Video purportedly shows Libyans rushing to aid U.S. ambassador
Benghazi, Libya (CNN) -- The chaos is palpable, as a
throng of Libyans frantically scramble outside a damaged building.
Suddenly, a man's body is carried from inside toward an open window --
and the frenzy and sounds become even more urgent, more emotional.
"Get him out!" some yell.
After joyfully
discovering the man -- a foreigner, apparently, a voice in the crowd
says -- is alive after he's dragged out, fresh screams ring out.
"Allahu Akbar," which
translates from Arabic to "God is great," men in the crowd shout. Others
raise fists to the sky, seemingly rejoicing that this man has somehow
survived.
According to the man who
shot the video, the wounded man shown is Chris Stevens, the late U.S.
ambassador to Libya. If true, the grainy images show some of his last
moments alive: Stevens was one of four Americans killed last Tuesday in
an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
U.S. State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland acknowledged the video Monday, even as she
stressed it's not clear "whether or not it's authentic, whether or not
it is an accurate representation of what happened, whether or not it's
Ambassador Stevens."
"This video ... is going
to be part and parcel of this investigation," Nuland told reporters.
"But I'm not in a position to confirm what, who, where and whether it
has any value."
That investigation will
try to explain who is responsible, and what happened, the night of
September 11 outside the U.S. consulate.
A strident crowd had
gathered there, ostensibly to rail against the United States -- like
Egyptian protesters were also doing about 780 miles (1250 kilometers)
east in Cairo -- over the 14-minute trailer of an obscure, amateurishly
and privately produced film mocking the Muslim prophet Mohammed.
Some of those in
Benghazi eventually attacked the consulate, with Libyan and U.S.
officials offering differing assessments on whether this assault was
spontaneous or premeditated.
What is obvious is that,
once they were done, the consulate was charred and heavily damaged, its
walls blackened with smoke and its contents largely unrecognizable.
The man who shot the
aforementioned video, Fahed al-Bakush, told CNN he'd arrived shortly
before midnight to find the consulate cafeteria building up in flames.
The smoke was so thick, he said, that you could barely see the consulate's main building.
Yet the video shows lots
of activity, especially near an open window. People clambered in and
out of it, aided by small flashlights and each other.
Eventually, the wounded
man was carried out. Afterward, he's pictured on the ground in what
appears to be a shirt and dark pants.
"He had a pulse and his
eyes were moving," al-Bakush said of the man he said is Stevens. "His
mouth was black from all the smoke."
With the man now
outside, some yelled out," Carry him," and others said, "We need to take
him ... to the hospital." A later photo, also seen online, showed the
wounded man being put on another man's shoulder and whisked away.
By the time he arrived at a Benghazi hospital, it was too late.
"The body was covered
with soot," said Dr. Ziad Abu, who treated Stevens that night. "I began
resuscitation but after 45 minutes, the patient ... showed no signs of
life."
Many questions remain about the attack that led to Stevens' death.
But if this video indeed
shows the ambassador being taken from the consulate, as people thank
God that he was breathing and tried to rush him to get medical help, it
indicates that not everyone in Benghazi was bent on violence that night.
In fact, it appears that
some men -- as evidenced by their words and actions -- were helping
him, and very much wanted him to live.
