Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Benghazi terror attacks omitted Twice by State Department - 1) 'Rewards for Justice program' 2) Terror designation report

Republican lawmakers want to know why the Al Qaeda terrorists involved in the Benghazi attacks were excluded from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, a program which offers huge cash payments for tips leading to the capture of wanted terrorists.

Fox News reported that a ranking Republican lawmaker believes this is "more evidence that the Obama White House wants to minimize the terrorism angle in that attack."

In a related post on Thursday, I noted that Thomas Joscelyn of The Long War Journal reported that:
The UN, on Oct. 18, added Muhammad Jamal al Kashef - who previously served as a bodyguard to Al Qaeda chief, Ayman al Zawahiri - to its its list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions, including the freezing of assets, travel bans etc.

However, Mr.  Joscelyn  notes that, although the State Department - like the UN - added al Kashef to its list of designated terrorists, and although the State Department's report on al Kashef contains many of the details mentioned in the UN report, nevertheless two key elements in the UN report, pertaining to al Kashef's terrorist activities, were omitted from the State Department's report.

The UN report notes that al Kashef - who previously served as a bodyguard to Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri - and members of al Kashef's terrorist network are "reported to be involved in the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on 11 Sep. 2012."

But the State Department, in its report, blatantly omitted this fact.

But, as the honorable Hillary Clinton would say: "What difference does it make?" Lol.
Read the full post here.

Ultimately, 1) the Al Qaeda terrorists involved in the Benghazi attacks were excluded from the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, and,  2) the terrorist attacks in Benghazi were omitted from the State Department's report on the Al Qaeda bodyguard, Muhammad Jamal al Kashef.

Interesting, to say the least......