Dark Forces

May 12, 2014
Timmerman (Shakedown), executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran, comprehensively challenges the Obama administration’s narrative of the events that took place in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012. He presents Obama’s diplomatic overtures to the Muslim world as having the opposite effect as intended, with Muslim leaders convinced the U.S. “had lost its resolve and was not to be taken seriously.” That mind-set informed responses to covert American efforts in the aftermath of Muammar el-Qaddafi’s overthrow to funnel arms from Libya to Syrian rebels. Timmerman presents an account of the failed “doctrine of separating the jihadis from the proponents of political Islam.” It was a logical result, he claims, of the president, secretary of state, and their advisers not understanding developments in Libya, where security deteriorated to a point that danger pay for U.S. employees was increased 30%. As Iranian money flowed into Libya, jihadi militias probed for weak spots. The CIA annex in Benghazi “was supposed to be a secret base..., talk about this and it will end your career.” To Timmerman, the response to the embassy attack was implemented with incompetence, particularly by Hillary Clinton. The author’s conservatism is palpable, but he makes it clear that the Obama administration made grave errors in judgment and execution.

June 15, 2014
Veteran journalist Timmerman (Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender, 2007, etc.) offers a blistering indictment of the Obama administration's handling of the deadly 2012 event now known simply as "Benghazi."On Sept, 11, 2012, four Americans, including the United States ambassador, were killed in attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The White House and State Department claim that the attack-already the subject of several Congressional investigations and soon to be probed again by House Republicans-was a protest turned violent over an anti-Islam YouTube video. Drawing on interviews with sources in the region, Timmerman argues that Benghazi was a well-planned, state-sponsored terrorist attack by the Islamic Republic of Iran. He also claims that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew that terrorists were behind the attack but made up the spontaneous protest cover story to preserve the appearance of success in their anti-terrorist policies. It was the eve of the 2012 presidential election, and Obama had claimed that the "tide of war [was] receding." Benghazi, writes the author, is "the deepest, the darkest, and the dirtiest political scandal of recent American history." Viewing post-Gadhafi Libya as approaching "normal" status, the State Department ignored pleas for greater security for American diplomats and facilities when in fact Libya was "spinning wildly out of control," with "heavily armed street thugs" roaming neighborhoods. The Benghazi compound was left to defend itself by a secretary of state who wanted only to celebrate a success story for the November election and then "prepare her own coronation as the first female president...in 2016." Timmerman navigates the complex story of Libya's role in the period as an arms bazaar for terrorists and faults U.S. policymakers for trying to distinguish between violent and nonviolent Islamist groups.An often intemperate account that will please Hillary-bashers and provide timely fodder for the upcoming Republican-led Benghazi investigation.

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June 1, 2014
On September 11, 2012, the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, a heavily armed group attacked the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and another diplomat. Timmerman argues that the attack was the result of a clandestine Obama administration deal to sell arms to Libyan rebels. Timmerman explores the administration's Middle East policy, including its support for the Arab Spring effort to bring democracy to intransigent regimes. He contends that the administration threw its support behind the Muslim Brotherhood and others to overthrow pro-U.S. regimes in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt. He contends that Obama and Stevens were too naive in believing their diplomatic efforts could bring peaceful transition in Libya. Written as a fast-paced thriller, Timmerman's account, containing charges of a cover-up, is certain to continue the controversy and conspiracy theories about the attack, which the Obama administration first reported as a riot in reaction to an Internet movie offensive to Muslims.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)