Consulate attack linked to al-qaida

BENGHAZI, LIBYA — The attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi may have been led by a former inmate of Guantanamo Bay who was sent back to Libya by then president George W Bush.

U.S. intelligence officials believe Sufyan Ben Qumu, one of the leaders of the al-Qaida-linked Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, is likely to have been behind the assault.

Ben Qumu, 53, who now lives in the Libyan town of Derna, 225 kilometres east of Benghazi, was released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007. He was imprisoned in Tripoli upon his return to Libya, but later freed by the Gadhafi government.

So far, he has refused to comment on repeated allegations that Ansar al-Sharia members were present during last week’s raid, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Most Libyan authorities, however, including the militias charged with security in Benghazi, believe it was organized by the group.

On Thursday, Fox News claimed to have been told that 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.

Intelligence officials believe there were “communications” between the group and al-Qaida the day of the incident. That information has redoubled questions as to why Stevens was not better protected.

The consulate had come under attack before and al-Gharabi said he had warned American diplomats three days before the assault that Benghazi was “not secure.”

Ben Qumu has a history of alQaida links. According to his Guantanamo records, he was tied to the financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks, while diplomatic files disclosed by The Telegraph last year said he had once been a truck driver for a company owned by Osama bin Laden.

On Thursday night, the White House press secretary Jay Carney said it was “self-evident” that the assault on the Benghazi consulate, which came on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was a “terrorist attack.”

It was initially thought to have resulted from a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim film which simply spiralled out of control.

Officials now believe it was deliberate and carefully aimed. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.

Carney’s comments followed those of the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Centre, Matthew Olsen, who confirmed in a briefing to a Senate committee the attack was being treated as a terrorist incident.

The aftermath of the raid is still causing political ructions in Libya, in the U.S. and between the two countries. William Burns, the U.S. deputy secretary of state flew into Tripoli on Thursday for talks with Libya’s new leaders.

An FBI team, which flew to Libya to help the investigation into the killing, has still not been allowed to visit Benghazi.