Last April, jihadist websites published an interview with AQAP's religious leader, Adel al-Abbab - also known as Abu al-Zubair - who said that Ansar al-Sharia had been set up to attract people to Sharia rule in the areas under the control of AQAP and allied groups, including "Islamic" punishments.

BBC: Profile: Yemen's Ansar al-Sharia

Why not dispatch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose department had received real-time emails when the consulate was under attack, including one which disclosed that the al-Quaida-linked group Ansar al-Sharia had taken credit?

FORBES: Mainstream Media Caught In Snarl Of Tangled Benghazi Yarns

As for the allegations made by Powell that Iraq has a relationship with the Ansar al-Islam organization, the facts are as follows: Some elements of the so-called Ansar al-Islam organization attacked the group of Jalal Talabani in northern Iraq on 22 September 2001.

BBC: Iraqi rebuttal: Terror links