In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Wikileaks’ Julian Assange asserted that the whistle-blower organization has evidence that Hillary Clinton's State Department helped arm the Islamic State (a.k.a., ISIS):
“So, those Hillary Clinton emails, they connect together with the cables that we have published of Hillary Clinton, creating a rich picture of how Hillary Clinton performs in office, but, more broadly, how the U.S. Department of State operates. So, for example, the disastrous, absolutely disastrous intervention in Libya, the destruction of the Gaddafi government, which led to the occupation of ISIS of large segments of that country, weapons flows going over to Syria, being pushed by Hillary Clinton, into jihadists within Syria, including ISIS, that’s there in those emails. There’s more than 1,700 emails in Hillary Clinton’s collection, that we have released, just about Libya alone.”
Throughout this presidential campaign, we've heard heaps about the missing e-mails Hillary's staff managed with her private e-mail server, and the Clinton campaign consistently cast the matter as a hair-splitting dispute over inane points of protocol. But do some of the missing e-mails reveal that Clinton and the US State Department actively armed the medieval head choppers known as ISIS? If so, this story may not be the strongest selling point for her presidential ambitions.
In early 2013, Senator Rand Paul asked Clinton if she knew about the transfer of American weaponry from Libya to Turkey and other countries in the Middle East, and Clinton flatly denied having such knowledge:
Paul: My question is, is the US involved in any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling anyhow transferring weapons to Turkey out of Libya?
Clinton: To Turkey? I’ll have to take that question for the record. That’s, nobody’s ever raised that with me.
Paul: It’s been in news reports that ships have been leaving from Libya and that they may have weapons. And what I’d like to know is, that annex that was close by, were they involved with procuring, buying, selling, obtaining weapons and were any of these weapons being transferred to other countries? Any countries, Turkey included?
Clinton: Well, Senator you’ll have to direct that question to the agency that ran the annex. And, I will see what information was available.
Paul: You’re saying you don’t know?
Clinton: I do not know. I don’t have any information on that.
If Clinton perjured herself with this denial, it's just another mark in the checkered history of yet another politician skilled in the art of deception. But if the US coordinated the provision and shipment of weaponry to ISIS, it shouldn't come as any surprise. Afterall, the US government has a long and sordid history of funding and arming a variety of unsavory characters when Washington deemed such support to be in the "national interest" (i.e., in the best interest of the American foreign-policy establishment and the military-industrial-congressional complex). To name just a few examples, the US government:
- Armed Islamic extremists in their war against Soviet invaders in Afghanistan,
- Supported Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran, and
- Collaborated with Muammar Gaddafi as part of its infamous rendition program.
So the next time a Clinton supporter tells you she's the most qualified candidate for President — the candidate with the most relevant experience — you know something? They may just be right!