WND EXCLUSIVE

CONGRESS REPORT WARNED OF ISIS THREAT IN 2012

'Absolutely impossible' Obama was unaware

Aaron Klein

TEL AVIV – President Obama has been taking heat for claiming the U.S. intelligence community led by National Intelligence Director James Clapper underestimated the growth of ISIS and other jihadist groups in Syria

However, the threat was not underestimated by an August 2012 Library of Congress report that received almost no media attention.

The report documented – one month before the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi – al-Qaida was taking advantage of the so-called Arab Spring to build a clandestine network under a new name, first headquartered in Libya, to institute a caliphate under Islamic law.

The document warned al-Qaida’s new clandestine network was “highly likely to recruit and train local and foreign jihadists to be sent to Syria.”

Echoing sentiments also expressed by Clapper, Obama on Sunday claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview the government “underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” during its civil war, allowing Syria to become “ground zero for jihadists around the world.”

American politicians and sources within the U.S. intelligence community took issue with Obama’s statement.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., for example, said on Fox News it was “absolutely impossible” Obama was unaware of the extent of the rise of ISIS in Syria, explaining Congress was briefed on the ISIS threat almost two years ago.

Indeed, WND found the 2012 congressional report documented al-Qaida and affiliated organizations were establishing terrorist training camps in Libya and were pursuing Taliban-style Islamic law while exporting fighters to Syria.

The scandal may have been covered up, but the truth is revealed in “The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don’t Want You to Know.” Order it now at the WND Superstore!

The August 2012 document was prepared by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under an inter-agency agreement with the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office’s Irregular Warfare Support Program.

The document stated al-Qaida “has tried to exploit the “Arab Awakening” in North Africa for its own purposes during the past year.”

It continued: “Al-Qaeda Senior Leadership (AQSL), based in Pakistan, is likely seeking to build a clandestine network in Libya as it pursues its strategy of reinforcing its presence in North Africa and the Middle East, taking advantage of the ‘Arab Awakening’ that has disrupted existing counterterrorism capabilities.

“Al-Qaeda has established a core network in Libya, but it remains clandestine and refrains from using the al-Qaeda name,” noted the report.

The document warned, “Al-Qaeda’s clandestine network is highly likely to recruit and train local and foreign jihadists to be sent to Syria.”

The strategic goals of al-Qaida’s senior leadership remain restoration of the caliphate, instituting Shariah and ending the Western presence in Muslim lands, the document said.

“Al-Qaeda’s primary goal in Libya is to establish an Islamic emirate as part of its overall objective to re-establish the caliphate,” the report noted.

The document’s authors explained the Libyan Revolution, supported by Obama, “may have created an environment conducive to jihad and empowered the large and active community of Libyan jihadists, which is known to be well connected to international jihad.”

Al-Qaida’s senior leadership issued the following strategic guidance to its cells:

• Gather weapons;
• Establish training camps;
• Build a network in secret;
• Establish an Islamic state and institute Shariah.

Al-Qaida’s new clandestine network is “probably focused on as a way of creating a solid base from which to launch jihad elsewhere, Syria in particular,” the report stated.

According to the document, al-Qaida’s senior leadership took a strategic decision to have the new clandestine network apparently distance itself from other local affiliates for security reasons, a path ISIS seems to have taken.

Numerous other previous reports, meanwhile, contended the White House was briefed on the extensive ISIS threat.

The London Daily Mail quoted an administration insider saying Obama was hearing information about ISIS “long before that (2013). It goes back to the autumn of 2012.”

Last year, Mike Rogers, the House intelligence committee chairman, told the Washington Times he took issue with an Obama pronouncement during his 2012 presidential campaign that al-Qaida was “decimated” and “on the run.”

Rogers stated there was “more than enough info at the time to understand the changes that were occurring in al-Qaeda,” telling the Times there were two possible scenarios to explain Obama’s campaign claim about al-Qaida.

“One, he wasn’t getting the information that the rest of us were getting, or two, he got the information and decided to disregard it for political purposes. Either of those is a problem for a commander in chief,” Rogers said.

In fact, a “senior American intelligence official” told the New York Times that there were a number of analysts “pushing the reporting” about ISIS but “the White House just didn’t pay attention to it.”

ABC also reported that it was able to quickly identify at least three times when Obama was warned about the rise of ISIS, and that danger.

The report said on Nov. 14, 2013, the State Department’s Brett McGurk testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee extensively about the growing threat of ISIS. He said. “We face a real problem. There is no question that [ISIS] is growing roots in Syria and in Iraq.”

Also, in January, Robert Beercroft, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said there was danger from ISIS. “A misstep anywhere could set off a larger conflict in the country,” he said.

Finally, the report said, Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, of the Defense Intelligence Agency, warned ISIS was a threat. “ISIL probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014, as demonstrated recently in Ramadi and Fallujah, and the group’s ability to concurrently maintain multiple safe havens in Syria,” he told a Senate committee.

WND reported two months ago that it was as early as 2010 when the intelligence community obtained a document that laid out the very strategy and tactics the jihadist group is using to create a caliphate.

Former intelligence officials told WND a booklet from 2010 outlined the very strategy and tactics ISIS would use in Iraq following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December 2011.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/congress-report-warned-of-isis-threat-in-2012/#ytktOx7VMrXsRxOd.99