Ambassador’s Stevens ‘Romance’ With Islam?
Murdered U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens had a “very romantic relationship” with Islam, according to a Libyan official who was a personal friend to the late American representative to Benghazi.
“What I am saying is that his Excellency, the late ambassador, had a very personal private matter, a very romantic relationship with the mystical side of Islam,” stated Sabri Malek, the spokesman for the Democratic Party in Libya, in an interview on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.
Continued Malek: “Many Westerners find themselves converging on a romantic relationship with the mystical side of Islam. Sufism, it’s a very unique corridor. It allows you to find out more beyond your ego fears. So that kind of mysticism was very attractive to the ambassador.
“And he indulged through various Sufi channels,” said Malek. “Because Libya is one of the richest North African states in the source of such schools.”
Malek previously ignited a firestorm in the blogosphere in September 2012 when he stated on Iran’s Press TV that Stevens was a Sufi and a “Muslim himself.”
Asked by this radio host whether he had proof that Stevens converted to Islam, Malek replied, “There is no need to be so specific. It is irrelevant.” Malek told this radio host, “I cannot access his heart to find out whether he did the ideological shift. You need to ask him. However, I know for a fact that he was a recipient of this kind of sacred knowledge.”
More on Benghazi
In a largely unnoticed speech to a think tank seven months before the Benghazi attack, a top State Department official described an unprecedented multi-million-dollar U.S. effort to secure anti-aircraft weapons in Libya after the fall of Muammar Khaddafi’s regime.
The official, Andrew J. Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, explained that U.S. experts were fully coordinating the collection efforts with the Libyan opposition. He said the efforts were taking place in Benghazi, where a leading U.S. expert was deployed.
Shapiro conceded that the Western-backed rebels did not want to give up the weapons, particularly Man-Portable-Air-Defense-Systems, or MANPADS, which were the focus of the weapons collection efforts.
This information may shed light on why the U.S. special mission in Benghazi was attacked Sept. 11, 2012.
According to informed Middle Eastern security officials speaking to this column, the Benghazi mission was a planning headquarters for coordinating aid, including weapons distribution, to the jihadist-led rebels. After the fall of Khaddafi, the arming efforts shifted focus to aiding the insurgency targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Two weeks after the Benghazi attack, this reporter broke the story that murdered U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens himself played a central role in arming rebels and recruiting jihadists to fight Assad’s regime in Syria, according to Egyptian security officials.
In November 2012, Middle Eastern security sources further described both the U.S. mission and nearby CIA annex in Benghazi as the main intelligence and planning center for U.S. aid to the rebels that was being coordinated with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Many rebel fighters are openly members of terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda.
Speaking to this column last week, Middle Eastern security officials stated that after Khaddafi’s downfall, Stevens was heavily involved in the State Department effort to collect weapons from the Libyan rebels. The weapons were then transferred in part to the rebels fighting in Syria, the officials stated.
Now, Shapiro’s largely unnoticed remarks on Feb. 2, 2012, may shed further light on the activities taking place inside the attacked Benghazi facility. Noteworthy is the fact that the U.S. facility itself was protected by the February 17 Brigades, which is part of the al Qaeda-allied Ansar Al-Sharia group. That group also was in possession of significant quantities of MANPADs and was reluctant to give them up, Middle Eastern security officials told KleinOnline.
In the speech, Shapiro related how then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton committed to providing $40 million to assist Libya’s efforts to secure and recover its weapons stockpiles. Of that funding, $3 million went to unspecified nongovernmental organizations that specialize in conventional weapons destruction and stockpile security.
SCYTL, Ovum… and George Soros
The foreign-headquartered company that recently purchased the leading U.S. electronic voting firm is boasting that it was highlighted in a report on how technology is making the election process more efficient, secure, transparent, accessible, and reliable.