Suspects in 2012 Benghazi attack charged, still free

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say efforts have stalled to capture about a dozen people secretly charged in the 2012 attack on the American compound in Benghazi that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

The individuals have been charged in sealed criminal complaints filed in federal court by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. They include one of the suspected ringleaders of the attack, Ahmed Abu Khattala, a militia leader with ties to al-Qaida, said several U.S officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

So far, none have been brought to trial and the lack of progress in capturing Khattala has frustrated U.S. intelligence officials and lawmakers who want to see him and the others prosecuted. One official said that Khattala continues to operate in eastern Libya with impunity.

“He’s as free as a bird,” said the official.

Law enforcement officials said that the United States might have missed its best chance to arrest Khattala this year. The U.S. intelligence community hatched a plan to snatch Khattala and an accused al-Qaida operative, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi. The planning took months, requiring coordination between the FBI, the CIA and the Army’s elite Delta Force.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan gave the go-ahead to grab Khattala and Ruqai, one U.S. intelligence official said. The plan involved nabbing Ruqai first and then Khattala, days later.

Ruqai was seized outside his home in Tripoli by U.S. military forces and taken out of the country to a U.S. warship for questioning. He was eventually flown to New York to face charges for the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.

Libyan government officials denied they knew about the raid. Zeidan said at a news conference that Libyan citizens should be tried in their home country and “Libya does not surrender its sons.”

The blowback was perhaps fiercer than expected. Days after Ruqai was seized, Zeidan was abducted but eventually released unharmed.

The Khattala mission was scrapped, and now any plans to remove him from Libya are on the back burner.

“This situation is tougher in Libya now,” said a senior Obama administration official. “You sort of get one crack at these things, and then it’s tougher.”