REPORTS: PASSPORT LINKS BENGHAZI TO EGYPT

Stevens’ Alleged Killer Traced
To Muslim Brotherhood Official

Michael Carl, WND — A passport belonging to the alleged killer of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens has been recovered at the home of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Khairat Al-Shater, according to Arabic-language reports from the Middle East.

The reports say the passport was found when Egyptian security forces arrested Al-Shater after the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi.

Walid Shoebat, a former PLO operative who is now an analyst of Islam and terrorism, said Arabic language sources El-Fagr and Alrassedalliby.com reported the recovery of the passport of Muhsin Al-Azazi, Stevens’ alleged killer.

The Russian language news site Globe News 24 also reported the find, according to

a Ukraine-based security officer and intelligence analyst who works for a defense and security firm.

Shoebat says it’s possible that Stevens’ passport is in Egypt, but the reports needs further confirmation.

Fox News’ Cynthia Farahat reported that prominent Egyptian television personality Ahmed Moussa tied the Benghazi attack to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

On his television show, he addressed the U. S. ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, in abstentia, regarding Stevens’ killer.

“Ambassador Stevens was killed in Benghazi, and you know who killed him, the U.S. administration knows who killed him, and you know how he was killed ,and it was a major strike against the U.S. administration, and all of you,” Moussa said on his show.

“The assassin is now present at Rabia Al-Adawiya [mosque protest]. His name is, do you know it or you would like me to inform you? He’s affiliated with al-Qaida in Libya, his name is Mohsen Al-Azazi, his passport was found in the house of Khairat El-Shater.”

Farahat noted Moussa is a well-regarded source who often interviews intelligence agents and high-ranking military personnel on his show and is renowned for breaking intelligence-related news.

Benghazi-Brotherhood Link?

Shoebat said the new reports establish a credible link between the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“This confirms what a Libyan intelligence document said,” according to Shoebat.

He noted further that Al-Shater’s son told reporters his father “holds secrets” on President Obama that would land him in prison if made public, as WND reported Wednesday.

Shoebat also said in a published report that the U.S. government knows there is a connection between the Benghazi attack and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

“U.S. officials and experts do acknowledge an Egyptian connection to the Benghazi attacks. They’ll point to what they call a ragtag group of jihadists, led by Muhammad Jamal Abdo Al-Kashif (aka Abu Ahmad), known as the Jamal network,” he wrote.

“However, the U.S. administration downplays this Egyptian connection, whereas several Arabic-language sources reveal a much larger connection. It is significant to point out that the first attack against the U.S. embassies on Sept. 11, 2012, happened in Cairo. Egypt was the spark and Egyptians were the agents of both attacks,” said Shoebat.

Shoebat noted that Morsi let al-Kashif out of prison right before Sept. 11, 2012.

“Al-Kashif had been locked up in one of Egypt’s most secure prisons, but he was released by deposed president Mohamed Morsi prior to the attacks. Al-Kashif had been Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard. Morsi was the primary agent behind his release,” Shoebat wrote.

Clare Lopez, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., is skeptical of the reports because of President Obama’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“In the fall of 2012, both the blind sheik’s group and the Egyptian MB had every reason to be hopeful that the Obama administration would eventually accede to their persistent demands to release the blind sheik,” Lopez said.

“After all, Hani Nour Eldin had been received in the White House in June 2012, and Morsi was in power at least in part thanks to the support of the Obama administration, which was and remains totally in the bag for the MB,” Lopez said.

Lopez said it doesn’t make sense that Morsi “would endorse or back in any way a murderous assault on our mission in Libya.”

Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies fellow Benedetta Berti comes down on Lopez’ side.

“I would be very skeptical,” Berti said. “The Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida affiliated groups, they’re two different groups, and they don’t really work together. There is an Islamist position, but within that you have different factions,” Berti said.

“The more inspired al-Qaida factions don’t really get along with the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood. Yes, they help one another when it comes to fighting the infidels,” Berti said.

Lopez said there’s an entire “industry” of conspiracy theorists who are trying to connect the Muslim Brotherhood to Benghazi.

She said “it is being led by a clutch of Copts, who certainly have every reason to hate them all, but who are pushing a narrative that is lacking in corroboration or verifiable sourcing.”

However, Shoebat is firm. He writes in a report that Arabic sources clearly indicate Morsi and the Brotherhood’s involvement in the Benghazi attacks.

Reports said a leaked Libyan intelligence document from just days after the terror attack also implicates Morsi. The document states that Ansar al-Shariah’s Egypt branch, led by Marjan Salem, was the main player, not the Libyan branch.

“The initial investigation shows that the membership of the group [belongs] to the jihadist group Ansar al-Shariah in Egypt which was established and led by Egyptian cleric Marjan Salem,” Shoebat wrote.

“The most distinguished names that were obtained from the confessions by members of the cell are the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, Safwat Hijazy and Saudi businessman Mansour Bin Kadasa, the owner of Al-Nas TV station.”

WND reported in September 2012 that evidence surfacing following the Benghazi attacks could lead back to Egypt. » Full Article

» WND
» Michael Carl | Article Archive

About the Author

Michael Carl is a veteran journalist with overseas military experience and experience as a political consultant. He also has two Master's Degrees, is a bi-vocational pastor and lives with his family in the Northeast United States.

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60-FOOT PETITION DEMANDS END TO BENGHAZI SECRETS

Special Ops Veterans Want Details
On American Security Fiasco

Gina Loudon, WND — It has been almost one year since the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans were killed and 10 others were injured in a terror attack.

Included in those murdered that day were U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and two Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

But a lot of other information isn’t yet known about the attack that day.

So Special Operations Veterans have presented a petition of 1,000 names calling for a Select Committee in Congress to “end the cover-up” of the Benghazi scandal.

The petition is 60 feet long, and it was unrolled near the Capitol building Tuesday.

Special Operations Speaks officials say the presentation was the opening volley in a nationwide campaign urging House members to sign the discharge petition that would force House consideration of HR 36 – the bill to establish a Select Committee to fully investigate the Benghazi massacre.

The Special Operations Veterans are asking why there was no military response, and why the consulate was never secured.

Gen. Carter Ham, the former head of U.S. forces in Africa, told the Aspen Security Forum just recently that “it became apparent to all of us quickly that this was not a demonstration, this was a violent attack.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton initially claimed the embassy attack was a response to an obscure Internet video.

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolfe, R-Va., has sponsored the congressional resolution, HR 36, that calls for an investigation of the attack and the administration’s handling of it in the weeks that followed.

More than 120 members of Congress are co-sponsors.

Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, has been front and center on the issue, and accuses his own speaker, Rep. John Boehner of doing too little.

“If they were addressing (the situation), we would have gotten to the bottom of it by now,” he said.

Earlier, WND reported that analysts doubt the president could survive politically a full investigation. In May, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the Benghazi scandal is “worse than Watergate” and commented that, “When a president lies to the American people and is part of a cover-up, he cannot continue to govern…as the facts come out, I think we’re going to see something startling. And before it’s over, I don’t think this president will finish his term unless somehow they can delay it in Congress past the next three and a half years.”

The delay is well under way, and some say the delay is so important to the administration because it not only protects the president, it protects former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is expected to run for president in 2016. Clinton led the administration’s assertion that this was not a terrorist attack, but rather the attacks were a spontaneous response of violent extremists in reaction to a video.

The administration says this is “old news” and suggests there are more pressing issues that are current and warrant timely attention.

“This administration has always been clear that violent extremists were involved in this attack,” said Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State. “I’m not going to litigate what’s already been evaluated.”

She continued, “This administration has always been clear that violent extremists were involved in this attack. The question was who exactly they were and whether there was also a demonstration at the same time. It now appears that there wasn’t…”

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that when he found out “there were RPGs and mortars and there was an attack on that second facility, there was no question in my mind it was a terrorist attack.”

Witnesses have signed book deals so they are not talking. Some say witnesses were told to sign nondisclosure agreements, but that would not ordinarily preclude them from talking to Congress.

It is unclear as to whether or not they would testify if the requested Select Committee was successful, and they were called to testify before Congress.

Among those listed on the campaign website as supporting the investigation are Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas; Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; former Rep. Allen West, R-Fla.; Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga.; SOS co-founder Col. Dick Brauer Jr.; Ken Benway, LTC (retired) Special Forces, and many more.

Stockman earlier said he would seek to force the Benghazi vote because the move is the only way to get “a clean and thorough investigation.”


» Full Article
» WND
» Dr. Gina Loudon, Ph.D. | Article Archive

About the Author
Gina Loudon, Ph.D., is host of "The Dr. Gina Show" and a national speaker, analyst and author. She has appeared or been cited by the BBC, ABC, Vanity Fair, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, CNN, New York Times, Time magazine, Fox News, Fox Business, The Hill, "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart and many others. Loudon is credited as one of the "100 founding members" of the tea-party movement, founder of Arizona BUYcott and originator of the field of policology – the nexus of politics and psychology. She is the co-author of "Ladies and Gentlemen: Why the Survival of Our Republic Depends on the Revival of Honor." Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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EGYPT’S MORSI BEHIND MURDER OF U.S. AMBASSADOR?

Intel Fingers Muslim Brotherhood
In Deadly Benghazi Attack

Aaron Klein, WND, Jerusalem — Was Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood involved in the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya?

Circumstantial evidence possibly links the attack to Morsi’s campaign to free the so-called blind sheik, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in the U.S. for conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Rahman’s release has been one of the Morsi’s main foreign policy issues.

Last week, several major Arabic newspapers ran with a story, first reported by the Kuwaiti paper Al Rai, quoting a Libyan intelligence report on the Benghazi attack that mentions an alleged connection to Morsi and other prominent Egyptian figures.

The report, prepared by Mahmoud Ibrahim Sharif, director of national security for Libya, is based on purported confessions of some of the jihadists arrested at the scene.

The report states that “among the more prominent figures whose names were mentioned by cell members during confessions were: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi; preacher Safwat Hegazi; Saudi businessman Mansour Kadasa, owner of the satellite station Al-Nas; Egyptian Sheik Muhammad Hassan; former presidential candidate, Hazim Salih Abu Ismail.”

‘Dr. Morsi Sent Us’

While the credibility of the confessions solicited in Libya, probably under duress, can easily be called into question, there is other information pointing to Morsi’s possible involvement in the Benghazi attack.

YouTube videos of the attack find some of the jihadists speaking an Egyptian dialect of Arabic, as previously reported by FrongPageMag.

One of the videos shows a jihadist carrying out the attack while stating in an Egyptian dialect, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, Dr. Morsi sent us.”



There were also unconfirmed reports Egypt would not allow the U.S. to interrogate suspects in the attack.

Originally, the Obama administration claimed there were popular protests outside the U.S. Benghazi mission over an obscure anti-Muhammad film. It would later be determined no such demonstrations took place; instead the attacks were a coordinated jihadist assault.

The White House sought at first to connect the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack to protests that same day in Cairo, Egypt, in which rioters climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy and tore down the American flag.

The Cairo protests were widely reported as acts of defiance against the anti-Muhammad movie. However, the protests were announced days in advance as part of a movement to free Rahman.

In July 2012, Rahman’s son, Abdallah Abdel Rahman, threatened to organize a protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and detain the employees inside.



On the day of the Sept. 11, 2012, protests in Cairo, CNN’s Nic Robertson interviewed the son of Rahman, who described the protest as being about freeing his father. No Muhammad film was mentioned. A big banner calling for Rahman’s release can be seen as Robertson walked to the embassy protests.

Targeting ‘Christian Overseers’

The release of Rahman has been a key issue for Morsi. One week before the attack in Benghazi, Morsi once again called for the U.S. to free Rahman.



A jihadist group seeking the release of the blind sheik and calling itself the Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades reportedly was previously responsible for a June 6, 2012, bomb attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi. The bomb exploded at the perimeter to the facility, wounding one.

There is information murdered U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens or another U.S. employee was the target of the attack. The SITE monitoring group documented the Rahman Brigades said they were “targeting a group of ‘Christian overseers’ who were preparing to receive one of the ‘heads of instigation’ from the State Department.”

The group was calling for Rahman’s release as well as vengeance for the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of the most senior al-Qaida operatives. Al-Libi, of Libyan descent, was killed by a U.S. drone in Pakistan in June 2012.

CNN previously cited a report that the Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades was also responsible for a rocket attack against the convoy of the British ambassador in Benghazi on June 11 and an attack against the Red Cross in Misrata on June 12, 2012.

Further, the deadly January 2013 assault on an Algerian natural-gas plant was reportedly carried out as part of an attempt to trade hostages for the release of Rahman. Thirty-eight people were killed in a three-day siege that ended the hostage crisis.

WND previously reported on the ties of the Algerian assault crisis to the attack in Benghazi. The ties run through al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.

CNN quoted sources disclosing several Yemeni men belonging to AQAP took part in the Benghazi attack.

CNN further quoted one source revealing counter-terrorism officials learned the identity of the three men and later traced them to northern Mali, where they are believed to have connected with the jihad organization led by Moktar Belmoktar.

Belmoktar, an Algerian, is a senior leader of the Islamic Maghreb. He claimed responsibility for the Algeria gas facility attack.

Another intelligence source told CNN that Belmoktar had received a call in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack from someone in or close to the city.

The person on the other end of the call stated, “Mabruk, Mabruk!” meaning “congratulations” in Arabic, according to the source.

With additional research by Joshua Klein. » Full Article

» WND
» Aaron Klein | Article Archive

About the Author
Aaron Klein is WND's senior staff reporter and Jerusalem bureau chief. He also hosts "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's WABC Radio. Follow Aaron on Twitter and Facebook.

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