Although they do not say that direct al Qaeda operatives carried out the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, they do say that the attack was retaliation for the death of the latest dead #2 man in al qeada, Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libi.
“The killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya only increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mokhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet,” Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said in a statement, quoted by the US-based monitoring group.
Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based offshoot did not claim direct responsibility for Tuesday’s attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans.
But it stressed that “the uprising of our people in Libya, Egypt and Yemen against America and its embassies is a sign to notify the United States that its war is not directed against groups and organisations … but against the Islamic nation that has rebelled against injustice.”
The group they are describing here is one formed and dedicated to release of the Blind Shiek, who is being held in U.S. prison after being connected to the first World Trade Center Bombing in 1993. Rachel explains here:
On the morning of Sept 11th, Al Qaeda's #1 Zawahiri called for attacks to avenge the death of Yahyah al-libi via drone attack. By the end of the day militants dedicated to the release of the Blind Sheik appear to have carried out that request by attacking our consulate in Benghazi, killing ten Libya guards, two American Security Specialist and two of our Diplomats including the Ambassador, Chris Stevens.
Yeah, you bet they'd want to take credit for that.
First the good news. Libyan officials in addition to the four arrests already made have arrested 50 more people in connection with the consulate attack.
WASHINGTON — Libyan authorities have arrested about 50 people after last week’s killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens in a mob attack in the city of Benghazi, Libya’s parliament chief said Sunday, saying it was planned by foreigners.
“The number reached about 50,” Mohammed al-Megaryef, president of the Libyan National Congress, told CBS News in an interview.
So it seems that the President's promise to "bring to justice" those who carried this out may be happening far more quickly than we've seen with previous attacks of this type, by that the bombing of the U.S. Cole, the Mumbai attacks or 9/11.
And then you have the bad news. Republicans, not just Mitt Romney, are increasing using this situation for political gain.
GREGORY: You’re a supporter of governor Romney, is this American weakness that brought this on. Is that the Republican view, is that what the view of President Romney would be?
KING: Well my view is President Obama’s policy has been confusing it’s been apologetic and it’s been misguided. From the day he started his apology tour back in 2009, he was no matter what people say, apologizing for America. Somehow suggesting that we’ve been anti Islam until he became the president. Even talking about Iraq. He took our troops out of Iraq without even getting the status of forces agreement. He was given a glide path in Iraq and yet he pulled the troops out, brags about the fact that the troops are out, gives a definite get for getting out in Afghanistan. What he’s doing by that is telling our allies they can’t trust us.
Obama
taking our Troops out of Iraq caused this? He didn't get a
Status of Forces Agreement? The HELL he didn't. It's
right here even on Wikipedia.
Fortunately Keith Ellison, Andrea Mitchell and Bob Woodard all criticized King for his comments, Mitchell was especially effective.
And King isn't alone, the Rightwing seems to be Rallying Around the Mitt and his ridiculous claims that the Egyptian Embassy was "apologizing" for something and failed to condemn the Libyan consulate attack which hadn't happened yet.
Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume on Sunday praised Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for using the death of the top U.S. diplomat in Libya for political gain by claiming President Barack Obama was “sympathizing” with America’s enemies.
"I think what he said was correct, but it was clumsy,” Hume told Fox News host Chris Wallace. “And it opened him up to charges that he made a terrible mistake. We had an almost ludicrous overreaction in a lot of the media about it, in which what he did became the big story rather than what was happening over there, which was not a great moment for our national media, I’m sad to say.”
“My sense is that he was on the mark,” Hume added. “He might have timed it better or said it better.”
Your sense is apparently
nonsense, Britt. But then that's typical for Fox, their of course going to turn the legitimate criticism of Romney for
dancing on the still smoldering bodies of Americans into something the "big, bad media" did.
I didn't think they would dare to follow Mitt down this smelly rabbit hole of sedition and calumny. Apparently I was wrong.
But then again as I said yesterday, You Can't Inform Disbelief, especially when it's fed by crass political opportunism.
Vyan