Days after the Benghazi attacks, this journalist broke the story that the late Ambassador Christopher Stevens himself played a central role in recruiting jihadists to fight Assad’s regime in Syria, according to Egyptian and other Middle Eastern security officials.
Stevens served as a key contact with the Saudis to coordinate the recruitment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic fighters from North Africa and Libya. The jihadists were sent to Syria via Turkey to attack Assad’s forces, said the security officials.
The officials said Stevens also worked with the Saudis to send names of potential jihadi recruits to U.S. security organizations for review. Names found to be directly involved in previous attacks against the U.S., including in Iraq and Afghanistan, were ultimately not recruited by the Saudis to fight in Syria, said the officials.
This scheme seems to mirror the Petraeus-Clinton plan as described by the New York Times.
During the Senate hearing on Benghazi last month, Clinton claimed she did not know whether the U.S. special mission attacked on Sept. 11 was involved in gun-running.