A diplomatic security agent on duty the night of the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi revealed the last order Ambassador Chris Stevens gave him before they lost contact with each other.
Agent Scott Wickland was the government’s first witness in the trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala in federal court in Washington, D.C., which began on Monday, the U.K. Daily Mail reported.
Abu Khattala has been charged by federal prosecutors with orchestrating the attack on the consulate and the CIA annex building on Sept. 11, 2012, that killed Stevens, as well as State Department information officer Sean Smith and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Wickland, Stevens and Smith made it into the consulate’s safe room after the attack began. The militants were not able to breach the safe room, so they decided to set the building on fire.
The agent testified that Stevens told him, “When I die, you need to pick up my gun and keep fighting,” according to ABC News.
Wickland recounted to jurors that he was trying to lead Stevens and Smith to a bathroom, where they could barricade themselves in and open a window for air, when he lost contact with them in the thick black smoke.
“I was breathing through the last centimeter of air on the ground,” Wickland said. “I’m yelling, ‘Come on. We can make it. We’re going to the bathroom.’ Within 8 meters, they disappeared.”
“To this day, I don’t even know where they went. I was right next to them, and then that’s it,” he added.
Abu Khatalla faces 18 criminal counts ranging from murder of an officer of the United States to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, with maximum sentences of life in prison, The Washington Times reported.
https://www.westernjournalism.com/benghazi-security-guard-revealed-ambassador-stevens-last-order/
