Dark Forces: The Truth About What Happened in Benghazi by Timmerman Kenneth R

Author:Timmerman, Kenneth R. [Timmerman, Kenneth R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Itzy, Kickass.to
ISBN: 9780062321213
Amazon: B00H7LZVQ8
Publisher: Broadside Books
Published: 2014-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

13

BAITING THE TRAP

As U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens had a full plate: He was encouraging the new government to develop democratic institutions, managing the cleanup of Qaddafi’s weapons, and trying to tame the militia groups in Benghazi so Western oil companies would return. He was also working to ensure that freelancing arms dealers didn’t get in the way of the Turkish, Saudi, and Qatari arms pipeline to the Syrian rebels. It was a high-wire act. And through all of it he performed without a safety net and no backup from Washington.

If that wasn’t enough, things were about to get very messy.

THE FISHING BOAT

On August 25, 2012, a Libyan fishing boat, Al Entisar (Victory), docked in the southern Turkish port of Iskenderun, where Libyan Islamists unloaded more than 400 tons of weapons and “humanitarian supplies” that they had brought from Benghazi, ostensibly to help refugees from the Syrian conflict. They had acquired the weapons from stockpiles leftover from the fight against Qaddafi following an appeal by fellow Islamists in Syria to help their struggle. It was the Libyan version of a charity drive.

The arrival of so many weapons and much-needed supplies created havoc between Islamist brigades close to the Muslim Brotherhood, who claimed to have paid for the goods, and representatives of the Free Syrian Army, who tried to commandeer the weapons for their own use. “Everyone wanted a piece of the ship,” said Suleiman Hawari, an Australian-Syrian working with the ship’s captain from Benghazi. “Certain groups wanted to get involved and claim the cargo for themselves. It took a long time to work through the logistics.”

The infighting among rival rebel commanders reached a fever pitch and caught the attention of the Turkish authorities and their allies. As the rebels argued over who would get what, word leaked out and reporters began nosing around.1

The official recipient of the Benghazi aid package was the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the Turkish Islamist group that sponsored the infamous Gaza flotilla, where Mahdi al-Harati was wounded in 2010. The sender was an unknown organization in Benghazi, according to a UN report. On the surface, the “National Committee for the Support and Relief of Displaced People” seemed a better front than the one the Libyans used for the ill-fated shipment to the Syrian rebels in April. The same person later claimed to have organized both shipments.

“They know we are sending guns to Syria,” Abdul Basit Haroun told a Reuters reporter in Benghazi. “Everyone knows.” To illustrate his point, he had an associate take the reporter to a warehouse at the port where Haroun was stockpiling weapons for future shipments to the Syrian rebels.

Haroun had learned his lesson since the Letfallah II had been seized in April. This time he took a longer route and steered clear of Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy militia, Hezbollah, wielded huge influence. Haroun was no fan of the Iranians, and he knew they were nosing around Benghazi, so this time he wasn’t taking any chances.

Haroun had lived in Manchester, England, for twenty years, before returning to Libya to join the revolution.

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