Biography. Christopher Stevens - Libya's loyal friend The Libyan scandal is growing

Several diplomatic mission employees were killed as a result of a rocket attack on the American embassy in Benghazi. Among them was US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

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The ambassador and three consular staff, including two marines, died following an attack on the American consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. The bodies of the victims were delivered to the airport, from where they will be sent to Tripoli and further to the main US air base in Germany, the website of the Al-Jazeera TV channel reports.

At present US evacuates its diplomatic mission in Benghazi. According to local media, the diplomat suffered carbon monoxide poisoning during a fire that broke out after a grenade attack on the building by Islamist militants. The representative office was completely burned out, ITAR-TASS reports.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Libya Vanis al-Sharef confirmed the death of the US ambassador and three employees of the American consulate in Benghazi.

The attack, which began on Wednesday night, involved two former rebel groups - the February 17 Brigade and the Sharia Followers Brigade. The militants tried to enter the building on Tuesday, but they were prevented by the embassy security, who entered into a fierce firefight. According to eyewitnesses, all entrances to the diplomatic bureau were blocked by groups of attackers.

The reason for the attack on the consulate was the screening of a film on American television that allegedly defamed the name of the Prophet Muhammad. Islamists claim that the film depicts the prophet in a satirical form, which offends the feelings of believers.

Chris Stevens was appointed Ambassador to Libya on May 22 this year. Previously, during the height of the armed Libyan uprising from March to November 2011, he was in the country as an emissary of US President Barack Obama to establish ties with the Transitional National Council. Before that, from 2007 to 2009, he worked at the embassy in Tripoli as deputy head of the diplomatic mission.

Earlier, on Tuesday, an event related to the release of the film took place in Egypt. Protesters approached the walls of the American embassy in Cairo, where the US flag was burned. In addition, the flag on the pole near the diplomatic mission building was replaced with a banner with the symbol of faith of Islam “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.” The crowd chanted slogans: “We are all Osama” and “Leave the Prophet Muhammad alone.” The protesters demanded that the film be banned and an official apology be made to Muslims.

American lawyer, diplomat, and former US Ambassador to Libya (Libya) from June to September 2012. On September 11, 2012, Stevens was one of four killed during an attack by Libyan Islamists on the American consulate in Benghazi.

John Christopher "Chris" Stevens was born in 1960 in Grass Valley, California. He was the eldest of three children of Jan S. Stevens and his wife Mary J. Floris. Chris's parents divorced in 1975, and both subsequently started new families.

In the summer of 1977, Stevens was an exchange student in AFS Intercultural Programs in Spain, and in 1978 he graduated from Piedmont High School. In 1982, Chris graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in history. In 1989, he received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 2010, Stevens received a master's degree from the National War College. It is known that he was fluent in Arabic and French.

Before his appointment to the Foreign Office, Stevens worked in several

many American missions in Israel, Syria, Egypt and several other countries. In addition, he worked as a lawyer, being a member of the State Bar of California, and also taught English in Morocco as a volunteer.

Chris Stevens joined the Foreign Office in 1991. Stevens visited Libya in 2007 and 2009 as a career diplomat, and in May 2012 he arrived in Libya as an ambassador.

When a wave of protests erupted in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, sparked by the provocative film "Innocence of Muslims" posted on the Internet, and angry radical Islamists rushed to storm the US embassies, Stevens and his colleagues attempted to take refuge in a safe place, however, the consulate building was already besieged. A fire broke out in the grenade-thrown main consulate building, and security personnel discovered Stevens only after the smoke had cleared slightly.

I. In addition to Stevens, three other American citizens were killed in the attack - foreign information officer Sean Smith, security guard Glen Doherty and former Marine Tyrone Woods. Several more people were injured.

According to existing official information, Chris Stevens' death was caused by asphyxiation. A doctor at the Benghazi hospital where Stevens was taken said his body was filled with smoke. For an hour and a half, attempts were made to revive the diplomat, which, alas, were unsuccessful.

Chris Stevens was the first US ambassador to die in the line of duty since Arnold Lewis Raphel died in Pakistan in 1988. According to statistics, Stevens became the 8th US Ambassador to be killed in the line of duty.

US President Barack Obama issued a statement at the White House, vowing to work with Libyan authorities to ensure that those responsible for the murder of US diplomats are brought to justice.

The situation at the American Consulate General in Benghazi began to heat up in the evening, but then they seemed to talk and part ways. As it turned out, in order to return at night and shoot the building with machine guns and grenade launchers. Study the burned US diplomatic mission NTV correspondent Pavel Matveev.

The explosions caused the building to catch fire and burn for several hours while the looters cleared the consular premises and the cars that had not yet caught fire. The wounded personnel were evacuated, but not all of them: one consulate employee, two Marine guards and an ambassador who rushed to Benghazi, as they say, in response to the noise, died.

He was appointed ambassador in May and then, very diplomatically, could not get enough of his new environment.

Christopher Stevens, US Ambassador to Libya: “Libyans treat foreigners very well. I think so, and so do my colleagues. They are warm and honest people. And I feel calm and comfortable in this country.”

Information about how exactly the ambassador died varies: either from a direct hit of a grenade on his car, or from carbon monoxide in a burning building. But this is the tenth question. Something else is more important. The death of a diplomat is always an international emergency. The death of the ambassador is a disaster. And the death of the US ambassador in today's Libya is a tragedy with elements of farce.

Despite the authorities’ assurances that Gaddafi’s half-dead supporters were behind the attacks, several sources claim: the US consulate was shot by the “February 17 brigade” and the “brigade of Sharia followers,” that is, those same former rebels whom America coddled in every possible way in order to get rid of Gaddafi. And Stevens himself last year served as Obama's emissary to establish ties with the rebels. But the happiness did not last long; one single American film about the Prophet Muhammad was enough.

The film “The Innocence of Muslims” is a mysterious thing. It seems that it was filmed with money from the American Jewish community. It seems that Pastor Jones, the same brawler who publicly burned the Koran, had a hand in its creation. The Prophet Muhammad in the film of dubious quality is really unnecessary, there is something to be offended by, but few of the Libyans, as well as the Egyptians, who stormed the US embassy in Cairo the day before, saw this film. Someone just started a rumor that on September 11 it would be shown in America on the big screen, and the spark was enough for the consulate to be shelled and the American flag to be quartered.

The reaction is so far milder than usually happens in such cases. They regret the attack, and mourn the dead afterwards. But they consider the incidents to be the act of a small group of extremists and promise to continue to promote democracy in Libya and Egypt. Unless President Obama ordered to strengthen the security of US embassies around the world.

More details in the NTV video.

Yesterday I watched a new American film “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” dedicated to the famous story when in Benghazi in 2012 Islamists associated with Al-Qaeda destroyed the US Embassy and killed the American Ambassador Stevens, who had a hand in the overthrow of Gaddafi. The film portrays these events through the lens of the true story of 6 CIA mercenaries GRS.

The description of this story below is a verbatim retelling of most of the film.

BENGHAZI: DEATH OF THE SCORPIONS

On the night of September 11-12, 2012, the US ambassador, his assistant and two security officers were killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi. But which one it was became clear much later.
Despite the official results of the investigation into the attack on US facilities in Benghazi, experts are absolutely clear that in addition to the Islamists, the leadership of the US State Department and, possibly, the president of this country are directly to blame for the death of two diplomats during the first attack. Why will become clear after describing the events of that night.
But the ability of the CIA facility's defenders to successfully repel a second attack that same night lifted the veil of secrecy over a key element in the agency's defensive arsenal: the secret security structure created within the CIA after September 11, 2001. The two Americans who died defending a CIA facility in Benghazi were initially identified as State Department security officers. But later, cunning journalists found out that the former Navy SEALs served under contract in an organization with the innocent name CIA Global Response Staff (GRS) - the CIA Global Response Department.

WHAT IS GRS?

This department employs hundreds of former American special forces soldiers. The task is armed protection of the agency's spies. Mainly due to the fact that in Benghazi they often acted contrary to received orders and instructions, America then managed to avoid much greater casualties. This is evidenced by a simple reconstruction of events. But, before moving on to it, it’s probably worth listening to what we managed to learn about the tasks of GRS operatives first-hand.
“They don’t learn foreign languages, don’t meet with foreigners and don’t write intelligence reports. Their main tasks are to plan escape routes from where spies meet with their agents, screen informants, and provide a "security envelope" during meetings and at CIA facilities. But if push comes to shove, you’ll have someone who will shoot.” These are the words of a former American intelligence officer. To this we can add that the most qualified employees are informally called “Scorpios”.
GRS is always “in the shadows”, the task of its leadership is to train teams that work undercover and unobtrusively provide an adequate level of security for CIA employees when working in high-risk areas. In addition, the agency cooperates with the leadership of the US military special operations structures in special operations such as the elimination of Osama bin Laden. CIA veterans acknowledge that GRS teams have become an important component of traditional espionage, providing protection to intelligence officers working at a level of risk that would have been unimaginable during the Cold War.
Spy networks at the time involved the relatively safe movement of an agent, often alone, through the quiet cities of Eastern Europe. Now, "intelligence often involves an agent riding in an armored Land Cruiser with several (former) Delta Force or Special Forces troopers," said a former CIA official who worked closely with such a security team overseas.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials confirm that GRS has approximately 125 employees who regularly work abroad. At least half of them are contract workers, who often earn about $140,000 a year and are overseas for three to four months. Full-time GRS officers (those who are permanent employees of the CIA) typically perform supervisory functions and are paid slightly less, but still enjoy all the benefits of civil servants. Although the agency initially created the GRS to protect its officers in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, its mission has since been expanded. Now, in addition to providing security for secret drone bases, they protect CIA facilities and officers in places like Yemen, Lebanon and Djibouti.
In some cases, elite GRS units provide security for employees of other agencies, including National Security Agency teams, while they install sensors or listening equipment in conflict zones.

US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens is in the consulate building. However, the complex of buildings behind the high wall has not yet officially become a “consulate”. It was to resolve this issue that Stevens came to Benghazi for one day.
He is also concerned about the situation in the city. State Department security officer in Libya Eric Nordstrom has twice asked his superiors to strengthen security at the mission in Benghazi.
There were more than enough reasons for this. In April 2012, two former guards threw a stick of dynamite over the consulate fence. Then, fortunately, no one was hurt. On June 5, an explosion occurred outside the gates of the “consulate” again. Again there were no casualties, but according to an eyewitness, the hole in the outer wall was “large enough for up to forty militants to break through at the same time.”
On the day of the attack, two security guards noticed a man in a Libyan police uniform taking photographs of the consulate building with a mobile phone from a house under construction opposite. He was quickly detained. However, they released him just as quickly after sending a formal complaint to the police. Consulate officer Sean Smith, who saw all this, wrote a gloomy message on his blog, which for him personally was not prophetic: “I hope we don’t die today.”
But all signs of an escalation were ignored by Washington, and Nordstrom’s requests to strengthen security were rejected. According to Nordstrom, his leadership at the State Department somehow sought to keep security in Benghazi at an artificially low level. And the inevitable happened.

FIRST ATTACK

The street in front of the consulate was quiet that day, and no unusual activity in the area of ​​the complex was reported to the State Department during the day. There were no more than seven Americans in the complex, including Ambassador Stevens. Around 8:30 pm local time, Stevens finishes his final meeting with the Turkish diplomat and escorts him to the main gate. Then around 9 pm he goes to his room. At about 9.40 pm, large groups of armed people approached the complex from several directions, chanting: “Allah Akbar!”
The assault begins. The militants throw grenades through the outer walls of the consulate and, supported by heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns mounted on pickup trucks, burst into the territory, firing from machine guns and RPGs. Seeing crowds of armed people on the consulate's security cameras, an officer of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) presses the alarm button and begins shouting through the loudspeaker: “Attack! Attack!".
Immediately calls were made to the US Embassy in Tripoli, the SDS Control Center in Washington, the headquarters of the Libyan “February 17 Brigade”, which provided security for the Americans, and the GRS rapid response team stationed in the CIA complex on the next street.
Ambassador Stevens calls his deputy, Gregory Hicks, in Tripoli. The phone number the boss is calling is unfamiliar to Hicks and he only answers the third call. He hears Stevens shouting on the phone: “Greg, Greg, we're under attack!” These are the ambassador's last words. A few minutes later, the radio operator from the consulate reports: “If you don’t come here, we will die.”

LOCAL MAP

In Benghazi, militants attacked two separate compounds of American diplomats and intelligence officers. The first time is at the consulate. The second was to the CIA building complex, located approximately two kilometers from the consulate complex. Between 120 and 150 militants took part in the assault, some of whom wore long shirts in the “Afghan” style fashionable among Islamists. Some had their faces covered, some were wearing bulletproof vests.
RPGs, hand grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, NATO FN F2000 assault rifles and mortars were used during the attack. The pickup trucks carried heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. The attackers carried cans of diesel fuel. The logo of the Ansar al-Sharia group, which helped local authorities provide security in Benghazi, was seen on the pickup trucks. It was only in January 2014 that Ansar al-Sharia was included in the US State Department's list of terrorist groups. The attackers said they were acting in response to the film “The Innocence of Muslims,” which sparked widespread protests across the Arab East.
DSS Special Agent Scott Strickland leads Stevens and Information Officer Sean Smith to a safe house in the main consulate building. Other SDB officers run to a nearby building for weapons. Taking weapons, they try to return to the main building, but after a shootout with militants they retreat. The militants burst into the main building and begin to shake the locked metal bars of the shelter. Having failed to achieve success, they bring canisters of diesel fuel to the grate, spill fuel on the floor and furniture, and strike a match.
The building is filled with thick smoke. Stevens, Smith and Strickland move into the bathroom and lie down on the floor. But when the room fills with acrid smoke, they decide to leave the shelter. Strickland climbs out the window, but Stevens and Smith are probably too weak to follow him. Strickland returns to the shelter several times, but cannot find the diplomats in the smoke. He goes back up to the roof and radios for other security officers. The three of them fight their way into the main building in an armored personnel carrier; they search the house. Smith is found by SDS agent David Abben. He is unconscious, but dies a few minutes later.
The nearby CIA compound is still quiet. But, according to the testimony of operatives of the GRS group, they received information about the attack on the consulate around 21.30, and were ready to go to help within five minutes, but for some reason the order to leave was postponed three times by the CIA resident in Benghazi. But they and the embassy in Tripoli again receive calls from the besieged consulate. At the other end of the line they manage to say: “We are under attack, we need help, please send help immediately.” The call is interrupted. After discussing the situation, members of the GRS team, led by Senior Security Operations Officer Tyrone Woods, make the independent decision to go to the rescue. By 22.05 the team has been briefed and is seated in armored Land Cruisers.
Having made their way into the consulate, the GRS group tries to create a protective perimeter and unsuccessfully tries to find Ambassador Stevens in the smoke-filled building. The group decides to retreat to the CIA complex with the surviving consulate employees and Smith's body. On the way back, one armored Land Cruiser of the group is fired upon with machine guns and thrown with hand grenades, but with two punctured tires it reaches its destination safely. At 23:50 the gates to the CIA complex slam behind him.
The spokesman for the Libyan Supreme Security Committee, Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, says that the roads leading to the consulate in Benghazi are cordoned off and that Libyan security forces have surrounded it.
By chance, on the night of the attack, a US Army Special Forces team was sent to the Sigonella Air Force Base in Sicily, but was not deployed to Benghazi. American officials claim that when the attack on the consulate was completed, the group had not yet arrived in Sigonella...

AMBASSADOR STEVENS

After the Americans retreat from the consulate, the Libyans find Ambassador Stevens. He lies on the floor in a dark, smoky room with a locked door. Several people pull him out of the window and lay him on the tiled floor in the courtyard. Stevens is still alive and the crowd is chanting “Allahu Akbar!”, probably about his rescue. The versions that he was tortured and killed are doubtful - everything that happened in the consulate was filmed. Around 1 a.m., Stevens is transported in a private vehicle to Benghazi Medical Center, a hospital controlled by the Ansar al-Sharia group. For an hour and a half, Dr. Ziyad Abu Zeid tries to bring the ambassador back to life. But it's' too late.
The doctor said Stevens died of asphyxiation caused by inhaling toxic fumes and said the ambassador had no other injuries.
There are three different versions of subsequent events. Dr. Abu Zeid believes that the ambassador's body was taken to the airport under the protection of Libyan Ministry of Internal Affairs officers. U.S. State Department officials say they do not know at all who brought Stevens to the hospital and then transported his body to the airport. And a certain GRS agent claims that, in the absence of orders and on their own initiative, two GRS operators, who were already in Libya before the attack, heard about the attack and went out without permission to search for Stevens. Arriving in Benghazi, they found Stevens' body in a hospital and, after a shootout, removed the body from the hospital.

STORMING THE CIA COMPLEX

Just after midnight, the CIA compound begins shelling with machine guns, rockets and mortars. At about 4 o'clock in the morning the militants launch an assault. The GRS team repels attacks until the morning of September 12th.
And early in the morning, at Benghazi airport, the Libyan military encounters another group of heavily armed Americans.
It turned out that in Tripoli, the CIA-Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) joint operations team, which includes another Scorpio, Glen Doherty, heard reports from liaison officers from the CIA compound and made an independent decision to fly to Benghazi. The team, which included two active-duty JSOC operatives and five GRS contractors, hijacked a small aircraft in Tripoli around midnight. Having paid the pilots 30 thousand dollars, they forced them to fly to Benghazi.
After several hours of negotiations at Benghazi airport, around 5 a.m. they travel with the Libyans to the CIA compound to help evacuate American citizens to the airport for evacuation. A few minutes after they enter the gate, the complex comes under heavy fire again. The arriving group immediately takes up defensive positions. During a lull in the shooting, Doherty begins looking for his friend, Tyrone Woods. They tell him that he is on the roof. Doherty goes up to the roof. Woods and two other agents hold the line here with an MK46 machine gun. The friends quickly hug, reload the machine gun and change firing positions. A few minutes later, a mine falls on Woods' position. "Scorpio" is mortally wounded. Doherty tries to change position and take cover from the fire. The second mine falls directly on him, killing him on the spot. SDB Special Agent David Abben suffered shrapnel wounds and several broken bones. According to his father, Abben said that the mortar man was a professional - the first mine fell 50 meters from their position, and the next two hit the target.

Several operatives immediately go up to the roof to help the wounded and lower them and the bodies of the dead from the roof along the stairs. At this time, the JSOC operator uses a portable monitor to receive a “picture” from the camera of a Predator drone flying over the complex. He was sent by colleagues from the US Army Africa Command. The operator reports to the head of the base: “A huge crowd has gathered here, and everyone must leave here immediately!” The evacuation is agreed upon, and every American is ordered to take away their personal weapons and safety equipment. Within a few minutes, everyone gets into their cars. The column is heading to the airport. Along the way, they are fired upon from small arms, but there are no new losses.

RESULTS

So, while fighting, CIA GRS officers successfully rescue six State Department employees, retrieve Smith's body, and evacuate more than thirty Americans from Benghazi. The final report on the incident states that about 100 militants were killed in the exchange of fire.
After the attack, all diplomats are transported to the capital of Libya, Tripoli, and embassy employees who are not critical for the work of the diplomatic mission are evacuated from Libya. Secret materials went missing, including documents with lists of Libyans who collaborated with the Americans and documents relating to US oil contracts.
Senior intelligence officials only admitted in November 2012 that Woods and Doherty were not working for the SDS, as previously reported, but for the GRS.

TWO COMRADES SERVED

Glen Doherty served with a SEAL team that participated in the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, and then served in Iraq and Afghanistan. After retiring as a petty officer first class in 2005, he worked for a private security company in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kenya and Libya.
After Doherty's death, debts remained - loans on two houses in California. He had no insurance against death - he was a contractor, not a full-time CIA employee. After his death, CIA contract soldiers even created a special organization to solve such problems. Her tasks increased after three more “scorpions” were killed in Afghanistan.
Doherty’s friends have no complaints about the CIA, but one of them, giving an interview on this matter, sadly remarked: “It’s sad that when a guy like that leaves, after him there’s nothing left except, frankly, very large debts.”
In September 2014, Glen Doherty's family sued the CIA and State Department for $2 million, alleging that they did not provide sufficient security to either the US diplomatic mission or the CIA facility in Benghazi. The clause in the contract regarding compensation for damage to loved ones for the loss of a breadwinner in the event of his death was a fiction. It extended to his wife and children, and Doherty was divorced and had no children.
Glen Doherty's sister, when asked about her brother's motivation, clarified: his tasks did not include protecting the embassy. Doherty himself, in an interview with ABC News a month before the attack, said that his task in Libya was to search and destroy MANPADS.
Tyrone Woods, during his service as a SEAL, visited Iraq and Afghanistan, the Middle East and Central America. He was awarded the Bronze Star medal for valor in Iraq. There, in Anbar province, he participated in 12 combat and 10 reconnaissance raids, as a result of which 34 active militants were captured. Retiring as First Chief Petty Officer, Woods has protected U.S. diplomats in embassies from Central America to the Middle East since 2010.
President Obama told Woods' father, "Please know that if my family had been attacked, I would have acted the same way." He replied: “I could not and would not go to sleep until I was sure that everything possible had been done to save people. But nothing was done." Responding to claims that help did not come because it was already over, Woods Sr. said the president could not have known how long the fighting would continue. He said he had not received an answer to two of his most important questions. One of them is about those three “lights off” to the rescue group by the CIA resident. Woods Sr. said that a journalist personally spoke with a friend of Tyrone who was with him in Benghazi. He claimed that there were three orders to withdraw. Woods Sr. said, "Perhaps if those three delays had not occurred, our ambassador's life could have been saved."

AFTERWORD

In general, the film could hardly tell anything new and it was rather interesting who would ultimately be pointed out as the main culprit. State Department or CIA. As a result, the main emphasis was placed on the guilt of the CIA resident, who complicated the situation with his indecisive actions. The issue of the slowness of the military machine, which also reacted untimely, is indirectly addressed. The guilt of the State Department in this story is given very briefly, although Clinton, under the pressure of incriminating facts, was forced to take responsibility for the death of the ambassador and now this story is one of the central ones in the American elections, since the Republicans are counting, among other things, with its help to drown Clinton in elections. This film is more grist for Clinton's mill, since it indirectly protects it by inserting a switchman in the form of a CIA resident in Benghazi. So, after watching, I couldn’t leave the feeling that the film had domestic political subtext related to the heated discussions of the Benghazi topic in the American election race, where Republicans are inflating the guilt of the Democrats and Clinton in this story, and the Democrats are trying to fight back with references to the fact that there were more problems under Bush and whose cow would moo.

Of course, the film is filled with various patriotic clichés and templates, including frank statements that “we made the revolution in Libya” (hello to the fools who talked about how “the people themselves rose up and overthrew the tyrant”), various attacks on the Gaddafi regime intended to somehow then justify what happened to Libya, and the question “What is the horror of the Gaddafi regime compared to what came after it” remained unanswered.

In the film, the future fate of Libya is presented through the prism of the opinions of mercenaries who don’t care because it’s just another foreign country where they work for money. That’s why the topic of why everyone is fighting with everyone, why there is no order, why even the Americans themselves don’t know who is a friend and who is not and how to fix all this is generally ignored. In fact, they show how the United States, after organized aggression, overthrew the sovereign regime, after which a civil war began in Libya, “liberated from tyranny,” during which, incidentally, the “liberated Libyans” slapped the American ambassador and the guards of a secret CIA facility. But these were still flowers. In 2013, al-Qaeda branches flourished there, and in 2014 the Caliphate emerged, which now has its own vilayat there, whose attacks on Benghazi in the spring of this year were hardly repulsed. In general, there is no special reflection on what the United States did to Libya in the film. Of course this all happened. It's nobody's fault. The hypocrisy of this position is very obvious.

From a technical point of view, the key episodes of this story were reproduced in sufficient detail and more or less reliably, but the question of how exactly Stevens died was not shown in the film.
From the point of view of picture and sound, everything is done at a high level, if in terms of plot Bay very often screws up, then from the point of view of picture he is of course one of the best visionaries of our time, plus it is noticeable that Bay was guided by " Black Hawk Down" in terms of shooting style and pseudo-realism.

But this is precisely the case when beautiful packaging is not able to completely hide the internal political subtext associated with the issue of guilt, and the silences associated with why all this happened with Libya. In general, I got the impression that this is a moderately opportunistic film that quite accurately reflects the details of the events that took place, but tries in every possible way to cover up the global causes of what happened in Benghazi in particular, and in Libya in general. Therefore, even in the USA the film was received rather coolly. In general, with a budget of 50 million, it grossed 69 million, which, taking into account advertising costs and kickbacks to cinemas, allows us to say that the film either barely made its money back or completely failed at the box office.
As a result, it’s a fairly bland one-off movie for home viewing with an eye to the above-mentioned points related to American domestic and foreign policy.

Bold and optimistic, he knew the country to which he was sent like no other diplomat. His tragic death leaves a huge hole in the American foreign service, as well as in Washington's fitful dealings with the Arab world.

"Salaam Alaikum. My name is Chris Stevens and I am the new US Ambassador to Libya." With these words, Christopher Stevens, the 52-year-old diplomat who died along with three other Americans on September 11 during the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, began his video introduction to the people of Libya. Even though he took up the post in May, the region was not new to him. Fluent in Arabic and French, Stevens was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, and after working in Washington in international trade, he served in Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia during his 21 years of service with the U.S. State Department.
But it was in Libya, where he also served as America's No. 2 diplomat from 2007 to 2009, that he achieved success and fame. His experience and authority in Libya proved invaluable during the chaotic Libyan revolution, and his work helped persuade the Obama administration to support the beleaguered rebels. All of which made Stevens' death even more ironic, as President Barack Obama said after the attacks: "It's especially tragic that he died in Benghazi, the city he helped save at the height of the revolution."
It is significant that less than three hours after Stevens' death in Benghazi, the Libyans launched an Arabic-language Facebook page honoring Stevens. On it they exchanged photographs of the ambassador. For example, in one of the photographs, the ambassador eats local food with his hands with Libyans. They also posted photos of themselves holding lit candles in memory of him.
Apparently, Stevens was not one to sit at his desk. He chose to leave Washington and be where he was. An avid traveler who grew up in California, he often escaped from the embassy to wander the Roman ruins of Libya. “We worked together in Syria,” says Deputy Secretary of State Liz Dibble, “and I remember him talking about his trip to Saladin's castle. It was a completely wrong, beaten path to arrive in the country.”
But despite these revelations, Stevens was known for his outgoing personality. "He could be a student at times interested in social life," says Janet Sanderson, who first worked with him in Cairo in the 1990s. “He was extremely popular and very personable. He was a lot of fun. He loved to sit and talk about politics until 2 a.m. and drink coffee or tea endlessly.”
He used his human qualities to organize meetings or during his speeches, attracting people to them. "He could hold his audience's attention," Sanderson recalls. “He could hold the attention of Congress. He was great at explaining complex political situations. And he knew the answers to legislators' questions even before they asked them. Like the questions about Libya: who are they, the rebels? Can they unite? He knew all the factions, the world situation.”
It is possible that Stevens knew about Congress because of his participation in the Congressional Foreign Exchange Program, where he worked in the office of Senator Richard Lugar, who was the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
In Cairo, Stevens made a name for himself as a tennis player. "He was tall, blond," Sanderson says. “He made an unforgettable impression in Cairo. It was his second tour, but he turned into a tennis player when he wanted to impress the visitors.”
Stevens was ambitious without being cruel. “Type A with California roots,” says Dibble. He was the first of the diplomatic class to be appointed head of mission. And he was fearless. When the United States evacuated embassy staff in Tripoli at the height of last year's revolution, Stevens negotiated in Benghazi about the possibility of working with opposition leaders to form a new government. He probably knew Benghazi better than any other American diplomat. “Oh yeah, we had to go through all sorts of hoops to get him to Benghazi,” recalls Sanderson, who recently left her post as assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs. “But he felt like a fish out of water. There he became part of the whole."
He remained calm in difficult situations. “Even when everything was upside down, he made me laugh,” Sanderson says. “He never ran, he was never in a hurry. I never saw him hesitate or fuss,” Dibble recalls.
Stevens was known for mentoring young diplomatic staff. "From our point of view, when people become ambassadors, they become very serious and sometimes lose a little of the life, idealism and optimism that they had in their youth," says Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs spokesman and Stevens friend Aaron Snipe. “Chris has always had this optimism.”
“He felt he could do something special. He achieved this. I think he may have been embarrassed by what people said about him. I believe he wanted to show that he was doing his job and being himself. His life credo was the following: in any situation, keep your glass half full, no matter how difficult it is. And he worked in some of the toughest places in the world.”
The American diplomatic community will mourn Stevens, who became the first American ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979. But the world may miss him more. Libya and other countries transformed by the Arab Spring are in the midst of a historic change. “He dreamed of making an impact in Libya and I think he succeeded,” says Dibble. “I think he had high hopes for Libya given the massive transition the country is going through.” The region's new democracies need to rebuild free societies from the ashes of autocracy; it is also necessary to avoid the temptations of religious extremism. Stevens may have contributed to this process. As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: “The world needs people like Chris Stevens.” And he needs them more than ever.

Jay Newton-Small, Brian Walsh
« Time", September 12, 2012
Translation- « InoZpress. kg»