Blog #236 The Long Sought Capture of a Killer of Americans
Capture of Zabar al-Bakoush of Libya
This morning the terrorist Zabar al-Bakoush arrived in custody at the Andrews AFB. He was the facilitator of the attack on our mission in Benghazi fourteen years ago. You may recall that two other terrorists were captured before. Ahmed al-Khattalah was captured in 2014 and sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. Another court felt that the sentence was too lenient and upped the sentence to 28 years. Mustafa al-Imam was also captured and is serving 20 years in federal prison. Personally, I cannot imagine ever releasing them.
What follows is what I wrote before on the Seven Ambassadors who were assassinated.
Our ambassador to Libya was Christopher Stevens. He was posted to our embassy in Tripoli on May 22, 2012. Libya was still in chaos after a civil war which saw Colonel Qaddafi slaughtering his own people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had gone there in October of 2011 to ask Qaddafi to step down, but he refused. Airstrikes were ordered and Qadaffi was captured and ripped apart by his people. Hillary Clinton boasted that, “We came, we saw, he died.’
So, what was Ambassador doing in Benghazi on July 11, 2012 ? Apparently, he was trying to recover Stinger missiles that had gotten into the hands of the wrong people. He was away from his office in Tripoli and without his Marine Security detail. He had asked for more security for the Benghazi office but was denied by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
If you recall, when news of the attack was underway, President Obama retired to his quarters as he had an early wake-up tomorrow to go visit his ATM in Las Vegas.
I cannot prove it, but I think I am right on this. This was an opportunity to kidnap Ambassador Stevens and force a trade for the Blind Sheikh. I believe that the Muslim Brotherhood farmed this out to Ansar al-Sharia to force President Obama to allow the trade.
But once the call for help went out from the Annex, the two Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty joined the fight and disrupted the kidnapping plot. In the end, they, Sean Smith, and the ambassador all died.
I might add that any photo you saw of the ambassador being savaged by the mob was untrue. He and Sean Smith had hidden in the power plant and it caught fire. Friendly Libyans carried the ambassador to the Benghazi Medical Center nearby. They did not know who he was. Doctor Ziad Abu Zeid worked on the ambassador for an hour but could not save him. The recorded cause of death was ‘Severe Asphyxiation by Smoke’. No other injuries were noted in the doctor’s report.
In the end, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama escaped any blame for Benghazi. As she said in testimony to the Senate, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
Harold “Hal” K. Strunk
Note: A Military Veteran and friend of mine, Hal spent 22 years in the military serving both the Army and the Navy. He has advanced degrees and is well-versed in the Middle East conflicts. More about his background, Has was a Hospital Administrator/Epidemiologist for Saudi Arabian Armed Forces Hospitals in Dhahran and Taif. Returned to the area with the Navy Medical in Desert Storm. Navy Project Officer for Chemical and Biological Warfare Defense. Retired Navy Captain, 1994.