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Revolt of the Spooks
Interesting article by Bill Gerz -- here are some excerpts.Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama's administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a "cover up" of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa. Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. "The Iranian strategy is two-fold: upping the ante for the Obama administration's economic sanctions against Iran and perceived cyber operations against Iran's nuclear weapons program by conducting terror attacks on soft U.S. targets and cyber attacks against U.S. financial interests," said one official, speaking confidentially. Officials with access to intelligence reports, based on both technical spying and human agents, said specific reporting revealed an alarming surge in clandestine al Qaeda activity months before the attack in Benghazi. Yet the Obama administration sought to keep the information from becoming public to avoid exposing what the officials say is a Middle East policy failure by Obama. Officials said that the administration appeared to engage in a disinformation campaign aimed at distancing the president personally during the peak of the presidential election campaign from the disaster in Benghazi, where numerous warning of an attack were ignored, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other officials. -------- Recent intelligence reports show that Egypt's Al-Azhar University in Cairo is emerging as a covert base for al Qaeda organizational and training activities for a jihadi network consisting of many nationalities. The Morsi government has turned a blind eye to both the increased jihadist activity and Iran's support for it in the region, particularly in Libya and Syria. However, the administration is keeping the intelligence under wraps to avoid highlighting Obama's culpability for the democratic aspirations of the Arab Spring being hijacked by Islamists sympathetic to al Qaeda's terrorist ideology. Intelligence officials said in Egypt--currently ruled by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood--one of the key al Qaeda organizers has been identified as Muhammad al-Zawahiri, brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Muhammad al-Zawahiri was released by Morsi in March after having been sentenced to death for terrorist acts in Egypt. In recent months Egypt-based al Qaeda terrorists were dispatched to Libya and Syria, where they have been covertly infiltrating Libyan militia groups and Syrian opposition forces opposing the Bashar al Assad regime. In addition to Egyptian government backing, intelligence from the region has revealed that operatives from Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, the main spy service, and from Iran's Quds Force paramilitary group and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps are also facilitating al Qaeda terrorists based in Egypt that are preparing to conduct operations to increase instability throughout the region. The intelligence revealing that al Qaeda is growing in Egypt is said by officials to be one of the reasons behind Obama's decision to cancel a meeting in New York with Morsi during the U.N. General Assembly meeting last month. Other news outlets in recent days have revealed new internal U.S. government information that contrasts sharply or contradicts official Obama administration statements that appear designed to minimize the rise of Egyptian-origin terrorism. Posted by: Sherry 2012-10-05 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=353271 |