WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but U.S. officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to U.S. officials and foreign diplomats.
No evidence has emerged linking the weapons provided by the Qataris during the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi to the attack that killed four Americans at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September.
But in the months before, the Obama administration clearly was worried about the consequences of its hidden hand in helping arm Libyan militants, concerns that have not previously been reported.
The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from other countries.
The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants.
Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were “more anti-democratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam" than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official.
The Qatari assistance to fighters viewed as hostile by the United States demonstrates the Obama administration’s continuing struggles in dealing with the Arab Spring uprisings, as it tries to support popular protest movements while avoiding U.S. military entanglements. Relying on surrogates allows the United States to keep its fingerprints off operations but also means they may play out in ways that conflict with U.S. interests.
“To do this right, you have to have on-the-ground intelligence and you have to have experience," said Vali Nasr, a former State Department adviser who is now dean of Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, part of Johns Hopkins University. “When you have an intermediary, you are going to lose control."
