U.S. officials told Benghazi hospital to list Stevens as “John Doe” on death certificate
posted at 6:10 pm on May 30, 2013 by Allahpundit
An interesting, if not damning, scoop from Sharyl Attkisson about the night of the attack. This is simple (and surprising, under the circumstances) common sense in action: With jihadis rampaging for American blood, why do anything that might help them find Stevens’s body and desecrate his remains?
U.S. officials gave instructions for Benghazi Medical Center to use a “John Doe” pseudonym on the death certificate of Ambassador Christopher Stevens after he died of asphyxiation in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. That’s according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official isn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The reason for the pseudonym, says the official, was to avoid drawing undue attention to the importance of the victim as Americans rushed to figure out how to recover Stevens’ body and return it to the U.S…
In the 11 p.m. hour (5 p.m. ET), a group of Libyans, possibly looters, found Stevens and pulled him out of the U.S. mission. Somebody transported him to Benghazi Medical Center where CPR was attempted. Initially, it’s believed that doctors did not know who Stevens was. An unidentified man speaking Arabic used a cell phone Stevens had in his possession to call the U.S. embassy in Tripoli (the number was programmed into the phone). He seemed to want Americans to come to the hospital to retrieve Stevens, but U.S. officials were suspicious. The hospital was known to be under the influence of hostile militia and Embassy officials sensed a possible trap, so they opted not to attempt to send a U.S. rescue team now waiting at Benghazi’s airport.
A friendly local ended up transporting Stevens’s body to the airport so that it could be flown home. Per Attkisson, no mistreatment of the remains was found when it arrived in the U.S. Stevens evidently died of suffocation from the smoke.
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