At Benghazi Trial, Harrowing Testimony and Clashing Views of a Defendant

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/us/politics/benghazi-trial-ambassador.html

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WASHINGTON — Dozens of assailants had burst into the main villa of the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, trashing the building and pounding on a metal cage door protecting a safe area where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens; Sean Smith, a computer technician; and Scott Wickland, a diplomatic security officer, crouched out of view.

It seemed clear that they were all about to die, Mr. Wickland testified Monday, the first day of the trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala, who is accused of helping orchestrate the attacks. Then the attackers left, but moments later, thick black smoke from a fire they had set started to pour in. Mr. Wickland told the others to follow him as they crawled to a bathroom window, but he lost them in the choking blackness.

“To this day, I don’t even know where they went,” he said. “I was right next to them, and then that’s it.”

The harrowing testimony from Mr. Wickland, appearing in United States District Court in Washington, capped a day that began with the prosecution’s opening statement laying out the case that Mr. Khattala conspired in, and aided, the attacks. It was underscored by surveillance video clips showing armed men bursting into the American Mission complex, manhandling an unarmed Libyan guard, kicking at doors, stealing maps and carrying cans of fuel that they used to set the deadly blaze.

But Mr. Wickland’s testimony did not mention Mr. Khattala’s role, and the video clips showed him only briefly coming into the compound late in the attacks. Government video of the height of the assault showed many of the assailants circled in red, each of whom were identified by a prosecutor as Mr. Khattala’s associates.

“Abu Khattala didn’t do the killing by himself,” John Crabb Jr., an assistant United States attorney, told the jurors. “He didn’t light the fires and he didn’t fire the mortars. But you will hear that he is just as guilty as the men who lit those fires and the men who fired those mortars because Abu Khattala planned the attack. Abu Khattala set the attack in motion. Abu Khattala incited others to do his dirty work.”

But Jeffrey D. Robinson, a defense attorney, argued that Mr. Khattala was being scapegoated. While the attacks were tragic, he said, no credible evidence would show that his client was responsible.

“The evidence is going to show that there were other people who were the brains behind the attack and masterminded the attack,” Mr. Robinson said. “Mr. Abu Khattala is just someone who we have decided — the government has decided, Libya has decided — can be blamed.”

Mr. Khattala, who is 46 but looks older with gray hair and a gray beard, sat quietly at the defense table and listened to an Arabic translation through headphones.

Four Americans died in the attacks. Mr. Stevens and Mr. Smith died from smoke inhalation in the burning building at the mission. Hours later, two Central Intelligence Agency operatives, Glen A. Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods, were killed by mortar fire at a nearby C.I.A. annex.

The men were killed, Mr. Crabb said, “because they were Americans.”

“And that man right there,” he continued and pointed to Mr. Khattala, “hates Americans with a vengeance.”

The trial, which may take five weeks, is being closely watched because a political firestorm followed the attacks. It also is a test of handling a foreign terrorism suspect in civilian court. Special Operations commandos captured Mr. Khattala in 2014 at a seaside villa in Libya, and he was interrogated aboard a naval ship.

The opening statements made clear that a Libyan witness, identified as “Ali,” will be important in the case. Mr. Crabb said that the United States government persuaded Mr. Ali to get close to Mr. Khattala after the attacks, and that it was Mr. Ali who eventually lured him to the villa. Mr. Ali received $7 million.

According to Mr. Crabb, Mr. Ali will testify that he witnessed Mr. Khattala describe himself, during a civic meeting at a Benghazi mosque, as the person who had attacked the Americans. The prosecutor said that Mr. Ali will also testify that during a visit to Mr. Khattala’s apartment, he saw equipment stolen from the mission building and heard Mr. Khattala say that he would have killed “all the Americans” that night if others had not stopped him.

But Mr. Robinson, emphasizing the money Mr. Ali was paid, argued that Mr. Ali had merely told American officials what they wanted to hear.

Mr. Crabb cited other upcoming evidence against Mr. Khattala, including testimony that he gathered weapons to be used in the attacks a few days beforehand, and kept potential rescuers from approaching as it was happening.

Mr. Robinson questioned the credibility of Libyan witnesses. He also said his client came to the American mission after the attacks started, out of curiosity, warned people to stay away from the gunfire for safety reasons and went home before the assault on the C.I.A. annex.

“The government’s theory is he was sort of a hands-off person and sent other people to go do it,” Mr. Robinson said. “You don’t go home if you are planning and leading an attack on a C.I.A. annex in Benghazi, Libya. That doesn’t make sense.”

While Mr. Wickland’s testimony offered no insights about Mr. Khattala’s role, it left a vivid impression. After searching fruitlessly in the smoke for the other two men and nearly passing out, he testified, he got out of a window into breathable air — only to be shot at.

He returned inside four times to search but periodically went to vomit outside, where he was shot at again, Mr. Wickland said. Finally, he sought refuge on the roof of the burning building.

“I waited until the firing stopped on my position for a second, bolted for the ladder onto the roof of the building, pulled up the ladder behind me,” he said. “And that’s pretty much when I knew Sean Smith and the ambassador were dead.”