Not a ‘Bogus’ Benghazi Connection (Muhammad Jamal al Kashef; Thomas Joscelyn nails it)

During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick was asked about the connections between Muhammad Jamal’s network and the Benghazi attack.

This reporting contradicts Kirkpatrick’s thesis that only “local” Libyan actors were involved and that neither al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, nor any other internationally connected terrorist groups, took part in the September 11, 2012 assault.

Cooper asked Kirkpatrick if the Jamal ties showed an al Qaeda link to Benghazi and about the Times’s own reporting on this connection. Kirkpatrick responded:

I don't believe that group was involved. I think that the reporting in our paper was citing some congressional officials saying they thought this Jamal group might have been involved. And the congressional officials in turn were citing a report in the Wall Street Journal and that report seems to me to the best of my knowledge to have come from Egyptian intelligence. And at the end of the day, what it asserts is just that this character Jamal may have run a training camp someplace and people who had been at that training camp may have been involved in the attack. So it’s…to my mind a bogus connection and also a tenuous connection and it is certainly not a connection that the New York Times has ever put its weight behind.

The Jamal network’s role in Benghazi cannot be both “bogus” and “tenuous,” of course. Either there are ties, however tenuous, or there are not. In reality, the Jamal network’s role is neither “bogus,” nor “tenuous.”

Three current U.S. intelligence officials tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD that no new information has cast doubt on the Jamal network’s role in Benghazi. Each of the U.S. intelligence officials said that it is their current assessment that Jamal’s network was directly involved.

The United Nations Security Council’s Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee also finds reports of the Jamal network’s involvement to be credible.

In its October 18, 2013 designation of Jamal and his network as al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, the UN noted the following with respect to Jamal:

Reported to be involved in the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on 11 Sep. 2012.

The UN also wrote in reference to the Muhammad Jamal Network (MJN):

MJN members were reported to be involved in the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on 11 Sep. 2012.

There are multiple additional problems with Kirkpatrick’s explanation.

Kirkpatrick claims that the Times never “put its weight behind” behind the Jamal network’s connection to Benghazi. But the Times did not cast doubt on this connection when its sources previously told them about it. It's not even clear what Kirkpatrick means. Either the Times’s sources were right or they were wrong. Either the report was accurate or it wasn't. If it wasn't, if Kirkpatrick thinks something the paper once reported as fact is now “tenuous” or even “bogus,” shouldn't he explain why?

Here is the language from the Times’s October 29, 2012 report:

Three Congressional investigations and a State Department inquiry are now examining the attack, which American officials said included participants from Ansar al-Shariah, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Muhammad Jamal network, a militant group in Egypt.

Kirkpatrick says that this passage cited congressional officials. The Times’s sources are described only as “American officials.” Note that this sentence does not just cite Congressional investigations, but also a “State Department inquiry.”

Libyan Leader: Embassy Attack Unrelated to Islam Video 9/26/2012
Libyan president: 'No doubt' attack 'preplanned' (Magariaf on Face the Nation) 9/16/2012
Secret email reveals top official told Libya's president that terrorists were behind Benghazi attack 5/8/2013
House panel hears account of Benghazi attack 5/8/2013
Hicks said U.S. officials knew better by then and that the remarks angered the Libyan president, who had gone on record calling it a terrorist attack. That discord prevented the FBI from reaching Benghazi for several days, Hicks said, because the Libyan government was not able to guarantee their safety.
Libyan President Mohamed Yusuf al-Magariaf was "insulted in front of his own people," Hicks said. "His credibility was reduced. His ability to lead his country was damaged."

US officials knew Libya attack was terrorism within 24 hours, sources confirm September 27, 2012 FoxNews.com
Intelligence sources said that the Obama administration internally labeled the attack terrorism from the first day in order to unlock and mobilize certain resources to respond, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect. The sources said the intelligence community knew by Sept. 12 that the militant Ansar al-Shariah and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were likely behind the strike.
Further, an official said, "No one ... believed that the mortars, indirect and direct fire, and the RPGs were just the work of a mob -- no one."
(snip)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly suggested Wednesday to foreign leaders visiting the United Nations summit in New York that the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa was involved.
"Now with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions," Clinton told the group, according to The New York Times. "And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi."
She was referring to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Egypt intelligence warns (on Sept 4th) of attacks on Israel, US embassies September 13, 2012
Congress was warned about Libya last month
Libyan president: 'No doubt' attack 'preplanned' (Magariaf on Face the Nation) September 16, 2012
"The way these perpetrators acted and moved -- I think we, and they're choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think we have no, this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, determined," Magariaf said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"And you believe that this was the work of Al Qaeda, and you believe that it was led by foreigners. Is that what you’re telling us?" CBS host Bob Schieffer asked.
"It was planned, definitely. It was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago. And they were planning this criminal act since their arrival," Magariaf said.
Magariaf said that more than 50 arrests have been made with some suspects from Mali and Algeria.
"They entered Libya from different directions. Some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria," Magariaf said.

For what it's worth, I posited the following theory to a friend a couple of months ago:

1. Stevens' visit to Benghazi wasn't known until the morning prior due to his having been on the local news, with him even keeping State in the dark as to his movements/schedule. As far as anyone knew, Stevens was in Tripoli until he made the local Benghazi TV news the morning of the 10th.

2. Once it was known that he was in Benghazi, the AQ forces that were to attack the Tripoli embassy simultaneous to the Cairo embassy began striking a deal with the Benghazi militia to both attack the Special Mission and maybe take the Ambassador hostage, him with a much reduced security contingent.

3. Reports were that an unknown person was taking photographs of the Mission after midnight on 9/11.

4. 13 hours later, the Benghazi mission was attacked.

5. Road travel time from Tripoli to Benghazi: Take a wild guess (Google Map it).

6. As far as the 'expert mortar fire': There's an App for that. They could have coordinated the entire attack while on the road with a laptop & a smart phone.

Maybe I'm blowing smoke...but no one else I've seen has ever explained why the horrible discrepancy between Cairo & Benghazi attack timelines for an organization that has consistently coordinated simultaneous attacks in the past. Just a theory to fit the facts that are known.

3. Reports were that an unknown person was taking photographs of the Mission after midnight on 9/11.

Not unknown. Sean Smith told a friend that it was one of the local police that was photographing the consulate the day of the attack.

Troubling documents recently found in the wreckage of the Benghazi consulate November 1, 2012
According to a new article on Foreignpolicy.com, two reporters in Benghazi were able to pick through the wreckage of the American consulate in recent days. They found several documents, including two that back up a statement by Sean Smith that the consulate was being photographed by the Benghazi police. They also show that a request had been made of the Benghazi police on September 9th for more security while Stevens was in the city.

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