By John Rosenthal
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Video and documentary evidence shows that a Libyan-government-sponsored militia that reportedly provided support to American Marines on the night of the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks is a radical Islamic militia that, like the presumed assailants, flies the black flag of jihad.
Over one month after the attacks – and despite a congressional hearing – the details of what occurred remain murky. But according to several largely concordant reports, certain broad outlines appear clear. It is generally agreed that the American consulate was attacked by Islamic extremists from a local Libyan militia. According to widely publicized speculations, the militia in question is thought to go by the name Ansar al-Shariah. Thus, for example, a recent New York Times article cites an eyewitness account attributing the attack to Ansar al-Shariah and notes that the witness claims to have seen the attackers “waving the black flag favored by such ultraconservative jihadis.”
On the other hand, members of another local Libyan militia, operating under the orders of the Libyan government, are reported to have joined forces with American Marines on the night of the attacks. A unit from the militia is reported to have met a Marine detachment at Benghazi’s airport and accompanied the Marines to a supposedly secret “safe house” where consulate personnel had taken refuge.
The “safe house,” however, would turn out to be neither secret nor safe. Instead, it would become the target of a second attack after the arrival of the Marines with their Libyan escort. Two Americans would die in this follow-up attack. Just how the assailants came to discover the location of the “safe house” is typically treated as a mystery.
Despite citing the commander of the militia unit that allegedly joined in the rescue mission, the New York Times does not give the militia’s name. But both Reuters and the French daily Le Figaro, which provided highly similar accounts of the Benghazi events well before the Times report appeared, identify it as the Libya Shield Brigade. The Libya Shield Brigade is known to operate under the authority of the Libyan government. As it so happens, it is also known to fly the black flag of jihad.
There is abundant evidence of this available in videos posted online by local Libyan sources. The black flag in question is, more precisely, two flags: (1) the solid black flag with the shahada or Islamic declaration of faith written on it in white that served as the original banner of al-Qaida and (2) the more elaborate black flag with a white circle in the middle that was introduced by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq and that is commonly known nowadays as the al-Qaida flag.
The flag pioneered by al-Zarqawi also, of course, features the shahada: “There is no God but God [Allah] and Mohammed is the messenger of God.”
Like many other Libyan militias to have emerged from the last year’s NATO-supported rebellion against Moammar al-Gadhafi, the Libya Shield Brigade has used both black flags. Thus extensive footage of Libya Shield forces deployed around the desert oasis town of al-Kufra earlier this year shows Libya Shield vehicles flying both the new red-black-and-green Libyan national flag and the original version of the black jihadist flag.
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Video and documentary evidence shows that a Libyan-government-sponsored militia that reportedly provided support to American Marines on the night of the Sept. 11 Benghazi attacks is a radical Islamic militia that, like the presumed assailants, flies the black flag of jihad.
Over one month after the attacks – and despite a congressional hearing – the details of what occurred remain murky. But according to several largely concordant reports, certain broad outlines appear clear. It is generally agreed that the American consulate was attacked by Islamic extremists from a local Libyan militia. According to widely publicized speculations, the militia in question is thought to go by the name Ansar al-Shariah. Thus, for example, a recent New York Times article cites an eyewitness account attributing the attack to Ansar al-Shariah and notes that the witness claims to have seen the attackers “waving the black flag favored by such ultraconservative jihadis.”
On the other hand, members of another local Libyan militia, operating under the orders of the Libyan government, are reported to have joined forces with American Marines on the night of the attacks. A unit from the militia is reported to have met a Marine detachment at Benghazi’s airport and accompanied the Marines to a supposedly secret “safe house” where consulate personnel had taken refuge.
The “safe house,” however, would turn out to be neither secret nor safe. Instead, it would become the target of a second attack after the arrival of the Marines with their Libyan escort. Two Americans would die in this follow-up attack. Just how the assailants came to discover the location of the “safe house” is typically treated as a mystery.
Despite citing the commander of the militia unit that allegedly joined in the rescue mission, the New York Times does not give the militia’s name. But both Reuters and the French daily Le Figaro, which provided highly similar accounts of the Benghazi events well before the Times report appeared, identify it as the Libya Shield Brigade. The Libya Shield Brigade is known to operate under the authority of the Libyan government. As it so happens, it is also known to fly the black flag of jihad.
There is abundant evidence of this available in videos posted online by local Libyan sources. The black flag in question is, more precisely, two flags: (1) the solid black flag with the shahada or Islamic declaration of faith written on it in white that served as the original banner of al-Qaida and (2) the more elaborate black flag with a white circle in the middle that was introduced by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq and that is commonly known nowadays as the al-Qaida flag.
The flag pioneered by al-Zarqawi also, of course, features the shahada: “There is no God but God [Allah] and Mohammed is the messenger of God.”
Like many other Libyan militias to have emerged from the last year’s NATO-supported rebellion against Moammar al-Gadhafi, the Libya Shield Brigade has used both black flags. Thus extensive footage of Libya Shield forces deployed around the desert oasis town of al-Kufra earlier this year shows Libya Shield vehicles flying both the new red-black-and-green Libyan national flag and the original version of the black jihadist flag.
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