WASHINGTON A Libyan terrorist suspect who was held aboard a U.S. warship is now in the United States, CBS News has confirmed.
The al Qaeda suspect, known as Abu Anas al-Libi, has been under federal indictment in New York for more than a decade. He's expected to stand trial over whether he helped plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.
U.S. special operations forces snatched Al-Libi during a raid in Libya on Oct. 5.
His full name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and he used to be on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list. His family says he was not in al Qaeda.
Last week, Islamic militants in Libya vowed to avenge the arrest of Al-Libi by U.S. Special Forces.
In a statement posted to several online portals frequently used by jihadi groups operating in eastern Libya -- including Ansar al-Sharia, which is believed to have been involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic posts in Benghazi which left Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other Americans dead -- the militants vowed to 'strike back' at those responsible for the kidnapping.
While acknowledging that U.S. troops carried out the raid to apprehend al-Libi, the statement suggested reprisals would target the Libyan government, or, 'those who betrayed their country and got implicated in this conspiracy.'
There has been no indication that the U.S. military had any local assistance in the operation, and Libya's central government and military have remained in a state of near-paralysis since the ouster and killing of the dictator Muammar Qaddafi two years ago in an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.
Al-Libi's wife and son, however, claimed in news interviews in the wake of the raid that people involved in his apprehension spoke with Libyan accents and appeared to be from the region. It is also unclear to what degree the U.S. government informed the Libyan government that the raid was going to occur -- before or after the fact.
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