Just when the situation in Libya couldn’t get much more embarrassing for the Obama administration, now comes the news that Ahmed Abu Khattala, a leader of the jihadist group Ansar al Shariah who was seen by witnesses directing the attack on the American consulate, is living openly and defiantly in Benghazi. He is lounging around a seaside hotel and breathing defiance in an interview with a New York Times reporter, bragging that Libya’s nascent army is too “chicken” to come after him. He says he has no plans to go into hiding.
Although he denied being part of the attack, he admitted being on the scene and refused to condemn the murder of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. “From a religious point of view, it is hard to say whether it is good or bad,” he said, no doubt disingenuously.
One can only wonder if the U.S. government knows where Abu Khattala is, or whether this is another instance, as I noted in an earlier post, of the news media knowing more about what’s going on than the intelligence community. And if the U.S. government knows as much as the New York Times, and can track Abu Khattala, the obvious question is why we have not acted to bring him to justice–something that Libya’s government is plainly too weak to do?
Add those to the pressing questions being raised by this whole dismaying episode which, for the moment at least, conveys a lamentable image of American weakness. That could change, of course, if commandos swoop in to capture or kill Abu Khattala or if a drone appears over his house to launch a Hellfire missile–something that is well within the capabilities of the Joint Special Operations Command and CIA.
President Obama will spend a month trying to figure out what to do, another month trying to get permission to act from the Libyan government, then yet another month trying to get permission from the UN. By then Khattala will have become bored of Benghazi and wandered off to someplace unknown. Perhaps Mr. Obama will be looking for the unemployment line by then.
Send Candy Crowley to get Obama's next talking points from him.
This is a sure sign that the level of incompetence that we all witness at government services like the Motor Vehicle Agency has spread like a bad disease to the furthest and highest reaches of the State Department and the CIA. General Petraeus must be pulling his hair out. These most vital functions of govt are now staffed by political hacks and cronies who can't walk straight let alone get current intel on the bad guys or know what to do with it if it's handed to them by reporters. It used to be that people were hired at the CIA or State based strictly upon acumen and dedication and qualifications. Now, it's affirmative action, political loyalty and political correctness. Depressing indeed.