You can't make this stuff up
Act for America
May 6, 2013
Compare and Contrast: What the State Department did, what Army leadership did
You can’t make this stuff up
On May 3rd, Newsmax reported that in 2012 the State Department hired a Libyan militia group that had obvious sympathies for al Qaeda (see story below, highlights added) to help protect our consulate in Benghazi!
In fact, the militia group “…prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for months before the deadly attack.”
File this under “you can’t make this stuff up.”
Contrast that State Department decision with what Army leadership did to Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley.
Lt. Col. Dooley
In 2012, Gen. Martin Dempsey publicly reprimanded Lt. Col. Dooley for teaching a course entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism” at the National Defense University.
In spite of Lt. Col. Dooley’s sparkling record, Gen. Dempsey then ordered a negative evaluation of Lt. Col. Dooley and Dooley was reassigned.
But the travesty doesn’t end there. Lt. Col. Dooley received an Outstanding Officer Evaluation report in his new assignment, but was slapped down again, this time by Gen. Lloyd Austin (see story here).
So while our State Department hires a militia group sympathetic to al Qaeda to “protect” our consulate, two generals go out of their way to destroy the career of a West Point graduate and highly decorated officer because he dared to point out the threat posed by radical Islam.
When government officials can’t tell who is the enemy and who is a friend, we’re in trouble.
Newsmax Exclusive: US Hired al-Qaida-Linked Group to Defend Benghazi Mission
By John Rosenthal, Newsmax.com
The Libyan militia group that the State Department hired to defend its embattled diplomatic mission in Benghazi had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for months before the deadly attack.
That organization, the February 17th Martyrs Brigade, was paid by the U.S. government to provide security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. But there is no indication the Martyrs Brigade fulfilled its commitment to defend the mission on Sept. 11, when it came under attack.
The assault claimed the lives of four Americans: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
Several entries on the militia’s Facebook page openly profess sympathy for Ansar al-Sharia, the hardline Islamist extremist group widely blamed for the deadly attack on the mission. The U.S. State Department did not respond to a Newsmax request for an explanation as to why the February 17th Martyrs Brigade was hired to protect the mission.
On April 23, House Republicans released an interim progress report on its investigation into the Benghazi killings. It cited “numerous reports” that “the Brigade had extremist connections, and it had been implicated in the kidnapping of American citizens as well as in the threats against U.S. military assets.”
The report also stated that just a few days before Ambassador Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the Martyrs Brigade informed State Department officials they would no longer provide security as members of the mission, including Stevens, traveled through the city.
From June 2011 to July 2012, Eric Nordstrom, the Regional Security Officer for Libya at the time, documented over 200 security threats and violent incidents threatening to U.S. personnel in Libya. Some 50 of those incidents occurred in Benghazi.
Yet despite those threats, repeated requests for additional security from the mission went unheeded by the State Department, for reasons that remain unclear.
But perhaps the biggest question is why the State Department would hire a group that openly displayed its admiration for al-Qaida, and ask it to participate in the defense of its diplomatic mission.
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