Trial Begins For Mastermind In Benghazi Attacks

WASHINGTON –The trial for the suspected mastermind of the 2012 Benghazi, Libya, attacks has begun in a federal courtroom in Washington

The trial comes three years after Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured by U.S. special forces in Libya and brought to the U.S. on a 13-day trip aboard a Navy ship.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb says Abu Khattala “hates America with a vengeance.” Crabb told the jury that the defendant’s “hatred simmered until it boiled over” and he organized the attack on the American diplomatic outpost.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed along with Sean Patrick Smith, a State Department information management officer. Nearly eight hours later at a CIA complex nearby, two more Americans, contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack.