The NYTimes is as jubilant as it permits itself to be over the capture of Ahmed Abu Khattala:
… During the assault on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, Mr. Abu Khattala was a flamboyant presence. Witnesses saw him directing the swarming attackers who ultimately killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Even after the attack, he offered only vague and contradictory denials that he had played a role, while apparently enjoying the notoriety it brought him. He sat for repeated interviews with Western journalists and even invited a correspondent for tea in the modest home where he lived openly, with his mother, in the Benghazi neighborhood of el-Leithi.
But for all his brazenness, Mr. Abu Khattala also holds many tantalizing secrets for the Americans investigating and debating the attack.
His apprehension by United States military commandos and law enforcement agents may finally begin to address some of the persistent questions about who carried out the attack and why. Those questions have spawned a small industry of conspiracy theories, political scandals, talk radio broadcasts, and a continuing congressional investigation….
The grifters behind that “small industry”, not so much, per Jon Chait at NYMag:
… This does not seem to be the sort of accountability the Benghazi right appears to have in mind. Reactions on the right range from subdued to actually angry. Here is the lead to Ashe Schow’s story in the conservative Washington Examiner, which does not exactly convey the JAPS SURRENDER–type jubilation one might expect:
From one scandal to another.
The Obama administration is now shifting focus to Benghazi – which President Obama said was “phony” – announcing that one of the ringleaders of the attack, Ahmed Abu Khattala, had been captured on Sunday in Libya by U.S. forces.
To clarify, Obama never called the attack on Benghazi phony. He called the conservative conspiracy theories surrounding the attack phony. But never mind…
It has been reported that Abu Khattala will be tried in the U.S. court system, and props to President Obama for making that choice. His decision, of course, is sending the usual suspects to their joint and several fainting couches, with Fox News contributors reaching a new nadir in conspiracy-peddling. (Which does feed the suspicion that Fox will be pivoting to HRC-bashing, now that they’ve completely exhausted the market for Obama-bashing.)
The Capture of “The Mastermind Behind Benghazi”Post + Comments (100)