Assembling Intelligence on Benghazi Attack Suspects

The media started reporting on October 24th that the U.S. Intelligence Community believes affiliates of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), specifically individuals tied to the Libyan group Ansar al-Sharia, were among those responsible for the terrorist attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. First cited by the Daily Beast, a suspect, identified as Ali Ani al-Harzi who is an alleged member of Ansar al-Sharia, was one of two Tunisians detained by authorities in Turkey early in October. He is now in Tunisia awaiting trial amidst claims that he described the fighting on a social media site shortly after it began.

Our team here has been blogging on the Benghazi attack since it was first reported on September 11, 2012. We wanted to dig a little deeper into Ansar al-Sharia and Ali Ani al-Harzi to see if there was anything publically reported to link al-Harzi to a blog post or some al-Qaeda affiliation. We searched Recorded Future for “Ali Ani al-Harzi” seeking anything published over the last 6 months that might reveal a connection. As you can see from the timeline below, we were unable to find any public reporting on him prior to October 14th.

Clearly events are centered around the last 30 days, and from our immediate research, it appears that al-Harzi did not have a digital signature in the public media prior to this recent reporting. This could mean al-Harzi purposely avoided any behavior that would give him such a profile. CNN did report that Aaron Zelin, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who tracks dozens of jihadist websites examined known Facebook and Twitter accounts of Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi could not find any related posts just before or after the attacks. This does not necessary mean that a post was made under some other social media site from another account.

Next we decided to research Ansar al-Sharia given the latest news on recently released State Department emails that described this group as possibly being behind the attack. Again, our research does show al-Sharia had very little buzz on the public media sources outside of the recent time frame around the Benghazi Embassy attack.

Looking at how this organization is being viewed in the public domain, you can see the lead up to a very negative sentiment and heavy momentum (buzz and chatter) as they are blamed for the embassy attack in Benghazi. It is interesting to note that few events related to the group have garnered nearly as much momentum since the attack. There have been a few spikes of negative sentiment with the most recent being news of the State Department emails released by the media on October 24th.

In conclusion, what we do know is the attack on the Benghazi compound was pre-planned and well organized by a violent group. We have seen quite a bit of reporting on various al-Qaeda affiliates in the region and that continue to grow. As shown in the a network graph of relationships between Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaeda.

In conclusion, what we do know is the attack on the Benghazi compound was pre-planned and well organized by a violent group. We have seen quite a bit of reporting on various al-Qaeda affiliates in the region and that continue to grow. As shown in the a network graph of relationships between Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaeda.