Benghazi Scapegoat Released; Truth Still Locked Up

IBDEditorials.com

Benghazi: The man blamed for the deaths of four Americans, including the first ambassador in 33 years, is now free. But no terrorist has been captured or official punished.

Mark Basseley Youssef, the man responsible for the video President Obama apologized for six times before the United Nations, saying it had inflamed Islamic passions that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, has been released from federal custody.

Youssef, a 56-year-old Egyptian Coptic Christian and former gas station owner who had served time for a 2010 bank fraud conviction, was sent back to prison last year after admitting that he breached the terms of his probation in connection with the making of the film.

Identified in some public records by his birth name, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Youssef received a 12-month term in November but earned credit for the six weeks he spent in jail since his arrest.

If the Obama administration heeded warnings from Ambassador Chris Stevens that, after two previous incidents, the consulate in Benghazi was surrounded by terrorist training camps and couldn't withstand an organized attack, Youssef may never have been arrested.

Instead the administration needed a scapegoat for its failure to protect our people or come to their aid. So, that proverbial midnight knock on the door was a grim reality for Youssef, the man said to be behind the film "Innocence of Muslims" blamed for inciting the attack.

He was taken in at midnight Sept. 15, 2012, for "questioning" by no fewer than five Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs, which is five more people than the administration ordered to defend our Benghazi diplomatic mission.

He was arrested the day before then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice went on five Sunday talk shows to blame his video for the attack. On her Sept. 16 road show, Rice explicitly stated there was "no evidence" that the sacking of the Benghazi consulate was a deliberate terrorist act. Rice was rewarded for her serial lying with the post of National Security Adviser.

Aside from Yousef, the only one punished in this affair has been Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya and a foreign service officer for 22 years. He was demoted to desk officer for telling the truth that those in Libya knew it was a terrorist attack from the "get-go," that there was no "protest" or mention of one from anyone on the ground and that the infamous YouTube video was "a non-event" in Libya.

Youssef's release will no doubt be treated as a non-event by mainstream media that in unison with Hillary Clinton ask, "What difference does it make now?" The truth always makes a difference, Hillary.