Was Christopher Stevens raped in Libya? No

AS the British media agonises over topless photographs of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, on a holiday, all over the web you can see photographs of militant Islamists attacking and murdering Americans at the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. You can see a photograph of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens being savaged. Or can you? What you see is a photo of a slumped and bruised Stevens being dragged by a man. Is he being dragged away from further trouble. We don’t know.

And there is worse. Kerry Picket writes in the The Washington Times:

According to the Lebanese news organization Tayyar.org, citing AFP news sources, U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens… was reportedly raped before being murdered. A google translation of the report says.

A news report made by the Libyan Free Press is also reporting that Ambassador Stevens was sodomized before he was killed.

Is that right. Mr Stephens body has been returned to the US. The US has made no word on his having been sodomised. The report on Tayyar says very little.

Killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and reportedly raped sexually 

Debbie Schlussel seizes on the rape rumour and yells:

It’s certainly a credible scenario–we know that Libyan Muslims anally raped Muammar Qaddafi with some sort of implement before they murdered him.

No. That isn’t clear at all. It is not clear that Mr Stevens was abused in a way like the Islamist rebels in Libya treated dictator Ghaddfi – that Libyan version of the BNP the West backed. The photograph of Mr Stevens show him fully dressed. His trousers are on and buckled. Still, Schlussel has an agenda:

That’s how they behave in this part of the world, this religion, this ideology…they probably tortured Stevens in some way before they murdered him….we needed a Qaddafi over these savages…

But there is more:

Dr. Naseralla Elsaadi, cheif of the ER where Steven’s was taken after the attack: “This is terrible not just for the Americans and Libyans but for all humanity. My wife and children just called me crying. Everyone in the hospital and everyone in Benghazi are angry with those people (the radical extremists) and we weep. Islam is peaceful. It is our duty to care for our guests.” He looked down and his shoulders dropped with obvious despair. “We work so hard for peace.”

How did Mr Stevens die?

Dr Ziad Abu Zeid told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Stevens was brought to the Benghazi Medical Center by Libyans the night before, with no other Americans and that initially no one realized he was the ambassador. Abu Zeid said Stevens had “severe asphyxia,” apparently from smoke inhalation, causing stomach bleeding, but had no other injuries.

It was murder, let us be in no doubt.

What should the US do? One of Mr Stevens’ colleagues has advice:

The best way to honor Stevens is to bring the perpetrators to justice, condemn the bigotry on all sides, and increase our interaction with the Muslim world, not decrease it.

Anorak

Posted: 15th, September 2012 | In: Politicians Comments (4) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink