Benghazi suspect reportedly captured

So Bush gives up trying to find Bin Laden after Bin Laden masterminds the deaths of over 3000 Americans on US soil and Obama promises to bring those to justice that killed 4 Americans in Libya. Turns out that Obama ended up doing both. You think old George ever sent a thank you card?


The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames in this file photo taken September 11, 2012.

Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters
Benghazi suspect reportedly captured
06/17/14 12:27 PM—UPDATED 06/17/14 12:59 PM

By Steve Benen
Last August, President Obama held a White House press conference and fielded a question from Fox News’ Ed Henry about the Benghazi attack from 11 months earlier
Henry told the president, “You said on September 12th, ‘Make no mistake, we’ll bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.’ Eleven months later, where are they, sir?” Obama replied, “Well, I also said that we’d get bin Laden, and I didn’t get him in 11 months…. [W]e are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack, and we’re going to stay on it until we get them.”
It appears the president meant it.
United States commandos have captured the suspected ringleader of the attack on the United States mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.
Apprehension of the suspect, Ahmed Abu Khattala, is the major breakthrough in the two-and-a-half-year-old investigation into the attack, which also killed three other Americans. President Obama vowed swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Washington Post report added some important details, explaining that this secret mission required months of planning and involved coordination between U.S. troops in Libya and the FBI.
A “jubilant” U.S. official described Abu Khattala’s capture as “a reminder that when the United States says it’s going to hold someone accountable and he will face justice, this is what we mean.”
Even better, officials confirmed that the mission was completed without any U.S. casualties and the personnel involved have all safely left Libya.
NBC News added that the suspected terrorist is in custody at an undisclosed location outside Libya, after having been captured over the weekend “in an extremely tightly-held [Special Operations Forces] operation.”
The officials tell NBC News Abu Khattala is currently being interrogated by FBI officials in a “criminal case to be prosecuted by the Justice Department.”
At least at first blush, this would appear to be a breakthrough victory for the Obama administration and the United States overall, and it’s not yet clear what kind of partisan complaints, if any, we should expect from the White House’s critics, many of whom have clung to Benghazi conspiracy theories since the 2012 attack.

 

I also wonder if FOX will even bother mentioning this story. Naaaaaaaw!

 

Fox broke the news last night. Is this the same one interviewed by CBS a year ago?

 

Yea, didn't suppose this was one Benghazi conversation you'd want to have. You guys are just too easy predict.

 

The thing I personally love about you Right wingers is that you simply never get tired of being wrong about everything.

Benghazi Suspect Said He Was Moved To Take Revenge For American-Made Video
The Huffington Post | By Paige Lavender
Posted: 06/17/2014 6:09 pm EDT

Benghazi attack suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was captured by U.S. forces on Sunday, told people the move against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya was intended as revenge for an American-made online video that was seen as an attack to Islam, according to the New York Times.

The New York Times reported Tuesday:

What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. 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.

An earlier demonstration venting anger over the video outside the American Embassy in Cairo had culminated in a breach of its walls, and it dominated Arab news coverage. Mr. Abu Khattala told both fellow Islamist fighters and others that the attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him.

In an interview days after the attack, he pointedly declined to say whether he believed an offense such as the anti-Islamic video might indeed warrant the destruction of the diplomatic mission or the killing of the ambassador. “From a religious point of view, it is hard to say whether it is good or bad,” he said.

The day after the September attack, theNew York Times' David Kirkpatrick reported fighters involved in the effort were moved "by anger over a 14-minute, American-made video that depicted the Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s founder, as a villainous, homosexual and child-molesting buffoon." The Times did have a reporter -- not Kirkpatrick -- on the ground that night.

The publication stood by that reportingin October 2012 and again in December 2013, and were subsequently attacked by conservatives.

White House emails made public in April 2014 supported reports that the Obama administration wanted Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to “underscore these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.” In September 2012, Rice said the attack was not premeditated.

 

Congressional Republicans are calling for Khattala to be sent off to Guantanamo where he can interrogated and tried in secret. Or maybe just interrogated and locked up. If I were them I wouldn't want a public trial for him either. No telling what he might say.

 

The only reason the idiot Repukes ever wanted Gitmo open in the first place is to silence those they victimized during the Afghan war. If these people actually spoke, we'd find out many of them had nothing to do with the Taliban, Al Qaeda or any other group and that would point out the stupidity of the Repukes. Spreading democracy is such a messy business. Gitmo is a black eye for this country just like the Japanese internment camps of WWII were. Gitmo is just the result of Right wing paranoia. Thanks for another shameful chapter is US history GOP.

 

I just love the Right wing talking point on this one... Obviously the capture of this guy was possible before but only happened now so Obama, Hillary, or any other Democrat could change the focus from whatever the Right has been endlessly carping about. They really think too much of themselves don't they?

 

Yep. Time to change the subject already.

Ride it shortly and fire up a bunch of morons.

It IS NEWS for a while.

 

The timing of this "capture" does seem to be politically convenient for BO.
I heard an NPR report this morning that said this terrorist had basically set up shop at a local coffee house and conducted interviews with any journalist who was interested. He wasn't hard to find as he always sported his trademark furry red fedora and kept "office hours" at the coffee shop.
Hey that was some great sleuthing by BO!!!!!

 

David, in all fairness, Obama DID NOT find the guy; someone else did. But, I'll ask again, "At this point, what difference does it make"?

 

Ah, good news for the country, bad news for the GOP. You just can't say it enough.

 

So are they going to go back to whining about the ACA? Their lovingly crafted barge full of outrage and accusations over BENGHAZI!!!!! might have sprung a leak.

 

You dummies act as if the capture of one guy changes the past. It doesn't. Not one iota.

 

And just who said anything about it changing the past? Of course it won't change the past. But it could very well change our understanding of the past, and add to our knowledge of the past. I think we all realize that. Especially you.

 

Benghazi could always get a new lease on life somehow, but it's looking more and more like they'll have to come up with some new worst-outrage-imaginable-ever to take its place before too long.

 

Is that you George Bush? You sound a lot like George Bush.

 

Hillary:
http://dailysurge.com/2014/06/hillary-clinton-asked-inscribe-hard-choices-ambassador-stevens/

 

Following that line of brilliant reasoning and logic I suppose we should just let him go.

The past might not be changed but perhaps the future?