If CBS’s Lara Logan was run out of 60 Minutes on a rail over a discredited witness, New York Times’ Cairo (emphasis on CAIRO) Bureau Chief David Kirkpatrick should suffer the same fate, at minimum. You see, in his fictional December 28th missive, Kirkpatrick said that neither al-Qaeda nor any international terrorist groups were involved in the 9/11/12 Benghazi attacks. The Washington Free Beacon’s Bill Gertz published a report that directly contradicts Kirkpatrick’s claims.

Kirkpatrick: Cairo Bureau Chief for NYT.

The Jamal Network, headed by Muhammad Jamal Abdo Al-Kashif, is now getting a bit more attention in light of Kirkpatrick’s deceitful piece.

Via Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon:

The U.S. government is trying to apprehend an al Qaeda terrorist wanted for his role in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans.

The suspect, Muhammad Jamal, was imprisoned in Egypt last fall and in September was being held by the Egyptian government. His current whereabouts could not be confirmed, said U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. One official said Jamal remains in Egyptian custody, contrary to reports that he was in Yemen.

Now, here is a key excerpt from Kirkpatrick’s New York Times / resurrect Hillary 2016 piece:

Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who had direct knowledge of the attack there and its context, turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault. The attack was led, instead, by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam.

Contrary to Kirkpatrick’s claims, Jamal heads an international network headquartered in Egypt and also has connections to core Al-Qaeda. In fact, he’s directly tied to al-Qaeda’s number one, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Again, it cannot be overstated that Kirkpatrick is the Cairo Bureau chief. To put this in perspective, this would be like Logan getting her 60 Minutes report wrong while holding the position of Benghazi Bureau chief.

Gertz: Just made life a bit more difficult for NYT’s David Kirkpatrick.

A bit later, Gertz writes…

Details of Jamal’s role in the Benghazi attack are being kept secret, said one U.S. official. Jamal is not listed on the FBI website as one of the most wanted terrorists or among suspects listed on the FBI’s “seeking terror information” page.

On September 19, 2013, Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) Chairman Thomas Pickering appeared to inadvertently divulge information from ARB’s confidential report, when he conceded that an Egyptian group was likely involved in Benghazi. He seemed to catch himself but it was too late. There is no such reference in the ARB’s unclassified report. This revelation by Pickering backs up the claim of the U.S. official quoted by Gertz, who said Jamal’s role is being kept secret.

Kirkpatrick’s Jamal Network omission – especially in light of the fact that he is the BUREAU CHIEF in Cairo, the city near which the Jamal Network was based – puts him in the same territory as Pickering.

Here is Pickering’s exchange with Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY):

Why does the Obama administration want to keep Jamal’s involvement in Benghazi secret?

There could be several reasons but among them…

• If, in fact, the Benghazi attacks were about a kidnapping operation gone wrong, such an operation likely involved Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood government in general and President Mohammed Mursi in particular. Identifying the Jamal Network as being involved gets one step closer to Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood involvement in the attacks.
• As we reported in August of last year, Jamal’s partner in crime – Tarek Taha Abu Al-Azm – was a member of the Egyptian military and trained in the U.S.
• Jamal was released from prison shortly after the fall of Mubarak. Several Arabic sources implicate Mursi as aiding in that release. Nonetheless, in supporting the ouster of Mubarak, the Obama administration implemented a policy that would have allowed the formation of a network which was involved in the murder of four Americans.

Last year, the U.S. State Department ID’d al-Kashif as a terrorist and the United Nations ID’d al-Kashif as a suspect in the Benghazi attacks and said the following about him:

Since 2011, established Muhammad Jamal Network (MJN) (QE.M.136.13) and terrorist training camps in Egypt and Libya. Conducted MJN’s terrorist activities with support from Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) (QE.A.129.10). Reported to be involved in the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi, Libya, on 11 Sep. 2012. Headed Nasr City terrorist cell in Egypt in 2012. Linked to Aiman al-Zawahiri (QI.A.6.01) and the leadership of AQAP and the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) (QE.T.14.01). Arrested and imprisoned multiple times by Egyptian authorities since ca. 2000. Released in 2011 but re-arrested by Egyptian authorities in Nov. 2012. Imprisoned in Egypt pending trial as of Sep. 2013.

Now, according to Gertz’s sources, the spotlight al-Kashif that has managed to avoid al-Kashif may be getting closer to him… and Kirkpatrick.

Lara Logan: Kirkpatrick deserves worse than she got from CBS.

For his lies and omissions, Kirkpatrick should be called out. Unlike Lara Logan, his transgressions appear to be intentional.