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The US Department of Justice has announced that Zubayar al-Bakoush has been arrested and extradited to the United States for his alleged role in the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. The suspect arrived at Andrews Air Force Base early Friday morning. 

This arrest reopens a criminal case — but also reopens unresolved questions of accountability for Benghazi itself.

A Long Time Coming 

al-Bakoush is reportedly the first arrest related to Benghazi in over eight years. Two other suspects — Ahmed Abu Khatallah and Mustafa al-Imam — were previously convicted. Another suspect Ali Awni al-Harzi was killed in a 2015 airstrike in Iraq.

An unsealed eight-count indictment in the US District Court for Washington, DC shows charges of murder, attempted murder, arson, terrorism, conspiracy and material support for terrorists. 

For the survivors of the attack, today’s news about Zubayar al-Bakoush is too little too late. 

“It’s a waste of time and resources!” John “Tig” Tiegan told Colorado Free Press. Tig was among the contract forces at the CIA annex who were reportedly told to stand down during the attack. 

“How much did it cost to track him down, fly his ass here, room and board him, now prosecute him, and then put him in prison for the rest of his life for being maybe number 36 not even top 20!”

It’s a relevant question. Tig leaves open the possibility that al-Bakoush may have relevant intelligence, suggesting they may have “captured him for interrogation on more recent stuff,” but said that outside that narrow possibility, “It’s a complete waste!”

Tig also confirmed popular sentiment about US accountability for the unnecessary tragedy. 

“Benghazi wasn’t a criminal act, it was an attack by an enemy force. If our government wants to hold people accountable, look at [the] people in our own government [and] hold them accountable!”

This is important, and it’s notable given Hillary Clinton’s expected testimony before Congress on the Epstein scandal. Now they have a currency reason to ask again about Benghazi.  

The news of Zubayar al-Bakoush raises new questions about the 2012 attack — which Republicans in Congress may probe. Let’s hope they do…

Readers may recall another time the former Secretary was asked about the scandalous tragedy:

A Lack of Closure. A Lack of Accountability.

The Benghazi attack remains a major unresolved scandal and a source of national shame. The Obama administration failures on that fate-filled night comprise NY Times Bestsellers and Major Motion Pictures. 

Politicizing the tragedy makes it worse. It also allows for plausible deniability and ensures that accountability — real accountability — is all but impossible. 

Consider that, according to investigators and members of the annex security team, the Hillary Clinton State Department outright denied or failed to act on multiple requests for increased security at the Benghazi compound. The requests were based upon on-the-ground intelligence about militia activity in eastern Libya. 

Delays in response from Washington cost lives — US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith, and security contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the attacks. Even after it was clear the Americans were under attack and seriously outnumbered, accounts from the annex security team allege military assets were still delayed — based on political calculus about the “optics”. The behavior of the administration during and after the attack supports the argument, though no official confirmation from the government exists. They would never admit that! 

Nearby US forces or regional quick-reaction capabilities were not mobilized — and even ordered to stand down, according to the first hand accounts from survivors. 

Despite intelligence to the contrary, Obama Administration officials initially linked the attack to protests over an anti-Muslim video spreading in Western media. You can hear Hillary Clinton mention this in the video clip above. You can also hear Rice defend her ridiculous comments here:

That's her explanation a year later. Here are the talking points in question (watch to the end): 

My opinion: She tacitly blamed the American People’s "internalized racism" for the deaths of four Americans in a foreign desert when the administration was exclusively to blame for the situation and its outcome in the second.

Deputy Secretary of State at the time Jake Sullivan was reported to have worked with Rice on strategy. (This was arguably an illegal psychological warfare operation, conducted on the American people, but they’ll never admit that either.) Sullivan would go on to serve in Rice’s former role of National Security Advisor during the Autopen Presidency of Joe Biden. His wife Maggie Goodlander is former JAG Officer and current Congresswoman and one of the former military officers caught up in the “Seditious Six” scandal, where six legislators publicly called for military personnel to subvert the chain of command based, ostensibly, on political calculus.

Nice family. 

Plausible Deniability Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry 

In the end, plausible deniability reigned. 

Confusion cited in the chain of command and interagency coordination between State, Defense, CIA, and the White House. This remains a gray area, because decision logs and timelines were allegedly not fully disclosed, or were excessively redacted, according to investigators and critics. 

A notable aspect of this story is that, while many on the internet equate Hillary Clinton’s email server to salacious stories about horrific  acts involving children, Benghazi is one of the founding scandals involving the Secretary’s secret email server. 

The one she “bleached.”

Current CIA Director John Ratcliffe asked former FBI Director James Comey, a critical factor in solidifying the scandal’s coverup during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Presidential run, about the private email server (and its since destroyed evidence), during his time in the Congress: 

There has yet to be any meaningful accountability. 

The State Department’s independent Accountability Review Board found “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” in security decision-making. 

Four State Department officials, including the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, were relieved of duties following the report, but all were later reassigned or returned to duty.

No senior political appointees were terminated or formally sanctioned. No employees were fired. 

Essentially, “Sorry. Mistakes were made. Some people did something. We have new rules now.” 

Many such cases.

***

For the families and survivors, that’s unacceptable. They deserve justice, and justice must apply to the Americans who left them to die. 

One more foreign arrest isn’t justice — it’s paperwork. If new proceedings bring new testimony and new scrutiny, Congress has an obligation to pursue accountability.

How the government answers failure matters just as much as how it answers crime. 

Both answers should be “Justice.”

Anything less really is, as Tig claims, mere waste.

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