Egypt Denies U.S. Authorities Access to Benghazi Suspect

Egyptian authorities have denied U.S. investigators direct access to Abu Ahmed, a suspect involved in the September 11 U.S. Embassy attack in Libya which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and four others.

According to Thomas Joscelyn with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Egyptian authorities often prefer to maintain indirect lines of communication between American interrogators and Egyptian-held terror suspects.

Though Egyptian authorities have not given investigators a direct line to interrogate Ahmed, they have provided investigators with intelligence from their own operations. The case bears striking similarities to that of Ali Ani al-Harzi, who was connected to the same attack and held for questioning by the Tunisians, but was directly inaccessible by American investigators.

Ahmed did not directly take part in the attack, but is suspected to have trained direct participants. Ahmed’s training camps in East Libya drew recruits from across North Africa and instructed them in the use of the same mortars and heavy artillery which were used in the assault on the Embassy.

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