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Subscribe to RSSJ. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya who was among four Americans killed amid protests in Libya, was a "courageous and exemplary representative of the United States," President Barack Obama said in a statement on Wednesday.
The four -- who also included Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, a father of two -- "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe," Obama said.
Born in 1960 in northern California, Stevens had been a diplomat for two decades after previously working as an international trade lawyer in Washington, D.C., according to his biography on the State Department website.
"Chris was committed to advancing America's values and interests, even when that meant putting himself in danger," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday in a statement posted on the official Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
Ben Curtis / AP, file
U.S. envoy Chris Stevens speaks to local media at the Tibesty Hotel in Benghazi, Libya, in this Monday, April 11, 2011 file photo.
"I had the privilege of swearing in Chris for his post in Libya only a few months ago. As the conflict in Libya unfolded, Chris was one of the first Americans on the ground in Benghazi. He risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started."
Stevens had only just taken up his appointment, arriving in May after having served two previous roles in the country: Special Representative to the Libyan Transitional National Council during the Libyan revolution from March 2011 to November 2011, and Deputy Chief of Mission from 2007 to 2009.
US ambassador, 3 others killed in attacks on Libya mission
He had also previously worked in Jerusalem, Damascus and Riyadh and was a Pearson Fellow with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From 1983 to 1985 he taught English as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.
A video posted on the U.S. Embassy's official YouTube channel in May showed Stevens introducing himself to the Libyan people and speaking of his excitement at his new role.
President Obama, alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, condemns "in the strongest terms" the "outrageous and shocking attack" that claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
He was fluent in Arabic and French, and had earned an undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, a J.D. from the University of California's Hastings College of Law in 1989, and an M.S. from the National War College in 2010.
'Smiling, easygoing'
The Washington Post reported that Stevens was "smiling, easygoing and friendly" and "well-known at the State Department and on Capitol Hill."
His efforts to improve relations between the U.S. and Libya were underlined at one of his most recent public appearances. At a reception in Tripoli on August 26, he announced that the issuing of U.S. visas to Libyans would resume the following morning, according to a report in The Tripoli Post.
Mourning the incomprehensible, tragic death of my friend Chris Stevens, a great man &proud FSO.Stunned.
— Lara Friedman (@Lara_APN) September 12, 2012
"The reopening of our consular section will create new opportunities for deepening the ties between our two countries," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "Relationships between governments are important, but relationships between people are the real foundation of mutual understanding," Stevens said.
A statement from Frank Wu, Chancellor and Dean of the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, issued to NBC Bay Area station KNTV, said: "The Ambassador was performing the highest role that a lawyer is called upon to perform: public service. He and I communicated when he was appointed Ambassador. He had been looking forward to sharing his experiences with students when he returned. This is a tragedy. We mourn this loss."
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, also issued a statement, saying: "I had the chance of meeting Ambassador Chris Stevens during his confirmation process and again when I visited Libya last year. He was an exemplary diplomat and his embassy staff could not have been more helpful and knowledgeable during my visit. My prayers are with the families and loved ones of these courageous diplomats who were working to help the Libyan people rise from the ashes of Gaddafi's rule."
Steven McDonald, a longtime friend of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens who was killed in the consulate attack in Libya, comments on his friend's compassion, integrity and commitment.
Lara Friedman, director of policy and government relations at Israeli-American charity, Americans for Peace Now, who described herself as a friend of Stevens, posted on Twitter that his death was "incomprehensible, tragic."
The BBC reported that, in diplomatic cables leaked by the WikiLeaks site in 2010, Stevens had once described Col. Moammar Gadhafi as "notoriously mercurial" and wrote that he could be an "engaging and charming interlocutor."
Sean Smith was a husband and a father of two, who joined the State Department ten years ago, Clinton's statement said. "Like Chris, Sean was one of our best. Prior to arriving in Benghazi, he served in Baghdad, Pretoria, Montreal, and most recently The Hague," it said.
Ambassador Chris Stevens was popular, young. A new generation of ambassador. Active, an athlete. He'll be missed
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) September 12, 2012
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Leave a Comment:
Anyone at this point who could vote for Obama should be tried and shot for TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every considered that you are a poster child for legalizing abortion?
i agree 100%
"how you say ??!!!!"
What are you trying to say?
This lying scum we laughingly elected president probably never even met the "so-called" diplomat! obammi has encouraged attacks on Americans all over the globe by his apologies and appeasements! We must purge "progressives" from our government, these radical ideologues seek the complete downfall of our capitalist system!
How you say,
Did you notice the head of Obama's re-election campaign is Federico Pena who also made his wealth as a venture capitalist like Romney except Pena wasn't as successful at it as Romney was? Vestar Capital Partners was the firm:
http://www.nndb.com/people/647/000024575/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Pe%C3%B1a
Hee Haw
Pathetic ... their "protest" just proves the film is right. Barbarians that kill because they didn't like something that was said ... there is nothing that can justify that. The only thing that separates those guys from animals is opposing thumbs (Not intended as a slam on Islam or it's people ... just the extremist nutcases using it to justify there lack of humanity)
Read the koran, their is no such thing as an Islamist that is not radical and capable of murder in the name of islam! One of two things is apparent, either a believer of islam is lying about being tolerant or they are not a real islam believer! The koran preaches on nearly every other page to kill, maim, lie and deceive in the name of islam! Wow, sounds alarmingly similar to the basic tenets of "progressivism"!
Now stop your political BS and do something. Embassies are sovereign soil and these clowns should be made to pay an absolutely horrific price in property and lives for this attack. Don't be a Jimmy Carter.
I don't want anything done, except remove all Americans from the "animal society" of egypt and the whole middle east! Surely we should recognize by now, if we as much as send a fire cracker over there the American taxpayer will then foot the bill to rebuild the whole damn two-bit country! Leave them alone , let them kill each other, the world will be a better place !
So, he was a great man but now he dead. Got that. What i want to know is when do we attack, and what do we blow-up to teach the Muslim cockroaches a lesson?
This is what I want to know, presuming Mr. President that you have a set of cojones, because if you don't got a pair, then I'm taking my vote somewhere else, for sure . . .
For sure!
Let's put it this way . . .
You can talk away some stuff, but you can't make this go away by talking . . .
When this happens, you got to blow-up stuff and kill a lot of Muslim cockroaches . . .
No two ways about it, love and kisses, Bubba . . .
time to wipe islam off the face of the earth, they are like a plague, destroying everything in sight.obumbo, get us the @!$%# out of any muslim country . sent all muslims in America packing back to their sand pits, then let israel nuke the whole bunch. no more wasted taxpayer money to the bastards. obama is a coward and a friggin muslim. get his POS ass out of our country. he should be dragged out of the white house and hung,a disabled USMC vietnam combat vet
So when does our Muslim President apologize to Libya?
He has already started. He just hid behind Hillary while doing it.
i'm sorry but the muslims are scum of the earth.they are animals!!!!!! and look for any excuse to kill.they can preach all they want. allah is not about peace.i wish all muslims die already.they all should get nuke.i get along with anybody,but the muslims can go to hell....i don't want them near me.they are the lowest of all race...
kill them and take a pig skin and wrap it around them and bury them head down away from meca and we will actually see them think twice what they do . nuke them like the cockroaches they are
Fire, Aim, Ready!
Mr. Obama,
Didn't you notice the folks like the Muslim Brotherhood had stopped their atrocities against non-Muslims only because Mo was killing them off when they did? Yes Mo was a bad guy but there are no good guys in Libya's gvt; only bad guys and worse guys and we've now killed off the bad guys. So what's left? What have we accomplished? Where's the ROI?
Hee Haw
He risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started."
and the lybian public turns around for idiot reasoning and cuts off the head of an honorable man
what id like to know is what obama is going to do about it???
give more money to the idiots???
obama better decide quik or this will put him out of the race
because if i dont see a result im voting for the other dult
My condolences to all the families who lost love ones and to any others who may have been involved in this very tragic incident. I pray that our country rallies around our leaders, and that we unite in mourning, setting the bickering aside during this very sad and tragic time.
STRIKE BACK...
So sad, that all anyone can do is run their mouths about politics, and not say one word about four families who have lost loved ones. All this name calling in the US only inspires those in the world that want to see harm to all americans. You may not attack with weapons, but you do attack with words. Keep it up, insight more to carry out these types of acts. But be happy you are in the United States where you say what you want.
Obama is not a leader! He apologizes to terrorists, are you kidding me? This is precisely why these terrorists did what they did. They know what a weakling is sitting in the White House. What a total embarrassment of a President. Move over Jimmy Carter, Obama's taking your place as the biggest screw up for POTUS ever!
are you friggen kidding me??? Jimmy Carter was a total screw up, but looks like George Washington next to this incompetent weakling. He took Carter's title of worst president ever over after only three months in office!
Ambassador Stevens was not courageous. Our soldiers are courageous.
Maybe we should started executing Muslim religious leaders until the message is received.
Obama after you lose your job in Novembe,r maybe you can apply for a new job as an ambassador to Lybia
Waiting to hear what Obama will do to bring these extremists Islamic crackpots to justice but then he's afraid of offending Muslims and Mohammed. Netanyahu will welcome Romney/Ryan after dealing with this politicla coward and failure.
Too little, too late from Obama: He and Hillary Clinton have blindly supported, armed and financed jihadis like al-quaeda into power for the first time: in Libya, Egypt and soon in Syria.
.....all this to satisfy the whims of Clinton's "favorite aide" Huma Abedin, a jihadi masquerading as a patriotic American.
Four more years of these clowns, anyone?????????
Let's just get out of all the foreign countries that hate the US. Let them live on their own without Big Daddy's help.
The beat goes on, yeah the beat goes. Whats the value in all of this?
and Obamas people killed him. So what is the point here?
recycled joke: what's flat, black and smells like oil?
Libya after Romney gets elected.
The Ambassador should have been president, at least he was couragous, Mr. Obama is a pussy and a gay lover, so he act's just like them.
When are we going to close our Embassies in these countries? The people sent there are handed a death sentence anytime these lunatics feel the urge to kill. We are trying to bring peace to places where peace never has and never will exist. It really does not matter who is President and none of them are to blame. They did not incite these idiots. The last time they went on a killing spree it was over a cartoon. Get out of there now and let them kill each other, not US Citizens.
shows you how long "friendship" lasts in this part of the world.
The problem with toppling dictators is that they are often the only ones holding the country together, and the ones that come later are often even more crazy and violent.
Nonsense. Obama and the radical Muslims are still friends.
People with your intelligence should be barred from posting.
@spectac..
nibor is right. How can anyone even begin to dispute Obama's support of radical muslims? The only time he takes any action (of any real consequence) is when he "has to" for political reasons (ie: if he didn't kill Bin Laden & people found out he could have, he would suffer politically). Otherwise he supports and empathizes with them and apologizes for upsetting them.
All rhetoric aside, what does Obama plan to do to see that justice is served in the murder of an American ambassador by a Muslim extremist mob. Is Libya planning on arresting the leaders and instigators and punish them for murder? Are we going to punish Libya if the government does nothing? Is Obama just going to sit in Washington and just yell "don't do that?" The people who committed this crime only understand extreme force and I think the U.S. needs to respond in a way that leaves no doubt in the mind of any extremists Muslim that the consequences for violating the law, violating international law, by attacking our embassies and murdering our ambassador and other U.S. citizens, comes with a very high price. Diplomatic channels no longer work. Time to show these deviates just how frightening and ugly Americans can become when we are attacked. For starters and without hesitation, all aid to Libya should be halted and not resume until those involved are severely punished. Next, we should totally remove ourselves from the country. Let them rot in their own putrification and hate. We have absolutely nothing in common with this country so why do we pour money into a lost cause?
Obama will deliver a strongly worded apology.
Yes, it will be Diplomatic Contrition...which amounts to saying..."you got peanut butter in my chocolate...no, you got chocolate in my peanut butter"....even then the dirtbag will need to read it from a telepromter. Amateur...