Later, the lie was confirmed. Writing in
Town Hall, Rachel Alexander claims, “Conservatives were flabbergasted when (General) Petraeus defended the administration shortly after the attack, repeating what U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had said on television about a video being responsible for the attack…After Petraeus was forced out over (an) affair, he switched his story, and.. .told Congress that classified intelligence had been provided to the White House showing that the attack came from terrorists. It is now known that the American consulate in Benghazi alerted the White House several hours prior to the attack that they feared one was eminent. Petraeus testified that the White House withheld that information from the public…”
As-Salaam-Alaikum; my name is Chris Stevens
United States ambassador Christopher Stevens, was born on April 18, 1960. He met his death at Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. Because the official autopsy report about who or what caused Stevens’ death has never been released, we can only say for sure that he died in the service of his country.
Did Stevens have to die for his country, or was his death the result of a betrayal? There is enough evidence to suggest that Stevens was betrayed by the President of the United States, the US Secretary of State, his own liberal values and love for Islam, and finally the gay community who knew of his death but still refuses to memorialize it.
Ambassador Stevens was not married. He had no children. He dedicated his life to working overseas for the US government. The product of the liberal East Bay community of Piedmont, California, Stevens was an international trade lawyer by training.
“As-Salaam-Alaikum; my name is Chris Stevens, and I’m the new U.S. ambassador to Libya.” Stevens spoke those words to the people of Libya when he was first appointed.
He added, "Growing up in California, I didn’t know much about the Arab world...I worked as an English teacher in a town in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco for two years and quickly grew to love this part of the world. As-Salaam-Alaikum.” What began as “Peace be with you,” certainly didn't end that way.
“Harry Johnson…who lived next to Stevens when the future diplomat was a boy,
said Stevens had kept in contact after graduating from Piedmont High School in 1978. ‘He was so intelligent, but never lost the human touch,’ Johnson said. ‘He could make anyone feel comfortable and make them a part of his world because he fit into theirs.’”
Instead of practicing law, Stevens turned his talent and education to service overseas. He reportedly loved Libya and her people. Some say Stevens hoped to move on from service in Libya and become the US ambassador to Iran.
Life at school
Many of Stevens' values were shaped while attending classes at UC Berkley. Most importantly, his affection for Islam dates from that time. Given his education, it seems likely that Stevens never expected his fate a Benghazi. It was the believers in Islam that caused his death. Stevens was betrayed by those he trusted.
How close was ambassador Stevens to Islam? Sabri Malek, the spokesman for the Democratic Party in Libya,
claims Stevens, “had a very personal private matter, a very romantic relationship with the mystical side of Islam.”
Malek continued, “He always felt that he belonged to the Libyan community and the society...He was one of us. He had a habit of going down the local street …going to a very famous bar, it’s like a fruit bar where he takes his milkshakes…hardly with any security.”
In spring 2011, before Stevens left for his fatal assignment in Libya, he met with Douglas Kmiec in Malta. Kmiec, a well-known law professor and commentator, has been a key Catholic supporter of Obama.
According to Kmiec, he and Stevens, “spoke of the inter-faith diplomatic effort of President Obama.” Afterwards, Stevens sailed in a Greek ship to Libya.
A source told
Fox News that Stevens’ last meeting was with “Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin. Stevens was in Benghazi ‘to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists.’”
Rumors and more rumors
Jean Ann Esselink, writing for
The New Civil Right Movement, believes it’s more important to see Stevens as an American hero rather than just a gay man. Esselink writes, “…I cannot tell you if Chris was gay. I can tell you only that he was a 52-year-old man without wife or child, at least one he claimed in public. I could find no bereaved lover of either sex who raised a hand to acknowledge a relationship.”
Kevin Dujan, who writes for the
HillBuzz.com says of the gay men he contacted in Chicago at the Second Story bar and elsewhere, “Of course, they’ve all been talking about ambassador Stevens’ murder by Muslims in Libya: and all of them are incredulous that the State Department sent a gay man to be ambassador to a Muslim country.
Why would they be incredulous? Because news reports continue to indicate that those who murdered Stevens also raped him repeatedly, before and after his death.”
Writing on
Queerty.com, a respondent who identifies herself as a “Lesbian Conservative” maintains, “The fact is, Chris Stevens was gay and he was open about it. The issue of whether it was smart for Madame Clinton to send him to the violent and virulently anti-homosexual backwater of Libya is a legitimate question to ask.”
If it is uncertain who Stevens loved, then we do know that while in the Peace Corps, Stevens, “
fell in love with Morocco and that part of the world." This seems fitting for someone with a talent for both French and Arabic and who earlier wrote in his Piedmont High yearbook, "What a bore it is, waking up in the morning always the same person.”
In spite of Stevens life as both a diplomate and gay man, the GLBT community has done nothing to honor him with a monument, a scholarship or even an award. Why is this? Could it be he was betrayed by the GLBT community because his death at Benghazi is still a controversial political issue and may drag both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama into an abyss?
There is a
photograph of Stevens and his friend Austin Tichenor. It was taken in the 1970s. In the photograph Stevens sports an ascot. The Kodachrome color in the photograph is shifting to red with age. The two young men look happy together.
A trusting relationship
Ambassador Stevens first arrived in Libya secretly in a cargo ship to serve as a liaison to the rebels fighting the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. From the embassy in Tripoli, Stevens made his way on September 11th to the “Special U.S. Mission” in Benghazi where he met his death.
A United States ambassador often earns more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year. Yet, beyond the income, the position of ambassador carries a unique distinction. Unlike other government jobs, an ambassador is the personal representative of the President of the United States. For an ambassador to be betrayed by a US president is to imagine a politics that has descended into a corruption from which there is no return.
The relationship between an ambassador and the president is akin to the trusting relationship between friends.
When an ambassador asks for help and that help is not forthcoming, a trust and a friend are betrayed. Not to understand this betrayal is not to understand something fundamental about human relationship, government protocols aside.
Writing in the
American Thinker, James Lewis claims, “The evidence now shows that Obama was aware of the attack (at Benghazi) within 55 minutes of the start. It lasted for six or seven hours, and Obama consistently countermanded standing orders to protect Americans under attack in the Africom command area.” That was a betrayal unto death.
From betrayal to ashes
The motive for the attack at Benghazi and the murder of ambassador Stevens remains unknown. The official explanation that the attack was caused by a video has been shown to be a lie, a lie repeated over and over again by the administration and its representatives.
According to the
president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, “I think you can fairly conclude that it was during that phone call that they (Clinton and Obama) decided to push the video lie…”
For
ambassador Stevens the end came most hard—perhaps breathing in toxic diesel fumes and hiding from the flames that licked at the safe-room door. As the compound at Benghazi filled with smoke and the crack, crack, crack of gunfire sounded outside, did Stevens realize no one was coming to help him? Videos seem to show Stevens was dragged alive from the burning compound, only to die later. Many believe he was murdered.
Stevens never heard the reassuring drone from a Lockheed AC-130 gunship overhead. When the dust settled after the battle at Benghazi, it was time for our enemies to collect their trophies. “...Stevens’ personal belongings--including his camera, cell phone, identification papers and various private documents--are being kept locked in a safe in the possession of
Wesam Bin Hameed in Libya.”
There was a
ceremony of flags and drums at Dover Air Force Base when Stevens’ body was returned to dampen controversy. A military band played the hymn, “Near My God to Thee.”
Stevens’ remains were laid to rest in a family plot at Grass Valley Cemetery in California. There was no grieving widow graveside to watch the coffin slide into the hungry earth. Not one member of the GLBT community was present nor was Hillary Clinton.
According to Dante, Treachery is the Ninth Circle of Hell. This last circle is dedicated to those people who betrayed their loved ones, friends, countries, and no doubt, ambassadors.
