Special Report: United States captures top suspect in Benghazi embassy attack In mid-June 2014, as the result of a secret operation ordered by President Barack Obama, United States Special Operations forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Khattala was removed from Libya and would ultimately face justice in the United States. --- See below for a full report starting with the embassy attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and culminating with the capture of Khattala --- U.S. ambassador and other State Department officials killed in attack on consulate in Libya; issue becomes domestic flashpoint in U.S. -- On Sept. 11, 2012, militants stormed the United States consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi yielding deadly consequences. Reports from the ground in Libya indicated that at least one United States state department official was killed and other Americans were wounded in the ensuing fracas, and that the embassy compound was set ablaze. That state department official was later revealed to be Ambassador Christopher Stevens who, along with other officials, died when unidentified armed men stormed the consulate compound and unleashed a volley of gunfire, grenades, and handmade bombs. Security forces returned fire but were overwhelmed for a time until the gunmen were repelled. Ambassador Stevens and the other State Department officials (another victim was identified as Sean Smith, a state department employee) died when the militants fired rockets at them as they tried to seek safety, according to Reuters News. (It should be noted that several media outlets, including BBC News and Al Jazeera, have stated that the ambassador died of suffocation, presumably from the smoke and fire produced by the rocket attack.) The violence was sparked by a film that was said to possess anti-Islamic inclinations. The film, Innocence of Muslims, appeared to be of amateur quality but was promoted by an ultra-conservative church pastor in Florida, Terry Jones, who was in the international spotlight in 2010 over his plan to burn Korans. A trailer of the film was released on YouTube and translated into Arabic around the same time as another film with negative Islamic depictions, titled Mohammad, Prophet of Muslims, was circulating in the public purview. Together, the publicity surrounding these filmic productions resulted in a massive outcry with Muslims saying that they were insulting to the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. Meanwhile, the apparent film producer, Sam Bacile, was reported to have maintained a defiant stance in an interview with the media. Speaking from an undisclosed location, Bacile said Islam is a cancer and asserted that his work was intended to be a provocative political statement. He insisted that it would help expose Islams flaws to the world. In the interview reported by Reuters, Bacile appeared unaffected by the news that the negative reception of his film may have contributed to the tragedy unfolding in Libya. He said, I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good. America should do something to change it. Of course, the media has subsequently reported that Bacile was a pseudonym, with the identity of the producer being linked to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula -- an apparent Coptic Christian who was convicted of bank fraud. It was clear that a great deal of mystery increasingly surrounded the anti-Islamic treatise. Blame for the violence and the killings initially fell the Islamist extremist militia, known as the Ansar al-Sharia brigade. There were other reports suggesting the involvement of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb -- an offshoot of the terror base, al-Qaida -- in the Libyan attack, with United States officials hinting that the assault may have been a planned operation. Stated differently, the attack in Libya might be distinct from other protests unfolding in other parts of the region over the controversial anti-Islamic film. Instead, there was initial fear that it may have been an operation intended to be carried out on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States 11 years prior, and it may have utilized the convenient cover of these mass protests. The rationale for such an attack, other than being of a pure Jihadist orientation, remained unclear; however, it was possible that al-Qaida sought revenge over the killing of al-Qaida deputy leader, Abu Yahya al-Libi, who died in a drone strike earlier in the year. Notably, al-Qaida confirmed the death of al-Libi, whose name itself translates into the Libyan on Sept. 11, 2012 -- the very day of the attack in Libya. That being said, this was simply a theory in a still-evolving story, which has focused on the mass unrest spreading across the Muslim world. (See Update below for more information about the emerging terror connection to the Benghazi tragedy.) The Libyan government was quick to distance itself from the violence directed at Ambassador Stevens and the other State Department officials and to emphasize its strong ties to the United States. Libyan deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagour condemned the killing of the American diplomats, characterizing the violence as cowardly. Additionally, Libyas interim President Mohammed Magarief apologized to the United States over the deaths of the American diplomats, characterizing the bloodshed as cowardly criminal acts. As well, Libyas deputy envoy to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabashi, pledged that there would be an investigation into the violence. In remarks in front of the United Nations Security Council, Dabashi referred to Ambassador Stevens death as follows: We cannot understand how this group, or these persons, could have eliminated such a wonderful person. Speaking on behalf of her country, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to the death of the State Department diplomats in Libya with the following statement: We are heartbroken by this terrible loss. The statement continued, Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material... The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind. For his part, President Barack Obama condemned in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking attack. Speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House, he paid tribute to the tragic end of Ambassador Stevens life, referencing the veteran diplomats role in the overthrow of Libyas former dictatorial leader, Qadafi, saying: It is especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi because it is a city that he helped to save. President Obama vowed to bring to justice those who carried out the attack that killed Ambassador Stevens and other diplomatic personnel in Libya. To this end, President Obama said: Justice will be done. He also indicated an emerging belief that the attack in Benghazi might be connected to terrorism, as he asserted: No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. It should be noted that the president ordered security at diplomatic missions be intensified around the world, and additionally deployed an anti-terrorism team consisting of experts from the Marines to Libya to bolster security there in the aftermath of the attack. Protests spread across the Muslim World; embassies of Western powers attacked -- Protests over the same film erupted in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo as well as the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, with the United States embassy being the main target in both cases. The protests soon spread to embassies of Western countries located in various other Muslim countries including Lebanon, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria, as well as the Palestinian territory of Gaza, while unrest persisted in Egypt and Yemen. German and British embassies were attacked in Tunisia and Sudan; in several Muslim countries, as protests spread, there were reports of deaths. The government of Yemen, like the government of Libya, was quick to express condemnation over the attacks on the United States embassies. However, there has been concern over the weakness of the new Egyptian President Mohammed Morsis response, prompting United States President Obama to characterize Egypt as neither an ally nor an enemy, effectively placing relations with post-Nile Revolution Egypt in the category of to be determined. Egyptian authorities soon stepped up their efforts to repel the protesters in that country. Libyans attack Islamist compound in retaliation for Ambassador Stevens killing -- As September 2012 entered its final week, tens of thousands marched in Benghazi to show their opposition to armed militias in Libya. On Sept. 21, 2012, a mass of Libyans registered their outrage over the killing of Ambassador Stevens by storming the compound of the Islamic extremist militia Ansar al-Shariah Brigade, which was suspected of being involved in the attack. The crowd forced militia fighters out of the premises and set the building ablaze. Fighters from Ansar al-Shariah at first tried to disperse the crowd using gunfire, but soon abandoned the compound as they were overwhelmed by the wave of outraged and angry Libyans screaming No to militias. While no deaths were reported in the assault on the building, the action was a clear message that regular Libyans rejected the orientation of extremism in their country, only recently liberated from the tyranny of the Qadhafi regime. Politics and the terrorism link to Benghazi tragedy -- In late September 2012, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, following on the heels of the presidents words in the Rose Garden of the White House, publicly connected the attack at the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi with terrorism. She noted that there was quite possibly a link with an al-Qaida affiliate in the region, perhaps even al-Qaida in the Maghreb. Soon thereafter, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a more definitive assessment as follows: It was a terrorist attack. As we determined the details of what took place there and how that attack took place, it became clear that there were terrorists who had planned that attack. As well, the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper, attempted to address the shifting explanation of what transpired in Benghazi. DNI spokesperson, Shawn Turner explained that intelligence initially concluded that the attack on the diplomatic mission was sparked in the aftermath of the violent protests in Egypt. He continued, We provided that initial assessment to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress, who used that information to discuss the attack publicly and provide updates as they became available. As we learned more ... we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists. Republicans were quick to pounce on the evolving explanation, first claiming that it was clear the killing of Ambassador Stevens was part of a terrorist attack, and later suggesting that the White House may have attempted a cover up of the true events that transpired in Benghazi. Specifically, they alleged that the Obama administration was trying to hide the fact that an act of terrorism may have taken place, since such an occurrence would mar President Obamas national security record. That being said, in the wake of the attack, Libyan officials were themselves quite clear in their belief that the assault on the United States diplomatic mission was the work of terrorists. As well, President Barack Obama himself used the following words only one day after the attack (as noted above): No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. Thus, some observers noted that if a cover up was afoot, it was not a particularly well-plotted one since the president himself was referencing the possibility of terrorism. By the second week of October 2012, about a month ahead of the 2012 presidential election, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, convened emergency hearings, charging that security failures at the embassy in Benghazi led to the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. For Democrats, the hearings constituted a transparent attempt to embarrass the Obama administration for inadequate diplomatic security at the embassy in Benghazi. But as noted in an article by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, diplomatic security may have been less than optimal largely due to budget cuts brought about by Republicans in Congress. To that end, Milbank wrote: “For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program — well below the $2.15 billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” — a charge Republicans rejected. On Oct. 15, 2012, Secretary of State Clinton said in an interview with CNN that she, and not the White House, took responsibility for the security situation in Benghazi, leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack at the consulate there that left four Americans, including the ambassador, dead. She said: I take responsibility. Secretary of State Clinton also explained that the state of confusion in the aftermath of the attack contributed to inconsistent, and sometimes confusing, explanations of the cause of the attack in Libya, and the actual motivation of those responsible. She said that she was taking public responsibility for what happened because she wanted to avoid some kind of political gotcha. But the issue was, indeed, becoming a political flashpoint. As noted above, House Republicans were determined to argue that the Obama administration was to be blamed for either insufficient security or a cover up. The matter was slipping into the presidential race where Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, was arguing that the situation in Libya was illustrative of President Obamas unraveling foreign policy. In a pre-election presidential debate in the United States in mid-October 2012, there was a question from selected voters on the subject of Libya and foreign policy. The Republican candidate attempted to draw President Obama into a contretemps over the administrations handling of the terror attack in Benghazi. Romney suggested that the president waited two weeks before characterizing the incident as a terror attack, saying, It took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror. But President Obama was sanguine in his knowledge that he had, on the day after the attack, promised in a speech from the White House Rose Garden the following: No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. Romney seemed unwilling to let go of his confidence in the two week timeline, although the moderator, Candy Crowley, confirmed that the president had indeed called the attack an act of terror on Sept. 12, 2012. By Oct. 24, 2012, emails correspondence between the States Department, the White House, and intelligence officials, revealed that the aforementioned Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility for the attack. Some critics of the Obama administration in the United States suggested that the emails would place pressure on the White House. That is to sat, they might reinforce Republican claims that there was some sort of obfuscation involved in the situation, as well as a reluctance by the White House to acknowledge the terrorism element. However, the Ansar al-Sharia connection was not a new revelation. As noted above, right after the attack on the Benghazi consulate, there were immediate reports the Ansar al-Sharia brigade was to blame. Immediate reports, though, could not be considered conclusive. The groups claim of responsibility on Facebook, as noted by Secretary of State Clinton, was not the same as proof. Indeed, extremist groups often surface to claim responsibility for attacks even when they are not involved; they do so in order to garner (dubious) cachet for the successful execution of acts of terrorism. Secretary of State Clinton said that the review board she appointed to investigate the attack would be looking at everything, instead of cherry picking one story here or one document there. Nevertheless, it was expected that the political dimensions of the Benghazi would continue to dominate the landscape in the United states, with oversight committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate expected to look into the matter themselves. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the government of Tunisian government arrested Tunisian national in connection with the consulate attack in Libya. In January 2013, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave testimony to committees in both houses of Congress over the handling of the attack by terrorists on the American consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. During her testimony, Secretary Clinton took responsibility for the security failures that led to the attack, which ended fatally for Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The matter spurred a heated partisan debate, with many Republicans accusing the Obama administration of trying to obfuscate the terrorist element of the attack, even though both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Clinton wasted no time in characterizing the attack as such. Secretary of State Clinton tearfully recalled accompanying President Barack Obama to receive the bodies of the four victims. As well, Secretary Clinton accepted all the recommendations of a non-partisan inquiry board looking into the attack and security lapses, saying: Nobody is more committed to getting this right. I am determined to leave the state department and our country safer, stronger and more secure. Attacks on French and American diplomatic missions -- On April 23, 2013, a car bomb exploded close to the compound of the French embassy in the Libyan capital city of Tripoli. The explosion occurred in the morning and damaged the embassy, as well as several buildings in the area including two villas and several shopping establishments. Because the embassy compound was empty at the time of the apparent terrorist attack, there were no deaths and limited casualties - two security guards and a young girl were injured in the blast. The French government condemned the attack with the French foreign ministry issuing the following statement: In conjunction with the Libyan authorities, our government departments will make every effort to ensure that all light be shed on the circumstances of this heinous act and its perpetrators quickly identified. But France also hard a sharp demand for the Libyan government to assist in determining who was responsible for the attack and ensuring accountability. To that end, French President Francois Hollande issued his own statement, as follows: France expects the Libyan authorities to ensure that all possible light is shed on this unacceptable act so that the perpetrators are identified and brought to justice. The attack on the French embassy in Tripoli came less than a year after militants stormed the American consulate in Benghazi, resulting in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens. Both incidences cast a harsh light on the reality that even in the aftermath of the Qadhafi era, Libya was beset by instability, and foreign interests posed a particularly attractive target for extremists militants of the type believed to be responsible for both attacks on diplomatic entities. Note that at the start of May 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States released surveillance photos of three individuals who were on the grounds of the United States Special Mission in Benghazi when it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2012. The attack resulted in the death of Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. The FBI was hoping that the release of the three men on the United States diplomatic compound would spur the memories of persons able to shed light on the violent attack, and thus assist in bringing those responsible to justice. The FBI did not specifically identify these three men as suspects although, according to NBC News, the agency has 45 possible persons on a list of persons suspected of involvement in the attack. Meanwhile, an anonymous source from United States law enforcement told CNN News that it was believed that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula may have played a role in attacks on the consulate office in Libya. Arrest of top suspect in Benghazi embassy attack -- In mid-June 2014, as the result of a secret operation ordered by President Barack Obama, United States Special Operations forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. As discussed above, that attack resulted in the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and other Americans. The capture of Khattala was the culmination of a two-year long investigation, which was made more difficult as a result of the politically tumultuous landscape in Libya. At home in the United States, Republicans have long sought to make political hay of the Benghazi tragedy, trying to link it to poor handling of embassy security by the Obama White House and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It should be noted that a commission led by diplomatic veteran, Thomas R. Pickering, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concluded that while there were “systemic failures” and “management deficiencies” by State Department officials in protecting the Benghazi diplomatic mission, there was simply no evidence of a cover-up by the Obama administration, as alleged by some Republicans. The plans for the capture of Khattala was in the works for some time but required approval from President Obama whose administration wanted to ensure that all the evidence and witness testimony was in tact for a successful prosecution in the future. Also of concern to the Obama administration was the question of whether a United States commando operation on Libyan soil would present complications for the fragile Libyan government dealing with ongoing political chaos. Now, however, in June 2014, President Obama made the decision to go forward with the operation, which -- much like the operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in a raid into Pakistani territory -- also ended in success. This time, however, the suspect was apprehended alive and would face justice in the United States. A statement from the United States Pentagon made it clear that all special operations personnel had departed Libya safely with Khattala in custody. That statement read as follows: “All U.S. personnel involved in the operation have safely departed Libya.” President Obama, for his part, noted that the capture of Khattala was a partial fulfillment of his promise to locate those responsible for the attack on the United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, and bring them to justice. He said, “Since the deadly attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, I have made it a priority to find and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four brave Americans.” Speaking of the effort by United States intelligence, law enforcement, and military personnel to locate and seize, President Obama said, Because of their courage and professionalism, this individual will now face the full weight of the American justice system.” It should be noted that Dr. Susan Rice -- part of President Obamas national security team and the ambassador to the United Nations at the time in 2012 -- was pilloried by Republicans for saying during interviews that the Benghazi embassy attack was motivated by the (aforementioned) video that raised the ire of Muslims across the Middle East. Republicans said she was not casting the attack as terrorism even though President Obama himself characterized the Benghazi attack as such during a speech in the White House rose garden shortly after the bloodshed. Fast-forward two years to 2014, and in a report by the New York Times, Khattala was on the record describing the reasoning for the attack as being anger over the infamous video that mocked Islam. The New York Times article noted the following: On the day of the attack, Islamists in Cairo had staged a demonstration outside the United States Embassy there to protest an American-made online video mocking Islam, and the protest culminated in a breach of the embassy’s walls — images that flashed through news coverage around the Arab world. As the attack in Benghazi was unfolding a few hours later, Mr. Abu Khattala told fellow Islamist fighters and others that the assault was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him. The article continued with this other assertion by Khattala that he was not only responsible for the attack but had been driven to take revenge for the insulting video: But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video. For Republicans, this news would likely blunt their continued attacks on Rice, who was now President Obamas national security adviser; instead, their attention remained on lingering accusations that the White House had yet concealed key details related to the Benghazi attack, along with displeasure that Khattala was being brought to the United States to face justice instead of being isolated at Guantanamo Bay. Written by Denise Coleman Copyright © 2014 CountryWatch Inc. Subscribers can read about other hot spots around the world in the CountryWatch Political Intelligence Briefing at: pib.countrywatch/
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:01:18 +0000
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