Report: Benghazi Mastermind Identified -- But We're Not Arresting Him

(Photo: AP)

President Obama on Tuesday reiterated his pledge to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11 attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

“Our job with respect to Benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened, to make sure that U.S. embassies – not just in the Middle East but around the world – are safe and secure, and to bring those who carried it out to justice," he declared yesterday, nearly 8 months after the attack.

But recent reports have claimed at least four officials with the State Department and CIA have been warned by administration officials against testifying on the attack, and another report claims the State Department is preventing the whistle-blowers from getting legal representation.

Now, Fox News is reporting that multiple sources have said the United States has actually identified the mastermind behind the attack, but has not taken any action.

He is "still in Libya and walks free," the report claims.

(Photo via Fox News)

One special operator who was on the ground during the attack and has debriefed those responding told Fox News' Adam Housley:

"We basically don't want to upset anybody, and the problem is, if Ambassador Stevens' family knew that we were sitting on information about the people who killed their son, their brother, and we can look them as a government in the face --?  Then we're messing up.  We're messing up.

[...]

We have all the capability, all the training, all the capacity to kill and capture not only terrorists involved with the specific events of [September 11] and Ambassador Stevens' death, but terrorists who are feeding other regions including Europe, that could eventually affect our national security -- in the short term, we're not talking in mid-term or long-term, we're talking short-term...

It's a daily frustration.  [Emphasis added]

The whistle-blower, who asked to remain anonymous, is speaking out because he's "frustrated with the excuses, lies, and lack of a military response" from the current administration, according to Fox News.

And in addition to not bringing to justice the perpetrators of past offenses, the whistle-blower claims we are putting ourselves at grave risk in the future.

After noting that "the second highest population of foreign fighters in the war in Iraq came from Benghazi, second to Saudi Arabia," and that they have a history of killing Americans and coalition forces, the special operator said the weapons trade, in particular, is of concern.

After the fall of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi, tens of thousands of weapons are unaccounted for, including an estimated 20,000 shoulder-launched missiles.

He says they have actually come across some of the weapons, but they are "not allowed to take or destroy the missiles because they're not given authority by their chain of command."

Fox News reached out to the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the claims that the mastermind has been identified, but says it got no official response.

Watch the entire special report courtesy of Fox News, below:

Related:

• Claim: State Department Preventing Benghazi Whistle-Blowers From Getting Legal Representation
• ‘It Goes Back to the Bin Laden Attack’: Expert Who Said New Benghazi Info Will Leave You ‘Amazed and Shocked’ Gives More Details to TheBlaze
• Panetta Justifies Benghazi Response Time: ‘You Cannot Simply Call and Expect Within 2 Minutes to Have a Team in Place’