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The suspected ringleader of the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks, who was captured by U.S. forces over the weekend, was actually interviewed by multiple media outlets last year — a stunning revelation that could raise questions over why it took the U.S. so long to arrest the man.

CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon, who spoke last year with Ahmed Abu Khattal, the suspected mastermind in the 2012 Benghazi terror attack that killed four Americans, said not only was he not in hiding but he actually offered to speak with American officials about the attack. Ahmed Abu Khattal did not deny he was at the consulate the night of September 12, 2012 but instead claims he was "directing traffic." Damon said while his story does not line up with the events of that night, she empathized his confidence in making himself available to talk with U.S. authorities.

When Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters asked Hillary Clinton fans about the deadly Benghazi terror attacks of 2012, he got some surprising answers. None were more surprising than the ones coming from several people who had no idea what Benghazi was, despite the fact that many argue it is Clinton’s biggest failure as secretary of state.

Representatives of prominent conservative groups converged on the Heritage Foundation on Monday afternoon for the umpteenth in a series of gatherings to draw attention to the Benghazi controversy. But this one took an unexpected turn. What began as a session purportedly about “unanswered questions” surrounding the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Libya deteriorated into the ugly taunting of a woman in the room who wore an Islamic head covering. The session, as usual, quickly moved beyond the specifics of the assaults that left four Americans dead to accusations about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the Obama administration, President Obama...

US official: Libyan militant accused in Benghazi attack in US custody .

The U.S. military has captured a man believed to be one of the ringleaders of the deadly attacks on the American diplomatic compound and a CIA base in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012, officials said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — To congressional Republicans, "Benghazi" is shorthand for incompetence and cover-up. Democrats hear it as the hollow sound of pointless investigations. It is, in fact, a Mediterranean port city in Libya that was the site of an attack on an American diplomatic compound on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. That's nearly all that U.S. politicians can agree on about Benghazi. It's been a political rallying cry since just weeks before President Barack Obama's re-election in November 2012. With the launch of a new House investigation, Benghazi is shaping...

U.S. Special Operations forces captured one of the suspected ringleaders of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi in a secret raid in Libya over the weekend, the first time one of the accused perpetrators of the 2012 assault has been apprehended, according to U.S. officials. The officials said Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured near Benghazi by American troops, working alongside the FBI, following months of planning, and was now in U.S. custody “in a secure location outside Libya.” The officials said there were no casualties in the operation, and that all U.S. personnel involved have safely left Libya.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/05/how-can-we-understand-benghazi-without-probing-the-cias-role/275781/

Four months ago, Sen. John McCain said he would support the exchange of five hard-core Taliban leaders for the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. "I would support ways of bringing him home," he told CNN, "and if exchange was one of them I think that would be something I think we should seriously consider." But the instant the Obama administration actually made that trade, McCain, as he has so often in the past... SNIP Though we criticized the administration for ignoring the law in not informing Congress of the transfer of the Taliban detainees 30 days in advance, leave it...

Full Title: [VIDEO]Jay Carney says WH will consult with obey federal law before transfer of GITMO detainees TWICE! Jay Carney told the press twice in 2013 that the White House will obey federal law and consult with Congress before releasing GITMO detainees: Kristen. Q Jay, going to back to Afghanistan, the Taliban has offered to release Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five members of the Taliban who are currently being held at Guantanamo Bay. Is this something that the administration is considering? Is this something that the President would agree to? MR. CARNEY: What I can tell you is that...

Did Jay Carney decide to quit his job because he knew about news of the Bergdahl deal coming, and remembered what he had said less than a year ago? The Washington Free Beacon  certainly remembered: “With regard to the transfer of Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, we have made — the United States has not made the decision to do that, though we do expect the Taliban to raise this issue in our discussion, if and when those discussions happen,” Carney said. “As we have long said, however, we would not make any decisions about transfer of any detainees without...

Among the questions being raised about this weekend's exchange of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five top Taliban commanders held at Guantanamo is why Congress was not informed of the move ahead of time. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Meet the Press on Sunday that concerns over the health and perhaps even the survival of Bergdahl required secrecy, telling reporters, "We couldn't afford any leaks anywhere" because the deal was "essentially an operation to save the life of Sgt. Bergdahl." But just under a year ago, in June 2013, White House press secretary Jay Carney was unequivocal in his response...

On June 21, 2013, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney unequivocally assured reporters at that day's White House Press Briefing that President Obama “would not make any decisions about transfer of any detainees without consulting Congress and without doing so in accordance with U.S. law." Appearing on Sunday's edition of NBC's Meet the Press, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel claimed that President Obama's weekend decision to do precisely what his official spokesman promised the country he would never do was based upon the need for secrecy and that informing Congress of the highly contentious prisoner exchange would risk scuttling it.

Outgoing White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dodged and fought with the best of them during a three-year, four-month tenure with the Obama administration. The Washington Free Beacon looks back on some of his finest moments as Obama’s chief mouthpiece.

explosive watch president obama blow jay carney a goodbye kiss

With her memoir, Hard Choices set to be released in the coming weeks, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her publishing company have provided an excerpt in which she claims President Obama’s actions during the Bin Laden raid were “as crisp and courageous a display of leadership” that she had ever seen. Here are 7 reasons that Obama’s leadership during the raid was neither crisp or courageous. 1) Obama Canceled the Mission to Kill Bin Laden Three Times Clinton writes about one of the strongest examples of decision-making under pressure: “Perhaps the most famous example from my four years...

The world waits for Hillary Clinton’s new book, “Hard Choices,” on June 10th. I know I have it all queued up on amazon.com. But Clinton’s hardest choice may start at home: will she give her ghost writer a credit this time? I wrote about a year ago that Edward “Ted” Widmer, a long time Hillary associate, was actually writing “Hard Choices.” Widmer, 51, is a Harvard graduate who wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. He has a long association with Brown University, where he was the Director of the John Carter Brown Library.At least that’s where used to be. Widmer now...

snip In the limited excerpts published Friday from Clinton’s Benghazi chapter, the former secretary of State continued to defend the administration from what she termed a “political slugfest.” Specifically, she defended the flawed explanation -- used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice five days after the attack -- that an obscure anti-Islam video fueled a protest gone awry in Benghazi. "There were scores of attackers that night, almost certainly with differing motives," Clinton wrote, according to Politico. "It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video.It is equally inaccurate to state that none...

As she prepares to answer questions about the Benghazi attacks of 2012, Hillary Clinton has hired former Obama aide Tommy Vietor to help with the roll out of her new book. Earlier this month, Vietor, a former Obama administration national security spokesman, appeared on Fox News to defend the administration’s response to the attacks and famously said to anchor Bret Baier: “Dude, this was like two years ago.” Here is the transcript from that exchange: BAIER: Did you also change ‘attacks’ to ‘demonstrations’ in the talking points? VIETOR: Maybe. I don’t really remember. BAIER: You don’t remember? VIETOR: Dude, this...