Posted: Wednesday,
May 29, 2013
Revised: Wednesday,
June 19, 2013
Chris Stevens -
By William E. Kelly, Jr.
Shortly after the news of the death of Chris Stevens reached
the state of Washington
A few days earlier, Chris Steven’s sister, Dr. Anne Stevens
of Seattle Children’s Hospital, received an early morning phone call
from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, her late brother’s boss, who
expressed her condolences on the death of the American Ambassador and promised
that “justice would be done!” [2]
Dr. Stevens was surprised. “Justice,” she thought, was not
what Chris Stevens was about.
“This was not at all how my brother would have reacted. I
never heard him talk like that,” said Dr. Stevens, who believes the most
fitting tribute to her older brother’s life would be to “complete the
work he had started in Benghazi
President Obama, on message, said of Stevens that, "…
we must affirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens,
and not by his killers." [3]
Whether the future will be determined by people like Chris
Stevens, or by those who killed him is yet to be determined, especially since
most Americans didn’t know Chris Stevens, don’t know who killed him, or why it
doesn’t really matter.
J. CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
To the Libyan people John Christopher Stevens was a
legendary revolutionary hero before most Americans ever heard of him or even
knew that he was the American Ambassador to the Libya
Stevens, whose death at the hands of Islamic terrorist is
now a political football in Washington, was not your typical diplomat who ran
things from behind a desk, but was known to mingle among the people and
meet informally with tribal elders, earning their respect by not only speaking
their language and eating their food, but delivering on the promises he made.
Relatively unknown and unheralded when alive, Stevens was
the son of a California Morocco United
States US Tripoli
“LIKE THE WILD,
WILD WEST - A GREAT ADVENTURE!”
Stevens wanted to make the world a better place, but also
thought he could have fun doing it. After being posted to Libya
While some Wikileaks cables and memos are embarrassing to
the government, most of the ones out of Tripoli United
States September 5, 2009 two hundred and five
years to the day US Navy Lt. Richard Somers and the men of the USS
Intrepid were buried on the Tripoli
Stevens was aware of the efforts to repatriate the remains
of US Navy Lt. Richard Somers and the crew of the USS
Intrepid because he was included in the early correspondence between
those seeking repatriation and the embassy. While Stevens was in Tripoli Old Protestant Cemetery
Stevens may have known of the UNESCO World Heritage status
from when he taught English in the Peace Corps in Morocco United
States
THE SALAFISTS
Salafist Islmists practice a strict orthodox version of
their religion, and include jihadists groups like al Qaeda, the Taliban, the
Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and militias in Somala and Mali Syria
Salafas oppose democracy, despise most American values and
all Western influence, and consider other moderate Islamic sects as
blasphemous, such as the Sufis, who sing, dance and venerate their deceased
holy men as saints. The Salafists are against singing, dancing, don’t venerate
their dead and don’t like others that do. They are grave robbers who steal the
remains of those buried in graves and crypts, especially those Islamic saints
who have been buried under the cement and tiled floors of mosques, some for
hundreds of years.
Although the Salafists are a distinct minority, less than 1%
of all Muslims worldwide, and less than 10% in Libya Benghazi Tripoli
Adherents to the Salafa sects are also believed to be
responsible for the assassination of US Ambassador Chris Steven in Benghazi,
the desecration of the British military graves at Tobruk, and the destruction
of hundreds of ancient graves and historic crypts in Timbuktu, where Salafa law
was imposed for months before the radical Islamists were forced out by French
and Mali troops.
THE ARAB SPRING - REGIONWIDE REVOLTS
These radical Salafist Islamists, while only representing a
small percentage of the Muslim faith, are the most vocal and violent, and have
been trying to inspire an international religious Jihad for decades.
The Salafists were taken by surprise, as were the CIA and
everyone else, when Mohamed Bouazizi, a young student in a small Tunisian
village became distraught over some minor administrative dispute regarding a
permit for his fruit cart, and started the Arab Spring region wide revolts by
setting himself afire. So far the Arab Spring revolts have removed three
reluctant dictators from long entrenched power and have others on the ropes.
[10]
Rather than a religious jihad however, these dictator
toppling insurrections are essentially popular revolts by leaderless rebels who
seek liberty, democracy and a free and open society, though the islamists have
done everything they can to hijack the revolutions and impose Islamic
governments and law, like those in Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Once dictators fell in Tunisia Egypt Libya Libya Benghazi
After running a rogue state for decades Gadhafi turned the
other cheek, renounced terrorism, turned over his weapons of mass destruction
and reestablished diplomatic relations with the United
States Benghazi America Benghazi
Since Sadek’s execution was conducted in a basketball gym,
it is clear that there must have been some early American influence in the
city, as basketball is a distinctly American sport, [12] and Benghazi Tripoli Benghazi
Then on June 29, 1996, at Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison, over a thousand political prisoners - 1, 270 to be exact, were executed in one day and buried in a mass grave, though their families were never notified, and it took years before the truth became known.[13]
Suspecting trouble after the revolutions in Tunisia Egypt Benghazi
Just as Mohamid Bouazizi sparked the Tunisian Revolution and
young boys scribbling graffiti in Damascus Syria Benghazi Libya
On February 17th, with their lawyer arrested, the grieving
mothers and widows in black, their faces covered by hijab scarves, held a
peaceful demonstration in Benghazi Benghazi
Libyans in other cities and towns also took to the streets,
but only the port city of Misrata Benghazi
Gadhafi had taken power in a 1969 coup d’etat, and
consolidated his control, and as Edward Lutwack proclaimed in his book “Coup
d’etat - A Practical Handbook,” the total mechanized military firepower of
the modern state precludes a popular insurrection from taking control, a
political theory that held true until the success of the popular uprisings in
Tunisian, Egypt Libya
The revolution in Libya
CHRIS STEVENS IN
BENGHASI
Shortly after the Libyan revolution began, the State
Department sent Chris Stevens to Benghazi
Over two hundred years earlier, in 1805, Stevens’ great,
great, great grandfather six generations removed on his mother’s side, Chief
Comcomly of the Chinook Tribe, served as a guide to Louis and Clark as they
explored the Louisiana Purchase . [19] The United
States had obtained the land from France, who needed the money to finance
Napoleon’s army and navy, and among the ships Napoleon built became a pirate
ship captured by the Americans and renamed the USS Intrepid, a
ship that met its fate at Tripoli on September 4, 1804. [20] Ship Intrepid
Two centuries later Stevens - a direct descendent of the
Indian who helped guide Louis and Clark into uncharted territory, was the
personal representative of the United States of America while enlisting the
assistance of a local Libyan to serve as his guide to revolutionary Libya. [21]
With a State Department assistant Nathan Tek and his local
guide, Stevens met with everyone they could, including the leaders of the rebel
government - the Transitional National Council, as well as shopkeepers,
teachers, doctors and the fighters from the front.
According to Tek, "It was like they all spoke from the
same script. They were all saying the same things… They all wanted a new Libya
As for Stevens, Tek said, “Ambassador Stevens understood
that you have to express empathy in a genuine way. And he defied the stereotype
of an American diplomat who was equal parts arrogant and ignorant. He was
honest and human. To me, he was the kind of diplomat I want to be. He wielded
American influence through respect rather than intimidation and swagger."
In short order Stevens determined the rebels were mainly
freedom fighters, though there were some extremists who sought to impose an
Islamic state. While a distinct minority, the Salafi Islamists had opposed
Gadhafi for years, were the best and most experienced fighters, and they were
part of the deal.
Reversing a long standing American policy of support of
foreign dictators who backed US interests, Stevens recommended the United
States continue to back the rebels, and with Stevens as America’s
representative, that support would continue. [22[
As a student of history Chris Stevens certainly saw the
parallels between his situation and that of William Eaton, the American counsel
who, in 1805, led a rag tag Arab army against a tyrant in Tripoli
Separated by two centuries, William Eaton and Chris Stevens
found themselves in eerily similar circumstances. African pirates were
attacking American merchant ships and holding their crews hostage, Islamists
had declared a religious jihad against the United
States Washington
Sound familiar? Well that’s what the situation was in 1804
when the U.S. Navy was assigned the task of defeating the Barbary pirates
of North Africa and freeing the Americans
being held hostage.
Eaton and Stevens - “warrior diplomats” centuries apart,
found themselves representing American interests in Libya and appraising the
chances and character of a motley army of renegade revolutionaries who had
taken a eastern port city and were about to march on Tripoli to oust a
tyrannical dictator.
Eaton went up against the Basha of Tripoli - Yousef
Karamanli, who had declared war against the United
States
Answering with the cry, “Millions for defense but not one
cent for tribute,” Americans decided to fight rather than pay the extortion,
but unfortunately one of the first ships sent to fight the pirates, the
frigate USS Philadelphia, ran aground and its 300 man crew were taken
prisoner and added to the hostages being held in the dungeons of the old castle
fort. Karamanli renamed the ship “the Gift of Allah,” the
flagship of the Tripoli
Not without American heroes, Navy Lt. Steven Decatur, during
a daring nighttime raid aboard the captured pirate
ship Intrepid, recaptured and scuttled the “Gift of
Alah” in Tripoli harbor, a raid that is considered one of the earliest
special operations of the US Navy, the type of mission now given to Navy SEALS.
[28]
Then Decatur’s sidekick, Lt. Richard Somers returned
to Tripoli harbor with the Intrepidoutfitted as a fire ship on a
similar late night covert mission designed to destroy the anchored enemy fleet,
but something went wrong and Somers and his twelve man crew perished in a
fantastic explosion on September 4, 1804. The next day American prisoners
from the Philadelphia Tripoli
WILLIAM EATON AT
DERNA
While the US Navy blockaded Tripoli
Eaton had met the tyrant’s deposed brother Hamid Karamanli
in Egypt and convinced him to try to attempt to regain his power.
With American support Eaton promised, Hamid could take over and end the
tyranny.
The American support however, was limited to Eaton , US U.S. Derna Benghazi Acaba
After repulsing a counterattack by loyalist forces, Eaton
began to plan a march to Tripoli U.S. U.S. Bay of Pigs .
Sneaking out of Derna in the dead of night and boarding an
American warship before his army and former allies knew he was gone, Eaton felt
betrayed by his own government. Hamid Karamanli was also betrayed, but he
thanked Marine Sgt. O’Bannon for fighting for him, and gave O’Bannon his
Mamaluke sword, now the official dress sword of the US Marines. Tobias Lear,
having ended the first war against the Barbary Pirates on unsuitable terms, was
widely denounced for paying the ransom and agreeing to a treaty keeping Yousef
Karamanli in power. Lear later committed suicide, and Steven Decatur led a
second war to obtain terms for a more lasting peace. [30]
But they left the remains of the crew of the USS
Intrepid behind, buried on the Tripoli
In 1949, over one hundred and fifty years later, when the US
Embassy conducted an official ceremony at the graves of
the Intrepid sailors, included in the proceedings was the mayor
of Tripoli
RETURN
TO BENGHAZI
Then, more than two centuries after William Eaton snuck out
of Derna by boat, Chris Stevens found himself arriving in Benghazi
His instructions were to meet and determine the motives of a
rag tag civilian army that was fighting another tyrant in Tripoli
Were the rebels sincere? Could they remove Gadhafi? Should
the United States Tripoli Washington
While Eaton’s promise was co-opted by the diplomatic moves
of government, Stevens saw it through and finished the historic march to
liberate Tripoli
But unlike Eaton, the February 17th revolutionaries couldn’t
just take the coast road west across the desert to Tripoli
When Stevens reported to Washington Benghazi Misrata Tripoli United
States
The Berber “Amazing” people of the Nafoosa mountains, with
their own language and unique culture that stretched across a number of North
African countries, had been there for centuries, before the Islamists arrived.
They remember the Romans, got along with most invaders and occupying armies,
but they too were suppressed under Gadhafi. When the revolution began the first
thing they did after expelling the Gadhafi forces from their towns was to open
schools to teach the Amazing language.
Supplied with small arms by the French, and reinforced by
volunteer fighters from Benghazi
[33]
Translation (Sung in Amazigh):
Where do you want us to go?
Give me your hand
So we can go to
The City of Freedom
So we can go to Zawiya
The City of Marytyrs
So we can go to Zintan
The City of Knights
And in the end
and we will live in love and tranquility
The march to Tripoli Benghazi Nafoosa
Mountains Libya Martyrs
Square Tripoli Green Square Martyrs Square Libya
Just as Benghazi China Tiananmen Square , Bahrain Cairo Tripoli Green Square
Ironically, the only real martyrs buried at Tripoli Martyrs
Square
“Death to Tyrants” was their motto in 1804, and death
finally came to Gadhafi when the men of Misrata took Gadhafi’s hometown, ran
Gadhafi down and brutally killed him, Libyan justice and revenge for what
Gadhafi did to there city. [37]
AMBASSADOR J. CHRISTOPHER STEVENS
The revolution was difficult, but creating a new government
and an open society is much harder, and as a reward for his success during the
revolution, in May 2012 Chris Stevens was named US Libya
On Memorial Day 2012 Stevens led a delegation of embassy
personnel to a memorial service at the graves of the Intrepid sailors
at Old Protestant Cemetery
While still not familiar to most Americans, ordinary Libyans
knew Ambassador Stevens as a revolutionary hero much like Americans recognize
French General Lafayette as an American revolutionary war hero.
As Ambassador, Stevens conducted business in much the same
style he exhibited during the revolution, and he often went out among the
people, meeting and dining with them, and getting to know them personally. He
did this during the revolution and while U.S. Ambassador.
Shortly after the United States led the air
intervention in Libya, keeping Gadhafi’s forces from
destroying Benghazi, a pro-Gadhafi mob had attacked and trashed the
American embassy in Tripoli. So they had to reestablish the American
embassy from scratch, and while most Libyans are grateful for the support
Americans gave them during the revolution, now there were no laws, no police or
any legal authority so it really was, in Stevens’ words, just like the “Wild
Wild West.” [40]
And the bullies giving Libyan democracy the most trouble
were the Salafists, the radical extreme, orthodox Islamists known to despise
democracy, deplore music, dancing and the veneration of the dead.
When one Libyan revolutionary fighter was asked what he
would do if the Islamists took over and imposed Islamic law, he said, “then the
revolution isn’t over and we fight them.”
A 21 year old engineering student told a reporter, "I
am not afraid of Islamists in Libya. This is a moderate country and even
if there is a small element of radicals, they won't be able to push their way
through."
The Salafists - Islamic Bullies pushed their way through
however. For example:
- A Libyan
Jew, who left his studies in Italy Tripoli
- A Copic
Christian church in eastern Libya was burned to the ground,
reportedly because its members were trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.
- In Tobruck,
young Salifists knocked over the grave markers of dozens of British and
Australian veterans killed during World War II.
- In Misrata,
the city in ruins, there is nothing left of the 400-year-old tomb of holy man
Sidi Hamed al-Bikr, after Salafi attackers fired anti-tank guns at it.
- In Derna,
Salafists demolished the tomb of Sidi Nasr Aziz, a sheikh and companion of the
Prophet Mohammed.
- In Tripoli the
Salafists used heavy equipment to excavate the bones of revered Sufi saints,
digging them up from their graves beneath the tiled floor of a mosque, and
disappeared with the bones into the desert.
- In Tripoli,
more tombs at the Sidi Nasr mosque were wrecked by Salafists who broke in at
night when no-one was there, destroyed two tombs: one of a holy man who died in
around 1760, and another of a sheikh who died 15 years ago. They removed the
body from the more recent grave, and were about to dig up the second when they
were disturbed and fled.
- In
Timbucktu, southwest of Libya, fighters from the same radical Islamic sect of
Salfarists, some fresh from battles against Gadhafi, took over Northern Mali,
imposed a strict Islamic law in the ancient city of Timbucktu, and like the
Taliban’s destruction of the ancient Buda statues in Afghanistan, began
demolishing ancient crypts, destroying Sufi mosques and before being ousted by
French troops, burned an historic and ancient library of Islamic books, all of
which had been deemed protected as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In Tripoli
In May, 2012, on Memorial Day, continuing the tradition of
venerating our honored dead, Ambassador Stevens led a large delegation of US
Embassy employees to the Old Protestant Cemetery
From 1948 until the American military were ousted by Gadhafi
in 1969, the graves of the American Navy heroes at the cemetery were maintained
by the Officers Wives Club from Whellus Air Force Base. When they were
rediscovered by some American tourists in the 1970s the Intrepid grave markers
were overgrown with weeds and the cemetery in disrepair. [42]
After Gadhafi reestablished diplomatic relations with the
United States, the first State Department employees in Tripoli, looking for
real estate for an embassy, took photos of the cemetery, and once the embassy
was up and running, embassy workers volunteered to clean up the Intrepid grave
site.
They also convinced the Gadhafi government to undertake a
thorough study of the cemetery, restore the walls and landscape the grounds.
They also nominated the cemetery as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In August the Defense Department report by the Navy on the
feasibility of repatriating the remains of the Intrepid sailors from the
Tripoli cemetery, signed by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, concluded they
should stay where they are, without even mentioning the threat posed to the
remains of Americans in hostile land by the grave robbing Salafists.
Hanna H. Draper, a State Department officer assigned to
Tripoli, began a blog detailing some of her experiences in Libya and in
August, 2012 she wrote: “Tripoli: ....I absolutely love the people I work for,
from my section chief up through the Ambassador. Amb. Stevens is legendary
in Libya for spending almost the entire period of the revolution
inBenghazi, liaising with the rebels and leading a skeleton crew of Americans
on the ground to support humanitarian efforts and meeting up-and-coming
political leaders.
Several Libyans have told me how much it means to them that
he stayed here throughout the revolution, losing friends and suffering
privations alongside ordinary Libyans. We could not ask for a better Ambassador
to represent America
She also noted that it was exciting to see “History in the
making. Yes, yes, it's schmaltzy, but I wouldn't trade this position, at this
time, for anything else the Service could offer me. I get to see democracy
being built, literally one day at a time.”
On Saturday, September 1, 2012, the same day I wrote a
letter to Ambassador Stevens, inviting him to visit Somers Point, N.J. and sent
him a copy of my regional history book“300 Years at the Point,” Hanna
Draper wrote about having lunch with Stevens, in an article she posted called “
Lunch With the Ambassador and the Locals - How to Amaze and Amuse Your
Hosts.”
On this day Stevens and Draper drove into the mountains to
visit the Berbers, the same fighters who sang “the Campfires song,” had
liberated Tripoli, and captured Gadhafi’s son Saif, and treated him humanly,
unlike the way Gadhafi had faced justice from a revengeful mob.
The Amazigh - Berbers offer a refreshing and unique addition
to the historically diverse Libyan democratic coalition, and how Stevens dealt
with them was typical of how he served as the official representative of
the United States.
In her blog Hanna Draper wrote:
“On Wednesday morning, the Ambassador called me and asked,
"Do you have anything going on this afternoon?" When questions like
that come from your boss, the answer is usually no. So a few hours later
he and I loaded up and drove two hours south of Tripolito the mountain
town of Gharyan. A friend of the Ambassador invited him to the
opening ceremony of a political party's local branch office, so off we went.
Part of the celebrations included lunch in a khosh hafr, a traditional
underground house found in many Amazigh (Berber) communities of North
Africa.”
“Gharyan is one of the larger towns in Libya's western
mountains, on the main road from Tripoli to the Amazigh towns in the
mountains. It has a beautiful view of the coastal plains, overlooking
some of western Libya's most fertile fields…. A khosh hafr is built about
twenty or thirty feet below ground level, with open-air courtyards that provide
natural light and air circulation to the rooms that are cut into the bedrock
and that open off the courtyards. Being underground, the rooms are much cooler
than the ambient air in the summer, and they stay pretty warm and insulated
during the Libyan mountains' cold winters. Our hosts welcomed us into one of
these rooms for conversation and laughter before lunch - many of the people
knew our Ambassador from his time inBenghazi during the revolution or from
his previous tour in Libya, back in the old days.”
“When lunch arrived, we were given two choices - we could
have couscous, the staple dish of North Africa that we'd eat with a spoon,
or bazeen, a traditional Libyan Amazigh dish. Our host told the servers in
Arabic, ‘Our guests will have the couscous, please,’ but the Ambassador stepped
in and said, ‘Hold on, I'd love to have some bazeen!’”
“Not to be outdone, I said, ‘I'll have the bazeen
too!’ The servers and our hosts all turned to us with jaws dropped. ‘But -
but - you have to eat it with your hand! Only Libyans like bazeen! It's
messy!’"
“Let's step back and think about this for a second. Here I am, the only woman in an underground home, sitting around barefoot (no shoes on the carpets!) with my Ambassador and fifteen Libyan politicians and activists, and I've just signed up to eat something that I can't identify from a plate shared with my boss and an unknown number of others. NOTHING could possibly go wrong.”
“Bazeen, it turns out, is barley dough that's served with braised lamb first and then tomato stew. To eat it properly, you take your (right!) hand and eat the lamb, then you hack off a chunk of the dough in the middle of the bowl, then mash it against the side of the bowl for 5-10 minutes to soften it up and to make sure it soaks up enough of the soup. Then you squeeze lemon or lime juice over the softened dough, take a bite of a spicy pepper, and chow down on the soupy dough. It was a lot of work, but it was pretty tasty - and definitely worth the looks of hilarity and shock that we provoked in our lunch companions.”
“The Ambassador's a lefty, so he was operating at something of a disadvantage in his dough-mashing. This was made worse by the fact that by accident my lime flew out of my hand - hey, my hand was covered with stew juice - and knocked over his drink all over his bare feet. (I haven't been here three months yet, and I've already sealed my fate in my annual review.) Better yet, the political party posted photos of us eating bazeen on Facebook, which resulted in some of my contacts on Twitter asking me last night, ‘Hey, isn't that you eating bazeen?’"
“Let's step back and think about this for a second. Here I am, the only woman in an underground home, sitting around barefoot (no shoes on the carpets!) with my Ambassador and fifteen Libyan politicians and activists, and I've just signed up to eat something that I can't identify from a plate shared with my boss and an unknown number of others. NOTHING could possibly go wrong.”
“Bazeen, it turns out, is barley dough that's served with braised lamb first and then tomato stew. To eat it properly, you take your (right!) hand and eat the lamb, then you hack off a chunk of the dough in the middle of the bowl, then mash it against the side of the bowl for 5-10 minutes to soften it up and to make sure it soaks up enough of the soup. Then you squeeze lemon or lime juice over the softened dough, take a bite of a spicy pepper, and chow down on the soupy dough. It was a lot of work, but it was pretty tasty - and definitely worth the looks of hilarity and shock that we provoked in our lunch companions.”
“The Ambassador's a lefty, so he was operating at something of a disadvantage in his dough-mashing. This was made worse by the fact that by accident my lime flew out of my hand - hey, my hand was covered with stew juice - and knocked over his drink all over his bare feet. (I haven't been here three months yet, and I've already sealed my fate in my annual review.) Better yet, the political party posted photos of us eating bazeen on Facebook, which resulted in some of my contacts on Twitter asking me last night, ‘Hey, isn't that you eating bazeen?’"
“This photo is currently bouncing around Libyan social
networks, getting over 350 comments and 400 reblogs off the Embassy Facebook
page alone. Most of the comments are pretty positive - lots of laughter
and surprise that the Ambassador is eating bazeen. Cultural diplomacy at its
finest, y'all. Now I need to find a similarly messy American dish to make
for Libyans!”
RETURN TO BENGHASI
On September
10, 2012 , six months after being appointed Ambassador, Stevens
returned to Benghazi Boston Benghazi
That day, the eleventh anniversary of the September 11th al
Qada attack on the United States, was marked by protests at many U.S.
embassies, demonstrations by Muslims upset at the Youtube video trailer of a
movie spoof of Mohamid. Most of the protesters hadn’t seen the movie or the
internet video, which depicted Mohamid as a hypocrite in a Monti Python
type movie that looked like it was made by high school students. The US State Department
took the threat seriously, and paid tens of thousands of dollars to take out
advertising in Arabic newspapers and radio stations denouncing the film and
disclaiming any responsibility for it. There were still a number of planned
protests at the US Embassies in Cairo , Egypt Tripoli , Libya Benghazi
Dr.
Thomas F. Burke, of Massachusetts General Hospital
At the US Benghazi Boston Benghazi Benghazi
From his Benghazi
The details of the attack on the US mission at Benghazi is
now the subject of many articles, official reports, Congressional
investigations and hearings and will surely be the subject of books and someday
made into an epic movie with a cast of thousands.
But at the end of the day, four Americans were dead,
including Chris Stevens.
Stevens made the appointed rendezvous at
the Benghazi medical center, as a friendly Libyan discovered Stevens
alive but unconscious on the floor. A local Libyan, a Good Samaratan not
knowing who Stevens was, carried him to a car and drove him to the hospital,
but Stevens was dead on arrival, probably from smoke inhalation. If a modern
Emergency Medical ambulance had arrived on the scene with an oxygen tank,
Stevens could be alive today. [48]
FORGET LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY
Shortly after Stevens went missing in Benghazi
It was 5:30 in the morning on Sept. 12, 2012,
Dr. Stevens recalled, “I had just fallen asleep, having been up all night
talking with foreign service officers in the State Department, first with news
that the Benghazi Mission had been attacked and that my brother was missing,
then hours later that he had not survived the night. I called my brother and
sister, our parents, and my brother’s girlfriend.”
“Dozing off in a daze, my phone rang…. ‘The
Secretary would like to speak with you,’ said an unidentified voice. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton came on the line. She explained what happened, and I
remember she said that ‘justice would be done.’ This upset me. Chris was not
focused on revenge. He wanted the Libyan people to have a free and democratic
society.”
“I hope this will not prevent us from continuing to support
the Libyan people, from moving ahead,” Stevens said to Clinton.
Revenge and justice were not what Chris Stevens was about.
Anne Stevens, of Seattle Children’s Hospital
Then Dr. Anne Stevens learned about Dr. Thomas Burke, the
physician from Boston Massachusetts
General Hospital Benghazi
According to Dr. Anne Stevens, “Dr. Burke’s account of
what happened was moving and informative, and I learned that Chris was
working with him and leaders at Benghazi
Medical Center
“My brother,” Dr. Stevens said, “hadn’t told me about
this project, but the more I learned about it, the more sense it made. I knew
that Chris saw what a fabulous country Libya
And instead of seeking revenge or justice, Dr. Stevens
thought the most fitting tribute to her older brother’s life would be
to complete the work he had started in Benghazi, helping Libyans
improve emergency care, so she has joined Dr. Burke in working towards those
goals.
“They could use our help to gain peace, stability and
security,” Dr. Burke said, agreeing with the assessment of Dr. Stevens that,
“We need to be a little less focused on who killed Chris Stevens.”
Burke said Benghazi
Photo by Erika Schultz/Sealte Times From left, Drs. Laila
Taher Bugaighis, deputy director general
of Benghazi Medical Center; Thomas F. Burke,
of Massachusetts General Hospital; and Anne Stevens,
of Seattle Children’s.
The collaboration Anne Stevens said, “is exactly what my
brother wanted to help support, it’s not telling them to do anything, or giving
them stuff, but collaborating with them.”
Dr. Stevens also created a memorial to her brother online,
http://www.rememberingchrisstevens.com, to promote communication and
understanding between the Western and Arab worlds.
Under an “eye for an eye” Shalfa law, the victim or their
relations can forgo justice by forgiving the sin, as the mother of Mohamid Bouazizi
forgave the policewomen who harassed her son, slapped him and humiliated him
into committing the self-immolation that sparked the Arab Spring.
Now Anne Stevens can find it in her to forgive those who
killed her brother, and instead of seeking revenge and justice, she wants to
continue his work - help develop a modern medical emergency response system,
not only in Benghazi East Libya .
If the ultimate sacrifice is giving one’s life for one’s
country, and those who have died in war gave their life so we can be free, then
Chris Stevens gave his life so Libyans could be free.
While the politicians in Washington continue to play the
blame game over the circumstances of Stevens’ death, who killed him and who was
negligent in his death, Americans can do something in memory of Chris Stevens
by supporting the things he was working on when he was killed - the education
of Libyans, especially women, and assist Dr. Burke and Dr. Stevens help the
Libyans establish such basic social services as emergency medical assistance.
A Libyan who sent his American friends a recent photo of the
newly renovated front gate of Tripoli Old Protestant Cemetery
Indeed, who killed Chris Stevens was no mystery to those who
lived in Benghazi, and within days of Stevens’ death, forty thousand
people gathered together in Benghazi’s main Revolution Square. They knew
who was responsible for the deaths of the Americans, and they marched to the
militia headquarters of the Islamist Ansar al-Salafist Brigade, who fled the
city. [54]
But they later returned, and their commander - Mohammad Ali
al-Zahawi, in a brash interview with the BBC said,
"Our brave youths will continue their struggle until they impose
Sharia." Zahawi also confirmed that his brigade was responsible for demolishing
and desecrating Sufi shrines in Tripoli and Benghazi, which they
regard as idolatrous saying, "It is a religious duty to remove these
shrines because people worship the deceased and this is prohibited. It is not
me who says so but rather our religion." [55]
Of them Frederic Wehrey said: ''Well, they have certainly
been behind a lot of the attacks in Libya
Using cell phone photos and Youtube videos of the September
11th, night time attack on the American mission at Benghazi, intelligence
analysts have isolated a number of men who figured in the death of Ambassador
Stevens, a State Department assistant and two former US Navy SEALS who were
in Benghazi on a special mission. One of those sought in the attack,
a Tunisian who was arrested in Turkey, was returned
to Tunisia and released.
Stevens’ assassins freely walk the streets today, and when
instructed, they attack and destroy symbols of Islamic idols, especially the
graves of revered Sufi saints, revolutionary martyrs and American heroes.
In Washington, the circumstances of Stevens’ death has made
“Benghazi” a buzz word that has sparked official investigations, reports,
Congressional hearings, civil ceremonies and radio talk show conversations,
indicating that it may even take on the status of a Deep Political Event in the
same category as Watergate, Iran-Contra and the assassination of President
Kennedy. [57]
Since Chris Stevens’ canoe paddle was sent off into the
water, the American political landscape has changed considerably - there is a
new Secretary of State, a new Secretary of Defense, a new Ambassador to the UN,
a new director of Central Intelligence, a new military commander of AFRICOM and
a new Ambassador to Libya, all somehow affected by the spirit of Chris Stevens
and the fallout from what we now know as “Benghazi.” [58]
Left behind are the remains of US Navy Lt. Richard Somers
and the men of the USS Intrepid, whose bones are still buried in clearly
marked crypts in an old walled cemetery on the Tripoli beach, waiting to be
desecrated or destroyed by the radical, grave robbing Salafists, the same orthodox
Islamists responsible for the murder of J. Chris Stevens. [59] Notes, Footnotes, corrections and updates to WKCSWIDM
[1] Chinook Indian nation. http://www.chinooktribe.org/. Stevens
was a direct descendent of Chinook Indian chief Comcomly, principle chief
of the Confederacy that extended along the Pacific coastline of Oregon Washington State
[2] Hillary Clinton, quoted by Dr. Anne Stevens. Seattle Clinton
[3] White House Response: President Barack Obama in address
to the United Nations General Assembly in New York America
[4] Stevens, John
“Chris” Christopher. April 1960 – September
11, 2012
[5] Flynn, Sean. GQ December 2012. http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211/sean-flynn-j-christopher-stevens-benghazi-libya-ambassador
[6] WikiLeaks - Ambassador Cretz had left Libya after
revelations on the website of WikiLeaks leaked cables attributed to Cretz
exposed Gadhafi’s hatred of flying over water, his phobia about staying on
upper floors of buildings, his love of flamenco dancing and his companion, a
"voluptuous blonde" nurse from Ukraine.
[7] Condi Rice & Gadhafi. When Arab Spring protests
first began in Tunisia WikiLeaks released a batch of American State Department
cables and memos “that gave honest and critical profiles of Tunisian dictator
Ali, who the United States publicly supported but snickered about among
themselves behind the scenes.” US Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz had to leave Tripoli
[8] UNESCO World Heritage sites Heritage sites in northern Mali
[10] Mohamed Bouazizi http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE6BI06U20101219;
Also see: Reuters Sunday,
Dec. 19, 2010 report from Tunis GMT
TUNIS (Reuters) - Police in a provincial city in Tunisia used tear gas
late on Saturday to disperse hundreds of youths who smashed shop windows and
damaged cars, witnesses told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from
officials on the disturbances. Riots are extremely rare for Tunisia
Witnesses said several hundred youths gathered in the city
of Sidi Bouzid (125 miles) south-west of the capital Tunis, late on Saturday… angered
by an incident where a young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, had set fire to himself in
protest after police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a
street stall,…”
Revolution in the air.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypt--and-tunisia-inspired-uprisings-spread-through-middle-east-north-africa/2011/03/01/gJQAkN1TyY_gallery.html
[11] Huda Ben Amer - Sadek Hamed Al-Shuwehdy. One of Colonel
Gaddafi's most reviled lieutenants, Huda ben Amer, is reported to have been
arrested in Libya
[12] Benghazi Basketball arena. I am trying to find out
where the Benghazi Benghazi
[13] Abu Salim, the Tripoli
[14] Benghazi
[15] Misrata, siege and destruction of. See: Libya Stalingrad (By Andrew Beatty AFP )
[16] Lutwack, Edward “Coup d’etat - A Practical Handbook” (Alfred
Knopf, NY 1968), p. vii preface: “As the events in France
[17] NATO intervention. Operation Unified Protector
Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard Commander of NATO http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int/page11825719.aspx
[18] Stevens in Benghazi
[19] Chief Comcomly & Louis & Clark Descendants Make
Up for Stolen Canoe. For those who think that events of 200 years ago are
forgotten, consider that the Chanook Indians through their oral traditions
recorded the assistance Chief Comcomly gave Louis & Clark and the medals
they gave him, but also recalled that upon their departure Lewis & Clark
stole a canoe, a serious breach in social protocol only recently resolved when
the Clark’s descendents had a new canoe made and presented to the tribe.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44658752/ns/us_news/t/clarks-descendants-replace-stolen-tribal-canoe/
- .T2kV18yOIfo; also see: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/23/william-clark-lewis-and-clarks-descendants-make-up-for-stolen-canoe/
[20] Ship Intrepid.
Originally the ketch Gheretti (60 tons, 4
guns) built by the French in 1796 for the Egyptian expedition, converted to
a pirate ship Mastico, captured on
Dec. 23, 1803 by the schooner Enterprise by Lt. Stephen Decatur. Commodore
Preble renamed it the Intrepid. Used
by Lt. Decatur to scuttle captured frigate Philadelphia,
outfitted as hospital ship, used as supply ship, prematurely blew up on 4
September 1804, while entering the harbor of Tripoli as a fire-ship with the
loss of all 13 hands
[21] Guide. Steven’s Benghazi Benghazi
http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/17/exclusive-downed-pilots-tell-their-tale/?hpt=hp_c3EXCLUSIVE:
Downed airmen tell their tale
[22] Stevens Report - Chris Stevens, United
States Envoy to Libya Washington , DC August 2, 2011 On the Record
Briefing: U.S. Representative to the Transitional National Council Chris
Stevens on Libya “MR. STEVENS: Thank you. Hello. Good afternoon. I’m
Chris Stevens. I got in from Benghazi Benghazi
[23] William Eaton Bio.
Tripoli United States
Links to Information about William Eaton and the Barbary Wars http://tripolibook.c...id=29&Itemid=43
Links to Information about William Eaton and the Barbary Wars http://tripolibook.c...id=29&Itemid=43
[24] Tripoli Tripoli Jefferson
presidency, U.S. Tripoli Libya Tripoli
[25] Yousef Karamanli was a radical Islamist who freed six
of the 300 captured American sailors from the USS Philadelphia because they converted to Islam. After Tobias
Lear’s treaty freed them, Karamanli asked them if they wanted to stay or go
home, and as the story goes, only one chose to stay and the other five
disappeared and were possibly executed.
[26] USS Philadelphia Philadelphia Tripoli
[27] Stephen Decatur & the Intrepid.
[28] Richard Somers & the Intrepid
[29] William Eaton at Derna - Correction Presley USMC was a
lieutenant not a sergeant and there were only 30 Greek Christians - as the
entire army consisted of 400 men. William Eaton, in his support for Hamid
Karamanli to reclaim his power, captured the eastern port city of Derna, which
like Tripoli, has seaside fortifications but nothing but desert protecting it
from the landside. From Derna, Eaton could have easily massed a larger army and
moved west to Benghazi Tripoli Benghazi Cyrenaica - one of three ancient
territories that make up Libya America America Libya Iraq Afghanistan Saudi Arabia Libya
[30] Tobias Lear’s treaty.
[31] 1949 - Yousef Karamanli II
[32] Back to Benghazi
[33] Berber Campfire song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilv7PAK1EcU
[34] Final Assault. Stevens was meeting with a local tribal
leader when he was informed that the final assault on Tripoli Tripoli
“Libyan rebels entered central Tripoli Green Square
[35] Old Castle Red
Castle Green Square Tripoli , Libya
[36] Intrepid Crew - For more see: Chipp Reid’s new book. Intrepid Sailors: The Legacy of Preble's
Boys and the Tripoli
[37] Death of Gadhafi
Benjamin R. Barber Democratic theorist; Author, 'Strong Democracy', 'Jihad vs.
McWorld' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-r-barber/sic-semper-tyrannis-but-n_b_1024477.html
[38] Ambassador Stevens US Embassy video introducing U.S.
Ambassador Chris Stevens - Introducing U.S. Ambassador
to Libya, Chris Stevens - YouTube
[40] US Embassy Reestablished
[41] Salafists
a) Jews; In ravaged Libya
b) Copic Christians http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/03/us-libya-church-attack-idUSBRE9220F220130303;
Church used by Egyptian Christians torched in eastern Libya; http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/witnesses-church-used-by-egyptian-christians-torched-in-eastern-libya/2013/03/14/96b22daa-8cd7-11e2-adca-74ab31da3399_story.html
c) Tobruck; http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/892095-libyan-authorities-apologise-after-british-war-graves-desecrated
d) Misrata mosque; e) Derna Mosque, Sidi Nasr Aziz; f) Sidi
Nasr Tripoli;
g) Timbuktu
[42] Wheelus AFB Officers Wives Club - to 1970s. A plaque to
this effect was seen by visitors to OPC in
the 1970s and mentioned at: http://Wheelusalumni.org;
Boyne, Walter J. The Years at Wheelus, Air Force Mag. Jan.
2008.
[43] DOD Report on Intrepid Graves does not addresses the
threat to the graves posed by radical Islamic extremists http://www.intrepidproject.org/home.php
[45] Return to Benghazi
[46] Youtube Film; http://www.nydailynews.com/
[47] Dr. Thomas Burke - Boston
Mass General Hospital Benghazi Boston Sept. 14, 2012 . http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/09/18/boston-doctor-libya
[48] For details of the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens,
Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and
Tyrone Woods see: Benghazi Chronology - Sept.
11, 2012 . Also see Benghazi March 3, 2013 ) re: Jack Murphy and
Brandon Webb’s DR. http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/03/benghazi_the_definitive_report.html
[49] Dr. Anne Stevens - Long, Katherine. Seattle SCH and MGH Colaborate
By Katherine Long higher education reporter http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020361785_libyachildrensxml.html
[50] Dr. Laila Taher Bugaighis. deputy director general of Benghazi
Medical Center Massachusetts
General Hospital Benghazi Seattle
[51] Ujenzi. To further their efforts to bring emergency
medical service to Benghazi
[53] Mrs. Bouazizi. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/20/tunisian-fruit-seller-mohammed-bouazizi
/ http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/02/22/live-blog-libya-feb-22
“I feel sorry for the mothers of the martyrs. My heart is
burning with sorrow. I pray for the souls of all martyrs in Libya Libya Libya Libya
[54] Benghazi Rally and march on Ansar al-Salafist HQ
Protesting Libyans storm militant compound in backlash
against armed groups
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/21/14018495-protesting-libyans-storm-militant-compound-in-backlash-against-armed-groups?lite;
Libyans take to the street to condemn the killing of US Ambassador Christopher
Stevens
Muslim, Arab, & Interfaith Organizations Condemn Attacks
on U.S.
Militia Returns: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/02/libyan_militia_who_carried_out_benghazi_attack_returns.html
[55] Mohammad Ali al-Zahawi – commander of Ansar al-Sharia, Libya
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19638582
He said, "It is a religious duty to remove these shrines because people
worship the deceased and this is prohibited. It is not me who says so but
rather our religion."
[56] Frederic Wehrey on Salafists in Libya
[57] Benghazi
[58] Correction - Ray Mabus, the 75th Secretary of the Navy
was not replaced.
[59] Future Fate of the Intrepid Graves
in Tripoli
[60] Future Fate of Democracy in Libya
Remembering Ambassador Christopher Stevens
Justice Paul H. Anderson Justice, Minnesota
