More evidence identifying U.S. ambassador's killers

Further evidence has surfaced suggesting two major al-Qaida-linked figures in Libya were behind the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans.

As WND reported Sunday, a top-secret, Libyan intelligence report obtained by a Libyan whistleblower documents the activities of terror-funder Mohammad Abdullah Aqil and Libya al-Qaida chief Abdul Hakem Belhaj.

The WND story incorrectly stated that the 270-page, Arabic-language intelligence report itself tied Aqil and Belhaj to the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed the ambassador and staffers Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

The intelligence report, in fact, was written in 2007, five years before the attack. However, another Libyan intel report, according to the independent Egyptian daily paper Al-Masry al-Yawm, documents the jihadist collaboration of Aqil and Belhaj in Libya and their ties to al-Qaida.

After initially blaming the deaths on a violent protest of an anti-Islam film, the White House has confirmed that the attack was orchestrated by al-Qaida-related terrorists.

Arab researcher Walid Shoebat, who translated and analyzed the intelligence report for WND, said he cannot be certain that Aqil or Belhaj were directly responsible for the Benghazi attack last month, but he believes there is sufficient evidence to warrant further investigation.

In any case, he said in a report on his website, "al-Qaida got its revenge."

"The Obama administration failed miserably to protect Stevens and three other Americans," said Shoebat.

He said finding the culprits who killed the four Americans in Benghazi will not be easy. He noted that it was months before the U.S. was even reasonably sure that al-Qaida was behind the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

He emphasized that violence "floods Libya even more now than during the time of Gadhafi."

"Libya is on its way to explode," Shoebat warned.

The classified document, which was submitted to the United Nations, confirms other Arab sources reporting Aqil headed major assassination plots in several countries under the Gadhafi regime before falling out of favor.

Since learning of the intelligence report, Shoebat has found other Arabic sources that confirm Belhaj’s connection to al-Qaida.

In a Sept. 13 article, the major Tunisian daily paper Turess confirmed numerous reports that Belhaj was the brother of al-Qaida No. 2 leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed by a U.S. drone in Pakistan. The article said Belhaj was in Afghanistan along with Libi and trained with al-Qaida under Osama bin Laden's authority.

Shoebat cited an interview Belhaj, then identified as a senior commander, gave to the London Guardian last year as evidence the jihadist leader had another personal motive to kill Stevens.

Belhaj claimed he was tortured in Bangkok by two CIA agents before being returned to Libya, where he was tortured again.

Scattered documents

Shoebat also found an Arabic source that might explain how the 270-page intelligence report was obtained.

The independent Egyptian daily paper Al-Masry al-Yawm reported March 3, 2011, that when the Central Intelligence Agency building was destroyed in Tripoli last year, top-secret documents were scattered. The paper does not refer to the 270-page report, but it cites another Libyan intel report found in the demolished building

The whistleblower who provided the intelligence report emphasized in an interview with WND that Gadhafi was not a "radical Islamist" and kept al-Qaida out of Libya.

“If it had not been for NATO, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, al-Qaida would not be in Libya and Chris Stevens would still be alive,” he said.

Aqil, the principal funder of al-Qaida in Libya, works closely in Libya with Belhaj, the leader of the Misrata revolutionaries who ultimately captured the capital Tripoli and ousted Gadhafi, Shoebat said.

After Gadhafi was killed, a reliable Arabic source reported via Facebook that Aqil provided the cash to Belhaj to purchase vehicles and military equipment for Libyan revolutionaries and al-Qaida terrorists opposed to the new regime imposed by the U.S. and NATO.

Reformed jihadist?

Shoebat explained that after the Obama administration and NATO sided with the rebels against Gadhafi, al-Qaida operatives "suddenly became legitimate in Libya, and Belhaj became a hero carrying out the Obama-Clinton-NATO plan for the anti-government rebellion to oust Gadhafi."

Belhaj now claims he is no longer an al-Qaida member and, remarkably, is suing the U.K. commission in charge of Diego Garcia over his 2004 extradition to Gadhafi’s Libya, charging his personal civil rights were violated.

"If Belhaj was involved, it does not bode well for the Obama administration," Shoebat said.

Shoebat pointed out Belhaj, contrary to evidence, is portrayed in media reports as a rehabilitated, deradicalized figure, referenced as a “leader of the conservative Islamist Al-Watan Party” and “former head of Tripoli Military Council.”

New York Times reporter Rod Nordland reported in a September 2011 story that while Belhaj "concedes that he was the emir of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was deemed by the United States to be a terrorist group allied with Al Qaeda, he says he has no Islamic agenda."

"He says he will disband the fighters under his command, merging them into the formal military or police, once the Libyan revolution is over," the Times reported.

One day after the attack on the Benghazi consulate, Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute downplayed the impact of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the LIFG, saying that prior to the 2011 uprising in Libya, the group "had already deradicalized and retired.”

He argued that after Gadhafi's fall, the LIFG split into two political factions that contested the July 2012 legislative elections.

But Shoebat argued that when Muslim terrorist entities gain political power, "they simply switch gears, play politics and wait to gain more, which is ultimately followed by even greater violence."