It’s About Time

by Joseph DeMaio, ©2026

(Feb. 9, 2026) — Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have announced the arrest of one of the “key actors” and prime alleged participants in the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate/compound in Benghazi, Libya: one  Zubayr Al-Bakoush.

The attack resulted in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, Information Management Officer Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty, both Woods and Doherty being former Navy SEALS and members of the CIA security detail assigned to Ambassador Stevens.  And if you’ve not recently viewed “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi…,” do so now.

Long-time P&E readers may recall that following the attack, your humble servant penned a four-part series of posts addressing not only the reported facts of the attack, but also one theory behind the attack largely ignored by the mass media and cloaked from public discussion or examination.  

That theory, first originating here and here was that the Benghazi catastrophe was the result of a botched kidnapping plot.  Retired Four-Star Admiral James (“Ace”) Lyons posited that Ambassador Stevens was to be kidnapped.  One potential reason was that he was to be held hostage to be later “traded” for the Egyptian “Blind Sheik” – Omar Abdel-Rahman – imprisoned here for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center garage bombing.  Then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi had publicly called on the United States to free him for health reasons so that he could live out the rest of his life in his native Egypt.

Those P&E posts appeared here, here, here and here.  P&E Reader alert: while those posts can still be accessed online, many of the internal Internet links to videos and other corroborating documents once included have since disappeared.

That said, with sophisticated software search tools and against the saying that “the Internet is forever,” perhaps some tech-geek in Patel’s shop could reinvigorate those links…, assuming, of course, that Patel or someone in authority assigned him/her that task.  Who knows, maybe by now there are even high-tech ways to recover Bleach-Bitted emails.  Just sayin’.

The botched kidnapping plot was noted, but never examined in the official reports conducted after the attack, still accessible (for now) on the Internet here and here.

Several years after the first series of posts, your servant revisited the still-clouded history of the attack and the potential reasons behind it here.  While in light of Al-Bakoush’s capture, P&E readers may wish to refresh their memories as to the details and reasons then being posited for the potential kidnapping, its failure and the possible motivations of certain people by reviewing that post, the compressed summary of it is just this: 

Concerned in the closing few weeks of the 2012 general election race that polling showed GOP candidate Mitt Romney quickly closing the likely-voter gap on him, President Obama and/or then-Secretary of State Hillary (“BleachBit”) Clinton may (emphasis on may) have hatched a nefarious plot, potentially in concert with Egyptian President Morsi.  Nefarious?  Clinton?  Seriously??  It is documented that Clinton personally met with Morsi in Cairo in July, 2012, but we don’t know all that was discussed.  And oh, yeah…, recall as well that Morsi died in 2019…, and, BTW, that dead men tell no tales….

Suppose…, just hypothetically, of course…, that a structured “kidnapping” of Ambassador Stevens could be arranged, with his security guards instructed to “stand down” and not interfere for “diplomatic” or “bad optics” reasons.  And further suppose that Stevens were to be held in a “safe house” somewhere in Libya, while his “captors” posted faux threatening videos warning of his decapitation if the Blind Sheik were not released.

But also suppose that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, former U.S. Navy – “once-a-SEAL-always-a-SEAL” – SEALS, ultimately disregarded the “stand-down” order from their superiors – ultimately in the control of then-Secretary of State Clinton – and disrupted the “structured” kidnapping by responding to Stevens’ panicked calls for help, causing the “choreographed” event to “go South.” 

And finally, suppose, again hypothetically, that a few days before the 2012 general election, President Obama “reluctantly,” but motivated by compassion for Ambassador Stevens, agreed to swap the Blind Sheik for Stevens, perhaps in a ceremony live-streamed and televised (by CNN, of course…) from Andrews Air Force Base, four or five days before Election Day…, might that have given Obama the “bump” he thought he needed?

Just askin’.

Now that one of the alleged “key actors” in the Benghazi attack – and potentially someone possessed of additional, maybe even “first-hand” information relevant to the purported “kidnapping gambit” –  is now in U.S. custody and facing criminal prosecution, perhaps some useful intelligence shedding more light on the events of September 11, 2012 will be forthcoming.

With Al-Bakoush now in the custody of people who genuinely care about the rule of law and accountability, and who are prepared to follow through on their principles, perhaps we are approaching the time when Clinton’s brutally insouciant question – “What difference, at this point, does it make?” may be answered.  It is, indeed, about time.

Clinton might not like the response.  Gotta hope Al-Bakoush is in safe custody.  Somewhere.