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closing"> <div id="abColumn" class="abColumn"> <div id="article">  <div class="columnGroup first"> <h1 itemprop="headline" class="articleHeadline"><nyt_headline version="1.0" type=" ">U.S. Is Tracking Killers in Attack on Libya Mission</nyt_headline></h1> <div class="articleSpanImage"><span itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/03/world/JP-LIBYA/JP-LIBYA-articleLarge.jpg" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/03/world/JP-LIBYA/JP-LIBYA-articleLarge.jpg" width="600" height="330" alt="" border="0" itemprop="url" itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/03/world/JP-LIBYA/JP-LIBYA-articleLarge.jpg"> <meta itemprop="identifier" content="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/03/world/JP-LIBYA/JP-LIBYA-articleLarge.jpg"/> <meta itemprop="height" content="600"/> <meta itemprop="width" content="330"/> <div itemprop="copyrightHolder" class="credit">Agence France-Presse — Getty Images</div> <p itemprop="description" class="caption">This widely published photograph, taken in the aftermath of the attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left the American ambassador and three other people dead, appears to capture one potential witness. </p> </span> </div>  <nyt_byline> <h6 class="byline">By <span itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/eric_schmitt/index.html"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/eric_schmitt/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by ERIC SCHMITT"><span itemprop="name">ERIC SCHMITT</span></a></span> and <span itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_d_kirkpatrick/index.html"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/david_d_kirkpatrick/index.html" rel="author" title="More Articles by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK"><span itemprop="name">DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK</span></a></span></h6> </nyt_byline> <h6 class="dateline">Published: October 2, 2012 </h6> <div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic articleShareToolsTop" data-shares="facebook,twitter,google,email,showall|Share,print,singlepage,reprints,ad" data-title="U.S. Is Tracking Killers in Attack on Libya Mission" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916oe_/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/africa/us-said-to-be-preparing-potential-targets-tied-to-libya-attack.html" data-description="Military and counterterrorism teams are preparing dossiers in the first step toward preparing for orders from President Obama."></div> <meta name="emailThisHash" content="2iGHrEcZlK1dCTDyQ4j17w"> <div class="articleBody"> <span itemprop="copyrightHolder provider sourceOrganization" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization" itemid="http://www.nytimes.com"> <meta itemprop="name" content="The New York Times Company"/> <meta itemprop="url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytco.com/"/> <meta itemprop="tickerSymbol" content="NYSE NYT"/> </span> <meta itemprop="copyrightYear" content="2012"/> <nyt_text> <nyt_correction_top> </nyt_correction_top> <p itemprop="articleBody"> WASHINGTON — The United States is laying the groundwork for operations to kill or capture militants implicated in the deadly attack on a diplomatic mission in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Libya." class="meta-loc">Libya</a>, senior military and counterterrorism officials said Tuesday, as the weak Libyan government appears unable to arrest or even question fighters involved in the assault. </p> </div> <div class="articleInline runaroundLeft">  <div class="columnGroup doubleRule"> </div></div> <script type="text/javascript"> if (typeof NYTDVideoManager != "undefined") { NYTDVideoManager.setAllowMultiPlayback(false); } function displayCompanionBanners(banners, tracking) { tmDisplayBanner(banners, "videoAdContent", 300, 250, null, tracking); } </script> <div class="articleInline runaroundLeft collectionHeader"> <h6 class="sectionHeader flushBottom">Multimedia</h6> </div> <div class="articleInline runaroundLeft firstArticleInline"> <div class="story"> <div class="wideThumb"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/20/world/africa/the-attack-on-the-american-mission-in-benghazi-libya.html?ref=africa"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com//images/2012/09/20/world/africa/reconstructpromo190.png" width="190" height="126" alt="" border="0"/> <span class="mediaOverlay interactive">Interactive Graphic</span> </a> </div> <h6><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/20/world/africa/the-attack-on-the-american-mission-in-benghazi-libya.html?ref=africa"> The Attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya</a></h6> <h6 class="byline"> </h6> </div> </div> <div class="articleInline runaroundLeft"><div class="articleInline runaroundLeft"></div> <div class="columnGroup doubleRule"> <h3 class="sectionHeader">Related</h3> <ul class="headlinesOnly multiline flush"> <li> <h6><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/africa/requests-for-bolstered-security-in-libya-were-denied-republicans-say.html?ref=africa"> Added Security in Libya Was Rejected, G.O.P. Says</a> (October 3, 2012) </h6> </li> </ul> </div> <div class="doubleRule"><div class="story"> <div class="runaroundRight"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916im_/http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/04/26/world/nytimesworld-twitter-icon/nytimesworld-twitter-icon-thumbStandard.jpg" height="75" width="75" alt="World Twitter Logo."/></a></div> <h4><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld">Connect With Us on Twitter</a></h4> <p class="summary">Follow <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld">@nytimesworld</a> for international breaking news and headlines.</p> <p class="summary"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/https://twitter.com/#!/nytimesworld/nytjournalists/members"> Twitter List: Reporters and Editors</a></p> </div></div> </div> <div id="readerscomment" class="inlineLeft"></div> <div class="articleBody"> <p itemprop="articleBody"> The top-secret Joint <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/united_states_special_operations_command/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about United States Special Operations Command" class="meta-org">Special Operations Command</a> is compiling so-called target packages of detailed information about the suspects, the officials said. Working with the Pentagon and the C.I.A., the command is preparing the dossiers as the first step in anticipation of possible orders from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Barack Obama." class="meta-per">President Obama</a> to take action against those determined to have played a role in the attack on a diplomatic mission in the eastern city of Benghazi that killed <a title="A Times article." href="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/middleeast/us-envoy-to-libya-is-reported-killed.html?pagewanted=all">Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three colleagues</a> three weeks ago. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Potential military options could include drone strikes, Special Operations raids like the one that killed Osama bin Laden and joint missions with Libyan authorities. But administration officials say no decisions have been made on any potential targets. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Spokesmen for the Defense Department and C.I.A. declined to comment. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> The preparations underscore the bind confronting the White House over the Benghazi attack. Mr. Obama has vowed to bring the killers to justice, and in the final weeks of the presidential campaign Republicans have hammered the administration over the possible intelligence failures that preceded the attack — including a new accusation that repeated requests for strengthened security in Benghazi had been rejected. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> But any American military action on Libyan soil would risk casualties and almost certainly set off a popular backlash at a moment when support for the revolt against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi had created a surge in good feeling toward the United States that is unique in the region.  </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Reflecting a surge in nationalism, the Libyan government has opposed any unilateral American military action in Libya against the attackers. “We will not accept anyone entering inside Libya,” Mustafa Abu Shagur, Libya’s new prime minister, told the Al Jazeera television network. “That would infringe on sovereignty and we will refuse.” </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> At the same time, the Libyan government still depends almost entirely on autonomous local militias to act as the police, complicating any effort to detain the most obvious suspects. Libyan and American officials acknowledge the possibility that some of the perpetrators may have fled the country, perhaps across the porous southern border. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> “It is a kind of hypocrisy really,” said Fathi Baja, a liberal former member of the Transitional National Council from Benghazi. Despite promises of swift retribution, he said, the government had not taken any steps to confront or interrogate those most widely believed to bear responsibility. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Both American counterterrorism officials and Benghazi residents are increasingly focused on the local militant group Ansar al-Shariah as the main force behind the attack. Counterterrorism officials in Washington say they now believe that Ansar al-Shariah had a rough attack plan for the American diplomatic mission “on the shelf” and ready for some time just in case, as one official put it. Then, the officials said, reports of the breach of the United States Embassy in Cairo, on the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks provided the impetus. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> In the hours after the Benghazi attack, the American official said, spy agencies intercepted electronic communications from Ansar al-Shariah fighters bragging to an operative with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian insurgency that has made itself a namesake of the global terrorist group founded by Bin Laden. Another intercept captured cellphone conversations by militants on the grounds of the smoldering American Mission in Benghazi that suggested links to, or sympathies for, the regional Qaeda group. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> In Benghazi, Ansar al-Shariah’s role in the attack has been an open secret since it began. The group’s leaders had boasted of their ability to flatten the United States Mission compound. Witnesses saw trucks emblazoned with the logo of their brigade at the scene, fighters who assaulted the compound acknowledged their affiliation with the group and witnesses saw their faces. Some Libyan guards at the compound saw them close up, and injured attackers were then treated at local hospitals. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Although in the immediate aftermath of the attack Libyan officials issued conflicting and unverifiable reports about arrests, the Libyan government has never identified anyone detained, and in recent days officials have declined repeated requests to provide any details. </p><div id="pageLinks"><ul id="pageNumbers"><li> 1 </li><li> <a onclick="s_code_linktrack('Article-MultiPagePageNum2');" title="Page 2" href="/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/africa/us-said-to-be-preparing-potential-targets-tied-to-libya-attack.html?pagewanted=2">2</a> </li></ul><a class="next" onclick="s_code_linktrack('Article-MultiPage-Next');" title="Next Page" href="/web/20121004183916/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/world/africa/us-said-to-be-preparing-potential-targets-tied-to-libya-attack.html?pagewanted=2">Next Page »</a></div><nyt_author_id> <div class="authorIdentification"> <p>Eric Schmitt reported from Washington, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Tripoli, Libya. Suliman Ali Zway contributed reporting from Benghazi, Libya.</p> </div> </nyt_author_id><nyt_correction_bottom> <div class="articleCorrection"> </div> </nyt_correction_bottom><nyt_update_bottom> </nyt_update_bottom> </nyt_text> </div> </div>  <div class="columnGroup "> <div class="articleFooter"> <div class="articleMeta"> <div class="opposingFloatControl wrap"> <div class="element1"> <h6 class="metaFootnote">A version of this article appeared in print on October 3, 2012, on page <span itemprop="printSection">A</span><span itemprop="printPage">1</span> of the <span itemprop="printEdition">New York edition</span> with the headline: U.S. Is Tracking Killers in Attack On Libya Mission.</h6> </div> </div> </div> <img itemprop="newsUsageTag" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20121004183916im_/http://analytics.apnewsregistry.com/analytics/v2/image.svc/TheNewYorkTimes/RWS/nytimes.com/CAI/100000001821007/E/prod/PC/Basic/AT/A" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="display:none;"/> </div> </div>  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