Tag Archives: Chris Stevens

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Benghazi suspect nabbed

Quite a number of President Obama’s critics had wondered aloud about why the United States hadn’t yet captured any of the Benghazi consulate attack.

They seemed to forget that it took the United States nearly a decade to locate and kill Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

Lo and behold! Today it was announced that U.S. special forces captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, the reported mastermind behind the Benghazi attack that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three others.

It took — what is it? — less than two years to find Khattala.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/suspect-benghazi-terror-attack-captured-libya-u-s-n133141

Hey, of course it won’t stem the criticism. The critics will say we should have caught the suspected mastermind a lot longer ago. Were these critics harping on the length of time it took to take bin Laden out? Gosh, I cannot remember it.

The question now is this: Where is Khattala going to be held, in Guantanamo Bay or somewhere in the United States?

It makes no difference to me where they hold this guy, as long as he’s kept under strict watch under the tightest security possible.

NBC News reports: “He will be tried in U.S. court — most likely in Washington, D.C. — and is currently being interrogated by FBI officials. He faces charges of killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility, providing material support to terrorists that result in death, and using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.” Khattala could get the death penalty if he’s convicted.

However, politics being what it is, look for Obama administration critics to find plenty of grounds to criticize the effort that produced the very result they had demanded in the first place.

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Clinton goes big league

Of all the things Hillary Rodham Clinton said tonight in her TV interview with Diane Sawyer, the most surprising statement came in response to a question about the Sept. 11, 2012 fire fight at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Sawyer asked about the criticism then-Secretary of State Clinton has gotten over her handling of that tragic event and whether it might dissuade her from running for president in 2016. Her answer?

“Actually, it’s more of a reason to run, because I do not believe our great country should be playing minor league ball,” Clinton said, according to a transcript. “We ought to be in the majors.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/hillary-clinton-bowe-benghazi-107626.html?hp=l3

Well. There you have it.

For an hour, Clinton sounded for all the world like a probable candidate for president of the United States in two years. She was coy when she needed to be, evasive at other times during the interview, occasionally candid.

The Benghazi statement, though, caught me by surprise. I guess I shouldn’t have been, but the strength of her answer suggests to me that she clearly is leaning toward another national campaign.

Benghazi has been kicked all over the political football field. The House of Representatives is going to convene a select committee soon to conduct more hearings on the event in which four men, including our ambassador to Libya, were killed by militants who stormed the consulate.

What have all the previous hearings accomplished, other than to suggest that there’s no “there, there” in the search for some kind of politically fatal wound that would bring down a Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy? Nothing.

Clinton’s point tonight is that Congress needs to focus on oh, job creation, infrastructure improvements, world peace and other things vastly more relevant than trying to find some way to lay blame for what everyone in the world knows was a tragedy.

The nation already has implemented changes to improve embassy security around the world. It already has mourned the deaths of those brave American diplomats and staffers. Isn’t that sufficient? I guess not.

Later this year, we’ll get to watch Congress re-plow much of the ground it’s already turned over.

What’s more, we’ll also are even more likely to see Hillary Rodham Clinton run for president of the United States.