Fox News is reporting that Abu Sufyan Bin Qumu, a former GITMO detainee and head of Ansar al-Shariah, may be responsible for leading the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans.
(See Bryan Preston’s earlier report.)
It should be noted that in April 2011 when Obama war hawks were selling military action against Qaddafi in Libya, the New York Times published an article describing Bin Qumu as a “U.S. ally, of sorts”:
For more than five years, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu was a prisoner at the Guantánamo Bay prison, judged “a probable member of Al Qaeda” by the analysts there. They concluded in a newly disclosed 2005 assessment that his release would represent a “medium to high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies.”
Today, Mr. Qumu, 51, is a notable figure in the Libyan rebels’ fight to oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, reportedly a leader of a ragtag band of fighters known as the Darnah Brigade for his birthplace, this shabby port town of 100,000 people in northeast Libya. The former enemy and prisoner of the United States is now an ally of sorts, a remarkable turnabout resulting from shifting American policies rather than any obvious change in Mr. Qumu.
#Smartdiplomacy
Join the conversation as a VIP Member