Benghazi attack suspect’s trial set to begin
Accused ringleader’s case in federal court is first major terrorism trial under Trump.
WASHINGTON — The accused Libyan ringleader of the 2012 Benghazi attacks goes on trial here Monday, providing another test for the government’s ability to prosecute high-profile terrorism cases in civilian courts even as the White House supports using military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.
The federal trial also will shine a light on the U.S. detention of terrorism suspects in secret — the latest being a still-unidentified American citizen who was captured in Syria by local militias on Sept. 12 and handed over to the U.S. military, which said he had fought for Islamic State.
The Trump administration has yet to publicly identify the American or say where he is being held. It’s unclear whether he has been formally charged, given a lawyer or brought back to the United States.
A Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Benjamin E. Sakrisson, said Thursday that the International Committee of the Red Cross has been notified about the detention and is expected to meet with the suspect “in the near future.”
In the Benghazi case, U.S. special forces captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah in Libya in 2014. Intelligence operatives grilled Abu Khatallah on a U.S. warship for nearly two weeks before he was formally charged and given access to a lawyer.
He was accused of leading the militia that overran a U.S. diplomatic compound and nearby CIA post in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, killing the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Abu Khatallah faces 18 charges, including murder and providing support for terrorists. The U.S. is not seeking the death penalty.
The Benghazi case served as a flashpoint for Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of State. It also marks the first major terrorism trial under President Trump, who vowed during the campaign to again send terrorism suspects to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, instead of trying them in criminal courts.
No terrorism suspects have been sent to Guantanamo Bay since early in the George W. Bush administration. But Trump promised to “load it up” with more detainees, reversing President Obama’s unsuccessful attempts to shut it down. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions similarly called it “a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals.”
So far, Trump has not issued a new policy on the prison, and no one arrested since he took office has been sent there.
In July, for example, Ali Charaf Damache was extradited from Spain to Philadelphia to face federal charges of recruiting men and women for Al Qaeda.
“All options remain on the table,” the Justice Department said in a statement Friday, adding that Trump has “a wide range of tools and authorities” to fight terrorists.
The 2012 assault in Benghazi came amid the chaos that followed the overthrow of Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi.
Militias attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and embassy employee Sean Smith.
Prosecutors say Abu Khatallah, a senior leader of Ansar al Sharia, an Islamist militia, had planned the attack to thwart the United States from gathering intelligence.
According to the charges, Abu Khatallah, now 46, supervised fighters who seized documents and computers at the compound that revealed the location of the CIA post. A mortar attack there several hours later killed security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy SEALs.
A series of Republicanled committees in Congress spent years investigating Clinton’s response to the attacks. Various reports found inadequate security at the compound, leaving the diplomats vulnerable, but said the U.S. military was not in a position to rescue them.
Abu Khatallah later lived openly in Benghazi and even gave media interviews. After he was lured to a seaside villa in June 2014, American commandos grabbed him and took him to a Navy amphibious transport ship, the New York, waiting offshore.
Critics of putting accused terrorists on trial say the priority should be extracting actionable intelligence, not warning suspects that anything they say can be used against them in court. In questioning Abu Khatallah, the government tried to have it both ways.
For the first three days, he was questioned by intelligence officers about terrorist organizations and plots. His answers remain classified, and the Justice Department says they weren’t used to build the criminal case against Abu Khatallah.
After FBI agents were helicoptered to the ship, they gave Abu Khatallah a Miranda warning and began a second interrogation.
“We are now starting anew,” the agents told him, according to court papers. “You are not compelled to speak to us today just because you have already spoken with others in the past.”
The government says Abu Khatallah signed a waiver of his right to keep silent and wrote, “I am prepared to give statements and answer questions” before he spoke to criminal investigators.
It took 13 days for the ship to reach Virginia, apparently in part because of engine trouble. In a hearing, the captain testified that no one in the FBI asked him to slow down to prolong the interrogation. Abu Khatallah has been held in a city jail in Alexandria, Va., awaiting trial.
In pretrial motions, defense lawyers accused the government of a “slow boat” strategy to keep Abu Khatallah from a lawyer, and argued that the two-step interrogation was done to defeat the purpose of a Miranda warning. They also tried to get the charges besides murder dismissed, saying those laws should not apply outside the country.
But U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper allowed the charges and Abu Khatallah’s statements to stand.
“Abu Khatallah was treated respectfully and humanely while in custody,” the judge wrote. “He was not subject to threats or promises of any kind; and his interview sessions were broken up frequently with time for meals, rest and prayer.”