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Libyan charity’s ship implicated in Benghazi attack on US ambassador
Malta Today ^ | October 31, 2012 | Karl Stagno-Navarra

Posted on 10/31/2012 1:22:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

-Libyan-flagged vessel used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighter-

A Libyan-flagged vessel which last year was used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation in supplying a lifeline to rebels in Misurata, has been implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syrian freedom fighters, which may also be linked to murdered US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi last month.

The ship 'Al Entisar' which was chartered last year by I-Go Aid Libya, then run by businessman Mario Debono, has been reported to be linked to last September's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

A Fox News investigation revealed that shipping records confirmed that the Al Entisar entered the Turkish port of Iskenderun, some 35 miles from the Syrian border, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens, and three other US officials were killed during an assault by more than 100 Islamist militants on the US Consulate compound in Benghazi.

Another report, this time appearing on the Times of London, said that the Al Entisar was carrying 400 tons of cargo. Some of it was humanitarian, but also reportedly weapons, described by the report as the largest consignment of weapons headed for Syria's rebels on the frontlines.

Walid Phares, a Fox News Middle East and terrorism analyst, identified the Al Entishar on a news report aired by the news channel, saying, "this is the Libyan ship... which is basically carrying weapons that are found in Libya."

Phares added that the ship came all the way up to Iskenderun in Turkey. "Now from the information that is available, there was aid material, but there were also weapons, a lot of weapons."

The cargo reportedly included surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles, RPGs and Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles known as MANPADS.

The ship's Libyan captain reportedly told the Times of London that "I can only talk about the medicine and humanitarian aid" for the Syrian rebels.

It was reported there was a fight about the weapons and who got what "between the free Syrian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood."

According to various reports, on the night of September 11 - in what would become his last known public meeting - US Ambassador Stevens reportedly met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the consulate front gate one hour before the assault began at approximately 9:35 p.m.

Fox News said that although what was discussed during the meeting is not public, "Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate a weapons transfer, an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."

But although the negotiation was said to have taken place, it may have had nothing to do with the attack on the consulate later that night or the Al Entishar, it could explain why Stevens was travelling in such a volatile region on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Fox News added that a source at the US Congress also cautioned against drawing "premature conclusions" about the consulate attack and the movement of weapons from Libya to Syria via Turkey, noting they may in fact be two separate and distinct events.

But the source acknowledged to Fox News that the timing and the meeting between the Turkish diplomat and Stevens was "unusual."

Contacted last night, Mario Debono said that the Malta-based humanitarian organisation is now defunct, but still assists in civilian medical evacuations from Libya to other European countries.

When asked about the Al Entishar, Debono said that the ship was chartered from its Libyan owner to I-GO Aid Libya last year, and operated between Malta and Misurata to transport humanitarian aid.

"I can tell you 200% that no weapons were ever transported on board the Al Entishar to Misurata, and the only military equipment, if you may call them so, were bullet proof vests," Debono told MaltaToday.

Asked on whether he knew about the reports regarding the possible involvement of the Al Entishar in the transport of weapons from Libya to Syria, Debono said that he heard of the reports, but that the ship was returned to its Libyan owner, who in turn chartered it to a new contractor.

"I-GO Aid Libya has nothing more to do with the Al Entishar," Debono said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: 201210; alentisar; alentishar; alisaitakin; antiaircraftmissiles; belhadj; benghazi; benghazigate; charity; debono; embassymurders; freesyrianarmy; fsa; generalalisaitakin; guns; igo; igoaid; igoaidlibya; ihh; iskenderun; libya; libyaship; malta; manpads; mariodebono; mavimarmara; mavimarmera; miserata; misurata; muslimbrotherhood; qaradawi; rpgs; russianarms; russianmanpads; russianmissiles; sa7; sa7s; shadowwars; surfacetoairmissiles; syria; threatmatrix; turkey
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I am not familiar with this news outlet.

Last night on Fox News, Greta and John Bolton were discussing questions like: were guns going rebels; who was the Syrian who met with Chris Stevens at dusk before the attack and murders; how the captured attacker was turned over to Tunisia by Syria and not to the U.S.; etc.

1 posted on 10/31/2012 1:22:52 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: All
In Post #1: Turkish, Turkey [not Syrian, Turkey] - Sorry about that. If I'm still confused on the details, please correct.

....; who was the Syrian who met with Chris Stevens at dusk before the attack and murders; how the captured attacker was turned over to Tunisia by Syria and not to the U.S.; etc.

2 posted on 10/31/2012 1:29:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

It was the Turkish counsel general.


3 posted on 10/31/2012 1:33:21 AM PDT by MestaMachine (obama kills and none dare call it treason)
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To: MestaMachine

Thank you.


4 posted on 10/31/2012 1:34:00 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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“.....The American special operators, Woods, Doherty and at least two others were part of the Global Response Staff, a CIA element, based at the CIA annex and were protecting CIA operators who were part of a mission to track and repurchase arms in Benghazi that had proliferated in the wake of Muammar Qaddafi’s fall. Part of their mission was to find the more than 20,000 missing MANPADS, or shoulder-held missiles capable of bringing down a commercial aircraft. According to a source on the ground at the time of the attack, the team inside the CIA annex had captured three Libyan attackers and was forced to hand them over to the Libyans. U.S. officials do not know what happened to those three attackers and whether they were released by the Libyan forces.......”

http://www.israpundit.com/archives/50224


5 posted on 10/31/2012 1:35:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: All
Greta Wire Guests and LINK to comments on interviews.
6 posted on 10/31/2012 1:43:13 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Good grief. It won’t unravel in time for election day. This bumped Fast and Furious-Mexican Cartel off page ten.....and it sounds like Fast and Furious-Muslim Brotherhood to me.....with Sandy intervening. I get sicker and sicker.


7 posted on 10/31/2012 2:02:02 AM PDT by FryingPan101 (2016 looms)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

So a demonratic version of Iran-Contra

The Obama administration was buying surplus Russian arms from the vast arsenals Gadaffi had stockpiled and giving them to the Syrian rebels on the sly

That way the weapons could not be traced back to the US

Not necessarily a bad plan except that Obama was still should have intervened. The risk of his covert weapons scheme was small compared to the death of an Ambassador


8 posted on 10/31/2012 2:02:19 AM PDT by Fai Mao
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To: All

[Oct 31, 2012] “Rebel fighters, civilian protesters storm Libya’s parliament”

[BIG SNIP]

“.....Last year’s fight that ended in Gadhafi’s ouster and death after 42 years in power was largely carried out by regional militias that amassed weapons. But long after the civil war ended, the militias continue to serve under their own leaders and wield significant power even though they have nominally come under the control of the state’s military and police forces.

The lack of control of the government over the militias it relies on was brought home in the starkest terms on Sept. 11, the day of the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, the eastern city where last year’s uprising against Gadhafi began. The Islamist group Ansar al-Shariah, one of the biggest militias in Benghazi, is suspected in the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The killings in Benghazi fueled popular anger against the militias. Just a week after the assault, tens of thousands of Benghazis attacked the headquarters of Ansar al-Shariah and another militia in Benghazi and drove them out.

The government took advantage of the public anger. In the days after the attack, authorities carried out high-profile weapon hand-ins in Tripoli and Benghazi and issued ultimatums for all militias to submit entirely to government control.”

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/31/14822210-rebel-fighters-civilian-protesters-storm-libyas-parliament?lite

_________________________________________________________

HOWEVER, earlier it had been reported that the locals asked for Ansar al Sharia to return to protect them! [news LINK at source below]

_________________________________________________________

““.............Four hundred miles away in Benghazi, the Supreme Security Committees have offices but little presence on the streets. Rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons that rebels stole from Kadafi’s stocks during the revolution are for sale in the main market, sometimes by men who look barely old enough to drive.

At Jalaa Hospital, the main emergency trauma center in eastern Libya, the only security for months was provided by Ansar al Sharia. Ten days after the attack, protests forced the group to abandon its installations in Benghazi, including the hospital.

Now the doctors want the group back.

A weaker militia has taken its place, but security has badly deteriorated, with gun battles sometimes spilling into the parking lot and reception areas. After several days of chaos, including one incident where a nurse was assaulted, about 200 doctors, nurses and other staff signed a petition seeking Ansar al Sharia’s return.

“There is a lot of propaganda against them, but we are asking for them,” said Ahmed Abdul Gader, a weary-eyed orthopedic surgeon who was on duty one recent evening. “The government has no control here.” - “Libya militia tensions hampered post-attack U.S. efforts” [October 24, 2012]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949876/posts#1


9 posted on 10/31/2012 2:31:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Cincinatus' Wife. This is per "Malta Today", so...
Libyan-flagged vessel used by a Malta-based humanitarian organisation implicated in a covert US arms smuggling operation to Syria...

10 posted on 10/31/2012 3:04:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Hmmm. Who gave the order to hand over the captured Libyans?


11 posted on 10/31/2012 3:16:31 AM PDT by livius
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To: Fai Mao

The difference, in this case, is that not only were arms being sold to a hostile entity, but they were also being funneled to one (hostile to the US).

The government rushed to support the Islamists, or rather the “rebels,” even though it must have been known that many of them were AQ, since I recall this being discussed from the very start.

I don’t think this bothers Obama at all and is consistent with his policy of arming Islamists, but I think there are still at least some people in the government who don’t accept this and they were probably the ones trying to retrieve the weapons. But Obama (a) probably didn’t support that effort to begin with and (b) didn’t want the truth to come out about his rash and dangerous support for the “Arab Spring” Islamists.


12 posted on 10/31/2012 3:25:09 AM PDT by livius
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To: livius
When to Choose Sides ".......However, there comes a point when such deep strategic cretinism can lead to action or nonaction that can only be described in moral terms. If the Obama high command was as well-informed about Benghazi as a number of commentators claim, all considerations of policy continuity should have gone out the window. They could revert later to appeasement, stalling, retreat, call it what you will. Secretary of State Clinton, for instance, this very week is passing through North Africa in an effort to steady the ship of U.S. foreign policy by assuring regional leaders that we will support the eradication of the terrorist state entrenched in northern Mali at least in part due to the very policies Mrs. Clinton and her boss have been promoting for the past four years.

They could, they can: but on the ground in Benghazi on September 11, U.S. foreign policy was not the issue, American lives were. This indeed was "a moment to choose sides." In the battle between good and evil, the hymn says: in this moment, the administration was not being asked to choose between good and evil on the global scale. If they do not want to see evil where it is in the global picture, okay, that is why we have elections periodically. This was a case of evil in a small place, involving a desperate fight between good men and evil savages. They, the administration, did not choose or, God help us all, they chose the wrong side."

13 posted on 10/31/2012 4:09:35 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

This story gets stranger and stranger. We need to get rid of this crowd as soon as possible. I guess next Tuesday will have to do.


14 posted on 10/31/2012 4:25:22 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

“Mission Accomplished!”



15 posted on 10/31/2012 4:41:26 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Vi veri veniversum vivus vici)
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To: livius

Sounds like a valid reason for the administration to want our ambassador dead. He simply knew too much. Therefore, no backup during the raid on our consulate. The only real question is who in the administration knew about the attack before it happened. When we have a president that kills Americans with only a star chamber trial, all things are possible.


16 posted on 10/31/2012 4:52:01 AM PDT by Pecos (Double tap: the only acceptable gun control)
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To: SunkenCiv

Malta-based humanitarian organisation = CIA


17 posted on 10/31/2012 5:04:11 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: Fai Mao

If Congress was never notified and the WH knew about the
arms trafficking, it’s impeachable.


18 posted on 10/31/2012 7:27:59 AM PDT by rfp1234
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To: Cincinatus' Wife; Marine_Uncle; TigersEye; onyx; Carry_Okie; Grampa Dave

Thanks for the detail on the ship.


19 posted on 10/31/2012 1:01:19 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach ((The Global Warming Hoax was a Criminal Act....where is Al Gore?))
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Deals went down. More will be un-covered as time goes by.


20 posted on 10/31/2012 1:19:03 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned.)
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