Benghazi arrest delivers long-overdue justice and reminds America who failed our fallen

After 13 years of pursuit, 1 of the terrorists who murdered 4 Americans successful Benghazi has arrived connected U.S. ungraded to look justice.

Zubayr al-Bakoush was flown to Joint Base Andrews aboriginal Friday greeting pursuing an FBI overseas operation. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced that helium faces 8 national counts, including murder, terrorism, and arson, for his relation successful the September 11, 2012, onslaught that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, State Department serviceman Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.

"For 13 hours, Americans waited for assistance that ne'er came," Pirro said, arsenic unit defended the adjacent CIA annex nether sustained attack. "Today, American justness has arrived."

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The families of the fallen deserved this moment. But Benghazi was ever astir much than catching terrorists. It exposed cardinal enactment failures and an medication that prioritized communicative power implicit accountability.

Security Failures Nobody Owned

The State Department’s ain Accountability Review Board delivered a devastating verdict successful December 2012. The committee recovered "systemic failures and enactment and absorption deficiencies" that resulted successful "grossly inadequate" information successful Benghazi. While the committee did not delegate transgression liability, it made wide that enactment failures successful Washington materially contributed to the tragedy.

From left, U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, Department of State worker Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and erstwhile Navy SEAL’s Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods were killed Sept. 11, 2012, successful Benghazi, Libya. (Fox News)

Despite extended quality warnings astir deteriorating information and al-Qaeda’s expanding operations, State Department officials successful Washington repeatedly denied requests for further information from unit connected the ground. The CIA, by contrast, accrued information astatine its Benghazi facilities.

This is what American resoluteness looks similar erstwhile clarity replaces rotation and persistence replaces defensiveness.

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Four State Department officials were cited for their failures by the Accountability Review Board. They were placed connected administrative permission with pay, past returned to authorities work successful different roles alternatively than being dismissed. Two yet retired voluntarily. More than a twelvemonth aft the attack, nary authoritative had been fired, demoted, oregon different held personally accountable for decisions that near Americans vulnerable.

Democratic statesmanlike candidate, erstwhile Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies connected Capitol Hill successful Washington, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015, earlier the House Benghazi Committee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The YouTube Video That Wasn’t

In the days pursuing the assault, elder Obama medication officials blamed a spontaneous protestation sparked by an anti-Islam video. That mentation collapsed nether scrutiny. Intelligence agencies understood astir instantly that this was a coordinated violent onslaught by extremist militias, including the designated panic radical Ansar al-Sharia.

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When Hillary Clinton appeared earlier the Senate Foreign Relations Committee successful January 2013, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., pressed her connected wherefore evacuees who could corroborate determination was nary protestation were not instantly contacted. Clinton’s effect became infamous: "What difference, astatine this point, does it make?" To critics, her remark symbolized an medication much focused connected managing governmental fallout than confronting hard truths astir information and responsibility.

Those 5 words crystallized critics’ presumption that the medication prioritized nationalist messaging successful the weeks preceding a nationalist predetermination implicit candor. Clinton aboriginal said, "I instrumentality responsibility," yet she simultaneously distanced herself from operational information decisions, and nary disciplinary enactment followed. President Obama took nary steps to region her from office.

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Congress launched aggregate investigations. The House Select Committee connected Benghazi, aft 2 years and $7 million, recovered bureaucratic failures and ignored information warnings—but nary definitive grounds of idiosyncratic wrongdoing by Clinton.

That opposition betwixt evasion past and resoluteness present explains wherefore this apprehension matters.

Why This Arrest Matters

The seizure of al-Bakoush sends an unmistakable message: America does not hide its fallen, and justness volition beryllium pursued careless of clip oregon politics. As Pirro emphasized, "There are much of them retired there. Time volition not halt america from going aft these predators, nary substance however agelong it takes."

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This is what American resoluteness looks similar erstwhile clarity replaces rotation and persistence replaces defensiveness. The terrorists who attacked Americans that September nighttime made a calculation that they could termination with impunity. Friday’s apprehension proves that calculation wrong.

Benghazi remains a achy section marked by nonaccomplishment and enactment failures. But this apprehension demonstrates thing essential: erstwhile America commits to justice, we decorativeness what we start. The families who waited much than a decennary recognize the quality that makes. It besides sends a connection to adversaries worldwide that America’s committedness to justice—and to its people—does not expire.

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