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Reuters) - The assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week in which four Americans died was a "terrorist attack" that may have had an al Qaeda connection, a top U.S. counterterrorism official told Congress on Wednesday.
The Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues wasn’t coordinated in advance, according to Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center.
(Reuters) - The head of Libya's national congress said on Sunday about 50 people had been arrested in connection with a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week, although the interior minister put the figure far lower.
Tuesday's attack in Benghazi coincided with protests over a video made in the United States that denigrates the Prophet Mohammad. It resulted in the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.
Libyan assembly head Mohammed Magarief was asked by the "Face the Nation" program on the U.S. television network CBS how many people had been arrested in connection with the assault, and replied: "About 50."
But Libyan Interior Minister Fawzi Abdel A'al, when asked about that figure, told Reuters in Tripoli that only four arrests had been made and around 50 people were "wanted for investigation".
Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".
Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader".
His revelations came even as Idriss Deby Itno, Chad's president, said al-Qaeda had managed to pillage military arsenals in the Libyan rebel zone and acquired arms, "including surface-to-air missiles, which were then smuggled into their sanctuaries".
Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" in Afghanistan, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008.
US and British government sources said Mr al-Hasidi was a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which killed dozens of Libyan troops in guerrilla attacks around Derna and Benghazi in 1995 and 1996.
It was here at the courthouse in Benghazi where the first spark of the Libyan revolution ignited. It’s the symbolic seat of the revolution; post-Gaddafi Libya’s equivalent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square. And it was here, in the tumultuous months of civil war, that the ragtag rebel forces established their provisional government and primitive, yet effective, media center from which to tell foreign journalists about their “fight for freedom.”
But according to multiple eyewitnesses—myself included—one can now see both the Libyan rebel flag and the flag of al Qaeda fluttering atop Benghazi’s courthouse.
The former self-employed National Transitional Council (NTC) succeeded in organizing the General Elections and accordingly power was transferred peacefully to the elected General National Congress (GNG). Although the NTC and its government managed during a difficult stage to run the country and deal with some urgent files, both failed to restore stability to Libya.
The criticism directed to the NTC and its transitional government was their inability to get involved in effectively forming the national army and police. Accordingly, the Libyan government encountered difficulties to bring many tribal and regional conflicts under control and hundreds of lives were lost as a result of that.
The Supreme Security Committee (SSC) was created to fill in the security vacuum. Many former revolutionaries have been given the chance to join the SSC which has played a role in maintaining a relative state of security.
The problem is that the security situation is continuously deteriorating in the country. Almost every passing day, we hear about explosions, assassinations, attacks on foreign interests and/or abduction and murder of Libyans and foreigners.
Some conflicts have caused tens of thousands of Libyans to be internally displaced. All are waiting for the government to address their problems. Many figures of the former regime live outside the country, some of which could pose a threat to Libya.
"They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy," Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in response to a question at a Senate hearing.
Olsen said whether the attack was planned for September 11 was under investigation, but the information so far indicated it was "an opportunistic attack" that "began and evolved, and escalated over several hours."
Originally posted by sylent6
Source
Reuters) - The assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week in which four Americans died was a "terrorist attack" that may have had an al Qaeda connection, a top U.S. counterterrorism official told Congress on Wednesday.
In my own opinion, I find this to be interesting at the least. Matthew Olsen is director of the National Counterterrorism Center stated that this was an "terrorist attack" that may had an al Qaeda connection but isn't for sure if there was.
At this point as I see it, no one knows for sure who is behind the attacks because no responsibility as been claim at this point. So how do we know if it was a terrorist attack or a so-call criminal acts?
My next question is, how come there were no u.s. marines securing the embassy but it was handled by foreign nationals? Do we have foreign troops or private security securing u.s. government properties?
They're so many speculations out there that it seems impossible to understand at this point. But, the dates, and the good timing of it all makes me wonder who is responsible.
I say personally, draw a big circle on a sheet of paper and you may find the answer. "whatever that means"
Please keep comments and opinions nice and clean.