A Deadly Mix in Benghazi – The New York Times by David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times

Author’s wishful thinking is regurgitated by himself in a new NY Times article and by many others, Joe Conason included.

Brazen Figure May Hold Key to Mysteries
Ahmed Abu Khattala Capture May Shed Light on Benghazi Attack  

    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.

    In an interview a few days later, he pointedly declined to say whether an offensive online 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.”

Since his arrest, no new details about his motives have been made known. It’s all old of old and a repeat of earlier assumptions and taking the word of a terrorist in an interview? What a BS.

○ Bloggers Call BS on NY Times Benghazi Article

David Kirkpatrick ends his latest article as follows:

    Mr. Abu Khattala’s neighbors and other residents of Benghazi were apparently unaware of his capture, perhaps because they assumed he was caught up in other fighting in the city. A renegade general has been waging a local campaign against Islamist militants such as those in Ansar al-Shariah and Mr. Abu Khattala.

    In interviews after the news emerged, two Benghazi residents said they had last seen Mr. Abu Khattala on Sunday. A neighbor in the el-Leithi district said he had seen Mr. Abu Khattala leaving his house alone in an Afghan-style jallabiya, with a Kalashnikov rifle slung over one shoulder and a Belgian FN rifle over the other.

    “Then he walked deep into el-Leithi,” the neighbor said. “We haven’t seen him since.”

It would have been nice for David Kirkpatrick to reveal the ‘renegade’ general’s name as he is a CIA asset from the times of President Reagan. U.S. broken foreign policy under the last 5 presidents hasn’t changed, the implementation under Obama is better.

○ Reagan’s CIA Man In Libya Now Employed by Obama

What David Kirkpatrick doesn’t mention in the assassination of military commander Abdel Fattah Younis in July 2011, not only was Khattala and his band of terrorists involved but also the February 17 Martyr’s brigades, indeed the same militant group hired for U.S. ambassador Stevens well-being in Benghazi.

The Assassination of General Abdul Fattah Younis by Clay ClaiborneFollow
Sun Aug 07, 2011 at 10:45 AM PDT

There has been a lot of confusion in the media about the circumstances surrounding the general’s murder. As best I can make out, the time line is this:

1.) The Transitional National Council issued a warrant for the general’s arrested.
2.) The general was arrested at Ajdabiya, near the Brega front line, and brought back to a detention center at Benghazi safely on Wednesday.
3.) The general was assassinated on Thursday by rogue elements among the rebel security forces as he was leaving the detention facility at Benghazi after being released.

It was not as the NY Times said …

From the Associated Press we have this report on the initial arrest:

A rebel special forces officer under Younis’ command told The Associated Press that Younis was taken before dawn from his operations room at Zoueitina, just east of the main front with Gahdafi’s forces.

Fighters from a rebel faction known as the February 17 Martyr’s Brigade came to the operations room and demanded Younis come with them for interrogation, said the officer, Mohammed Agoury, who said he was present at the time.

Benghazi Report Has Harsh Criticism for Clinton’s US State Dep’t  by Oui on Dec. 19, 2012

DID LOCAL GUARDS LEAVE GATE OPEN?

The report faulted as “misplaced” the mission’s dependence for security support on the “armed but poorly skilled” Libyan February 17 Martyrs’ Brigade militia members and unarmed guards hired by State Department contractor Blue Mountain Libya.

No Blue Mountain guards were outside the compound immediately before the attack to provide early warning, which was their responsibility. The report raised the possibility that Blue Mountain guards left the “pedestrian gate open after initially seeing the attackers and fleeing the vicinity. They had left the gate unlatched before.”

The board found little evidence that the February 17 guards alerted Americans to the attack or swiftly summoned more militia members to help once it was under way. There had been questions of reliability in the weeks preceding the attack.

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