The U.S. military got its man, and has handed him over to the Justice Department. What’s next for Ahmed Abu Khattala, the Libyan militant accused of being a mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi attacks? What’s happening on the ship where he’s being held? Where is he headed? What does he know?
Q: Where is Abu Khattala and what’s happening to him?
A: He’s aboard the USS New York, a Navy amphibious transport dock ship that is moving westward from the Mediterranean Sea in the direction of the United States, according to a U.S. official. He’s expected to arrive in the U.S. “in the coming days,” according to the National Security Council. Obama administration officials have refused to publicly discuss whether Abu Khattala is being questioned en route. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that Abu Khattala already was being interrogated.
Q: What are the ground rules for questioning him?
A: In three similar past cases, the Obama administration used a team made up of FBI, CIA and Defense Department personnel known as the High Value Interrogation Group. The group is bound by the rules of the Army Field Manual, which requires that prisoners be treated humanely. When he took office in 2009, President Barack Obama ended a CIA detention and interrogation program for terror suspects that used techniques that many believe amounted to torture.
Q: What kind of information are investigators looking to get from Abu Khattala?
A: They’ll no doubt press for information about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. They’ll also want to know about any of his militant associates in Libya.
Q: Has Abu Khattala been told about his Miranda rights to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination?
A: The Justice Department isn’t saying. But there is a provision that allows for questioning suspects before they are advised of their rights when public safety may be threatened. Federal agents routinely try to glean as much immediate information as possible from a suspect in custody.
Q: What are the ground rules for using information obtained from a suspect who hasn’t been read his rights?
A: Information collected from the High Value Interrogation Group interrogation can’t typically be used against a suspect in court. If the past is any guide, Khatalla will be grilled by intelligence interrogators until they believe they have gotten what they can, or until they conclude he won’t cooperate. Then he’ll be read his rights and a separate FBI “clean team” will question him. Anything those FBI questioners learn could be used in court.
Q: What are the charges against Abu Khattala?
A: So far, he faces three criminal counts: Killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility and conspiring to do so; providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists that resulted in death; and discharging, brandishing, using, carrying and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Attorney General Eric Holder says there could be additional charges in coming days.
Q. Where will Khattala be locked up and where would he be tried?
A. No plans have been announced, but there are many secure prison facilities — military and civilian — where he could be housed. The courthouse where Khattala would be tried in downtown Washington at the foot of Capitol Hill has a high-security courtroom.
Q: Why not just send him to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
A: Many Republicans would have liked to see that happen, arguing that suspected terrorists captured overseas don’t deserve the protections of the American legal system. But sending more prisoners to Guantanamo is the last thing Obama wants to do. He has been trying to close the prison at Guantanamo ever since he took office in 2009.
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