NYT: Captured Suspect Said Benghazi Attack Was Revenge For Anti-Islam Video

Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the suspect captured by U.S. special forces on Tuesday for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attack, reportedly said he was motivated in part by the anti-Islam online video made in America, according to the New York Times.

“What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video,” Times reporter David Kirkpatrick wrote in a story on Khattala on Tuesday.

Immediately following the attack, Khattala declined to say whether the video had anything to do with his role in the Benghazi attack, according to the Times.

The New York Times reported in December that the attack was fueled in part by the anti-Islam video, but did not link Khattala to the video in that investigation.

The scandal surrounding the Obama administration’s response to Benghazi was centered on whether or not the attack was related to protests surrounding the video.