U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, a UC Berkeley alumnus, was killed along with three other Americans after the American Consulate in Benghazi was attacked Tuesday night.
Stevens graduated from UC Berkeley in 1982 and from the UC Hastings College of the Law in 1989. A native northern California resident, Stevens also attended Piedmont High School and was a member of the UC Berkeley chapter of the fraternity Alpha Tau Omega.
Stevens was slain when a mob of Islamist militants attacked the American Consulate in reaction to an American-made video depicting the prophet Muhammad in a negative light, The New York Times reports.
After studying history at UC Berkeley, Stevens went to Morocco as a member of the Peace Corps during the early 1980s, according to a statement released Wednesday by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.
“He played a key role in supporting the Libyan revolution and was a champion for the country’s emerging democracy,” Birgeneau said in the statement. “His life epitomized the best of UC Berkeley’s graduates, a commitment to excellence at the highest level and a passion for making the world a better and more peaceful place.”
Alpha Tau Omega campus president Derek Sayler said Stevens’ work embodied the fraternity’s mission.
“(Stevens’) professional life has provided an example for our fraternity because he encompassed the ideals that we hold dear and demonstrated our most important quality: true merit,” reads a statement released Wednesday by the chapter.
In honor of Steven’s passing, the fraternity chapter raised an American and Alpha Tau Omega flag in front of its house and memorialized Stevens and other victims during a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening.
“You are in Alpha Tau Omega for life,” Sayler said. “We figured we would show our respect to someone who served their country.”
UC Hastings Chancellor Frank Wu also released a statement Wednesday expressing condolences at Stevens’ death.
“The Ambassador was performing the highest role that a lawyer is called upon to perform: public service,” Wu said in the statement. “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.”
President Barack Obama condemned the attacks Wednesday morning as “outrageous and shocking.”
“Chris led our diplomatic post in Benghazi,” Obama said. “With characteristic skill, courage, and resolve, he built partnerships with Libyan revolutionaries, and helped them as they planned to build a new Libya.”
Contact Curan at [email protected].
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The first US diplomat murdered on duty since the administration of Jimmy Carter. Incompetence and weakness always breed savage behavior from our enemies because they need fear no consequences. Obama better do something about this and soon. What a terrible president the American people elected in 08. We are reaping the results.
Instead of the political bickering below, I would like to voice my admiration for the men of Alpha Tau Omega. I graduated in 1984 and was lucky enough to know Chris for two years in the fraternity. I had not had much contact with him since, but I was saddened by his death.
Holding a vigil to honor a brother they had never met speaks volumes about the men of ATO. I am proud that they have continued a tradition of love in the brotherhood.
Politics aside, Chris was a great guy. I’m very upset to hear of his death.
I’m shocked! And all this time I thought Islam was THE religion of peace. LOL!!!
No, it’s the religion of piss…
The Administration and other Middle East “experts” are blaming Al Queda for the murder of the US Ambassador Stevens (that’s Libyans showing their appreciation for the US gov’t and Stevens in particular for throwing out Gaddafi), but thousands of Libyans most of whom are not likely members of Al Queda were screaming invective at America outside the US Consulate in Bengazi which was subsequently torched by missiles killing Stevens and four other Americans).
Move over to Egypt and it’s not Al Queda but the Muslim Blubberhood which laid seige by hundreds of screaming banshees to the US Embassy in Cairo w/o any real police protection. Of course, the Egypt’s duly elected Muslim Blubberhood President, Morsi, who-rather than condemning his fellow Islamofascists for their destructive acts, demanded that the US suppress the film which precipitated the usual sickening Muslim violent response. So much for the Arab Spring–you can smell the stench from Cairo.
And then there were the Palestinian barbarians in Gaza burning American flags and jumping up and down like infants screaming that they wanted to butcher the film maker. These are the poor, poor Palestinians SJP JVP and Kesher Enoshi have tried to paint as victims. No, in truth they are nothing more than a tribe of savages.
It is a strange situation when the ambassador is killed protecting the staff. Where were the guards?
The Marines were in Rota, Spain. Deaths courtesy of the inept leadership of the Obama/Clinton team.
We spend hundreds of millions of dollars defending Benghazi from annihilation and overthrowing Qadhafi, and the LIbyans repay us by murdering our ambassador?
Disgusting.
Wait a moment and please correct me if I’m wrong. There has been an on going revolution in Libya for what the past year with an American ambassador in the country, and the president is just NOW sending in the Marines…
Yup, Obama…leading from behind.
Fuck Muslims and their beloved prophet Muhammad the pedo.
Sorry to hear that, but I don’t quite understand how that happened, given that we were told that the rest of the world would love and respect our wonderful President Obama. Funny how things never work as planned in the real world…
Obama is an empty suit. As Clint said in Carmel last week,
“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”
Don’t count on the Obama worshippers to care that one of our ambassadors was murdered by a bunch of fanatics. Gay marriage and free contraception are much more important priorities to them than national security or anything that goes on outside their silly little liberal ghetto.
RIP Mr. Stevens. Sincere condolences to his family & friends.
Ditto.
Why were there no Marines in Libya to guard our Embassy assets? NBC news now reporting that 50 Marines are being sent from Rota.
A day late and several deaths as a result of Obama leading from behind again.
Obama, incompetent to lead our economic recovery now exposed as incompetent to protect our diplomats. Their blood is on your hands, Obama. Don’t you dare try and blame others.
Semper Fi
That is ignorant. You are never safe from this crap. Who did you blame over the Danish cartoonist’s depiction of Mohammed when Muslims throughout the Middle East declared a boycott of Danish products. Hamshari, the largest newspaper in Iran, called for cartoons mocking the Holocaust. The Iranian government severed its diplomatic relations with Denmark, and security concerns led the Danish government to close its embassy in Pakistan.
An Italian government minister, Roberto Calderoli, wore a T-shirt displaying the cartoons during a television interview, leading to protests outside Italy’s consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The demonstrators set the building ablaze and police responded with gunfire, killing eleven. Both Calderoli and Libyan Interior Minister Nasr al-Mabrouk lost their jobs as a result.
The embassies and offices of France, Germany, Norway, the European Union and World Bank were also targeted. In Indonesia, four hundred protesters carrying rocks and sticks tried to storm the U.S. embassy.
Protests produced bloodshed in Kenya, Iran, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Jordan – as well as in England, the United States and Denmark itself.
Your examples show that Muslims are savages.
Muslims are not savages. However, extremism is savage, and it incites others to act like savages.
And those acting like savages are….Muslims.
Revolutions: damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Christopher Stevens is not the casualty of any “revolution” as much as he is of that pathetic incompetent excuse for a President, the one who can’t seem to be bothered to attend half of his intelligence debriefs but can make time for golf, schmoozing with Hollywood celebs, and an appearance on Letterman. Here’s the “hope and change” you idealistic little goo-goos campaigned for – hope you can live with the results.
If Obama went on another apology and bowing tour, maybe things would be OK.
The Seals eliminated one threat to the US, let’s remove 2 more in November.
Your political ambitions have blinded you to the facts. And those Seals, while incredibly brave, could not make a move with President Obama giving them the go a head to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, and take the heat if everything went wrong.
Who killed bin Laden? Ans: NOT Obama.
Neither did Romney, what is your point?
Romney is far from perfect on a lot of issues, but the fact that his mind isn’t stuffed full of the naivete and ignorance of goo-goo liberalism means he will be far more in touch with how the real world works than that pathetic excuse of a president you hope-and-change koolaid drinkers elected in 2008. Jimmy Carter (if you’re old enough to remember him) was a resounding success in comparison to Obama, in both foreign and domestic policies. The good thing is most indications point to Romney and the GOP taking over the White House next January. Even the little children are asking Michelle where she and the family are going to move when Zero loses…
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/kids-question-michelle-obama-unsure-where-president-and-where-obamas-will-move-if-president-loses_652327.html
As an independent, one of the reasons I voted for President Obama is that when he was Senator, out of 127 democrats that voted against the re-authorization of the Patriot Act, he supported it. Maybe you can call him goo-goo liberal for telling far right Rev Wright and far right Black Muslim leader Minister Farrakhan, both anti-gay, anti-American, anti-Jew, and anti-women’s right to choose, to distance themselves from him. President Obama is not naive, he has had conflict with both the right and the left. Political right Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and white supremacists have given the President the most criticism.
Wow, Stan, you read the conservative trash Weekly Standard? What else, do you watch Fox News all day, listen to Rush Limbaugh, and read the Wall Street Journal?
Try getting your news from unbiased sources and maybe you won’t be such a narrow-minded person.
“Wow, Stan, you read the conservative trash Weekly Standard?”
I guess every paper is “conservative trash” when they dare point out that your hero Obama is in deep trouble.
No, the facts are that we have an incompetent leader in the White House.