"Prime suspect" in Libya consulate attack dares gov't to "arrest me"
A vehicle in flames inside the U.S. Consulate compound in Benghazi, Sept. 11, 2012.
/ Getty(CBS News) BENGHAZI - Ahmed Boukhatala didn't look like a wanted man, sipping mango juice across the table from me in a Benghazi hotel.
Dressed in a crisp white robe, a long grey beard on his face, Boukhatala was happy to share his fundamentalist Islamic beliefs.
He calmly denied having anything to do with the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate which killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
"But the President himself, Mohammed Magariaf, told us you were one of the prime suspects," I told him.
He just smiled.
"If that's what the President is saying," replied Boukhatala, "Then he should come to my house and arrest me."
But that's something government security forces dare not do.
Libya moderates, militants plan dueling demos
Video: Witness says there was no protest at consulate
What's behind the anti-U.S. protests in Muslim world?
Boukhatala is the chief of a ferocious militia in Benghazi, the Abu Ubaidah Brigades - a sub-group of the larger Ansar al Shariah militia.
These men, armed to the teeth with weapons looted from deposed dictator Muammar Qaddafi's arsenals, act as both military and police in parts of Benghazi. They are the law - because they say so.
The government's security forces - official police and army - are simply too weak to push them out.
Boukhatala told us he did go to the U.S. Consulate compound the night of deadly attack.
"I went to help four men who were trapped inside," he said. When he arrived, though, the men were gone.
"What time was that?" I asked. He couldn't remember. The shooting had stopped at that point, he said.
Pressed on the matter, Boukhatala said the U.S. deaths were a tragedy, but claimed they were due to a lack of understanding between the U.S. and Libya over the crude film mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammed.
The attackers, he said, were just ordinary people.
"Ordinary people armed with rocket propelled grenades?"
"Yes," he responded.
The details of what exactly happened the night the consulate compound was attacked are still murky. What is clear, though, is that Libya's government is paralyzed.
Even though the official security forces are under huge pressure from America to arrest those who planned and carried out the attack, they haven't acted because any moves against the Islamist militias could turn into a bloody battle... one the government could well lose.
If the government moves in to arrest some of the Islamist militia members suspected of the attack, I asked Boukhatala, would it start a fight?
"Yes," he answered. "That's what we expect."
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Out of the endless litany of false allegations from the Right towards President Obama, their latest hateful effort to blame the president for the tragic attack on our Libyan embassy is perhaps their darkest moment. The president has been decent enough not to point the finger of blame at the George W Bush administration even though it is a known fact that the leader and organizer of the deadly attack on our embassy, Sufian bin Qumu, had been captured and imprisoned as a terrorist suspect by the W administration, but then released from Guantanamo by the same administration in 2007! The W administration trusted Moammar Gadhafi the Libyan leader to keep this criminal in prison! Yet Gadhafi released him in 2010 to celebrate his 41st anniversary as dictator! Even the story I use to corroborate my facts [See below] tries to spin the blame away from the W crowd by claiming 'Gadhafi released the prisoner, not W'. What a JOKE!
Instead of focusing on these basic facts the Right is trying to make a big deal out of the possibility that the embassy should have been better guarded. The fact is that every embassy in every troubled country along with every soldier in every war zone could use better funding, equipment and security. The entire Iraq war a tragic story of soldiers sent into battle, lacking proper equipment, crummy flak jackets and vehicles not hardened against roadside bombs. Life is hard and war is hell and the Republicans trying to flip the blame from their side to the president on this issue should burn in hell.
http://TheDixieDove.com/
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Libyan Attack Led By Former Gitmo Detainee
Investors.com http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/092012-626506-guantanamo-detainee-led-attack-on-us-consulate-in-libya.htm?p=full
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13034180-osama-bin-laden-reaches-to-libya-and-pakistan-from-from-his-watery-grave
Progress for Romney already coming from his new double down on "aggressiveness"; he has moved from flip flop to flop for consistency, and he is now increasing momentum by doubling down. Unfortunately the momentum is also down....
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13017922-its-the-dishonesty-stupid
Mitt is less than competent as a politician; can't juggle more than one ball at a time. And his wife is already complaining and the "hardest" part is yet to come..... It seems they thought they just had to show up and everyone would be relieved to relieve the Obama's at the helm of this Nation...
I want to see a new Congress in Obama's hands. Let's give him a clear mandate and the tools to execute a recovery. A strong one. America has been loitering with the GOP for too long.
Mitt has written off half of all Americans. Yet he knows not who they are.
I guess he sees them as irresponsible and an expense to America; not his America. I suppose he sees not a "self made" man or woman among them. They didn't build this country? Romney owes them an apology, yet; he wouldn't know an apology if it punched him in the nose.
Mitt sees the Presidency as not to help the needy; but rather, to help those who don't need it. These people are the old and less fortunate, maybe even some thrown in the street after the pillaging of American companies. Mitt and Bain cheated the American Treasury and buried their treasure in the Caribbean. What does Mitt really believe?
What is more shocking is that it is possible to write off half the country and still get elected in America! Because of the political duopoly and the blind faith of GOP followers. Plus the GOP's efforts to disenfranchise many Americans; a fraudulent attempt to prevent "fraud".
America needs Obama. It is actually Obama's footprints that remain at the RNC; and it is Obama who will move America Forward and rebuild the nation.
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12989871-from-breaking-to-building-a-nation-the-change-is-you
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12889195-footprints-at-the-republican-national-convention-in-tampa-florida
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/13017922-its-the-dishonesty-stupid
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/12903382-michele-obama-and-bill-clinton-lay-out-at-the-rnc-just-how-much-obama-believes-in-america-does-mitt-romney-believe-in-america-or-something-else?clear_cache=true
After all, Obama's held up his.
end of the bargain on all of his promises, such as:
- Cutting the deficit in half by Nov, 2012.
- That he would end the recession and bring back a healthy, booming economy.
- That he would end the war in Iraq in such a way as to bring the troops.
home without leaving Iraq in violent convulsions.
- That he would "reset" relations with Russia.
- That he would go over the federal budget "line by line" to weed out waste
and corruption and would thereby save so much money that it would go a long
way towards balancing the budget.
- That he would bring peace to the Middle East.
- That he would create a better world with more opportunities for students.
...- His "Sunlight Before Signing" promise, and I quote, "When there is a
bill.
that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five
days.
to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it.
- Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses.
- Obama's promised to provide a $3,000 refundable tax credit to existing.
businesses for every additional full-time U.S. employee hired in 2009 and.
2010.
- His "Earmark Reform", which was to go line by line to make sure that we.
are not spending money unwisely.
- Obama Flashback: My Presidency Will Be 'A One-Term Proposition'
if Economy Doesn't Turn Around in '3 Years'
....The economy has not turned around " Promise " WELL PLEASE RESIGN NOW!!
Like I said, if Obama said it, then it must be true,,, OB PROMISES!
Just a minute! lets add some clarity to this conversation if you don't.
mind...
Proof that Obama-nomics isn't working.
"terrible May, June, July unemployment numbers," And doesn't seem to be
improving, attributed to high energy cost and taxes, = Obama Policies and
regulations through EPA.
U6 un employment numbers are around 23 million people
THE HERO Story
"Leaks". Obama White House only so far,
To make him look like a hero? He killed Bin Laden, with what talk!
last I heard a Navy Seal Did it; No oBama was never in the service...of this
country?
I also Heard FDR won World War two.. one bad A sss president right..
And Woodrow Wilson Our first Progressive President Won world War one...
So Abe Lincoln Won The Civil War.. Obama just continuing a tradition of Bad
A
Presidents..
Right!
We can get rid of our Military now no longer needed with Hero in the White
House..
Obama Stimulus?
Over the top; proving hope fully, once and for all; that Saul ALinsky's' (
Ob's mentor was an American communist, community and street organizer and.
writer) spending ones way out of debt does not work..
Wasn't Obama a street and community Organizer? So was Adolf Hitler, Joseph
Stalin.
Stole GM from stock and Bond holders and Gave it to the UAW UNION. Stole yes
Never could spend my way out of debt, can any of you?
But I didn't go to Harvard, maybe I missed that one or my school did not
teach it, wonder why... I am going to write one of my former math teachers
and.
ask why. I was not taught that little trick... Maybe I was not smart
enough....Hmm
spend one's self out of Debt, then why do we have a deficit?????
The left wants an economic disaster Obama and his cronies have proven they.
want an economic disaster, they have implemented policies that will destroy.
the US economy. EPA, No coal, No oil drilling..and have INTENTIONALLY.
undermined the economy in every way they can, to promote Green energy. No
matter the cost to the US economy...All Green energy is subsidized like.
Ethanol, taking food off the table.
Cheap Energy equals Jobs at home and exports of produced goods!
Why?
Because you can; compete with world markets.. Something we cannot do any more.
It is deliberate and planned I firmly believe. It creates more welfare.
recipients more votes for the current machine in office long term
A country once was a beautiful place to visit in sub-sahara now is totaly gone.
Let me ask this, is this america and it allies want Africa to be?
Why don't we bow and apologize for everything and everyone? These people wanted to kill and were looking for an excuse to do so. You hunt down these people and kill them or look weak as a Nation in the world for not doing it. Russia would never have tollerated such crimes against their Nation. You have to look at the bigger picture here. If we don't act, we are setting future global policy on what is ok to do to your Government members and Marines in that Embassy. That it is ok to kill our men, storm our buildings, burn our Flag. That is usually pretext for war. President Obama has some tough choices to make on setting our future policy. Looking weak and not doing anything, bad juju against hard line extremists that are using a video as an excuse. It an excuse and nothing more. As the Greatest Super Power in the World, you better be able to thump people with that stick that cross you or get used to being a whipping boy. It's pretty easy, they storm the walls, you shoot them off and if the crowd storms, you empty all ammo on them. You do that or you are setting the future policy that it is ok to storm our Embassy. I don't care if they are angry or about "their" feelings. When they breach our walls, they crossed the line. Shooting people is not that hard. You first have to have the Juevos to do it. If you can't do that, then our Marines should not be posted at our Embassy's.