How can the State Department issue stinger missiles to al Qaeda groups?

Now we know why General Petraeus was silenced. Roger L. Simon has an exclusive at PJ Media. PJ Media has talked with two U.S. diplomats who say that

Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.

Hillary Clinton still wanted to proceed because, in part, as one of the diplomats said, she wanted “to overthrow Gaddafi on the cheap.”

This left Stevens in the position of having to clean up the scandalous enterprise when it became clear that the “insurgents” actually were al-Qaeda – indeed, in the view of one of the diplomats, the same group that attacked the consulate and ended up killing Stevens.

The diplomats also have some things to say about why General Ham was relieved of his command. He had been ready and willing to send immediate help to the brave Americans fighting al Qaeda at Benghazi.