Republican says Libya actions might have helped al Qaeda

Rep. Louie GohmertLouis (Louie) Buller GohmertFocus on Perry could mean more subpoenas, challenges for Jan. 6 panel Members of Congress not running for reelection in 2022 House Ethics panel dismisses security screening fine issued to GOP lawmaker MORE (R-Texas) on Friday afternoon said more and more evidence is turning up that the Obama administration and NATO’s support for rebels in Libya this year might have been to the benefit of al Qaeda, citing news reports that the al Qaeda flag is now flying over the Benghazi courthouse.

Gohmert quoted an American Thinker article that quoted one witness who saw the al Qaeda flag flying in Benghazi. The witness was threatened with having his tongue cut out for criticizing that flag and was prevented from taking pictures of the flag. 

Gohmert indicated that this story proves that President Obama moved too quickly to help the rebels, and incorrectly assumed that the rebels share American values.

“How about that for an American value?” he said after reading about the threats made to the witness. “What glorious American values. Our president assured us, that without the support of Congress, without even a debate in Congress, he had to rush headlong into helping these people.

“We had to help al Qaeda with whom we had declared war … because they had declared war on us. And so this president, without coming and having a debate, decides he’s going to go help these people before he knew who all exactly we were helping, because they reflect American values.”

Gohmert read more from the article, which reported that an armed guard said al Qaeda’s flag is the “true flag of Islam.”

“Well, how about those American values?” Gohmert repeated. “Our president used our treasure, put our military members at risk … now we’ve got the al Qaeda flag flying in Libya in Benghazi, over the historic courthouse that was the headquarters during the assault on Gadhafi.”