U.S. capture mastermind of deadly attack on consulate in Libya

The Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed capturing of Ahmed Abu Khattala in  Libya, suspected ringleader of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, where four Americans were killed, including the ambassador, Chris Stevens. Khattala was arrested on Sunday during a secret U.S. special forces operation yesterday and was in “a safe place” outside Libya and would be transported to the U.S. soon, again according to the Pentagon.

Without a single bullet and any casualties being fired during the operation, all Americans who participated in the assault are already out of Libya, said the Pentagon press secretary, Admiral John Kirby. The Washington Post first broke the news, after keeping embargoed for 24 hours by express request of the White House for security reasons.

Stopping Khattala an important victory for the Obama administration, so far no one had managed to sit on the dock by the deaths of four U.S. citizens in a terrorist attack that shocked the end of the 2012 presidential campaign.

President Obama gave the green light for the operation last Friday night. This afternoon, the President took advantage of an event in Pittsburg to declare Khattala soon face ” the full weight of the law.” “With this operation, the U.S. has demonstrated once again that we will always do whatever is necessary to ensure that justice is done when people harm Americans,” he said. “We will continue our efforts to bring to justice all those responsible for the attack of Benghazi,” said the president, who insisted that no matter how much time passes, the end of terror responsible are brought before a judge.

According to sources cited by U.S. media, the arrest warrant against Khattala took more than a year on the table in the Oval Office of U.S. President, but the fear of further destabilizing the volatile situation in the Libyan government and not have enough evidence to charge the have suspected that the arrest was delayed. Khattala, leader of the Islamist group Ansar al Shariah, may face the death penalty in the United States as it added to the existing charges of committing acts of terrorism against U.S. persons and interests. According to Eric Holder, U.S. attorney general, depend on Khattala far three federal criminal charges that make automatic the pursuit of a suspect in a U.S. court.

Without being the suspect still on American soil, the Obama Administration is already suffering from pressure from Republicans to be obtained from Khattala much information as possible, in what appears to be a veiled request torture of a detainee. Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire Senator, considered that there was no need to hurry in the prisoner read his constitutional rights and would be more productive to put in the hands of professionals who can get information to help clarify what happened and capture the rest of the responsible the attack.

For his part, Senator Marco Rubio, demanded the transfer of Guantanamo Khattala. “The Obama Administration should immediately transfer the prisoner to a detention center in Guantanamo Bay to be interrogated, so that the information making it possible to apprehend the other individuals associated with the assault that killed four Americans get,” said Rubio in a statement.

“Sometimes it seems that this administration is more interested in the politics of the war on terrorism in the execution of the same and no policy of detention for six years,” Rubio continued in his statement. The senator showed her curious about how he thought the Administration to extract information from and where he planned to lock him arrested because “America is at war.”

For his part, Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war and tortured in Vietnam, considered the only appropriate place to try Khattala was the Guantanamo Bay naval. ” Where else can you carry?” he questioned.

Obama spokesman Jay Carney insisted that capturing Khattala proved that the U.S. fulfills its promise of bringing to justice those responsible for terrorism and stressed that the arrest of the leader of Ansar al Shariah ” is not the end of a process but a very important milestone. “

Two and a half years later and with Khattala arrested, what happened in Benghazi remains a touchstone for the Republican opposition, which continues to doubt the diplomatic compound was well protected and will not lose the opportunity to use what happened against Clinton if finally decides to be a candidate for president in 2016.

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Posted by Jamshed Sindhu on Jun 19 2014. Filed under Latest News, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.