Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair previously gave testimony to an investigative panel of Parliament regarding the decision-making in/around the 2011 overthrow of Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi.  Blair was acting as an intermediary trying to resolve the crisis.  As a result of that testimony a transcript of a February 25th, 2011, phone call has also been released.

It is important to remember on the date of this phone call, the U.S. decision to intervene in Libya was very much undecided.   U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was working with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.K Prime Minister David Cameron.

President Obama was specifically, and at the time, notoriously, absent from publicly commenting one-way or the other.  Pressure was building on the White House to weigh in on the Libyan issue.  The interventionist activity was the original construct of Secretary Hillary Clinton, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and Senior White House adviser Samantha Powers. (more…)

WE NEED YOUR HELP – The mainstream media on both sides of the issue, but mostly on our side, are missing a key point when analyzing the latest release of Hillary Clinton e-mails and the topic of Libya in 2011.  We have exhaustively researched and presented a sourced and cited timeline for the Libyan folly throughout 2011 and 2012 – All covered in the Benghazi Brief.

Everyone is missing the late February 2011 Presidential Finding Memo, , signed by President Obama which authorized the covert CIA/State Department operation.

[…]  The Libyan uprising began on February 10th of 2011, and we also know that sometime around the end of February 2011 President Obama signed a presidential directive authorizing the State Dept and CIA to begin a covert operation to arm the Libyan “rebels”.

Everyone is also missing – as a result of that directive the Intelligence Gang of Eight, which included Mike Rogers, was informed of the CIA/State Dept. goal. (more…)

The New York Times has a new article outlining the relationship between Hillary Clinton, the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and her pal Sidney Blumenthal. However, they somewhat bury the lede regarding the impression that Blumenthal was leveraging Hillary for a group of business partners (he led) who wanting to invest in Libya.
New York Times […] as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is once again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview.

Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable. (more…)

We have shared Jon McNaughton’s work before and his latest is right on target.

Interactive version HERE and Video Below (more…)

Few media outlets understand the scope of the Islamic alignment forces currently battling for control in Libya; even fewer try to report on them. A recent alarming report is now confirmed.

A man named Abdelhakim Belhadj has taken the position as head of ISIS in Libya. Abdelhakim Belhadj was critical in forming “Libya Dawn”, essentially a group of Islamic militia forces (LIFG or Libyan Islamic Fighting Groups) who fought under various banners such as Ansar al-Sharia (al-Qaeda in Libya) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Left to Right – CT Senator Richard Bumenthal, ISIS Commander Abdelhakim Belhadj, AZ Senator John McCain, SC Senator Lindsey Graham

However, Abdelhakim Belhadj was also supported by the U.S. and more specifically Senator’s Graham and McCain in the lead up to the current crisis which no-one will call a civil war because of political fear – yet that is exactly what exists. Abdelhakim Belhadj taking the position as head of ISIS in Libya now all but guarantees Libya will be an Islamist Militant State.

[Via Counter Jihad] … Major news out of Libya as the former head of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and a major player in the U.S.-backed overthrow of Mummar Gaddafi, has reportedly joined the Islamic State and is leading its forces there. This according to The Blaze National Security journalist Sara Carter on twitter, and Fox News’ Catherine Herridge in a Fox News report.

(more…)

Annoying does not seem to adequately identify the frustration projected toward the U.S. media anymore. “Willfully Blind” seemingly seems entirely more appropriate.

Back in 2011 when Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Samantha Power and eventually President Obama, engaged in a decision to strike militarily against Gaddaffi in support of Libyan opposition forces (later determined to be al-Qaeda), Jeh Johnson was part of President Obama’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) as Johnson represented the chief legal counsel to the Pentagon.

A little known fact about that controversial time is that Jeh Johnson, the legal counsel, told President Obama his military action was illegal. Yes, Jeh Johnson as part of the OLC told Obama the executive office lacked legal authority to strike militarily against Libya because the Libyan uprising posed no direct threat to the United States, and President Obama had not requested congressional authority.

This was in June of 2011, this was even reported in the NEW YORK TIMES:

WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.  

(more…)

It should not come as a surprise to followers of the U.S. position in Libya to discover that both the U.S. and British political apparatus are trying to block Egypt’s request to the Security Council for intervention in Libya.
What comes as more of a surprise is the stark contrast between espoused public positions from both President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron about fighting “Islamic Extremism” when contrast against their less public -but far more damaging- positions about allowing the elements of ISIS to have free reign amid the Libyan geography.

As a consequence what is beginning to emerge is, yet again, the rise of Russian influence in the North African region; as Russia’s Putin and Egyptian President Fattah al-Sisi work together to remove the extremists despite the action of Cameron and Obama.
CAIRO –  Faced with a new threat to its national security, Egypt may, at least for now, go it alone in battling ISIL militants in neighbouring Libya.
Egyptian warplanes struck ISIL targets last week in the city of Derna, an extremist stronghold, in retaliation for the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians there by the militants.
But Cairo’s desire to see the creation of a UN-backed force to intervene militarily in Libya has been stymied at the UN Security Council last week. (more…)

I’m sure there will be more from Egypt’s Fattah al-Sisi in the next few days, he is not a person prone to knee-jerk emotional responses to crisis. Research into al-Sisi, and following him for several years, shows he thinks carefully, calls for counsel, takes immediate advice and then makes a strong decision and sticks with it.
That said, as you read this I must point out something in this Reuters example which highlights the bias inherent in Western media that slips past unless you have followed the nuances and details of any event/story. Check out this statement:

[…] “The beheadings could stiffen Sisi’s resolve in dealing with security threats from militants thriving in neighboring Libya’s chaos who want to topple his U.S.-backed government“.

“U.S. backed government“, who does Reuters think they’re kidding?
The Obama administration openly disparages al-Sisi, talks negatively about him, spoke angrily against the removal of Muslim Brotherhood’s Morsi and didn’t even call Sisi to congratulate him on his overwhelming election victory. But Reuters says “U.S. backed”, because NOW it fits the narrative a strong Obama needs, unreal. I digress. (more…)

The people and groups now identified as “ISIS in Libya” are the same people and groups that Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power and Susan Rice determined back in 2011 to be “rebels” worthy of weapons, missiles and MANPADS to advance their cause.
Don’t forget that pesky detail. EVER.
The Coptic Christians executed today in Libya spent their last moments in prayer.

(Reuters) – Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the militant group beheading 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya.
The Egyptians, dressed in orange jump suits, were beheaded after being forced down on the ground. The video appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports Islamic State. (more…)

Several key strategic incidents occurring today which will lead to a bigger story soon to surface. It bodes well to understand the day-to-day strategic positioning, which lends to understanding what is about to happen. The media will not report on these individual examples, nor are they disposed to connect the dots of consequence.

First, a widespread and strategic attack by ISIS against several targets in the Northern Sinai region has taken place. At least 25 members of Egyptian military and civilians have been killed. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis has been outlined as responsible for the attacks.
The Islamists within Ansar Beit al-Maqdis were initially inspired by al-Qaida, but last year the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.
This follows an uptick in calls for the assassination of Egypt’s President Fattah al-Sisi by the Muslim Brotherhood. Additionally, and to support their efforts, the Brotherhood were hosted last week by members of the U.S. Obama administration. (more…)