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Not a bit surprised by these new revelations about the Al Qaeda militants now suspect in the Benghazi raid. Evene earlier NY Times reports clarified the rag-tag militants with obscure Islamist backgrounds the US were supporting in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. See my earlier statements on Kirkpatrick’s NY Times “investigation” – Bloggers Call BS on NY Times Benghazi Article.
Ex-Guantanamo detainee suspected in attack
(AFP/Stuff.nz) – US officials suspect a former Guantanamo Bay detainee played a role in the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, and are planning to designate the group he leads as a foreign terrorism organisation, according to officials with the plans.
Militiamen under the command of Abu Sufian bin Qumu [aka Abu Sufian Hamouda], the leader of Ansar al-Sharia in the Libyan city of Darnah, participated in the attack that killed US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, US officials said.
Witnesses have told American officials that Qumu’s men were in Benghazi before the attack took place on September 11, 2011, according to the officials.
It’s unclear if they where there as part of a preplanned attack or out of happenstance. The drive from Darnah to Benghazi is several hours [4hrs].
The State Department is expected to tie Qumu’s group to the Benghazi attack when it designates three branches of Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah, Tunisia and Benghazi as foreign terrorism organizations in the coming days.
Qumu and two other individuals, including militia leaders Ahmed Abu Khattala and Seif Allah bin Hassine, will also be identified as “specially designated global terrorists,” a determination that allows US officials to freeze their financial assets and bar American citizens and companies from doing business with them.
Some of those individuals charged so far are from Darnah, although it’s not clear if they are tied to Qumu’s group. Khattala has already been named in a criminal complaint.
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As Gadhafi became public enemy number one, other veteran foes of the U.S. government suddenly went from dangerous terrorists to democratic “freedom fighters.” Most prominent among the terror groups that became Western allies was the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
According to a 2007 study entitled “Al Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” by the U.S. military, the organization had an “increasingly cooperative relationship with al-Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al-Qa’ida on November 3, 2007.” Before that, former CIA boss George Tenet warned the U.S. Senate in 2004 that al-Qaeda-linked groups like the LIFG represented “one of the most immediate threats” to American security.
[Source]Qumu, 54, a Libyan from Darnah, is well known to US intelligence officials. A former tank driver in the Libyan army, he served 10 years in prison in the country before fleeing to Egypt and then to Afghanistan.
In 1993, he trained at one of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist camps in Afghanistan and later worked for a bin Laden company in Sudan, where the al-Qaida leader lived for three years, according to US military files disclosed by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
“For this update recommendation, detainee is assessed as a former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a probable member of Al Qaida, and a member of the North African Extremist Network OIAEN). Detainee used his employment at the Wafa Humanitarian Organization (Al-Wafa) as a front for extremist activities. It is assessed this detainee is a MEDIUM to HIGH risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies.”
Qumu fought alongside the Taliban after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and then fled to Pakistan and was later arrested in Peshawar. He was turned over to the United States and held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
Qumu has a “long-term association with Islamic extremist jihad and members of al-Qaida and other extremist groups,” according to the military files. “Detainee’s alias is found on a list of probable al-Qaida personnel receiving monthly stipends.”
Qumu also had links to Abu Zubaida, a key al-Qaida facilitator, who is being held indefinitely at the Guantanamo Bay prison. In 2007, Qumu was sent to Libya, where he was detained. The Libyan government released him in 2008.
In addition to Qumu and Khattala, American officials are eager to question Faraj al Chalabi, a Libyan extremist who might have fled the country.
The United States is offering US$10 million (NZ$12m) for information about the Benghazi attack.
Libyan, Once a Detainee, Is Now a U.S. Ally of Sorts by Rod Nordland and Scott Shane
DARNAH, Libya (NY Times) Apr. 24, 2011– For more than five years, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu was a prisoner at the Guantánamo Bay prison, judged “a probable member of Al Qaeda” by the analysts there.
Today, Mr. Qumu, 51, is a notable figure in the Libyan rebels’ fight to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, reportedly a leader of a ragtag band of fighters known as the Darnah Brigade for his birthplace, this shabby port town of 100,000 people in northeast Libya. The former enemy and prisoner of the United States is now an ally of sorts, a remarkable turnabout resulting from shifting American policies rather than any obvious change in Mr. Qumu.
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Darnah has reason to be touchy. The town has a long history of Islamic militancy, including a revolt against Colonel Qaddafi’s rule led by Islamists in the mid-1990s that resulted in a vicious crackdown. Activists from here are credited with starting the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which later announced that it was affiliating with Al Qaeda, and which sent militants like Mr. Qumu to fight in Afghanistan.Most famously, though, Darnah has a claim to being the world’s most productive recruiting ground for suicide bombers. An analysis of 600 suicide bombers in Iraq by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point found that of 440 who listed their hometowns in a recruiting roster, 52 were from Darnah, the most of any city, with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 40 times as populous, as the next biggest source, sending 51.
In addition to Mr. Qumu, local residents say the Darnah Brigade is led by Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, another Libyan thought to be a militant who was in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule, when Al Qaeda had training camps there.
- ○ Abu Yahya al-Libi, Religious Scholar, member Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)
○ Abu Yahya al-Libi, al Qaeda deputy leader, killed in U.S. drone strike – June 2012
○ Attack on Russian embassy in Tripoli: extremist revenge?