According to the Pentagon, US commandos have captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the suspected ringleader of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans. The capture, which took place over the weekend, was apparently the result of months of careful, secretive planning between US troops in Libya and the FBI.
Khattala, a senior leader in the Ansar al-Shariah militia, was the subject of an FBI warrant filed in September 2012 that charged him with
killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving use of a firearm [and] provid[ing] material support to terrorists resulting in a death …
A “jubilant” US official says that Khattala’s capture is
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.
No US casualties are reported, and all of the US troops involved have left Libya without incident. Khattala is in custody at an undisclosed location outside Libya. He is currently being interrogated by FBI officials in a “criminal case to be prosecuted by the Justice Department.”
MSNBC columnist Steve Benen writes:
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.
Well, wait no more, Steve. Fox News is all over it. Within minutes of the announcement from the Pentagon, Fox anchors tell their viewers that the whole thing is a big fat fake, with the real purpose of … wait for it … helping Hillary Clinton sell more books. Seriously? Seriously.
Fox anchor “Kennedy,” the former MTV “veejay” whose real name is Lisa Kennedy Montgomery but who is apparently too cool to use an actual name, says that she smells something fishy in the whole “we got the Benghazi guy” news:
[Y]ou have a former Secretary of State who is in the middle of a high profile book tour, I think this is convenient for her to shift the talking points to some of the things she has been discussing.
Why yes, MTV lady who knows more about Lady Gaga’s underwear preferences than she does foreign policy, that must be it. During a commercial break, Kennedy put down her margarita to tweet that she thinks Khattala will have “perhaps a better life” in U.S. custody and “meet some bros in lockup.”
I mean, I write satire and snark and stuff, and I don’t think I could have composed that tweet.
On the same show, Fox contributor Peter Hegseth manages to stop staring at Kennedy’s legs long enough to weigh in, saying that the capture must have something to do with her upcoming Fox News interview:
I think this thing needs to be tied in a bow for certain individuals to have a clean break from an incident that have become and will continue to be a scandal and an anchor around a certain individual’s neck who may want to run for president. … What a great thing to announce on an interview tonight at Fox News that the perpetrators have been brought to justice. It’s all too neat and it’s too cute.
Boy, I got lost in all that circular “certain individuals” talk. Apparently he thinks that Hillary has been hiding in Dick Cheney’s underground bunker for two years out of teeth-chattering fear of the patriots at Fox News, and only now agreed to come out of hiding for the interview — and somehow managed to orchestrate the Khattala capture from her spider hole.
Rush Limbaugh had to throw his weight behind the conspirary theory — did you see what I did there? — by making essentially the same allegations. Wow, you’d think these people coordinate with each other or something.
Isn’t it an amazing, timely coincidence here that they have found a militia leader of the Benghazi attack and they’ve arrested him? Isn’t this amazing timing? Now all of a sudden we’ve got the militia leader. I thought it was just a ragtag bunch of protestors that got all fired up after this video hit the Internet. But now — of course, nobody’s questioning that. Maybe others will, but I mean, it’s quite obvious that this is a very timely headline, giving how things are falling apart in Iraq.
Oh, okay, it’s not Hillary, it’s the “embarrassment” over Iraq that’s driving this. It all makes sense now. So, the right is sure there was a vast conspiracy behind this so-called capture, they just aren’t sure why. Yet. I’m sure by the evening they’ll have all of their crazy little ducks in a row.
Isn’t it fortunate that President Obama get a headline using the U.S. military when he really needs one? And it is his military. It’s his government, it’s his IRS, that’s the way he talks. Now when they all get in trouble he has nothing to do with them. But they are his.
The IRS was involved in the capture? What did they do, threaten to audit Khattala’s SuperPAC tax forms?
And, like always, Republicans follow like panting dogs after the nutbar conspiracy theorists. Rory Cooper, an aide to newly unseated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Unemployed), tweets:
While it’s great to see they caught the Benghazi suspect, it’s important to remember, he wasn’t really hiding.
Yes, Rory, they caught Khattala at an Orange Julius stand in the Mall of Tripoli. They didn’t even pay for his smoothie.
In the real world, the US has been negotiating with recalcitrant Libyan officials for months to be allowed to go in and snatch up Khattala. Finally, according to a Pentagon official, the US decided to forget negotiating and just go grab him. The official says:
I am not going to get into the specifics of our diplomatic discussions, but to be clear: This was a unilateral U.S. operation.
Stay tuned. We can only imagine to what depths the right-wing scream machine will descend in their attempts to cast suspicion on Khattala’s capture.
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Published writer since 2001, focusing on politics, history, Web development, and other topics. First book is coming soon.
