Fear Mongering & Other Factors Leading To Mass Hate Around The Globe.

In a recent discussion with family members, a topic was brought up that seemed to cause contention because of the varying life experience of those involved and recent political issues around the globe. The topic, whether or not we should move on with replacing positive in the wake of negative events throughout history, or whether we should celebrate anniversaries with gory details of death, destruction and hatred.

I didn't really think I was out of my depth by stating that my opinion is that we should start to move forward and replace the negative with positive, however, I had fierce opposition to my opinion.  Being the peace maker that I am, I left it alone but decided to gather my thoughts and present them here so that I could sort them out to see if they still made sense to me.

The thing that struck me in the family conversation was strong opinion about the 95 year old man who is being tried regarding his war crimes from the WWII era.  While I feel that, if he did commit the crime, the laws of the land are the laws of the land.  However, at 95 years old and due to the age of the crimes (along with the fact that he would have been taking orders), I would take a historian's point of view while approaching this one so that the facts could be collected for accuracy.  I would also take the approach of someone who could provide his extended family with relief in whatever guilt that he has felt from those crimes being put to use in works that would benefit those who he committed the crimes against.  Now, if these were especially heinous crimes, his comfort of care and living would be affected.

While this case is big news, the thing that makes the news is the hate, the fear, the despair, the things that were done against a certain people.

I know these things will not be forgotten by anyone who has had a history lesson, so why is it that the gory details, hatred, fear and despair are being reused over and over, thus victimizing the same group of people?  It is in my opinion that this is done by the political masters with political theater in mind. This molds the emotions, intellect and reality of all generations to fit a political agenda that keeps the masses in check, readily primed for the next political move.

Let's look at a more recent example.  9/11 was a tragic event that was shock and awe to everyone who lived during that time. Because media has been so "diligent" in force feeding us the gory details, we really did see the events happening in real time (Be-that-as-it-may, on a side note, the real time constant of the media also showed faults to the event timeline and to details that to-this-day cannot be proven absolutely true).

Since 9/11, events that have caused war and rumors of war have been blamed on the fact that 'they did that to us on 9/11'.  Using words like terror, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear power, etc, and using media coverage of foreign events to help unravel these stormy times even further, the public has learned fear of the "foreign".  Foreign religion. Foreign skin color. Foreign customs and cultures.

Using words like terror, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, nuclear power, etc, and using media coverage of foreign events to help unravel these stormy times even further, the public has learned fear of the "foreign".  Foreign religion. Foreign skin color. Foreign customs and cultures.

Another example of fear mongering on a different front to keep the masses in line are the stories of Ebola, pandemics, SARRS, and other illnesses that have posed a real anxiety for people with the news of Zika and other diseases that take less lives and cause less issues that influenza.  The people become afraid and are willing to ingest any vaccine, regardless of what it covers, without question. They become zombies, being told not to travel to certain places, eat or breathe certain things. The people are willing to be sprayed with pesticides in compressed airplane cabins without question. The people are afraid so they draw closer to media by staying home and becoming uninvolved in life in general, flipping on the TV and other media options and getting their dose of "reality" there instead.  It's "safe" and "comfortable".

This IS the Zombie Apocalypse. We are afraid of anything we are told to be afraid of, believe what those in 'authority' tell us, and every time an anniversary of any of the tragic events in life history comes up, we are put back into the CONDITIONED state of fear, the conditioned state of despair, the conditioned state of anger and the conditioned mood of hatred.

When the next moment comes up for a piece on the chess board to be moved, believe me, those taking their turn have worked on the move for long enough that the outcome is as predictable as the people they use as the chess pieces.

Conditioning. Conditioning. Conditioning.

QUESTION EVERYTHING!

The U.S. is supplying weapons to these people who are committing crimes against the Syrian People!

Syrian rebels execute boy: ‘Anyone who curses the prophet is killed immediately’

A mother watched in horror as her 14-year-old son was summarily tried, sentenced and executed all because of a joke he’d exchanged with a customer at his Aleppo, Syria coffee kiosk.

Nadia Umm Fuad, who watched her son being murdered. Photo credit The Telegraph

While in her apartment, Nadia Umm Fuad heard a commotion outside with a neighbor shouting, “they have brought back the kid,” according to The Telegraph.

“I went out on my balcony,” she told The Telegraph’s Richard Spencer. “I said to his father, ‘they are going to shoot your son! Come! Come! Come!’ I was on the stairs when I heard the first shot. I was at the door when I heard the second shot,” she recalled.

“I saw the third shot. I was shouting, ‘That’s haram, forbidden! Stop! Stop! You are killing a child.’ But they just gave me a dirty look and got into their car. As they went, they drove over my son’s arm, as he lay there dying.”

This event — this murder of young Mohammed Katta — took place earlier this month and has created an international outcry exemplifying one truth in the civil war in that country — no one is wearing white hats. There are no good guys, only bad guys to varying degrees.

Who does one trust? A dictatorial regime that murders its citizenry, or murderous jihadists?

The problem arose when a customer demanded a coffee upon the promise to pay for it on another day. Young Mohammed joked good-naturedly: “I wouldn’t give the Prophet Mohammed credit if he came here today.”

The wrong people overheard. The rushed over, grabbed the boy, threw him in a car and drove away. Thirty minutes later they returned.

Young Mohammed was stumbling and clearly beaten and a bag had been placed over his head. And it was then that the twisted logic of the boy’s executioner was proclaimed.

“I heard them say, ‘People of Aleppo and people of Shaar! Anyone who curses God is given three days to repent. Anyone who curses the Prophet is killed immediately’,” Nadia Umm Fuad said.

The Telegraph continues:

The murder of Mohammed, a drummer boy in the revolution’s early protest marches, has shocked even the battle-hardened people of Aleppo. It is easy for some to blame, as they do, the regime for inserting spies behind rebel lines to carry out atrocities to discredit the rebels.

But the killing, to many, only confirms what they already know: that a wild and untamed version of the most militant Islamist credos has entered the conflict. Jabhat al-Nusra, the local affiliate of al-Qaeda, has issued a statement condemning the death and denying responsibility.

As violent as the al-Qaida-backed al-Nusra is, even more violent, fundamentalist factions have splintered off from that group.

Jabhat al-Nusra front. Photo creditwww.thenewstribe.com

Nadia Umm Fuad told Spencer that the city of Aleppo had changed recently. “We didn’t have any problems when the FSA controlled Aleppo,” she said. “There are so many groups now, that we don’t know who is in charge.”

The young boy was never given a chance to offer a defense on his own behalf when he was returned. Prior to being shot, he said nothing.

“I saw my son, and saw him dead, and saw a fountain of blood coming out of him,” his father, Abdulwahab Katta, said. “I too said nothing. I was mute.”

Justice under the Syrian regime is no less brutal. Early in the war they picked up 13-ywear-old Hamza al-Khatib in Deraa, located in Southern Syria. When government troops returned the boy to his parents, he’d been burned, beaten, kneecap smashed, shot three times and his genitals had been removed.

There are no guys in white hats in Syria — just thugs in black hoods.

source: click here

THE FOLLOWING VIDEO...
All crimes against Syrian people are ONLY possible because of the support and complicity of the US, UK, Israeli and complicit regimes !

These regime are SYSTEMATICALLY supporting terrorism ! The Guantanamo prisoneers are less guitly than these supporting Regimes and there is clear evidence of supporting terrorism in foreign countries by these zionist manipulated criminal regimes foremost the USA, UK and Israel !




THE FOLLOWING VIDEO... The first man was flogged for letting his daughter get married before waiting 3 months after her divorce. (Sharia law states that a woman must wait 3 months after her divorce to give her and her husband a chance to get back together)
The second man is the one who married the woman. The woman was also flogged but they did it privately.



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WHO'S SIDE IS THE U.S. ON? ASSAD? REBELS?

Experts Aren’t Entirely Convinced That Syria Crossed Obama’s ‘Red Line’

• By Margaret Hartmann

Children carry portraits of Bashar al-Assad during a celebration of the capture of Qusayr by Syrian pro-government forces on June 6, 2013.

In his interview with Charlie Rose this week, President Obama emphasized that Syria is not Iraq, but there's at least one similar theme emerging. While the White House announced last week that the U.S. intelligence community has "high confidence" that the Assad regime used chemical weapons, thus changing Obama's "calculus" on arming the rebels, some experts say they're still skeptical. The U.S., Britain, and France claim they have evidence that Syrian troops used sarin gas on the battlefield, but it's unclear how the data was obtained or analyzed. “There are so many people who would like us to believe that the regime used chemical weapons,” a former senior U.S. official who has investigated weapons of mass destruction told the Washington Post. “You have to question whether any of those advocates were involved in collecting the evidence.”

The United Nations will only make a judgment based on evidence collected by its own inspectors, and while the chief U.N. weapons inspector is headed to the region next week to interview witnesses in neighboring countries, it's increasingly unlikely that Assad will allow U.N. inspectors into Syria itself. The U.S., Britain, and France have been calling for a U.N. investigation for months, and in the meantime they've each concluded that chemical weapons were used.

The countries based their assessments on evidence such as blood, tissue, and soil samples smuggled out of Syria by rebels or intelligence agents, but officials said they couldn't be more specific without compromising ongoing operations. “You can try your best to control the analysis, but analysis at a distance is always uncertain,” said David Kay, a former U.N. weapons inspector who led the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. “You’d be an idiot if you didn’t approach this thing with a bit of caution.” One senior diplomat countered that the evidence is convincing because it was collected from many different sources, some of them non-Syrian.

The fact that independent scientists can't confirm the countries' findings certainly sets off alarm bells following Iraq, but one U.S. official says the massive intelligence failure over Iraq's WMDs has made U.S. analysts exceptionally careful. “You have to use sophisticated analytic techniques that account for, and carefully weigh, competing evidence and subject your findings to intense self-imposed scrutiny,” the official said. That's good, but the rest of the world is probably going to need to see some scrutiny that isn't "self-imposed."

source:  New York Magazine

Following an assassination attempt on the Syrian prime minister, Wael Nader Al-Halqi, and allegations of the Assad regime using chemical weapons against its own people, the issue of military intervention in Syria is back on the political agenda. But is it something the Syrian people actually want? 




Chuck Hagel has suggested that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, which Barack Obama said would be "a red line" with grave consequences. So will the West intervene in Syria? We look at the cost of an intervention, the support Bashar al-Assad has, the opposition to intervention by Russia and China, and the failures of interventions in other parts of the Middle East.


President Obama faces mounting pressure from lawmakers to help put an end to Syria's civil war. This while Damascus has developed a top-secret air-defense system. Washington Institute's Andrew Tabler has analysis. (Photo: AP)


As the war continues, Syrian officials are trying to convince Western countries that they should not support rebel forces because, the officials contend, many are extremists allied with Al Qaeda.


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U.S. IS SENDING WEAPONS TO THESE PEOPLE...14-YEAR OLD BOY PUBLICLY EXECUTED BY ISLAMISTS

U.S. Declares Syria Rebel Group Terrorists, Sending Message to Opposition

By Dana Hughes and Alex Marquardt

The designation of the Syrian rebel group al-Nusrah Front as a terrorist organization at the same time the United States is formally recognizing Syria’s Opposition Coalition is not a coincidence. The Obama administration wants to send a clear a message that while it supports Syria’s Opposition Coalition to lead Syria’s democratic transition if or when the Assad regime falls, there is no place for extremism in the country’s future.

In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, President Obama said that while the United States stands ready to fully acknowledge the group of Syria’s rebels as the legitimate opposition to the Assad regime, groups with ties to al Qaeda like the al-Nurah front will not be tolerated.

“Not everybody who’s participating on the ground in fighting Assad are people who we are comfortable with,” Obama told Walters. “There are some who, I think, have adopted an extremist agenda, an anti-US agenda. And we are going to make clear to distinguish between those elements.”   On Tuesday State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland detailed the organization’s crimes in a statement announcing the terror designation and sanctions on the group.

“Since November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations – in major city centers,” said Nuland. “During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed.  Through these attacks, al-Nusrah has sought to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition while it is, in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes.”

In a background briefing with reporters on the designation, senior Obama administration officials  stressed  that the designation of al Nusrah is not a reflection of  the administration’s policy on Syria’s opposition, which the U.S. is  expected to recognize following this week’s Friends of Syria meeting in Morocco.   “Al-Nusrah Front is one of many groups that are fighting the Syrian regime now. Its influence has grown over recent months, but it still represents a minority element within the broader armed opposition to the Assad regime,” said the same official.  ”So I don’t want to leave any kind of impressions that we are in any way acting against the broader Free Syrian Army, which is a much bigger organization.”

Experts and officials say the strength and numbers of extremist groups in Syria like Jabhat-Nusra have grown as the conflict has dragged on. A year ago, Jabhat al-Nusra carried out the first suicide bombing and dozens have followed. Videos have surfaced online of the summary executions they have carried out, notably several weeks ago when pleading Syrian soldiers were piled onto the floor and shot.   Administration officials did acknowledge they are concerned about the increasing influence radical Islamists are having on Syria’s opposition movement.

“When we think about that political transition, extremist groups that are denouncing the government and attacking the government… have no role in that transition and in a future Syria,” said one official who pointed out that the original protest movement in Syria, which began over a year ago, started out peacefully, demanding a tolerant and free Syria. “Nusrah Front rejects… a tolerant society, and insists that instead of elections there must be an Islamic state imposed upon Syria.”

In practical terms the designation means that Syrian opposition leaders will not be able to work with al-Nusrah and still receive U.S. support.  The administration’s announcement also served to “out” the group to Syrians who may be sympathetic, said the officials.   “It means that as al-Nusrah Front tries to wrap itself in the legitimacy of the opposition that does reflect the Syrian’s people desires, we have called them out, and for those who are seeking to support the legitimate opposition of the Syrian people, we have drawn a bright line,” said an official.

According to the administration, the group’s roots are in Iraq, and the sanctions against the two top leaders of the Nusrah front, Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab, have close ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq.  According to the officials, al-Juburi is the religious and military commander for the Nusrah Front in eastern Syria and came from Mosul, Iraq to Syria in late 2011. Khattab was involved with the formation of the Nusrah Front for AQI and has communicated with AQI leadership to coordinate the movement of funds and weapons for the Nusrah Front.

Today’s announcement also included more sanctions on the Assad regime; specifically leaders of the Iranian-backed Shabiha militia, which has been accused of brutally targeting civilians and illegally procuring weapons.  The officials said that it will be even-handed in condemning  human rights violations and terrorism in Syria.   “We will continue to target the thugs that have worked with the Assad militias, just as we will the terrorists who try to cloak themselves in the flag of the legitimate opposition,” said another official.

SOURCE: ABC

On 9 June, Muhammad al-Qatta was shot dead in front of a crowd of onlookers in the Sha'ar neighbourhood of Aleppo after being accused of blasphemy. The three men responsible for his death are believed to be members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group, The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
 

(Please note this report contains disturbing images). A Free Syria Army fighter filming a raid on a military airbase close to Deir Ezzor is shot in the chest. This footage is graphic and appears to show the moment he was hit by a bullet. The thumbnail is a library picture.



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U.S. IS SENDING WEAPONS TO THESE PEOPLE.. SYRIAN REBEL EATS THE HEART OF SYRIAN SOLDIER.

NOTE:  THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THE U.S. IS SENDING WEAPONS TO...

WARNING!  EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!

Obama supports & sends YOUR Tax dollars to these people: Syrian rebel ‘eats the heart’ of Syrian soldier

JUNE 17, 2013

Obama supports & sends YOUR Tax dollars to these people: Syrian rebel ‘eats the heart’ of Syrian soldier

SOURCE: CLICK HERE

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U.S. IS SENDING WEAPONS TO THESE PEOPLE.. PUBLIC EXECUTION OF SYRIANS. WHO IS AL-NUSRA?

NOTE: THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS SUPPLYING WEAPONS TO THESE PEOPLE

WARNING!  GRAPHIC!
Three men were executed publicly in the town of Raqqa in Syria. The men who carried out the execution called themselves claimed they had done so in the name of The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The group claimed it was in retaliation for massacres at Banyas (Baniyas) and al-Baida. We spoke to Brown Moses about the increasingly sectarian nature of the violence in Syria, which has left many people asking if the conflict is taking a new direction.



A lot of the graphic footage coming out of Syria has been associated with extremist opposition groups but the name that has cropped up the most is Jabhat al-Nusra. But who are the secretive jihadists? Where do they come from and what links to they have with al Qaeda, Iraq and what have they got to do with The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham?

Al-Nusra Front
Arabic: جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام‎
Participant in the Syrian civil war
Flag of Al-Nusra Front
Active	23 Jan 2012 – present[1]
Ideology	Sunni Islamism Salafist jihadism Islamic fundamentalism Takfiri
Leaders	Abu Mohammad al-Golani[2]
Area of operations	Syria
Strength	6,000 (June 2013)[3]
Allies	Ahrar al-Sham Al-Tawhid Brigade[4] Syrian Islamic Front  Islamic State of Iraq Muhajireen Brigade  al-Qaeda in Iraq[5]  Ghuraba al-Sham [6] Fatah al-Islam
Opponents	Syrian Armed Forces  Democratic Union Party[7] Ghuraba al-Sham [4] Al-Abbas brigade

The Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra (Arabic: جبهة النصرة لأهل الشام‎ Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahl ash-Shām, "Front of Defence for the People of Greater Syria"), is an Al Qaeda associate operating in Syria.^[8] The group announced its creation on 23 January 2012 during the Syrian civil war.^[9] It is described as "the most aggressive and successful arm of the rebel force".^[10] The group was designated by the United Nations^[11] as a terrorist organisation and by the United States in December 2012.^[12] In April 2013, the leader of the Islamic state of Iraq released an audio statement announcing that Jabhat al-Nusra is its branch in Syria.^[5] The leader of Al Nusra, Abu Mohammad al-Golani, denied the merger but affirmed their allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.^[13] By May 2013, a faction of Jabhat loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq leadership began acting under the name of the "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham" 

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front



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Benghazi Blame Nears Hillary Clinton. Bill Clinton and Lawyers Creating a Contingency Plan.

Author Ed Klein: As Benghazi blame nears Hillary, Clintons grow furious

With tensions between President Obama and the Clintons at a new high, former President Bill Clinton is moving fast to develop a contingency plan for how his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, should react if Obama attempts to tie the Benghazi fiasco around her neck, according to author Ed Klein.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, Klein said sources close to the Clintons tell him that Bill Clinton has assembled an informal legal team to discuss how the Secretary of State should deal with the issue of being blamed for not preventing the Benghazi terrorist attack last month.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters during a press conference Friday that responsibility for the consulate in Libya fell on the State Department, not the White House.

If blame for the security failures falls to Hillary Clinton, Klein said, it’s possible that she would even consider resigning over the issue.

“Bill is working on a number of strategies about what Hillary ought to do. He’s even gone so far as to play with various doomsday scenarios including up to the idea that Hillary would consider resigning over the issue if the Obama team tries to use her as a scapegoat,” Klein told TheDC in an interview.

Klein — the best-selling author of the Amateur, a book on President Obama — elaborated on his reporting in an op-ed for The Daily Caller.

As of Friday afternoon, the White House, the State Department and the former president’s office did not return requests from The Daily Caller for comment on Klein’s reporting.

But as for the chance that Hillary Clinton would resign, Klein said in the interview: “At this moment, it appears unlikely that she’s going to do that. I mean that would be an extreme step for her to take.”

“Not only would it be hard to predict how it would play out as far as Hillary is concerned in the future, but it would certainly damage Obama’s chances for re-election if she resigned,” he said.

Klein said relations between the Clintons and President Obama have reached a new low, most recently with Obama ignoring Bill Clinton’s offer to help him and Vice President Joe Biden prepare for the debates with the Republican ticket.

“He had very clear ideas on how they should do that,” Klein told TheDC. “He never once got a response. And it absolutely sent him into orbit. He was furious that he would be treated this way, especially after what he did, in his view, at the Democratic convention in giving that nomination speech for Obama.”

Added Klein: “His fury turned to deep concern when the Benghazi business unfolded because he was deeply troubled by the appearance that the White House was going to throw Hillary under the bus, which in fact it appears it is doing.”

Klein said Bill Clinton’s informal legal team is made up of people he’s used in the past in legal situations. He asked them by phone to tell him how Hillary Clinton should handle this situation and what to do if she is subpoenaed to testify to the House Oversight Committee and provide them with memos regarding Benghazi.

The author said the situation is obviously complicated by Obama’s re-election, but also the possibility that Hillary would run in 2016.

“If she is left with this stain on her reputation, it could seriously damage her chances for election,” Klein told TheDC. “And this is what is really bothering Bill more than anything.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/author-ed-klein-as-benghazi-blame-nears-hillary-clintons-grow-furious/#ixzz29F4cLHzi

Obama’s got drama now

It sure looks like Vice President Joe Biden put the blame on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his potential 2016 rival, for the security failings Benghazi. “We weren’t told they wanted more security,” Biden declared. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney backed Biden up, saying it’s a State Department (i.e. Hillary)  issue.

Will Hillary now retaliate and protect herself by leaking word that the White House did too know? Will her husband continue to tour the country trying to pull Obama’s bacon out of the fire (as he did at the convention) even as Obama points a finger at his wife? Will they all cut some sort of deal in which Hillary agrees to take the fall and Bill soldiers on … in exchange for, what? Have they already cut a deal?  Is the White House going to try to hang its hat on the idea that Obama and Biden didn’t know, but maybe their staffs knew? Will that really fly? Aren’t they responsible for their staffs? Will the staffs fight back? …

It’s getting James Clavellish out there!

P.S.: Isn’t this the sort of juicy story Politico is supposed to be born cover? Yet they are asleep at the switch. Very Chalian of them! [cheap shot-ed I know!  bonus in next check-ed] ….

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/12/obamas-got-drama-now/#ixzz29F2sUC92

British say weapons left at US consulate in Benghazi are missing

The U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, burns following a militant attack on Sept. 11, 2012.

VOICE OF AMERICA VIDEO STILL

CAIRO — When British diplomats abandoned their offices in Benghazi over the summer after the British ambassador’s motorcade was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, their security detail left its weapons and vehicles in the custody of the U.S. consulate in that eastern Libyan city.

Now that cache of weapons is missing amid signs that the Islamist militants suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate and a nearby annex remain active, despite Libyan government demands that they disband.

The June 11 attack on British Ambassador Sir Dominic Asquith as he drove through Benghazi is among a list of 230 security incidents, 48 in Benghazi alone, that U.S. officials compiled to show how dangerous Libya had become. Two of Asquith’s security guards were wounded in the attack. In contrast to the Americans, who remained in Benghazi, the British determined that the city was too dangerous and closed their offices.

Before withdrawing, however, British officials reached an agreement with the U.S. consulate to leave their weapons and vehicles at the poorly guarded U.S. compound.

“We are working with the U.S. to establish what, if anything, has happened to this equipment,” British news agencies quoted an unnamed Foreign Office spokesman as saying.

The issue of the missing weapons and vehicles came to light during testimony Wednesday at a congressional hearing in Washington, where Lt. Col. Andrew Wood of the Utah National Guard, who headed a 16-member U.S. military security force in Libya, revealed that the British would return periodically to Benghazi and reclaim the weapons, then give them back to the Americans when they left the city again.

Wood added that he had expected an attack to come sooner or later. “I almost expected the attack to come,” he said. “We were the last flag flying. It was a matter of time. The security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there.”

On Friday, U.S. officials said they still were working to determine what precisely had taken place during the assault on the consulate building. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and State Department computer specialist Sean Smith died of smoke inhalation after the building was set on fire.

Two other Americans, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Wood, died at an embassy annex a few blocks away when it came under attack from mortar and rifle fire. The annex was believed to house the local offices of the CIA.

read more at http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/british-say-weapons-left-at-us-consulate-in-benghazi-are-missing-1.192914

The Spread of Illegal Arms From Libya

Libya ‘dangerous arms source’ – Kremlin envoy

Photo: EPA

Russia has called attention to the fact that the continuing spread of illegal arms from Libya fuels armed conflicts everywhere in North, Northwest and Northeast Africa.

Kremlin envoy Mikhail Margelov discussed this and other matters with Sudanese President Omar Bashir at a meeting in Khartoum on Saturday.

Mr Bashir said his country and South Sudan are close to an agreement on dividing oil-rich border areas, including the Abyei region.

source: http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_10_06/Libya-dangerous-arms-source-Kremlin-envoy/

Arms smuggling from Libya, and the future of the fight against al-Qaeda

 By: Elycheikh Ahmed Telba

Smuggling weapons from Libya for the benefit of al-Qaeda is a serious threat for the entire region, especially sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab Maghreb. This is an outcome of the lack of security in Libya, which is a golden opportunity for al-Qaeda members and arms traffickers to smuggle weapons and strengthen their positions in the region…

Al-Qaeda members have seized this opportunity to enhance their local presence, and impose their agendas on the future through force and armed conflict. Several published studies and research papers assert that AQIM has close ties with rebel military gangs in sub-Saharan Africa, and with Polisario members who smuggle arms and sell drugs in the desert zone that includes Libya, Algeria, and Mauritania, and extends to the Republic of Mali…

Algeria is not the only country to sound the alarm about arms smuggling from Libya for AQIM; the United States also expressed its concerns during the negotiations that brought together a high-level U.S. delegation and Algerian officers in recent weeks. Russia is also concerned about reports it obtained on smuggling Strela missiles from Libya through the Algerian and Tunisian borders…

The Libyan-Algerian borders are wide enough to allow al-Qaeda to smuggle weapons, vehicles and missiles. The borderline between the two countries covers 1,000 kilometers of desert, which is difficult to monitor amidst the current war in Libya and the political tension in Algeria. According to some reports, 10,000 individual weapon pieces and 2,000 rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) have been smuggled since the outbreak of the Libyan war…

Almost all military and press reports state that Algeria is developing a military plan to face al-Qaeda’s smuggling gangs, and impose a security cordon around Dabdab in the Illizi province on the Algerian-Libyan border…

The desert is the source of this geostrategic problem threatening the entire Maghreb. The inability of most countries to secure their borders is encouraging secret organizations like AQIM to smuggle weapons and drugs across the desert…

It’s worth mentioning that the smuggled weapons are transported from Libya across the vast desert to the Malian city of Segu, about 240 kilometers from the capital Bamako. These confidential information drove Mauritania and Mali to face these gangs under a joint agreement aiming to enhance security and fight al-Qaeda whose position is strengthened in the region due to the lack of security, the Libyan civil war, and the post-revolution conditions in Tunisia and Egypt…

Maghreb countries and the international community should join efforts to put an end to al-Qaeda, which is taking advantage of the popular revolutions against dictatorships and the lack of security to smuggle weapons and cooperate with other terrorist organizations. This convergence between al-Qaeda and smuggling and drugs gangs will increase the threat of the organization in the Maghreb in the future…

source: http://zawaya.magharebia.com/en_GB/zawaya/opinion/467

Tunisian jet attacks arms smugglers near Libyan border

Tunisian military jets have attacked three vehicles loaded with weapons driving near the Libyan border.

The incident happened in a remote part of the Sahara desert where the borders of Libya, Tunisia and Algeria meet.

Reports suggest the cars were travelling from Libya to Algeria.

State media initially reported that all three vehicles were destroyed, but the Associated Press quoted an unnamed security official as saying one car had escaped into Algeria.

The two military planes were apparently on a routine flight and fired on the vehicles after being attacked.

Arms trafficking has exploded in the region since the fall of autocratic leaders in Libya and Tunisia last year.

Military hardware and small arms looted from the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's stockpiles have found their way on to the black market and are often trafficked through hard-to-police desert areas.

There have been several other clashes between Tunisian security forces and armed smugglers crossing the border from Libya and Algeria over the last year.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18537714

Venezuela Holds U.S. Vessel And Crew On Suspicion Of Arms Trafficking

Forbes ^ | 6 Sep 2012 | Christopher Helman, 

Posted on Thu Sep 06 2012 19:17:13 GMT-0600 (Mountain Daylight Time) by mandaladon

The Venezuelan government has seized a U.S. flagged ship and detained its captain for more than a week. The ship Ocean Atlas has been at port in Maracaibo, Venezuela since August 29. After four hours in port, the ship was boarded by armed security personel, and the captain was detained on suspicion of trafficking in arms or drugs. The rest of the crew of 16 Americans has remained on board under guard. According to a well-placed source arrest warrants have been issued for all of the crewmembers, who are to be taken off the ship for questioning.

Incredibly, my Forbes colleague Jeff Bercovici has been in touch over email with one of the crewmen, Russell Macomber, who has managed to post updates to his Facebook account while under detention. In a sardonic tone, he even relayed that when Venezuelan authorities raided the Ocean Atlas they stole cartons of cigarettes, ate the crew’s ice cream and let their dogs defecate on the deck. Macomber writes that he would like nothing more than an airdrop of Budweiser. Officials at the ship’s operator, Intermarine, did not immediately respond to Forbes’ requests for information. Nor did officials at American Maritime Officers, which is believed to have provided the crew for the ship. A spokeswoman at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington said she would look into the incident.

A spokesman for the Seafarers Union confirmed the seizure to Forbes and said, “The SIU is working feverishly to help resolve this situation and to ensure the safety of all mariners aboard the Ocean Atlas. We are staying in touch with the crew and will continue doing so.”

A U.S. Embassy official in Caracas also confirmed the incident to Reuters earlier today.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...