these missing missiles had turned up near the Israeli border. The
Washington Post
said many of the stolen missiles had been sold in Egyptian black markets and that their price had dropped from $10,000 to $4,000 due to the abundant supply. Most of the missiles were shoulder-fired, had a range of two miles, and would pose a threat to Israeli helicopter and planes on either side of the Israel-Gaza border.
32
Washington Post
said many of the stolen missiles had been sold in Egyptian black markets and that their price had dropped from $10,000 to $4,000 due to the abundant supply. Most of the missiles were shoulder-fired, had a range of two miles, and would pose a threat to Israeli helicopter and planes on either side of the Israel-Gaza border.
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It wasn’t until mid-October 2011 that the administration began a campaign to track down these missiles, sending fourteen contractors with military backgrounds to Libya and planning on sending dozens more. Meanwhile, Libyan rebel groups and civilians had carried off an unknown number of these weapons. As the
Washington Post’s
Mary Beth Sheridan reported, one rebel fighter, Essam Abu Bakr, said he watched groups of rebels throw “crates of grenades and missiles into trucks ‘as though they were sacks of sugar.’ ‘I’m worried,’ he said. ‘Loose weapons are everywhere.’”
33
Washington Post’s
Mary Beth Sheridan reported, one rebel fighter, Essam Abu Bakr, said he watched groups of rebels throw “crates of grenades and missiles into trucks ‘as though they were sacks of sugar.’ ‘I’m worried,’ he said. ‘Loose weapons are everywhere.’”
33
It was hardly comforting to discover that these Obama administration-backed rebel forces ransacked entire villages, leaving ghost towns in their wake, and administering brutal beatings. “They chased us with guns and knives,” testified one victim. “They brought me to a house and beat me with electrical cable to make me confess I worked for Gaddafi, even though I told them I never carried a gun.”
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The rebels also slaughtered some fifty-three Gaddafi supporters and buried them in a mass grave in Gaddafi’s hometown.
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“WE LED THIS THING”34
The rebels also slaughtered some fifty-three Gaddafi supporters and buried them in a mass grave in Gaddafi’s hometown.
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Quite contrary to the administration’s assurances that it was supporting democratic forces, Libya’s post-Gaddafi interim leader, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, declared that Libyan laws in the future would have Sharia—strict Islamic law—as their “basic source.” Proving he meant business, he immediately lifted a law banning polygamy because it conflicted with Sharia, and also announced that future bank regulations would ban the charging of interest, as mandated by Sharia.
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In Benghazi, where the Libyan revolution erupted, al-Qaeda planted its flag alongside the Libyan rebel flag atop the city courthouse.
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In Benghazi, where the Libyan revolution erupted, al-Qaeda planted its flag alongside the Libyan rebel flag atop the city courthouse.
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The opportunistic Obama administration, ignoring all these horror stories, changed its tune once Gaddafi had been ousted. After previously downplaying the U.S. role to avoid triggering the War Powers Resolution, the administration began to boast that it had been leading the operation all along. Although some administration supporters had described the U.S. role as “leading from behind,” Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called that a “whacked out phrase.” “We led this thing,” she bluntly declared. “We put teeth in this mandate.”
This must have been news to the British and French, who had been frustrated by the administration’s vacillation back in March, when they couldn’t get Obama to join them in a resolution to establish a no-fly zone over Libya. But the administration wasn’t satisfied with support merely from our European allies; it wasn’t until the Arab League got behind the no-fly zone that it began taking an active role. Displaying utter incoherence, the administration explained that it based our Libyan action on the UN mandate calling for the protection of civilians, which it “did not conflate” with “regime change as part of the military mission.” As writer Marc Thiessen trenchantly summarized, “Got that? We did not lead from behind, we led. But our goal was never to help the overthrow of Qaddafi. But now that he’s gone we’re claiming credit. Now
that’s
‘whacked out.’”
38
“A NATIONWIDE UPRISING AGAINST MUBARAK DOES NOT EXIST”that’s
‘whacked out.’”
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President Obama also tried out his R2P approach in Egypt, meandering through mazes of indecision as he contemplated whether to support the overthrow of our longtime ally, President Hosni Mubarak.
In January 2011 a mob of Egyptians took to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demanding Mubarak step down. After initially supporting Mubarak, President Obama seemingly shifted course, expressing dismay at Mubarak’s refusal to step down and chiding the Egyptian government for failing to put forward a “credible, concrete and unequivocal path to democracy.” But Mubarak defied Obama’s calls to resign, provoking a cutting observation from Britain’s
Guardian
: “Mubarak’s response offers further evidence of the US’s slow decline from its status as superpower to a position where it is unable to decisively influence events in Egypt, in spite of that country being one of the biggest recipients of US military aid.” The paper also ridiculed the administration’s vacillation, saying it had “shifted from solidly supporting Mubarak, to suggesting he should go now, only to back him at the weekend to remain in office until the autumn—a decision that secretary of state Hillary Clinton reversed hours later when she threw US support behind [Egyptian Vice President] Suleiman.”
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Guardian
: “Mubarak’s response offers further evidence of the US’s slow decline from its status as superpower to a position where it is unable to decisively influence events in Egypt, in spite of that country being one of the biggest recipients of US military aid.” The paper also ridiculed the administration’s vacillation, saying it had “shifted from solidly supporting Mubarak, to suggesting he should go now, only to back him at the weekend to remain in office until the autumn—a decision that secretary of state Hillary Clinton reversed hours later when she threw US support behind [Egyptian Vice President] Suleiman.”
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As Obama slowly settled on a policy of encouraging Mubarak to leave, a fundamental question lurked beneath the heady events: Did the Egyptian people themselves want to oust Mubarak? Certainly a mob in Cairo’s streets was clamoring for it, yet it was unclear to what extent that sentiment spread past Tahrir Square. Two Ukrainian bloggers who were passing through Egypt wrote, “We visited Egypt and studied the situation in detail, on the ground. Having talked with hundreds of residents of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, we came to a definite conclusion:
a nationwide uprising against Mubarak does not exist
.” Most of the Egyptian people, according to the bloggers, did not support the anti-Mubarak factions, whose rebellion, the Ukrainians argued, was limited to just one area of Cairo.
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“PERHAPS THE STUPIDEST STATEMENT… IN U.S. INTERNATIONAL HISTORY”a nationwide uprising against Mubarak does not exist
.” Most of the Egyptian people, according to the bloggers, did not support the anti-Mubarak factions, whose rebellion, the Ukrainians argued, was limited to just one area of Cairo.
40
Why would Obama support the overthrow of Mubarak when this would likely bring to power the Muslim Brotherhood, an anti-American group of Islamic fundamentalists seeking to create a worldwide Islamic caliphate? Perhaps it was because Obama didn’t have a particularly negative view of the Brotherhood, an 84-year-old organization that, according to the
New York Times
, “virtually invented Islamism.”
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Although the Brotherhood’s entire
raison d’etre
is to spread Islamism, Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, told the House Intelligence Committee, “The term Muslim Brotherhood is an umbrella term for a variety of movements; in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”
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New York Times
, “virtually invented Islamism.”
41
Although the Brotherhood’s entire
raison d’etre
is to spread Islamism, Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, told the House Intelligence Committee, “The term Muslim Brotherhood is an umbrella term for a variety of movements; in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam.”
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In damage control mode, the administration later tried to “clarify” Clapper’s inexplicable distortion, releasing a statement that read, in part, “To clarify Director Clapper’s point, in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood makes efforts to work through a political system that has been, under Mubarak’s rule, one that is largely secular in its orientation. He is well aware that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a secular organization.”
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It’s hard to see how the administration could credibly claim this was a clarification as opposed to an outright retraction. In any case, the statement hardly satisfied administration critics. John Bolton called Clapper’s comment “perhaps the stupidest statement made by any administration in U.S. international history.”
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British reporter Nile Gardiner commented, “Clapper’s remarks were a bizarre whitewash of the organization, and yet another embarrassing gaffe by an Administration that increasingly specializes in them.”
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Denouncing Clapper’s “willful stupidity,”
National Review
terrorism expert Andrew McCarthy wrote, “This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is the law and jihad is its way. The MB whose Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, was created for the specific purpose of destroying Israel—the goal its charter says is a religious obligation. It is the organization dedicated to the establishment of Islamicized societies and, ultimately, a global caliphate. It is an organization whose leadership says al-Qaeda’s emir, Osama bin Laden, is an honorable jihad warrior who was ‘close to Allah on high’ in ‘resisting the occupation.’”
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British reporter Nile Gardiner commented, “Clapper’s remarks were a bizarre whitewash of the organization, and yet another embarrassing gaffe by an Administration that increasingly specializes in them.”
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Denouncing Clapper’s “willful stupidity,”
National Review
terrorism expert Andrew McCarthy wrote, “This is the Muslim Brotherhood whose motto brays that the Koran is the law and jihad is its way. The MB whose Palestinian branch, the terrorist organization Hamas, was created for the specific purpose of destroying Israel—the goal its charter says is a religious obligation. It is the organization dedicated to the establishment of Islamicized societies and, ultimately, a global caliphate. It is an organization whose leadership says al-Qaeda’s emir, Osama bin Laden, is an honorable jihad warrior who was ‘close to Allah on high’ in ‘resisting the occupation.’”
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It was later reported that U.S. officials met with members of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party once Mubarak was ousted. The administration denied this was a break from previous U.S. policy, though in the past such contacts were limited to actual members of the parliament.
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In November, reports surfaced that the U.S. State Department was training anti-Western Islamist political parties in Egypt in polling, constituent services, and electoral preparations. William Taylor, the State Department’s director of its new office for Middle East Transitions, responded to the reports with a classic non-denial denial. “We don’t do party support. What we do is party training…. And we do it to whoever comes,” he said. “Sometimes,” he added, “Islamist parties show up, sometimes they don’t. But it has been provided on a nonpartisan basis, not to individual parties”—as if providing support indiscriminately excused them from supporting anti-American groups.
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This perversion was no surprise to those familiar with this administration’s leftist ideology. Indeed, Taylor said the United States would be “satisfied” if fair parliamentary elections resulted in a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood—which is exactly what happened in Egypt, as the Brotherhood and the even more radical Salafist sect later won a combined 70 percent of the seats in parliament.
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This perversion was no surprise to those familiar with this administration’s leftist ideology. Indeed, Taylor said the United States would be “satisfied” if fair parliamentary elections resulted in a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood—which is exactly what happened in Egypt, as the Brotherhood and the even more radical Salafist sect later won a combined 70 percent of the seats in parliament.
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Naturally, the Brotherhood’s victory only encouraged the Obama administration to step up its “engagement” efforts. In April 2012, the administration hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation in Washington that met with White House staffers and national security officials.
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According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, to smooth its entry into America, the State Department prohibited U.S. customs officials from subjecting the Brotherhood delegation to standard inspection checks for visitors from Egypt, and even prevented the secondary inspection that would have been standard for one Brotherhood member implicated in a child pornography investigation.
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As Andrew McCarthy reported, shortly after the delegation’s visit, the Obama administration announced it would give $1.5 billion in aid to the new Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egyptian government, representing $1.3 billion in military assistance and an additional $200 million in economic aid.
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Obama would do so despite congressional opposition.
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According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, to smooth its entry into America, the State Department prohibited U.S. customs officials from subjecting the Brotherhood delegation to standard inspection checks for visitors from Egypt, and even prevented the secondary inspection that would have been standard for one Brotherhood member implicated in a child pornography investigation.
51
As Andrew McCarthy reported, shortly after the delegation’s visit, the Obama administration announced it would give $1.5 billion in aid to the new Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egyptian government, representing $1.3 billion in military assistance and an additional $200 million in economic aid.
52
Obama would do so despite congressional opposition.
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