Saila's Miscellany

I spent long periods in 2011 in Benghazi and its nearby military frontlines and redoubts, and after the modern and far more secular surroundings of Tripoli and the West (where most Libyans live), it felt like a dangerous place where religious forces wield a heavy hand.
It was during this period that I met John Christopher Stevens, a cool-headed American career diplomat who had just been appointed as the U.S. representative – and de facto ambassador – to the National Transitional Council, the fractious rebel government-in-waiting based in Benghazi.
In off-record briefings, he was an exceptionally calm and self-assured voice of confidence in the revolution’s project, drawing on what appeared to be a deep personal understanding of Arab politics, cultures and factions to explain the deeply layered and contradictory conglomeration of movements that his government had decided to back fully.