not in principle, a mistake, but when you have a guy like him and you have ansar al-sharia still on theoose, threatening everybody, including americans. what's more important is intelligence, it trumps justice, justice tumps everything in domestic politics. in war, intelligence is more important. so you don't want to ever get give his guy his miranda rights. probably on the ship, they will not read him his my randall rights. they will put the ship in first gear. they may run out of gas halfway out of there, so it takes a week or a month to get there. why are we couldn't straining ourselves when you are to bring him to guantanamo, the purpose of which is to detain an unlawful combat tant indefinitely to get all the intelligence you can and you try him either in civilian court or military. it's like the underwear bomber who was read his miranda rights early and we undoubtedly lost a lot of intelligence about operations in yemen. it's an unnecessary unforced error we should inflict on ourselves. >> he's on the video. there's a question about evidentiary gathering in this case and that the

ansar al cherie he a is affiliated with extremists. why is the state department telling the libyan ambassadors on sar al sharia and telling the americanat the same time it was this video? >> well, bret, i think you have to take both ideas at the same time. i don't know nibble who was saying it is only the video now but i think at the time there was a lot of information flowing around that we were trying to assess that at least it played a part. we knew it had in cairo which is next door to libya. but, also, we were trying to sort things out like who did what, when, and information kept changing. i mean, that is one of the challenges, why i write about hard choices because information is coming at you from all directions. it sometimes takes time to sort it out, find out what actually is accurate and frankly what's not. >> i herds your interview with diane sawyer, what exactly are you taking responsibility for? >> um-huh. i took responsibility for being at the head of the state department at that time. now, that doesn't mean that i made every decision because i obviously did not. but it does mean that i feel very deeply and very persona

in terms of ansar al sharia, u.s. intelligence knew that the group was behind the attack on the u.s. compound in benghazi, almost immediately after the attack. there was an internal email within the state department suggesting as much within the first 24 hours of the attack. u.s. forces have been tracking khatallah since about five weeks after the benghazi attack. chairman of the joint chiefs general martin dempsey said sunday's operation took months to prepare for, required what he described as an intelligence soak. senior u.s. officials say they gained intelligence from watching khatallah for many months. we now know that the delta force operators, like the ones who carried out this capture of a wanted terrorist abu al-libbi back in october practiced on a mock-up of khatallah's home before launching the operation which was over in a quick 32 minutes. he was picked up at his house south of benghazi. u.s. military interrogators don't know how long they will have to question khatallah before he is he is mirandized and

--khattala es el lider del grupo terrorista "ansar al sharia".uanfra/take vo --los estados unidos le presento cargos a khattala y otros cuatro sujetos el aÑo pasado pero no haban sido arrestados...algo que ha causado criticismo de los republicanos hacia el presidente obama. --lorena-- estamos a poco mas de una hora para que inicie el partido entre mexico y brasil; partido que del cual se ha venido hablando por varios meses... y los aficionados de nuestra area se preparan para disfrutar del enfrentamiento... juanfra - ad lib toss katerine juanfra el comit de seguridad pblica de la asamblea en california decidir el futuro de la propuesta de ley relacionada al hostigamiento cibernetico, actividad conocida como 'ciber-bullying'... take vo el proyecto de ley propone que los adolecentes que agredan a otro sexualmente en estado alcoholizado sea juzgado como adulto con el fin de evitar la crueldad entre menores durante fiestas, actos que podrian estar directamente relacionados con los indices de suicidio en california... la propuesta sb 838 surge luego q

we know that ansar al sharia was scrubbed from the originally produced cia talking points.'t take them together as she suggested there you separate them out and tell the truth. >> so what does it matter now? >> to coin a phrase, what difference does it make? look, i think it matters for her. i think she did very well in the first part of your interview, when you first were asking her questions about benghazi, sort of just the fact questions ma'am, she answered if quickly and decisively, she didn't seem defensive and you i thought she did very well. hadtwo questions in your second set of questions to her and she struggled. one was on this question about ansar al sharia nonsensical answer which contradicts the facts. the second is on what she is taking responsibility for. you mentioned the diane sawyer interview, she says i take responsibility. she said the same thing in her congressional testimony. the obvious question, good question you asked is for. what she had no answer. because she is not actually taking responsibility for anything. saying i'm taking responsibility is a

. >> he is the head of the benghazi branch of ansar al-sharia, which is a militant group formed after the fall of gadhafi. abu khattala was imprisoned by muammar gadhafi for many years. in the witness statements compiled after the benghazi attacks, there were members of ansar al-sharia, there were some indications he, in some interviews, acknowledged he was there although he usually said that he came upon the assault of the dim pact compound when it was almost over but did not parts at a time in the initial assault. they athey have witnesses and, again, they do have some video. >> now, the u.s. authorities, i gather, they think that -- well, they fairly believe others were involved in the attacks. so are they still in pursuit in what's the situation there? >> they're in this criminal complaint that was filed under seal last summer here in the district of columbia. there were as many as a dozen others listed as wanted for the same attacks. they say they're still after them. they haven't caught them yet. we don't know what all their names are but that the investigation is still ongoing

who else in that area could be involved with al qaeda or ansar al sharia and also plans for any futurei strongly believe the fbi, the high intensity interrogators they have, should be allowed to interrogate him as long as they have to and any of the other members of the intelligence agencies. and not be worrying about miranda rights. because this information doesn't have to be used against him at trial. it's to get intelligence to save american lives. >> i don't know if you heard earlier, jeffrey be too be, our senior legal analyst, he pointed out accurately that the u.s. criminal justice system has a very good record dealing with these alleged terrorists. they convict them. they send them to prisons. it's a lot easier in effect to do that than send him to a military tribunal at gitmo. >> we're talking about two different things. my concern right now is the conviction. one way or the other, this should be a relatively easy conviction to get. i'm talking about to get intelligence that can be used to stop terrorist attacks, to find out what the makeup of ansar al sharia is and to find ou

administration says the man who was captured on sunday is a senior leader of a prominent terror group ansar al sharia they say he will be tried in a u.s. court. >>> in baghdad, a bombing this morning in a crowded marketplace has killed at least 10 people. as the violence and death toll increase, president obama is now taking steps to increase security. craig boswell on the plans to send in u.s. troops. >> reporter: president obama is sending some u.s. forces back to iraq as the security situation continues to unravel. the president gave congress notice 275 troops are going in to protect u.s. personnel and the american embassy. he is also looking at deploying a special forces team to train iraqis and drone strikes are still a possibility against isis. isis is a sunni militant group trying to establish an islamic state in parts of iraq and syria. it released this video reportedly showing the moments before fighters executed shiites serves in the iraqi army. the militants march toward baghdad threatens to tear apart the country along religious lines. as president obama continues to weigh what military a

the pentagon says the suspect, ahmed abu khatallah is a senior leader of the terror group ansar al sharia. he was captured during a planned raid sunday. >> he is in u.s. custody in a secure location outside libya. uhm, and that's as far as i'm going to go. >> reporter: first, he is being interrogated on ship and several republican lawmakers want that to be the priority not a trial. >> the most valuable thing we can get from this terrorist is information. >> reporter: republicans have long claimed the obama administration misled the public about the attack and have launched a special investigation. khatallah is expected to be tried at the u.s. district court in washington. right now he faces three criminal counts but more may be added. >> thank you. >>> senator dianne feinstein said the arrest, quote, is a reminder of the remarkable capabilities of the united states and its commitment to justice and accountability. the united states and libya are both safer now that abu khatallah is off the streets." sunni militants in iraq gaining more ground today in their terrorizing advance across the

interrogations and how they were going that he was giving them a history lesson, a history lesson of ansar al sharia, the terror group he's associated with, alleged to be associated with. so they started off slowly. he was cooperative and did talk. it took them from the time he was picked up june 15th till just early this morning when he was helicoptered off the "uss new york, the "uss new york pulled into the chesapeake. we were told that it was very intentional, that he sailed back from the mediterranean to give the cia and fbi and other interrogators time to talk to him on board that ship to glean intelligence that might be used inside libya to go after some of the other potential co-conspirators. this case is not closed and the justice department says that they are still investigating and they still are attempting to bring others to justice for their attack in benghazi. >> and certainly from what we've been able to tell, your reporting, there were many involved not only in the planning of the attack but also in carrying it out. jennifer griffin live from the courthouse in washington, d.c. a not

not in principle, a mistake, but when you have a guy like him and you have ansar al-sharia still on the what's more important is intelligence, it trumps justice, justice tumps everything in domestic politics. in war, intelligence is more important. so you don't want to ever get give his guy his miranda rights. probably on the ship, they will not read him his my randall rights. they will put the ship in first gear. they may run out of gas halfway out of there, so it takes a week or a month to get there. why are we couldn't straining ourselves when you are to bring him to guantanamo, the purpose of which is to detain an unlawful combat tant indefinitely to get all the intelligence you can and you try him either in civilian court or military. it's like the underwear bomber who was read his miranda rights early and we undoubtedly lost a lot of intelligence about operations in yemen. it's an unnecessary unforced error we should inflict on ourselves. >> he's on the video. there's a question about evidentiary gathering in this case and that the fbi took 18 days to get to benghazi. you wonder a

that is what i got from ansar al-sharia. >> no. >> wait. wait. let me finish and then you can criticize me in one go. it if one or two lower ranking leaders, like the two guys from aqap or the central group that nobody has heard of before but suddenly declare themselves to be the head -- they are assumed to be with isis -- the guys in green. if you turn that around and simply make the assumptions for al qaeda, this is what you would get. in fact, you would have only two or three groups that are aligned with isis and the rest with al qaeda. which of those is true or false depends on whether people have come forward in the last few weeks, months, and have specifically stated i am with al qaeda and i reject isis, and or i reject isis. i went through each one of those groups and look for that. >> as it says up there, estimate. on the top of it, when trying to put up an estimate, it is an imperfect model, and i do not like the charts that i see from dod that go al qaeda group 1, 2, 3, 4, and we do that because powerpoint makes us do that. we get into

it's not an issue of al qaeda or any of these other groups or ansar al-sharia. it's an ideology to change your way of life. sit here and do nothing, you are going to see what's going to happen. tom, are you scared yet? >> i'm scared listening to you talk. is it really about barrels of oil? is american influence antiquated. if we pull back, is it not about oil but rather about america's influence in the world, when we pull out, they get more powerful or am i wrong about that? >> i'm not sure what you are asking me. china is going to be the global super power and are we going to start fighting the chinese now? >> i used to play risk as a kid. you got to keep your skin in the game. i'm saying if we say it's over, like what you are referencing, let's get independent and we'll just out of that region altogether, which is what al qaeda wants, is for us to get off the arabian peninsula -- >> we win. they win. they want us off their soil any way. we're energy independent. >> the threat to america, i don't understand why -- i'm trying to help you out. i agree with you ab

and in january, saying he's a member of ansar al sharia. and saying he's one of the key planners behind the benghazi attacks. and we believe there are 11 or perhaps 12 others accused of planning the attack. if you look at the federal court website where his charge was unsealed, there are other defendants, but he's the only one we know for certain. >> and we've seen republicans using benghazi to energize their base. does this capture take some of the wind of their sails? >> well, when you look at this, what were the issues of the benghazi scandal? one of them was the talking points. but the larger question, could something have been done to prevent it, and why haven't these guys been brought to justice? well, one of them has been taking away with this, and i think the other one has been pretty much answered. it's hard to see that alone bringing this president to impeachment. >> thank you. >>> up next, we turn to the crisis in iraq. u.s. troops are headed there, but not in the way you think. what are our options? "the cycle" rolls on for this

where a criminal complaint filed last year was unsealed today, a known leader of ansar al sharia wasabbed just south of benghazi by a combined team of special operators. and a representative of the fbi. pentagon officials say there were no casualties during the operation, which took place sunday. this is not the first time that u.s. forces were closed to grabbing him. back on october 5th, 2013, which when the army's delta force surprised another high value target al libby outside his home in tribunely a simultaneous operation by another team was slated in benghazi to grab him. sources tell us that mission was called off when there was trouble at the location in benghazi back in october. so he slipped away. he had been living in plain sight and had done interviews with multiple new outlets. he was very confident he would never be captured. video of the attack allegedly shows him at the consulate the night of the benghazi attack. greta? >> jennifer, thank you. back on october 2012 weeks after the attack fox news senior affairs correspondent greg palkot found the benghazi suspect and sp

that but he has provided interrogators which is what is described as a history lesson on the ansar al sharia. a former fbi agent said to us that because we're not looking at what they're calling an imminent threat situation, an ongoing plot, this limits the time interrogators have with him. >> in a situation where there's not imminent threat you're more likely to see the investigators throttling back, being more patient in their interview and interrogation techniques than if it was just an attack was actually getting ready to happen. >> the key thing to look for, especially when the indictment is unsaled, whether there is -- unsealed, whether there is significant evidence he was a key player. he has been described as kind of the muscle on the ground and not the brains behind the operation. we have been pointed to is these individual with more firm ties to al qaeda, like a former guantanamo bay day takenee, and a form bodyguard for osama bin laden were the key players and brains and katala was executing their commands. >> you have to bet that's been the focus of some of the questioning on the

interrogators a history lesson on ansar al-sharia. and also, transport on a dock ship back to washington where he faces federal charges, i am joined by former pentagon official, and analyst kt mcfarland, what can we get out of this guy? the fact he has been captured is now known hotor his follower -- to his followers and groups, any plans may have already been changed. >> he is interesting. we have osama bin laden al qaeda, and he is gone, that generation is finished or they are winding down, we have killed a lot of them, they are not retirees yet but no longer the main guys, ahmed abu khatallah is the new generation, he is probably the mastermind of the benghazi attacks, he will be able to tell us about al qaeda that is now moved into north africa, and now to middle east, now, who knows if he will really talk or just lectureing everyone. but he will be somebody who can talk about what al qaeda now has become, and what their aims are. >> difficult moving target? >> sure. >> al qaeda is more i in places and in greater numbers, not only

principally because of the role of ansar al sharia. threat. >> do you have greater concern with foreign jihadists that would come here or that they may make a call here to domestic terrorists? >> i think the threat really in terms of his friends and allies the threat is abroad. it's really in libya and surrounding states across north africa. where ansar al sharia has a lot of supporters. and where u.s. interests are diverse and easy to strike. we saw that of course with the attack in benghazi. and these folks are capable of that again. >> based on that attack in benghazi, what are the charges you expect to be filed against him? >> destruction of american property. killing u.s. nationals. we're going to have to see exactly what the evidence is and what witnesses they can bring. according to reports, this is an individual who essentially helped coordinate the assault. who was on site and was coordinating the assault and when asked, what should we do, when others came to him and asked what should we do, said flatten it, referring to the c

military's africa command, known as africom within 48 hours of the assault which included members of ansar al sharia, that is khattalah's group and al qaeda if i have at in north africa. >> we're finding out the reason he wasn't apprehended as quickly because we were so focused building a criminal case rather than capturing the suspects who were responsible for attacking benghazi and killing our u.s. ambassador and three others. >> reporter: in the coming week khattalah has a series of procedural hearings here in washington with the u.s. official telling reporters that there will be more charges. over the weekend a single count of material support was unsealed by the court and alleges khattalah was in effect supporting the attack on consulate and cia annex but provides no detail about his alleged role in those assaults, jon. jon: the military is still looking for some of the other people that were seen there at that night? >> according to what mccall said, the big headline they drawn up a target list, they knew who the suspects were but he alleges that the administration waited well over a year to p

the four groups include ansar al-sharia. one was released for amnesty. fox news learned from our sources that his involvement in the attacks has shown he has been very involved and they don't understand why that has been ignored. a lot of information coming out as those on the ground dealing and hunting suspects has been put on hold. we are told intelligence has been given to our leadership for well over a year. >> a lot of questions. >>> joining us now to talk about it fox news political analyst and columnist for u.s.a today. the more we learn it seems there is a bit of a conflict of what we are hearing. according to adam's reporting what is being carried out an opportunity to get some of these additional suspects and special operations waived off. >> i think president obama has been extremely aggressive about going after terrorists. he has expanded the drone war that president bush had. he takes this seriously when he wants to. he pays a lot of attention to it and captured osama bin laden. i think the fact that he has not in this case is telling. when

he is a senior leader of the terror group ansar al sharia special opposite capturing him during a planned raid sunday. >> he is in u.s. custody in a secure location outside libya, uhm, and that's as far as i'm going to go. >> reporter: khatallah is expected to be tried here at u.s. district court in washington. right now he faces three criminal counts and more could be added. first he is being interrogated on a ship and several republican lawmakers want that to be the priority. >> the most valuable thing we can get from this terrorist is information. >> reporter: republicans have long claimed the obama administration misled the public about the attack and have launched a special investigation. in washington, craig boswell, kpix 5. >> the pentagon says there were no civilian casualties during the raid to arrest khatallah and all the americans involved have safely left libya. >>> in iraq now sunni militants continue to terrorize people in their advance across the country. gun battles erupted between the fighters and government forces in the city just 40 miles outside of baghdad. the militan

khattalah, a key operative in ansar al sharia, the group the u.s.mes for the 2012 attack on the u.s. compound in benghazi. intelligence gleaned from local libyans helped draw khattalah to the location. u.s. commandos captured him with no shots fired, no one getting hurt. a surprising feat, one former libyan intelligence official tells cnn, because khattalah usually surrounded himself with guards. u.s. commandos whisked him to a navy ship in the mediterranean to begin undergoing questioning for his role in the attack and anything else he knows about terrorist activity. officially, the pentagon will say little. >> i'm not going to get into specifics on the actual execution of the operation. >> reporter: president obama touted the capture. >> it's important for us to send a message to the world that when americans are attacked, no matter how long it takes, we will find those responsible and we will bring them to justice. >> reporter: but some wonder why it took so long, when journalists like cnn's arwa came be were able to find and talk to khattalah mo

intelligence reasons trying to figure out what else they can learn about the group behind this attack, ansar al sharia. after that, he will be arrested. the charges are under seal now. the president, a few weeks later, confirmed those in a press conference in washington, ashleigh. >> let's be clear. there's no notion at this point from justice this person is going to be treated as an enemy combatant and end up at guantanamo bay, is there? >> no, that is a done deal. they're trying to empty guantanamo. the administration does not believe in that treatment of people that they're capturing. they bring these people to justice in u.s. civilian courts. >> stand by, if you will. justice correspondent evan perez for us in washington. paul callan standing by with me here as well as our legal analyst at cnn, it is a perfect opportunity for you to weigh in on jurisdictional issues. if we're talking about benghazi as an outpost, as a consular outpost, all of that dirt is considered u.s. soil, thus any crime that is committed is effectively no different than being committed in new york city. >> well, essentially t

four groups in target list include ansar al-sharia, the top target is the emere of them. you heard of him before. he was a prisoner at guantanamo bay for about five years and at the time was classified by analysts at the prison as a probable member of al qaeda, despite that significant threat to american security, he was released as part of an amnesty for militants in 2008. in the same group but at the bottom of the list is khattalah. others include al qaeda and libyan militants. multiple sources with direct knowledge of the benghazi attack question why more of the investigation is not centered of libyan landlord of the american facilities? benghazi? his name is alba sharry. some insist that he knows a lot more than letting on and key connection to everyone else at night at least should be intensely questioned about what he may know about the attacks, end quote. bashari said to bought a new hotel in benghazi as he will well. this landlord, basharry insists he is innocent and says the u.s. owes him money because two facilities he was landlord of, still lie in somewhat of a

he's one of the key leaders of ansar al sharia which is one of the main militant organizations responsible attack. a great many militant organizations but he's one of the key players in one of the key militant organizations. >> here's what i don't understand. maybe you can explain this. you've been investigating benghazi literally from day one. why has it taken so long? especially, we had a report earlier, arwa damon was in libya, may of last year, 2013. she interviewed this guy. she caught up with him. other journalists have caught up with him at a coffee shop in benghazi. it's taken this long for the u.s. to find this guy. >> it's been very frustrating. i think there were several factors at work. first, we had to make sure we had the evidence to go after this guy. it took a long time to sort through the events of that horrendous tragedy and figure out who was responsible what roles they played what witness, we had what evidence we had. then we had a very impermissive environment. yes, reporters were able to get to him. it's one thing for a reporter to be able to get to a swaggering culpr

. >> reporter: khatallah, a key operator in ansar al sharia, the group the u.s.mpound in benghazi. intelligence gleaned from local libyans helped draw khatallah to the location. they captured him with no shots fired, no one getting hurt. then u.s. commandos whisked him to the uss new york in the mediterranean. he is now undergoing questioning. delta force commandos had been in libya before. in october, they captured alleged operative anas al libi in tripoli in a raid that took less than 30 seconds. some wonder why it took so long to get to khatallah when journalists like cnn's arwa damon found and talked to him more than a year ago. >> we met with ahmed abu khatallah in public at the coffee shop of a well-known hotel here in benghazi for around two hours. he seemed to be confident, his demeanor most certainly not that of a man who believes that he was going to be detained or targeted any time soon. >> reporter: so how could cnn find khatallah and it took u.s. commandos over a year to get him? khatallah had gone into hiding. u.s. intelligence had to track him down

my assessment on ansar al-sharia, like libya and tunisia andance shar al sharia in yemen is going based on the foreign fighter numbers. if you read this section which i think is part 3 which came out in march, this should be updated already, mukhtar is reaffirmed and which is committed to sawahri. this is one mary picked out but there are six of these in there and so there are different scenarios. i don't know what the breakdown is and i might give you estimate how things emerge. the main estimate is in the second chart which is foreign fighters if iraq come out of the records. tunisia, libya, yemen, saudi arabia, that to me where the fault lines are, maybe they go old guard ad died and stick with them. -- al qaeda and maybe go with sis ice sis or maybe go on their own. that is the estimate where it comes from. >> i think you two could go on ad nauseam. we'll get questions from the audience. two members are walking around with microphones, state your name and affiliation and bless please ask a question. don't ask it as a statement please. so this man right in front, please. >> thank you

khattala, a key operative in ansar al sharia, the group the u.s. blames for the 2012 attack on the u.s. compound in benghazi. intelligence gleaned from local libyans helped draw khattala to the location. u.s. commandos captured him with no shots fired, no one getting hurt a surprise feat, one former libyan official tells cnn, because khattala usual surrounded himself with guards. u.s. commandos whisked him to a navy ship in the mediterranean to begin undergoing questioning for his role in the attack and anything else he knows about terrorist activity. officially, the pentagon will say little. >> i'm not going to get into specifics about the actual execution of the operation. >> reporter: president obama touted the capture. >> is important for us to send a message to the world that when americans are attacked, no matter how long it takes, we will find those responsible and we will bring them to justice. >> reporter: but some wonder why it took so long, when journalists like cnn's arwa damon were able to find and talk to khattala more than a year ago

the key operative in ansar al sharia, the group the u.s. the 2012 compound on the attack in benghazi was quickly apprehended and were told no shots fired, no one hurt. the official also tells cnn u.s. special forces did recover some form of media at the villa. investigators are analyzing it. after the capture, special forces whisked khatallah to the "uss new york" in the mediterranean where he's undergoing questioning. >> reporter: the main thing is to get the detainee, the subject, to a safe environment with a minimum of distractions. in this case in likely international waters. >> reporter: khatallah will be brought into the united states via helicopter once the ship is within range of the mainland, according to the official. it is unclear where he will be held before facing trial. and, of course, the big question for u.s. investigators will be what intelligence does he have and can he point them to any other perpetrators in those 2012 attacks on the u.s. compound in benghazi. kate? >> that might be your answer to my next question, barbar

the memo includes the names of suspects, four included to aqim and seven connected to ansar al-sharia ties to the al-qaeda terrorist network. >> they knew from the get go that al-qaeda was involved in this attack. so the idea that the obama administration didn't know that early on or that they suspected it was something else entirely, basically, is willful blindness. you have to look at the facts what did the intelligence say, and that was clear no al-qaeda personalities were involved in the attack from the get go. >> reporter: the memos are part of a growing body of evidence that the intelligence committee knew that benghazi was a direct assault and not linked to a protest. bill: why did it take almost two years for this document to go to congress, catherine? >> reporter: well, mrs. clinton claims the administration made information available as soon as possible: >> r eporter: and in response a leading republican is now asking the state department to declassify and release the africom memo. >> this is a document from military intelligence widely distributed to the state department, t

cality talia, a key operative in ansar al sharia, the group the u.s.nd in benghazi. intelligence gleaned from local libyans helped draw khattala to the location. u.s. commandos captured him with no shots fired, no one getting hurt a surprise feat, one former libyan official tells cnn, because khattala usual surrounded himself with guards. u.s. commandos whisked him to a navy ship in the mediterranean to begin undergoing questioning for his role in the attack and anything else he knows about terrorist activity. officially, the pentagon will say little. >> i'm not going to get into specifics about the actual execution of the operation. >> reporter: president obama touted the capture. >> is important for us to send a message to the world that when americans are attacked, no matter how long it takes, we will find those responsible and we will bring them to justice. >> reporter: but some wonder why it took so long, when journalists like cnn's arwa damon were able to find and talk to khattala more than a year ago. >> we met with ahmed abu khattala in public

because he is was the leader of a cell in libya, and it was a particular particularly nasty cell ansar al shariaticular concerns of that gro group. >> and so he has different rights internationally than before he gets to the united states, so why bring him to the united states? >> well, the united states has indicted him and charged him with the benghazi attack currently under seal, and once he is in the justice department's custody, they will proceed with a civilian trial against him in civilian court. >> a lot has happened politically since that incident and should an arrest in the case have been made sooner? >> well, a terrorism investigation or the any type of investigation, the tempo of the investigation is very different from the arc of the politics surrounding it. you have to make sure that you is the right person and you have to get a grand jury indictment and all of the right things in place. justice moves at its own speed, and that is a different speed than the discussions that we are having about benghazi and the u.s. congress. >> and the department of justice says that catala will be

he is suspected of being a link to the militant group ansar al sharia.ld be put to death if convicted. in a 2012 interview, khattala said the attack was not planned but developed from a protest over an anti-islam video. >> which nobody believes. >> and he claimed to have no role in the violence at the consulate. >> this is really strange, though. the obama administration is facing questions over why it took nearly two years to make this arrest of a suspect where everybody knew where he was. this guy reports -- he was hanging out in benghazi in cafes bragging about it and giving interviews and mocking the united states saying they were not strong enough to come after him and the government. remember, barack obama said that he was going to -- justice would be served. it's really strange why it took him a couple of years. also president obama, of course, is defending the pace of the investigation and says the arrest sends a clear message to the world. >> when americans are attacked, no matter how long it takes, we will find those responsible and we will bri