by WorldTribune Staff, October 5, 2016
The Obama administration has decided to dismiss charges against an arms dealer it had indicted for shipping weapons to Libyan rebels, some of which wound up in the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Lawyers for the Justice Department on Oct. 3 filed a motion in federal court in Phoenix to drop the case against American arms dealer Marc Turi, whose lawyers also signed the motion.
Turi’s lawyers said the weapons shipments were part of an authorized effort by Clinton’s State Department to arm Libyan rebels.
Turi adviser Robert Stryk said the Obama administration had tried to scapegoat his client to cover up Clinton’s mishandling of Libya.
“The U.S. government spent millions of dollars, went all over the world to bankrupt him, and destroyed his life — all to protect Hillary Clinton’s crimes,” Stryk said, alluding to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
Turi was indicted in 2014 on four felony counts: two of arms dealing in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and two of lying to the State Department in official applications. The charges accused Turi of claiming that the weapons involved were destined for Qatar and the UAE, when the arms were actually intended to reach Libya.
In an interview last year, Turi said the U.S. was aware that weapons being shipped into Libya during the unrest there were being immediately diverted to Syria.
“When this equipment landed in Libya, half went one way, and the other half went the other way,” Turi said in an interview on Fox Business Channel. “The half that went the other way is the half that ended up in Syria.”
Turi added that he came up with a plan called “zero footprint” in which the U.S. would send weapons to Libyan rebels through Arab countries, such as Qatar and the UAE.
The government does not “want this stuff to come out because it will look really bad for Obama and Clinton just before the election,” a Turi associate said, according to a report by Politico.
During Senate testimony in 2013, Clinton said she had no knowledge of weapons moving from Libya into Turkey, for ultimate transfer to Syria.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in July suggested he had emails proving that Clinton “pushed” the “flows” of weapons “going over to Syria.”
Under the deal to dismiss the charges against him, Turi admits no guilt in the transactions he participated in, but agreed to refrain from U.S.-regulated arms dealing for four years. A $200,000 civil penalty will be waived if Turi abides by the agreement.