it took so long, when journalists like cnn s arwa came be were able to find and talk to khattalah more than a year ago. we met with khattalah in public at the coffee shop of a well-known hotel here in benghazi for around two hours. he seemed to be confident. his demeanor most certainly not that of a man who believed that he was going to be detained or targeted any time soon. reporter: so how could cnn get to khattalah and it took u.s. commandos over a year to find him? and in order to do this safely, effectively, efficiently, nobody got hurt, by the way, that takes time to plan. that takes a lot of information gathering and we did this in a very stealthy way. reporter: who were the men who grabbed khattalah? delta force is part of the joint special operations command, one of the most secretive organizations in the u.s. military. the same organization that sent commandos to get bowe bergdahl back and to go kill osama bin
part of the interrogation, there s nothing wrong with doing that. just so i m entirely clear. the rules of the interrogation process on board that ship is governed by whom? by us. and when you say us, which department of us? the united states of america? the united states of america. the intelligence gathering agencies. with it s those associated with the department of defense, whether it s the cia or some combination or combination that includes the fbi. the fbi is now an intelligence gathering organization. in addition to a law enforcement organization. and bob bair, as a cia operative yourself, i know you ve been present for some of these interrogations, et cetera. you ve been listening to judge mukasey outlining the conditions on the ship where khattalah currently is. can you walk me through some of the things that are likely going on right now, the kinds of questions, the kind of circumstance he s in? he ll probably be confronted by i d say a dozen people asking
he s accused being involved in the 2012 attack in benghazi, libya, that claimed the lives of four americans. president obama says abu khattalah will face the american justice system, but there are critics out there, including some republicans, who are loudly calling for a detour, don t bring him to washington, take him to the u.s. military prison at guantanamo bay in cuba. joining us, the new york republican congressman peter king. on the intelligence committee. what do you think, is it right to bring him to face trial, face justice in a federal court in washington, or do you believe he should go to guantanamo? i strongly believe he should go to guantanamo. i don t believe it s going to happen. at the very least, we should do, before he s turned over to civilian authorities, the fbi and all of our intelligence agencies, cia and others, should interrogate him as long as they have to. i m not that concerned about a criminal conviction. we re going to get that
unwavering commitment to bring justice to those responsible for harming americans. i have made it a priority to find a bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four brave americans. i recently authorized an operation in libya to detain an individual charged for his role in these attacks, ahmed abu khattalah. the fact he is in u.s. custody is a testament to the painstaking efforts of our military, law enforcement and intelligence personnel. this individual will now face the full weight of the american justice system. i wanted to skip ahead to the third paragraph if i could. with this operation, the united states has once again demonstrated we will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done when people harm americans. again, the united states president, weighing in on the capture of ahmed abu khattalah in the benghazi attacks. we will bring to justice those responsible for the benghazi
interrogation. what do you make of this question, what took the u.s. so long? i think one has to look at the groundwork that existed in libya at the time that we sat down with abu khattalah. this was almost exactly a year ago, may of 2013, when we first met him. it was at a time when america s relationships with the libyan government was tenuous at best. there was a lot of anti-american sentiment, and therefore not a lot of support within the libyan security forces, nor within the government in and of itself to actually allow the u.s. to conduct any sort of raid on libyan soil or any sort of attempt to capture him. there were also a lot of concerns at the time that his capture, especially at the hands of u.s. forces, would perhaps further inflame anti-american sentiment, further complicate what was already a very complicated security situation in benghazi at the time, again, a year ago. we were seeing pro-al qaeda graffiti being painted on the walls, libyan security forces were not n