The main story's at Wall Street Journal, "U.S. Forces Capture Key Benghazi Suspect Grabbed in a Nighttime Raid, Ahmed Abu Khattala Faces Possible Death Penalty." And from Barbara Starr at CNN:
But the the big deal here is how the New York Times joins Clinton's battlespace prep with this unsourced report, citing "private conversations," in which Abu Khattala is said to have launched the Benghazi attack to take "revenge" against the "Innocence of Muslims" video --- the controversial online film which was the basis for the administration's Susan Rice talking points after the attack of September 11, 1012.
See, "A Brazen Figure in Benghazi Holds an Attack’s Secrets Apprehension of Ahmed Abu Khattala May Begin to Answer Questions on Assault":
But for all his brazenness, Mr. Abu Khattala also holds many tantalizing secrets for the Americans investigating and debating the attack.Keep reading.
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.
Despite extensive speculation about the role of Al Qaeda in directing the attack in Libya, Mr. Abu Khattala is a local Islamist militant, with no known connections to international terrorist groups, according to American officials briefed on the criminal investigation and intelligence reporting, as well as other Benghazi Islamists who know him.
In interviews, Mr. Abu Khattala professed his admiration for Osama bin Laden and blamed American foreign policy for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he remained a distant admirer, having spent most of his adult life jailed for his extremism under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
During the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, Mr. Abu Khattala formed his own militia, which played a small role in the NATO-backed uprising. But within a few months, he had pulled his small band back from the front, deeming most of his fellow Islamists insufficiently committed to establishing a puritanical theocracy and too close to the West.
After Colonel Qaddafi fell, Mr. Abu Khattala was one of the disgruntled veterans of the uprising who kept Benghazi on edge. Though he had friends among the militia leaders of the city who were close to American and British diplomats who took residence in the city, he kept his distance from foreign diplomats and rallied his own supporters to protest what he viewed as foreign interference in Libya’s affairs.
What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video.
An earlier demonstration venting anger over the video outside the American Embassy in Cairo had culminated in a breach of its walls, and it dominated Arab news coverage. Mr. Abu Khattala told both fellow Islamist fighters and others that the attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him...
Well obviously these unnamed sources from "private conversations" just aren't going to fly, considering such an explosive issue.
The fact is, according to Stephen Hayes, in contrast to administration claims, the intelligence community's "talking points didn't once mention the anti-Islam video that Rice placed at the center of her narrative."
With this questionable report from the New York Times, White House hacks and Obama's media lapdogs can once again deny the facts debunking the "Innocence of Muslims" narrative. It's a classic protection gambit for the White House and it plays perfectly into Hillary Clinton's book tour media rollout, which is frankly nothing more than an early presidential campaign tour.
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