Accused Benghazi mastermind convicted of terrorism

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

A Libyan national accused of being the architect behind deadly attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 was convicted of terrorism-related charges but acquitted of murder Tuesday.

A jury found Ahmed Abu Khatallah, 46, guilty of four charges stemming from the assault, including seeking to and providing material support to terrorists as well as maliciously destroying and injuring dwellings and property. He was acquitted of 14 other charges, including the most serious, murder.

Still, he faces the possibility of life imprisonment.

Khatallah was accused of being the leader of a hardline militia known as Ubaydah bin Jarrah and the central figure behind the Benghazi attacks.

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack, which was a source of political controversy during that year's race for the White House, and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was ridiculed by Republicans for her handling of the tragedy.

In addition to Stevens, U.S. foreign service officer Sean Smith and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died in the assaults on the diplomatic mission and nearby CIA annex. Stevens and Smith died of smoke inhalation after militants set fire to the diplomatic mission.

Woods and Doherty died in a mortar strike on the CIA annex.

"Today, a small measure of justice was meted out," CIA Director Mike Pompeo said in a message to agency employees.

"Khatallah’s sentencing is to follow; but no term in prison will bring our people back. We lost two of our own that night – Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – who ran to the sound of the guns and bravely fought to protect Americans and the two U.S. facilities that were attacked."

Khatallah was captured in a joint FBI-special forces mission in Libya in June 2014 and brought to the U.S. to stand trial. The trial was a major test for an Obama-era policy of bringing suspected terrorists to the U.S. to face the American legal system.

The trial lasted for seven weeks, and jurors deliberated for five days in Washington before reaching their verdict.