The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi may have been led by a former inmate of Guantanamo Bay who was sent back to Libya by President George W. Bush.
A burnt car is seen parked outside the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Photo: REUTERS
By Richard Spencer, Benghazi
7:16PM BST 20 Sep 2012
US intelligence officials believe Sufyan Ben Qumu, one of the leaders of the al Qaeda-linked Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, is likely to have been behind the assault.
Mr Ben Qumu, who now lives openly in the Libyan town of Derna, 150 miles to the east of Benghazi, was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007. He was imprisoned in Tripoli upon his return to Libya, but later freed by Col Muammar Gaddafi’s government.
The 53-year-old has so far refused to comment on repeated allegations that Ansar al-Sharia members were present during last week’s raid, which killed the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
Most Libyan authorities however, including the militias charged with security in Benghazi, believe it was organised by, and featured members of the group.
“Now it is very clear who was responsible for this,” Mohammed al-Gharabi, the leader of the biggest pro government militias, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
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“It was people from Ansar al-Sharia - not all of them but some of them, and I think (the organisation) knows who did it.”
Yesterday, Fox News claimed to have been told that Mr Ben Qumu was likely to have been “involved in the attack, and even may have led the attack on the consulate”. He formed Ansar al-Sharia - or “Supporters of Sharia” - in the wake of last year’s Libyan revolution.
US intelligence officials believe there were “communications” between the group and al-Qaeda - most likely, its franchise in north Africa - on the day of the incident.
hat information has redoubled questions as to why Mr Stevens was not better protected. The consulate had come under attack before and Mr al-Gharabi said he had warned American diplomats three days before the assault that Benghazi was “not secure”.
Mr Ben Qumu has a history of al Qeada links. According to his Guantanamo records, he was tied to the financiers of the 9/11 attacks, while diplomatic files revealed in The Daily Telegraph last year said he had once been a truck driver for a company owned by Osama bin Laden.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said it was “self evident” that the assault on the Benghazi consulate, which came on the 11th anniversary of 9/11, was a “terrorist attack”.
It was initially thought to have resulted from a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim film an that simply spiralled out of control. However, officials now believe it was deliberate and targeted. Mr Stevens was the first US ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
“It is self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” Mr Carney said. “Our embassy was attacked violently and the result was four deaths of American officials. That’s self-evident.”
His comments followed those of Matthew Olsen, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, who confirmed in a briefing to a Senate committee that the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident.
The aftermath of the raid is still causing political ructions in Libya, in the United States and between the two countries.
William Burns, the United States deputy secretary of state flew into Tripoli on Thursday for talks with Libya’s new leaders, but an FBI team which flew to Libya to help the investigation into the killing has still not been allowed to visit Benghazi itself.
The Libyan police investigation into the killing of Mr Stevens and three other consulate staff continues, with repeated rumours that Ansar al-Sharia are being persuaded to hand over the ring-leaders. However, there are also fears that the United States may take its own punitive action.
“It would be a big political mistake if the Americans did anything like this,” Mr al-Ghariba said.
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