Eleanor Clift: Chris Stevens Wasn’t Murdered In Benghazi
He was in a safe room and died of smoke inhalation, says Daily Beast columnist Eleanor Clift.
“This animates the right wing of the Republican Party and I would like to point out that Ambassador Stevens was not murdered,” Clift said on the “McLaughlin Group,” using air quotes around the word “murdered.”
“He died of smoke inhalation in the safe room in that CIA installation.”
Clift has been torched on the right for the comments. Pat Buchanan, who sat on the “McLaughlin Group” panel with Clift, said Tuesday he was “stunned cold” by the observation. Reports have indicated that Stevens did indeed die of asphyxiation from smoke, but Clift’s contention doesn’t seem to square with a common characterization of the other 9/11 attacks.
Clift told conservative radio host Steve Malzberg she has an issue with the word “murdered.”
“I was taking issue with the sort of glib use of the word ‘murdered’ and I think, you know, dying of smoke inhalation in the safe room of a CIA outpost has a slightly different feeling,” Clift told Malzberg. “My point is it was a very chaotic event. The CIA was involved, which is why there was a lot of confusion initially, and that all the questions that this special committee is raising have been asked and answered in previous investigations.”
Anomaly 100 May 14th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
What a stupid, stupid thing to say.
fahvel May 14th, 2014 at 12:38 pm
which is what???
Anomaly 100 May 14th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
I’m referring to the topic in this post. The headline gives us a clue as to what it is:-)
fahvel May 14th, 2014 at 4:42 pm
since you are an anomaly I think I now get it 🙂 to you too.
Tengrain May 14th, 2014 at 1:19 pm
It is indeed. That is the kind of fine-grained slicing and dicing I would expect to see from politicians and lawyers, and maybe French chefs. It seems like a distinction without a point.
Rgds,
Tengrain
Dwendt44 May 14th, 2014 at 12:58 pm
Benghazi nut jobs heads explode in 3..2..1…
Foundryman May 14th, 2014 at 2:16 pm
We need to let the lunatic right play the conspiratorial theorist card. Playing loose with the facts and parsing words is not beneficial to anybody. It doesn’t matter how Mr. Stevens died, he was murdered by a mob.
What matters is how the right keeps using the incident as political points.
pipelayer56 May 14th, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Well, if the CIA was involved, no wonder the administration has trouble getting its facts straight initially: you just can’t come out and spill the beans on a CIA operation and the Republicans who are desperately searching for a scapegoat to score political points know this.
Budda May 15th, 2014 at 8:33 am
I get her point. Are soldiers killed in combat “murdered”?
Slice and dice, well yes, but we know nuance is not a conservatives strong point.
betty May 15th, 2014 at 9:11 am
Why was it so hard for the administration to say “Look, this was a covert operation therefore we cannot give you any details at all. The operation went horribly wrong and our people died. Sharing top secret details with the world will only bring more deaths to our people in the field.” We would have all nodded agreement. But as usual politicians lie to cover lies to cover more lies. The whole thing was blamed on a man who is still sitting jail for a video that had nothing to do with it. And there is still the question of why help was promised and never sent. Why did the CIA seemingly ‘set up’ that outpost? You people are so quick to erase the lives of four men betrayed by their government just to protect Obama and Hilary. You accept the lies and half truths so you don’t have to admit that this administration is as wickedly corrupt as every other.
jasperjava May 16th, 2014 at 8:11 pm
Uhhh… What if it WASN’T a covert operation?
What YOU want is a lie that you will believe, rather than the truth which you won’t believe.
“The whole thing was blamed on a man who is still sitting jail for a video that had nothing to do with it”
The video provoked massive protests across the Middle-East, undermined US foreign policy and put US military and diplomatic personnel in danger. Do you think that was a responsible thing to do? As far as any of us knows, the attacks in Benghazi WERE provoked – or exacerbated – by that inflammatory video.
“You people are so quick to erase the lives of four men betrayed by their government just to protect Obama and Hilary.”
And you people are so quick to exploit the tragic deaths of four men in order to score political points against Obama and Hillary.