The Foreign Policy reports on the death of Christopher Stevens, who was killed due to smoke inhalation when the US consulate in Libya was attacked.

Stevens was a career Foreign Service officer who had previously served across the Middle East, had been the point person for US diplomatic efforts during last year's war to topple Muammar al-Gaddafi. After NATO's establishment of a no-fly zone, he based himself in Benghazi, where he worked to unite the country's disparate rebel groups under the Transitional National Council.

It is a tragic irony that the US diplomat who had done so much to free Benghazi from the grip of a dictator that it despised would die at the hands of that city's residents only months later, in a spasm of religion-fueled hatred.