News about real Terrorists

No, not the extremists Obama and Reid have been blabbering about for weeks, real terrorists.  Our real enemy.  The CIA and FBI have apparently captured Anas al-Liby, who's been a permanent fixture on the Rewards for Justice site since the 90s.

Al-Liby was captured in broad daylight in Tripoli, indicating just how stable and secure that country is after Obama liberated it.  No GTMO for him, he will of course be flown back to New York for a civilian trial.  No word on whether the "HIG" team has or will interrogate him.  

Here's a blurb..

Abu Anas, 49, was born in Tripoli and is believed to have joined Bin Laden’s organization as early as the early 1990s, when it was based in Sudan. He later moved to Britain, where he had been granted political asylum. United States prosecutors in New York charged him in a 2000 indictment with helping to conduct “visual and photographic surveillance” of the United States Embassy in Nairobi in 1993 and again in 1995.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Abu Anas had discussed with another senior Qaeda figure the idea of attacking an American target in retaliation for the United States peacekeeping operation in Somalia.

He was a wanted fish and it's good we finally got him, although he wasn't a top level fish (he was among a list of 41 wanted terrorists worth 5 million for capture).  Oddly, CNN ran a story on him on September 27, claiming that he had been seen on the streets of Tripoli yet he seemed oblivious to the possibility he might get nabbed.  CNN seems to get wind of all kinds of terrorists in Libya before anyone else, although this one wasn't associated with Benghazi.  As to when he was nabbed, the Times story does not say but the CBS report claims it was today.

The bigger takeaway is Libya itself.   If indeed he was grabbed today then this dude was just walking around in the capital for weeks after being fingered by the western media, apparently oblivious to the threat. So who's running that show now anyway?   The media dropped their reporting on Libya as soon as Gaddafi was gone, and only sporadically report about the violence in Iraq after Obama ended the war.  The same will happen when we leave Afghanistan next year.  Obama has now redefined the terrorist enemy as John Boehner and the Tea Party, meanwhile the real war on terror rages on. 

As to the al-Shishkebob raid in Somalia, the SEALS might have gotten a ring leader, although the military is keeping very quiet about it so far. Interesting timing--they just released some unseen footage of the Blackhawk Down raid in Mogadishu yesterday.  Getting one guy might be satisfying but we sent lots of assets into Somalia back in 2008 in concert with Kenya and Ethiopia ground forces--now both those countries have suffered reprisal attacks.

MORE  10/6/13

Here's our apparent co-president John Kerry explaining the justice process, which apparently involves some hope-filled unicorns:

..."continue to try to bring people to justice in an appropriate way with hopes that ultimately these kinds of activities against everybody in the world will stop."

So much for AQ being decimated. And appropriate as in what? Rendition? Because it sure seems like this was a rendition. Here's CNN:

The Libyan interim government called the U.S. capture a kidnapping and has requested an explanation from Washington about the raid, the country's state news agency reported Sunday. Libya emphasized its citizens should be tried in Libya if they are facing charges, LANA reported.

That could be posturing--there was a lot of posturing by foreign governments back when Bush did rendition after 9/11, when it was evil.  Now it's cool again, as it was in the 90s when Clinton did it.  Here's a political perspective from a congressman:

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House intelligence committee, called Ruqai’s capture “a major blow against the remnants of al-Qaida’s core.” The lawmaker said Ruqai was “thought to be in Libya to help set up new cells and recruit new members.”

Will they please stop with this 'AQ core' nonsense? AQ is AQ. They say AQ Core to get them off the hook from having to deal with AQ affiliates in Iraq and Iran and those fighting with the rebels in Syria. It's stupid and political.

Still wondering about interrogation. Here's the NY Times:

American officials said they would be questioning Abu Anas for several weeks. But they did not dispute that New York, where an indictment is pending against him, was most likely his ultimate destination. 

OK, but here's a comment from the Fox News piece:

Sources told Fox News that Libi will be read his rights by an elite FBI unit that was sent out for that purpose. US officials say that the Justice Department plans to prosecute him in a U.S. court.

Since the FBI was on scene does that mean he's been read his rights already?  They must not suspect anything imminent. Or maybe they do, but they want to be "appropriate".