Al-Qaeda Hit List? US Ambassador Stevens Worried He Was An Al-Qaeda Target
US Ambassador Chris Stevens reportedly believed he was on an Al-Qaeda hit list shortly before he died during an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The National Counterterrorism Center Director acknowledged on Wednesday at a Senate Homeland Security meeting that Stevens and three other Americans in Libya were killed “in the course of a terrorist attack,” reports CNN.
Senator John McCain believes that it doesn’t make sense that White House, Sec. Clinton and United Nations’ Ambassador Susan Rice previously stated that, “it was not a terrorist attack, when obviously it had all the earmarks of a terrorist attack.”
He also added that Stevens should have been given more security in Libya, especially after reports of a growing al-Qaeda presence in Benghazi.
While the source close to Stevens has said that Stevens thought he was on the al-Qaeda hit list, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discounted the rumor, saying on Thursday that there is “no information” that the US Ambassador was on any kind of al Qaeda hit list, notes ABC News.
Referring to the report by CNN, Clinton stated that she had “no reason to believe that there’s any basis for that.” Stevens was killed a little over a week ago, along with two former Navy SEALs, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, and State Department computer expert Sean Smith.
Weeks before he died, Doherty informed ABC News that he was working in Libya with the State Department to track down dangerous surface-to-air missiles, which were looted during the revolution last year.
Many rumors, including the idea that US Ambassador Chris Stevens was on an al-Qaeda hit list, continue to swirl as an official investigation has been launched into the attack on the US Consulate in Libya. National Counterterrorism Director Matthew Olsen also stated on Wednesday that American intelligence was “looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda’s affiliates — in particular, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.”
