In plain sight apparently
The indefatigable David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times reports that the chief suspect in the attack on the U.S. counsel in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three guards is out and about in the city. “Just days after President Obama reasserted his vow to bring those responsible to justice, Mr. Abu Khattala spent two leisurely hours on Thursday evening at a crowded luxury hotel, sipping a strawberry frappe on a patio and scoffing at the threats coming from the American and Libyan governments.”
Quite a daring fellow! And with strong opinions too: “He said that the United States had its own foreign policy to blame for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Why is the United States always trying to impose its ideology on everyone else?” he asked. “Why is it always trying to use force to implement its agendas?”
But wait! The Times has added this correction: “An earlier version of this article described incorrectly a beverage that Ahmed Abu Khattala was drinking at a hotel in Benghazi, Libya. It was a strawberry frappe, not mango juice, which is what he had ordered.”
I’m glad the newspaper of record corrected the record on what the terrorist suspect was drinking. Pretty much in the “ladies’ drink” category back in the days before unibooze.
Now, more seriously, if this guy is only a suspect, I hope we don’t go all-American and just drone him without more evidence. But given the time and the race, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him and a half dozen civilians in the area come up dead some morning before Nov. 2.
If I were a TV talk show producer, I think I’d skip the opportunity to meet with Mr. Khattala at a “crowded luxury hotel” or any other venue — even if the drinks were on him!
RNC has said he was a plant by Hollywood casting to make Obama look good.
There has been some speculation on the internet that the so-called “consulate” in Benghazi was actually a CIA operations base. If that is so, we can speculate that Ambassador Chris Stevens may have been a CIA operative.
In any case, there is more than meets the eye in this affair. With the whole journalistic world now fact-checking everything, pursuing every tip and lead, I can only believe that it must be very difficult for US covert forces to respond since they have absolutely no margin for error in their proportional response to the terrorist attack.
As Obama has made very clear at the last debate and since, he has ordered swift retaliation and justice to those who perpetrated the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi.
For all we know, there maybe a counter-operation already in motion. And the public may never know if any counter-attack has ever or will be launched.
That the NYT found it necessary to correct the report about the mango juice exemplifies to a ludicrous degree the concern with trivia that plagues political reporting. Who cares what the murderer drank? Another instance of time wasted on minutiae was the recent reporting on whether or not the pots and pans that Mitt was ostensibly cleaning were really dirty to start with. Doesn’t Mitt present enough big targets? Why all this attention-wasting trivia?
What was Mr. Abu Khattala drinking? Perhaps trivia, but perhaps one had alcohol and the other didn’t; a big deal for a serious Islamist.
Ann; It was Ryan who washed clean pots. GOP/FOX is making a huge deal about the Benghazi attack and claim it will be the top of the foreign policy debate on Monday. They overlook the numerous demonstrations at numerous Muslim countries all over the video.’ Part of their claim is that a large number of Marines should have been posted at a consulate and safe house. [ See Jenkins post] There is no military experience or chops in the GOP campaign.
Joe Jag.,, ” If I were a TV talk show producer, I think I’d skip the opportunity to meet with Mr. Khattala at a “crowded luxury hotel” or any other venue ‘
I bet Giraldo Rivera, the only guy with conjones at FOX is trying to get that gig now, —
That Romney was unaware that Obama had indeed used the phrase “acts of terror” in the rose garden on the 12th of sept., shows how he is indeed in the pocket of neoconvervatives.They are indifferent to reality and will make things up if need be. Romney sounds just like Sean Hannity and those other propagandists of the right. His narrative is filled with talking points-even patantly false ones-just like the Fox media propaganda machine. If he wins Dick Cheney will be running foreign policy again.We’ll have more wars and we’ll be torturing people again.And Romney will not lift a finger to overturn Roe vs. Wade either. Not that I can vote for Obama -who is murdering people with bombs and assassinating people.Even as he remains indifferent to a virtual holocaust taking place in syria for over a year now. Plus he’s in favor of abortion. I’m not voting but I dread a Romney administration.
Bad news for Romney. The Salt Lake Tribune has endorsed Obama, laying out why Romney doesn’t deserve win.
Ouch.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55019844-82/romney-obama-state-president.html.csp
If he was a real Islamist, he was not drinking. I am not sure with high times in a fashionable hotel is on the Islamist code of conduct, either. But if this is our man, the guy with the drone button probably held his fire because the man was in a crowd. He had better stay in a crowd, or he is going to be atoms reuniting with the great cosmos.
I don’t think a strawberry frappe typically has alcohol, does it? Here is the recipe from the Eating Well website:
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup strawberries,hulled
1-2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup low-fat milk
5 ice cubes
PREPARATION
Whirl together strawberries, sugar to taste, milk and ice cubes in a blender until frothy.
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/strawberry_frappe.html
My chief disappointment in this particular account is that it omits any mention of the “frappe” setting on the blender.
Now, if the NY Times would print a clarification on how to hull a strawberry, that would be an instance of journalism in the service of the common good.
Thank you. Good to have that cleared up.
Now that we have pinned down the drink, can we pin down that the “chief suspect” in the attack is the same Ahmed Abu Khattala , or someone by the same name, and — even more pertinently — if the chief suspect actually had anything to do with the attack.
I mean, I know that questions of innocence and guilt are of only academic interest when it comes to fighting terrorism, which is why we don’t know who or how many of the estimated number of terrorist suspects who passed through Guantanamo or maybe still are there were actually guilty of something, or who and how many were shepherds who happened to cross a road at the wrong moment. But I have a nostalgic yen for due process, competent investigations and transparency.
My totally amateur view is that the Benghazi site was a CIA operation (doubt that the Ambassador was CIA) and that the attack came from those, perhaps Khattala, who had a falling out with the CIA (the Ambassador’s death was an accident, and it’s the other three Americans who were the target). If this is accurate, then the CIA knows a lot more than has come clear (or may ever come clear). Khattala, whether or not the mastermind behind the attack, is rubbing the CIA’s nose in it. I wonder what the NYTimes reporter Kirkpatrick really knows.
Not exactly an Alan Furst analysis, but then this isn’t WWII.
Ed, perhaps a prayer would be in order for Mr. Rivera if he decides to have a drink with the guy in question? I have in mind Mr. Taylor’s reference to “atoms reuniting with the great cosmos”, courtesy of a drone!
Wasn’t the ambassador told to not go to benghazi but to stay at the embassy in tripoli precisely because the consulate at benghazi was not safe? As there had been violence there in benghazi against a brit and as that consulate had been targeted by -who knows who exactly [alquada -whatever that means now] or just pro gadaffi therefore anti american militias?Was not a libyan killed by americans in a drone attack in yemen or pakistan just prior to the embassy attack? He -the ambassador- took it upon himself to disobey his superiors. His intentions were noble but unfortunately it cost him his life.Of course if any one in the adminstrations says this-it will come across like they’re blaming the victim but a consulate is not an embassy and he was told to stay at the secure embassy in secure tripoli-no?That’s what I pieced together from the reports on cnn days following the attack.Already it’s all revisionist history -it seems.
This is really in the weeds: Rep. Darrell Issa has released documents related to the investigation of the Benghazi attack. He failed to redact the names of Libyans who had provided information to the U.S. about the attack. Issa is under fire for that; he should also be under fire for what looks like a cheap political trick in front of Monday night’s debate.
The comments following the story at FP assume that the “counsel office” was CIA. http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/19/issa_s_benghazi_document_dump_exposes_several_libyans_working_with_the_us
What a mess.
It would appear that Rep. Issa et al are trying to score cheap political points at the risk of U.S. intelligence sources.
Shame.
Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa just hasn’t been the same since he convened that unforgettable Kosher Deli investigation last winter.
The link links elsewhere. Here’s your article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/world/africa/suspect-in-benghazi-attack-scoffs-at-us.html
Full of local organizational details that probably few people but the reporter care much to know. Maybe the Times thinks this makes them look like experts. Maybe they need to hire back some of their reporters who knew how to tell the flowers from the weeds.
Thanks David. And sorry about that, the original went to Kirkpatrick story; must have been someone mucking about.
Foxnews has putout Sunday a preview of the Romney desperate attempt to cash in on Benghazi. They will attempt to turn a militant attack on an undefended consulate and safe house as a failure of leadership and a failure for the WH. Their failure in Iraq and against Alqeada overlooked This attempt is despicable.