Despite President Obama’s claims that al Qaeda is “on the run,” the terrorist group and its allies just got stronger in Libya. Fox News reports that militants connected to the Muslim Brotherhood — banned in Egypt now, and the fountainhead of worldwide Islamic terrorism — raided a US cache of weapons and made off with some highly sensitive items.
The equipment, as Fox News previously reported, was used for training in Libya by U.S. Special Forces. The training team, which was funded by the Pentagon, has since been pulled, partly in response to the overnight raids last August.
According to State Department and military sources, dozens of highly armored vehicles called GMV’s, provided by the United States, are now missing. The vehicles feature GPS navigation as well as various sets of weapon mounts and can be outfitted with smoke-grenade launchers. U.S. Special Forces undergo significant training to operate these vehicles. Fox News is told the vehicles provided to the Libyans are now gone.
Along with the GMV’s, hundreds of weapons are now missing, including roughly 100 Glock pistols and more than 100 M4 rifles. More disturbing, according to the sources, is that it seems almost every set of night-vision goggles has also been taken. This is advanced technology that gives very few war fighters an advantage on the battlefield.
“It’s not just equipment … it’s the capability. You are giving these very dangerous groups the capability that only a few nations are capable of,” one source said. “Already assassinations are picking up in Tripoli and there are major worries that the militias are using this stolen equipment to their advantage. All these militias are tied into terrorist organizations and are tied to (salafists).”
Among the questions that Congress ought to be asking about this, is why the equipment was left in Libya after the American team that used it had been pulled from the unstable, war-torn country. Was it an oversight, or did the administration known to run guns to the drug cartels in Mexico also have ideas about providing more aid to the salafist groups that are supplying their allies in Syria’s civil war? That’s not a leap at all — the Obama administration already waived restrictions on providing arms to terrorists so that it could directly aid Syria’s rebels. Obama clearly wants to aid Syria’s Islamist rebels, just as he tilted toward the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt even before it took power.
The same administration that wants to aid Syria’s Islamist rebels, by the way, signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Wednesday. The Senate has not ratified it and is very unlikely to. That treaty is supposed to curb arms trafficking to rogue states and terrorist groups, among other things.
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