Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Ibrahim Alaguri/AP
State Department: CNN 'disgusting' for revealing diary of slain ambassador
Entries indicated Stevens had grown concerned about security.
The State Department condemned CNN on Saturday for releasing details from the diary of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed earlier this month, the Associated Press reported.
A statement from a State Department spokesman called CNN’s actions “disgusting” and “indefensible,” alleging that the news channel broke a promise to Stevens’ family that it would not reveal details.
CNN reported that, according to the diary, Stevens had grown concerned about security threats and “a rise in Islamic extremism.” CNN also reported that Stevens feared he was on an “al-Qaida hit list,” but it was unclear whether such a fear was mentioned in his journal. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when asked about the “hit list,” said last week that “I have absolutely no information or reason to believe that there's any basis for that."
CNN defended the release of the information by saying the public had a right to know about the ambassador’s fears.
CNN said it found the diary on the floor of “the largely unsecured consulate compound where he was fatally wounded."