Libya Murderers Also Stole Missiles

From Patricia Evans:

""The U.S. intelligence community is terrified the missiles might be used to shoot down airliners — and that fear, in part, fueled the closing of embassies in the Middle East last week. They were afraid that there was going to be a missile attack on one of the embassies... That's what this was all about. That's why they're so worried. That's why they have lied repeatedly about what happened in Benghazi, because they are now responsible for all of the stepchildren of violence that happens as a result of this. This is a very serious matter." - Former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova

From National Review Online:  Benghazi Whistleblower’s Lawyer Warns of Stolen Missiles

Over at CNS News:

Former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova, who now represents one of the Benghazi whistleblowers, told a Washington radio station Monday that the real scandal in Benghazi is the theft of 400 surface-to-air missiles by some “very ugly people.”

The Obama administration fears those missiles will be used to shoot down an airplane or blow up one of our embassies, he said.

DiGenova said he learned about this from his client Mark Thompson, who served as Deputy Coordinator for Operations in the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State; he was among those testifying on the Hill about the events in Benghazi.  YouTube here: http://youtu.be/kDKrUgGNjqw

 

The description DiGenova attributes to his client largely aligns with what is known about the U.S. mission in Benghazi, detailed at great length and with public sources, here:

During the Libyan civil war, the United States government at least tacitly supported the Qatari effort to arm the rebels, in violation of a U.N. arms embargo. The Obama administration later learned that the weapons were going to Islamists, and acknowledged that the postwar situation of unguarded stockpiles presented an enormous security threat to the region. The CIA was the centerpiece of an effort to recover these weapons, and that was indeed a major component of what the agency was doing in Benghazi in September 2012, in part using the State Department’s facilities. During this time, a large number of weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, were leaving Libya and arriving in Turkey en route to Syrian rebels — and the CIA had personnel in both countries assigned to monitor and assist the arms shipments.

On October 23, 2011, Con Coughlin of the Daily Telegraph reported that the Central Intelligence Agency was on the ground in Libya in the effort to recover the missiles:

Since [Qaddafi]’s regime fell in late August teams of CIA officers, supported by other intelligence services such as Britain’s MI6, have been scouring Libya in search of the missing missiles. Their main target is the thousands of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles [Qaddafi] bought from Moscow during the past decade which, were they to fall into the wrong hands, would pose a massive security risk.

We now know that a significant portion of the U.S. presence in Benghazi was CIA employees. Reuters quoted unidentified government officials who said the annex’s mission was “collecting information on the proliferation of weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, including surface-to-air missiles.”

 

Report: 400 US Surface-to-Air Missiles Went Missing in Benghazi

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/surface-air-missing-missiles/2013/08/12/id/520026

A lawyer representing one of the whistleblowers with knowledge of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last September says 400 surface-to-air missiles were "diverted to Libya" during the attack and fell into "the hands of some very ugly people."

In an interview with Washington, D.C., radio station WMAL on Monday, Beltway lawyer Joe diGenova said he "does not know whether [the missiles] were at the annex, but it is clear the annex was somehow involved in the distribution of those missiles," Breitbart.com reported.

Saying his information "comes from a former intelligence official who stayed in constant contact with people in the special ops and intelligence community," diGenova said the U.S. intelligence community is terrified the missiles might be used to shoot down airliners — and that fear, in part, fueled the closing of embassies in the Middle East last week.

"They were afraid that there was going to be a missile attack on one of the embassies," he said, The Daily Mail reported.

"Remember, you can take a shoulder-held missile and shoot it into an embassy. Not just into the sky.

"That's what this was all about," diGenova insisted. "That's why they're so worried. That's why they have lied repeatedly about what happened in Benghazi, because they are now responsible for all of the stepchildren of violence that happens as a result of this. This is a very serious matter."

DiGenova's wife, Victoria Toensing — a former deputy assistant attorney general — also represents Benghazi witnesses and others with knowledge of the terror attack, according to the Mail.

"A lot of people have come forward to share information with us," he said during the radio station's "Mornings On The Mall" program.

"We have learned that one of the reasons the administration is so deeply concerned" is that "there were 400 surface-to-air missiles stolen, and that they are ... in the hands of many people, and that the biggest fear in the U.S. intelligence community is that one of these missiles will be used to shoot down an airliner," diGenova said, adding that his sources have told him the missiles are in the hands of al-Qaida operatives.

"And it's pretty clear that the biggest concern right now are 400 missiles which have been diverted in Libya and have gotten in the hands of some very ugly people," he said.

DiGenova was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia for four years beginning in 1983, and later was an independent counsel appointed to investigate a State Department official who ordered politically embarrassing searches of the passport files of Bill Clinton, Clinton's mother, and Ross Perot before the 1992 presidential election.

In 2007, the New York state Senate retained him to investigate then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer over allegations that he ordered the State Police to track the whereabouts of Republican State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno when he used police escorts to travel to and around New York City.

Now, diGenova and Toensing, a former chief counsel for the Senate Intelligence Committee, represent Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi attacks; and Mark Thompson, a former Marine who serves as deputy coordinator for operations in the State Department's counterterrorism section, the Mail reported.

The lawyers say Hicks' and Thompson's superiors subjected them to an intimidation campaign after then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Accountability Review Board ignored their accounts of the Benghazi attack.

Toensing told Fox News in April one of the two men was warned about the impact on his career if he cooperated with Republican investigators in Congress.

"It's frightening, and they're doing some very despicable threats to people," Toensing said, the Mail reported.

"Not 'we're going to kill you,' or not 'we're going to prosecute you tomorrow,' but they're taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over."

President Obama has said he is unaware of any witnesses from Benghazi who have been prohibited from working with Congress. Secretary of State John Kerry has attributed such stories to "an enormous amount of misinformation."

In a May 30 letter, CIA Director John Brennan told personnel stationed in Benghazi that they were free to speak with Congress, but that they should involve their chain of command and follow specific procedures, the Mail reported, adding the measure was seen by some as a subtle warning that CIA agents must not approach lawmakers on their own.

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