New Book Out on Tuesday "Benghazi: The Definitive Report", Targets John Brennan and Obama
According to articles in the New York Post and the MailOnline, a book scheduled to be released on Tuesday, Feb. 12, entitled Benghazi: The Definitive Report, identifies John Brennan as the person responsible for the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. The authors of the book are Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL, and Jack Murphy, a former Green Beret. Brandon Webb is the best friend of Glen Doherty, one of the two former Navy SEALs who were killed at the CIA annex in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
According to the authors, Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed because of a secret war run with Obama's approval by John Brennan in which American hit squads took out leaders of al Qaeda militias, which then retaliated in Benghazi.
At least in the advance coverage provided by these two articles, Webb and Murphy do not mention the drone assassination of Abu Yahah al-Libi (aka Hasan Qayid) in Pakistan in June 2012 authorized and carried out by Obama and Brennan. Al Libi, the second in command of Core al-Qaeda, was the younger brother of a leading member of the al-Qaeda allied Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Abd al-Wahab al-Qayid, now a leading figure in the Libyan Interior Ministry. Nor do the articles indicate whether or not Webb and Murphy identify the LIFG as implicated in the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission, but the advance reporting of the contents of their book coheres with what LPAC has previously reported.
According to the New York Post account: "The fall of Moammar Khadafy presented a tricky situation for us: Khadafy, though a despot to his own people, had nevertheless been cooperating with the U.S., which among other favors was granted the right to use Libyan territory for CIA black sites. Moreover, the opposition to Khadafy wasn't exactly led by a gang of Libyan George Washingtons. Many of the rebel leaders were sharia-loving members of al Qaeda who had come from jihadist strongholds in the cities of Derna and Benghazi, which are so tied up in Islamist fundamentalism that they were major exporters of guerilla warriors who fought the U.S. in Iraq.
"Obama gave his chief counterterrorism advisor, John Brennan, a blank check. Brennan could do just about whatever he needed to do in North Africa and the Mideast. Brennan chose to conduct a dangerous classified war without looping in Stevens, who paid with his life for his ignorance, according to the book.
"In the middle of last summer, say Murphy and Webb, troops operating clandestinely under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) began infiltrating Libya. Murphy and Webb go on to make a shocking charge: The nature of these operations remains highly classified. They were never intended to be known to anyone outside a very small circle in the Special Operations community and within Obama's National Security Council. Ambassador Stevens, the CIA chief of station in Tripoli and then-director of the CIA, Gen. [David] Petraeus, had little if any knowledge about these JSOC missions.
"With the tacit backing of a minimally involved Obama, Brennan conducted paramilitary operations that were off the books in the sense that they were not coordinated through the Pentagon or other governmental agencies, including the CIA, contend Murphy and Webb.
"Brennan's hit squads were assigned to take out individual al Qaeda chiefs within Libya without drawing too much attention to themselves. The Benghazi attack was blowback from these covert operations, say Murphy and Webb. Stevens and the others were pawns in a mini-war they didn't even know was happening.
"Stevens was unaware of the extent to which Brennan's secret campaign had stirred up the al Qaeda militias, the book alleges. The defenses at the consulate (actually a temporary mission facility, the authors point out, meaning it wasn't meant to be a permanent diplomatic home) were light, considering the long string of violent incidents that had taken place in the area that year.
"So, who is to blame for Benghazi? The authors are withering on the subject of John Brennan, our likely next CIA director. The overrunning of the consulate and the killing of the two [Navy SEALs] must have come as a shock to then-CIA chief David Petraeus, Murphy and Webb say. Petraeus had been cut out of the loop as Brennan passed up to Director of Central Intelligence James Clapper the bare minimum of information needed to keep these secret missions legal.
A few Excerpts from the book, which appear in the MailOnline:
"[Deputy National Security Advisor] John Brennan also ran a highly compartmentalized program out of the White House in regard to weapons transfers, and Stevens would not have been trusted with that type of information. 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.
"During the rebellion against Gaddafi and in the aftermath of his death, Libya and North Africa became a staging ground for a dizzying array of operations by SpecOps, paramilitary forces, and international private military contractors working for everyone from European nations to multibillion-dollar oil corporations.
"What we do know is that the British Special Air Service (SAS) landed in Libya at some point probably the secretive intelligence gathering component of the SAS called 'The Increment,' which works alongside MI-6.
"Elite counter-terrorist operators from America's Delta Force were deployed to Libya as 'analysts,' which allowed President Obama to declare that America did not have any boots on the ground but was simply providing air support for the rebels. The reality was that Delta Force had a small contingent instructing the rebels in the finer points of weapons and tactics.
"Behind closed doors, President Obama had given his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, carte blanche to run operations in North Africa and the Middle East, provided he didn't do anything that ended up becoming an exposé in The New York Times and embarrassing the administration. In 2012, a secret war across North Africa was well underway.
"With JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command), Brennan waged his own unilateral operations in North Africa outside of the traditional command structure. These Direct Action (DA) operations, unlike the traditional ISR missions mentioned above, were 'off the books' in the sense that they were not coordinated through the Pentagon or other governmental agencies, including the CIA. With Obama more than likely providing a rubber stamp, the chain of command went from Brennan to McRaven, who would then mobilize the men of ISA (Intelligence Support Activity), SEAL Team Six, or Delta Force to conduct these missions.
"With a small element launching from an airfield in a European nation, JSOC operations targeted Al Qaeda personalities within Libyan militia organizations. In the weeks before the Benghazi tragedy, they most likely hit a known associate of Al-Suri in order to get him to up periscope and increase his visibility, which would then make it possible for JSOC to run a targeted operation to kill or capture him."
Note: Abu Musab Al-Suri was captured in Pakistan in November 2005, handed over to the CIA and rendered to Syria, where he was in jail in Aleppo for 6 years prior to reportedly being released by Syria
