A 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report, obtained by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch (JW), predicted the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), warning that the continued deterioration of security conditions in the region would benefit the jihadist group.
The military intelligence report was distributed to the CIA, State Department, and senior military leaders, among others.
It is unclear whether President Obama was briefed on the report, which was written in August 2012, nearly a year-and-a-half before the President dismissed ISIS as a “JV team.”
The 2012 report focused on the growing threat posed by what became ISIS, which grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
It warned that the “growing sectarian direction” of the Syrian civil war would have “dire consequences on the Iraqi situation,” including the “grave danger” of the rise of ISIS, JW explains.
According to JW, the DIA report states:
This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al-Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters.
“ISI [Islamic State of Iraq] could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory,” the report adds.
In June 2014, ISIS declared a Caliphate in territory that covered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. By doing so, it was able to attract more foreign fighters from around the world to its cause.
Some of the “dire consequences on the Iraqi situation” mentioned in the DIA report are “blacked out,” notes JW, adding that “DIA presciently warned one such consequence would be the ‘renewing facilitation of terrorist elements from all over the Arab world entering into Iraqi Arena.’”
Citing an unnamed Pentagon official, Fox News reports that “while the DIA report was not a finished intelligence assessment, such Intelligence Information Reports (IIRs) are vetted before distribution.’
The documents obtained by JW also reveal new details about the events leading up to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty.
JW found that the movement of weapons from Libya to Syria fueled the violence in Benghazi.
According to JW, the documents revealed that the Obama administration knew arms were being shipped from Libya to Syria and that the Benghazi attack was planned.
One of the documents states:
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye (ALALIBY) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings.
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