Email exchange:
P: URGENT AT ALL COSTS WATCH FOX NEWS RE-BROADCAST OF THEIR SPECIAL TONIGHT ON BENGHAZI. IT WILL BE ON AT 1 AM. Ignore 'Greta Van Susteren tag' -- the show in that time slot is about the attack. Greg Palkot has the first clear report of what actually happened at the Benghazi compound during the attack. Palkot's account differs strikingly from State's in some key aspects. And it clarifies several confusing aspects of earlier descriptions.
I will trust Greg's investigative reporting over State's reports any day -- he's been around a long time -- long before coming to Fox, and I swear the man is half ferret.
From Greg's report, which includes helpful animation illustrations, Stevens was found not by any of the American security ppl or the "Libyan Feb. 17 brigade" guards but by looters. At first they thought he was dead then someone called out that he was still breathing. They didn't know who he was but were relieved to find he was alive and cried, "Allah Akbar!" (God is great) They then pulled him out a window and raced him to a hospital. Either he died enroute or was already dead when he was found, and those who thought he was still breathing were wrong.
So that explains the 'mystery Libyans' shown carrying him in the photos, which might have been stills from amateur video (see Palkot's report.) The Libyans carrying Stevens were looters, who'd gone into the compound after the worst of the fire had died down.
That explains the foggy description in parts from State. The truth is that the Americans, etc. simply abandoned the compound when they couldn't find Stevens.
THERE IS MORE IN GREG'S REPORT. DON'T MISS IT."
Is it possible for someone to survive that kind of fire as long as Stevens did, assuming he was still alive when the looters found him? The fire, from photos, never had that much to feed on so, yes. he could have found an air pocket. If so, he might have died more from carbon monoxide poisoning than from smoke inhalation.
Greg said the looters found him 'dazed' -- the daze could have been from a concussion. Recall the blood on the outside of the toilet and the bloody hand print on a nearby wall in the "safe haven" that Arwa Damon found when she searched the compound on Sept. 13. The blood could comport with what seems to be a gash on Stevens's forehead shown in one of photo of him being carried. He could have cracked his head against the hard enamel toilet bowl while stumbling in the pitch black of the diesel fuel smoke, then righted himself, then found an air pocket.
In any case, one of the things clarified by Greg's report is that the attackers never got to him, never got past the security gate blocking off the 'safe haven' inside the main residence where Stevens was. So all stories about Stevens having been raped are baseless gossip or disinformation put out by some Islamists.
UPDATE 1:46 AM EDT
In my rush to get up this post I initially wrote that the attackers never got inside the main residence; I corrected that almost immediately -- they got inside the residence but couldn't get past the security gate that marked off the "safe haven" inside the residence -- but I did want to note this and will post a correction for any readers who saw the original version of this post and haven't yet seen Greg's report.
I just watched Greg's report again; one thing I missed first time around: he said that eyewitnesses to the attack heard foreign accents among some of the attackers.
For readers who missed the earlier airings of the report, I'm assuming that Fox will re-broadcast the special report ("Death and Deceit in Benghazi") this weekend. Again, the special might not show up on your cable schedule under that title; Fox aired the special in the time slot for Greta Van Susteren's "On the Record" and that's how it might be shown on the weekend schedules. I am hoping Fox will post a video of the special and back this up with a transcript of Greg's report on the attack on the compound and annex.
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