Benghazi Suspect Released; 4 Americans Still Dead
War On Terror: Before
we confirm the president's national security team, let's get some
answers to why no terrorists have been captured or killed after the
consulate attack and why the administration doesn't seem to care.
Last Tuesday, the Tunisian government released Ali Ani al-Harzi, a leading suspect in the attack who was taken into custody after fleeing Libya for Turkey and then sent to Tunisia. A Tunisian court said he was released for lack of evidence, but more likely he was released for no lack of pressure from Islamist groups in and outside Tunisia.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., vice chairman for the intelligence panel of the Armed Services Committee, has said Harzi was confirmed to be a member of Ansar al-Sharia, the al-Qaida-linked terror group that took credit for the consulate attack as it was happening.
Harzi came to the attention of U.S. intelligence investigators after he posted real-time information to a social media platform about the assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi just as it was starting. He is a prime suspect in the terror attack on Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens, his aide and two Navy SEALs.
While Harzi was interviewed by FBI investigators before a Tunisian judge in December, after intervention and pressure by Sen. Lindsey Graham and others, no further action has been taken or progress made.
As Eli Lake reports in the Daily Beast, Harzi's brother is believed to be Tariq Abu Ammar, a midlevel planner for al-Qaida's franchise in Iraq. Today, Ammar's main job is arranging the travel of fighters from North Africa to Syria's al-Qaida-linked opposition.
Before the war on terror was declared over, Harzi would have been plucked by Navy SEALs and sent to Guantanamo where the same enhanced interrogation techniques used to find and kill Osama bin Laden could have been applied. We have returned to the days of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, when acts of war are treated as law enforcement matters.
Harzi is free now to share a fruity drink with fellow suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala. According to the Oct. 19 New York Times, Khattala, an alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 attack, was found at a crowded luxury hotel, sipping strawberry frappes on a patio and scoffing at the threats coming from the U.S. and Libyan governments.
Sad to say, this is the apparent extent of our knowledge of and investigation into just who is responsible for planning and executing the terrorist attack.
President Obama has vowed to bring the killers of Ambassador Stevens and the three other Americans to justice. Yet four months after the assault, little progress, if any, has been made, and the only one in jail is Mark Basseley Youssef, the man said to be behind the film "Innocence of Muslims," originally blamed by the Obama administration for provoking the attack.
"Make no mistake," President Obama told reporters the morning after the attack, "we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."
So far this has been just one of many empty and broken promises. As Benghazi fades away, no one has been brought to justice and no one may ever be.
Last Tuesday, the Tunisian government released Ali Ani al-Harzi, a leading suspect in the attack who was taken into custody after fleeing Libya for Turkey and then sent to Tunisia. A Tunisian court said he was released for lack of evidence, but more likely he was released for no lack of pressure from Islamist groups in and outside Tunisia.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., vice chairman for the intelligence panel of the Armed Services Committee, has said Harzi was confirmed to be a member of Ansar al-Sharia, the al-Qaida-linked terror group that took credit for the consulate attack as it was happening.
Harzi came to the attention of U.S. intelligence investigators after he posted real-time information to a social media platform about the assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi just as it was starting. He is a prime suspect in the terror attack on Benghazi that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens, his aide and two Navy SEALs.
While Harzi was interviewed by FBI investigators before a Tunisian judge in December, after intervention and pressure by Sen. Lindsey Graham and others, no further action has been taken or progress made.
As Eli Lake reports in the Daily Beast, Harzi's brother is believed to be Tariq Abu Ammar, a midlevel planner for al-Qaida's franchise in Iraq. Today, Ammar's main job is arranging the travel of fighters from North Africa to Syria's al-Qaida-linked opposition.
Before the war on terror was declared over, Harzi would have been plucked by Navy SEALs and sent to Guantanamo where the same enhanced interrogation techniques used to find and kill Osama bin Laden could have been applied. We have returned to the days of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, when acts of war are treated as law enforcement matters.
Harzi is free now to share a fruity drink with fellow suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala. According to the Oct. 19 New York Times, Khattala, an alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 attack, was found at a crowded luxury hotel, sipping strawberry frappes on a patio and scoffing at the threats coming from the U.S. and Libyan governments.
Sad to say, this is the apparent extent of our knowledge of and investigation into just who is responsible for planning and executing the terrorist attack.
President Obama has vowed to bring the killers of Ambassador Stevens and the three other Americans to justice. Yet four months after the assault, little progress, if any, has been made, and the only one in jail is Mark Basseley Youssef, the man said to be behind the film "Innocence of Muslims," originally blamed by the Obama administration for provoking the attack.
"Make no mistake," President Obama told reporters the morning after the attack, "we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."
So far this has been just one of many empty and broken promises. As Benghazi fades away, no one has been brought to justice and no one may ever be.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/011113-640359-benghazi-terrorist-attack-suspect-released-by-tunisia.htm#ixzz2HyzQ7IR8
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