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The Special Mission Compound
[Click for larger images]


Crowds mill about the"secret" CIA Annex in Benghazi 2 days after the attack:
The Iranian "Red Crescent" team that was mysteriously "kidnapped" on July 31, 2012:


...appearing with their Libyan hosts:



p228: "Mr Chops": IRGC Deputy Operations Director, Maj. Gen. Mehdi Rabbani:




Libya SA-7 retrofitted with CIA battery and Egyptian gripstock:


Syria rebel with missing MANPADS retrofitted through the CIA-pipeline in Niger:





Interactive Reader's Guide


Chapter 1:  From Terrorist to Friend

President Ronald Reagan called Qaddafi the "Mad Dog of Tripoli" in this interchange with columnist Helen Thomas.

The A-85 Intruder Association weblog entries for March 24-25, 1986, give a good account of the U.S.-Libyan confrontation in 1986. A more complete account can be found here.

To get a sense of the high tension of these engagements, readers can listen to an actual audio exchange between AWACS flight controllers and two F-14 pilots as they engage Libyan MiG-23 Flankers.

p34: PHOTO: Qaddafi whispered to his chief of staff, who then pointed to the pin Rep. Curt Weldon was wearing with the American and green Libyan flag intertwined. "Pin it on him," he told Weldon.


Chapter 2: The Making of an Ambassador

As Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of the newly-opened U.S. Embassy in Tripoli in 2007-2008, Christopher Stevens met with al Qaeda terrorists in Libyan prisons, to ensure they were being treated properly and were not being tortured.

Stevens memorialized these meetings in a series of cables stolen by Wikileaks and posted online. Here are some of the most significant:
Sparked by information discovered by U.S. Special Forces during raids on jihadi groups in Iraq, Stevens sought to take the pulse of the jihadi movement in Libya. Here are his two most celebrated cables:
Chapter 3: A New Beginning

Western reporters first noticed that the Taliban was using shoulder-fired surface to air missiles (MANPADS) against NATO aircraft in July 2010.

But the Afghan War logs, leaked by Private Bradley Manning to Wikileaks, showed many more such incidents. I downloaded the entire data base and found dozens of MANPADS incidents that were not released to the media or were recategorized as RPG hits.

Chapter 4: Tehran Summer, Arab Spring

President Obama liked to criticize President Bush for failing to reach out to Iran's clerical leaders. But in fact, this tally shows that the Bush administration had 28 high-level meetings with Iranian leaders that produced no results, despite repeated U.S. concessions.

President Obama liked to invite Muslim leaders to the White House at the same time he snubbed prominent Middle Eastern Christian leaders. The guest list of this August 2010 dinner reads like a Who's Who of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Chapter 5: Qaddafi, the Enemy

The famous Israeli music-video parody of Qaddafi's "Zenga-Zenga" speech is here, with background here.

DOCUMENT: The Wikileaks Cables from 2009-2011 give a good feeling for how unpopular Qaddafi had become with the State Department, including U.S. diplomats in Tripoli, despite Qaddafi's efforts to reach out to President Obama.

DOCUMENT: p84: Qaddafi's efforts to get international oil companies to pony up to the compensation fund he'd agreed to pay to victims of the Lockerbie terrorist attack, were called "lipstick on a pig" in this cable.

DOCUMENT: p87: Chris Stevens and other State Department diplomats went to extraodinary lengths to ensure that former GITMO detainees, released to Qaddafi, were being well-treated in Libyan jails. Stevens gave up his Christmas day in 2007 to visit with Abu Sufian Hamouda Bin Qumu, whose al Qaeda ties were detailed by the U.S. Department of Defense in this 2005 detainee assessment. Sufian Bin Qumu so hated Westerners that he refused to meet with investigators from Human Rights Watch after the fall of Qaddafi.

These where the "Die Hard in Derna" crew the United States armed in Benghazi.


p91: French forces in northern Chad intercepted U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles coming into Libya from the Sudan.

"It was a large convoy of military trucks and pickups," a senior U.S. Special Forces commander familiar with the incident told me. "The people in charge were Qatari special forces. They were carrying Stinger missiles..."

p95: Reuters reported on March 30, 2011 that Obama had signed a presidential finding "within the last two or three weeks" authorizing CIA arms shipments to the Libyan rebels. Such findings are notified to the "Gang of 8" in Congress, at the time: U.S. Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Diane Feinstein, Saxby Chambliss, and U.S. Representatives John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Mike Rogers, and Dutch Ruppersberger.

Chapter 6: Into the Danger Zone

p100: "Stevens booked passage on a Greek high-speed ferry, the Maria Dolores, and arrived in Benghazi on April 5, 2011, along with a retinue of heavily armed guards and several armored cars."

DOCUMENT:  Read the full State Department magazine portrait of Stevens' "expeditionary diplomacy" to Libya.

PHOTO: p112: "On August 6, 2011, a Qatar Emiri Air Force Boeing Globemaster III C-17 made a corkscrew landing into Misrata...

"The plane offloaded six pick-up trucks which were packed with ammunition," Reuters reported

Chapter 7: House of War

p130: Family members of Seal Team 6, killed on board their Chinook CH47-D on Aug. 6, 2011 (call sign "Extortion 17") believe to this day that their sons were "outed" by Vice President Biden and by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Some believe the aircraft was hit by a MANPADS, not an RPG rocket, as the official investigation found.

DOCUMENT [37MB] :  Read the summary of the 1200 page investigation by Brigadier General Jeffrey Colt.

DOCUMENT: Attorney Larry Klayman subsequently filed a civil complaint on behalf of family members lost on Extortion 17 against Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, for illegal disclosure of classified information that endangered Seal Team 6.

Chapter 8: Weapons, Weapons, Everywhere

p143: At least 5,000 SAM-7 surface to air missiles went missing from Qaddafi's arsenals, with many of them winding up in the hands of al Qaeda. Former Navy Seal Glen Doherty, was working out of the CIA Annex in Tripoli on contract to round them up at the time he was killed on Sept. 11, 2012. Early on, it became apparent both Iran and al Qaeda were shipping missiles out of Libya to their allies.

PHOTO, p146. Senator John McCain came to Benghazi with Special Envoy Chris Stevens to welcome the jihadis as freedom fighters. "These are my heroes," McCain said. "They are not al Qaeda."

One of the militia leaders he met with was Abdelhakim Belhaj, former leader of the al-Qaeda affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.



Chapter 9: The Threat Matrix


p151: Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, now a top United Nations official, wrote the memo seeking authorization of the Benghazi special mission compound. By law, the Secretary of State personally had to sign off on sub-standard facilities, but Hillary Clinton has told Congress and the media that she "never saw" security memos relating to Benghazi.

DOCUMENT: The Feltman memo (pdf)

p165, "The Missile Posse." The State Department initially made public that it was spending $40 million to recoup missing surface to air missiles in Libya.

VIDEO: Watch the presentation by Asst Sec/State Andrew J. Shapiro at the Stimson Center on the MANPADS collection effort.

p157: Descent into Chaos. Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom sent an "emeregency action cable" in March 2012 from Tripoli to main State, formalizing repeated requests for additional security for Tripoli and Benghazi. As with earlier and subsequent requests, this one was denied.

DOCUMENT: 12Tripoli 130 (pdf) (courtesy, House Oversight and Government Reform committee).

Chapter 10: The Arms Pipeline to Syria

DOCUMENT: p175: In February 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz tells reporters that the U.S. stands with Libya in support of the Syrian rebels. Here's a link to the U.S. Embassy website version (before the gag order goes out). Read a PDF copy here.

DOCUMENT: p177: The United Nations begins investigating arms smuggling out of Libya in March 2012, even before the Letfallah II is seized in Lebanon. Read the first report of the UN panel of experts, which first revealed the "ant trade" (via individual smugglers) into Niger. A follow-up report, just two weeks later, sounded the alarm to the proliferation of surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS), leaking from Libya's arsenals into Mali.

PHOTOS: The Lebanese authorities seized the Letfallah II in April 2012 off the coast of Tripoli, Lebanon, bringing weapons from Benghazi for Syrian rebels based in southern Turkey. One of the shipping containers filled with weapons that was hauled off by the Lebanese army belonged to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).


PHOTOS:
p184, "John Brennan's Iron Claw." Russian-built MANPADS from Libyan arsensals were shipped from Libya to al Qaeda operatives in Niger, where they were refitted with CIA-made batteries and Egyptian gripstocks. "We knew thjey were Egyptian [gripstocks] because they have a unique military ordance color that nobody else uses," former CIA officer John Maguire told me. "The Libyan missiles are green. The Egyptian ordnance has this unique shade of brown." The combination makes these upgraded missiles were immediately recognizable.



Chapter 11: Obama's Ambassador

VIDEO: p200, "Jihad on Parade." Iran's state-owned English language television network, PressTV, had a correspondent in Benghazi, who broadcast a 3 minute segment on the June 7, 2012 "parade" of Islamists through the city streets.

Chapter 12: Prelude to Murder

DOCUMENT: p221, In a July 9, 2012 action request cable, stamped SENSITIVE, Ambassador Stevens begs yet again for more security. The State Department ignored the cable.

PHOTO: p225, The Iranian Gambit. A 7-man Red Crescent team from Iran was "kidnapped" in Benghazi on July 31, 2012, the night they arrived, then mysterious reappeared on October 6.


PHOTO: p228: "Mr Chops": IRGC Deputy Operations Director, Maj. Gen. Mehdi Rabbani, a member of the IRGC's "Commanding Heights:"


Syrian rebels display their Surface-to-Air missiles (MANPADS) . The two rebels on the left, and the one on the far-right, are carrying MANPADS upgraded
through the CIA pipeline in Niger. (Photo: Courtesy The Guardian)

Read what others are saying about Dark Forces...

"In order to understand the dynamics of the Arab Spring as well as the Obama Administration’s policies leading to our involvement in the Libyan revolution, Ken Timmerman provides a well-researched history of significant events that resulted in the Benghazi tragedy.  As a result of his many sources, he is able to present clear insight on the illicit arms transfer to Syrian rebels.  Further, according to his key informant, new intelligence is provided on who was behind the attack on the Benghazi Special Mission Compound, as well as why the massive cover-up by the Obama Administration."
—James A. Lyons, Jr., Admiral, USN (ret), President and CEO LION Associates, LLC, member of the Citizens Committee on Benghazi

 "Benghazi will go down as the greatest government cover-up in history - bigger than the Pentagon Papers, Iran-Contra, and Watergate. Ken Timmerman's investigation exposes the dark underbelly of this scandal, as well as the disastrous state of our national security after years of President Obama downsizing and degrading our capabilities."
- Senator Jim Inhofe (R, OK), ranking member, Senate Armed Services Committee
"This book is an excellent read. In fascinating detail, it explores avenues and answers questions that have not previously been pursued. Now the question is: will the Obama administration and Congress finally provide answers through a select committete on Benghazi?
- Lieutenant Colonel Dennis B. Haney, USAF (Ret)., Special Operations Speaks.
 

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Read the 5-page interview Rush Limbaugh did with me on Shadow Warriors here.
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