So following the attack on the U.S. Foreign Service facility in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, a website calling itself Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children, created this image meme directed at Hillary Clinton. The idea behind the meme is that Clinton was somehow responsible for the Benghazi attack and her State Department abandoned our personnel there, leading to their deaths. The meme includes a graphic photo purported to be Ambassador Chris Stevens in the process of being tortured and killed by his captors.

With the Caption:

Next Time Someone Says ‘Hillary Clinton 2016′ Remind Them of This:

U.S Ambassator Stevens was raped tortured, cattle prodded and burned to death for seven hours while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ignored his pleas for help.

I posted the photo here:

Just doing a quick reverse image search of the picture shows it had been circulating on the internet years before the Benghazi Attack.

Here is a wordpress blog from 2009 showing the same image that is purportedly Ambassador Stevens.

Here is the image again posted on a website in 2005.

The oldest example I can find of this image on the internet and the origins of the photo comes from a Spanish Language News site in 2004.

The article on the site reveals the picture was one of seven photographs to be released prompting public outcry and an investigation ordered by President of Argentina Néstor Kirchner which resulted in it being discovered the picture was taken in 1986 in an Argentinian Military base as part of a torture training program for Argentinian soldiers.

Here is the translated version of that article.

Debunking the picture we can also prove very easily that Ambassador Stevens was never raped or tortured. This lie came from a chain email that had been spreading around the internet directly after the Benghazi Attacks claiming:

“Ambassador Stevens was brutally murdered. His genitals were cut off, he was sodomized and beaten and cut and stabbed and burned. He was drug thru the streets and left for dead,”

The information in this chain email is attributed to a “Cynthia Lee Myers,” who is said to be the cousin of one of Stevens’ “personal guards” who also died during the attack.

No evidence exists that “Cynthia Lee Myers” is a real person. Some versions of this email claim that she was interviewed on Fox News, but factcheck.org was unable to find any evidence of that or any evidence of Cynthia Lee Myers ever existing.

Other versions of the chain email attributed the story to Dee Dee Myers, (The former press secretary to President Bill Clinton.) but after being contacted by Politifact she confirmed to have never written the email.

That email ended up getting repeated and passed around enough on the internet to be spouted out by conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage.

Then in turn copied by Gateway Pundit and Front Page Magazine.

Now lets look into what really happened to Ambassador Stevens.

On the night of September 11th 2012. At 9:40 p.m Militants from the group Ansar al-Sharia, surrounded the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

They threw Grenades over the wall and managed to breach the compound, pouring gasoline on the ground around the buildings to try and light the compound on fire and then left.

The CIA immediately became aware of the situation and planned a rescue operation. By 10:05 p.m. the CIA operatives chosen to rescue the ambassador were briefed and loaded into their armored Toyota Land Cruisers.

When the CIA team arrived the building was partly enveloped in smoke and they were unable to find Stevens. After securing the perimeter, the operatives rescued the compound staff bringing them to the diplomatic compounds backup safe house.

With both the terrorists and the Americans gone. A group of Libyans from around the neighborhood noticed the smoke around the compound and broke in to see what was going on.

Ahmed Shams, a 22-year-old college student, (majoring in art) got into the compound through a window and found Stevens alive, pulling him out. Abdel-Qader Fadl, a freelance photographer who helped rescue Stevens, videotaped the event.

Realzing they wouldn't be able to call an Ambulance in time and not even knowing the man they had just saved was the U.S Ambassador the Libyans put Stevens in a car and drove him to the hospital.

Once they got there, Dr. Ziad Abu Zeid (Who had already been working a 24 hour shift) attempted to revive Stevens for over an hour but unfortunately Ambassador Stevens never woke up.

Dr. Zeid reported that he died of severe asphyxiation from smoke.

A report issued by the independent Accountability Review Board on Benghazi agreed with his findings.

Same with all five of the Congressional Committees created to investigate the attacks.

Ambassador Stevens had no outward injuries besides the smoke inhalation and died due to breathing in the smoke and carbon monoxide caused by the fires set by Ansar al-Sharia. He was never tortured or raped or even had contact with the people who caused his death.

You would think because of this, people wouldn't keep reposting this obviously false meme on facebook and reddit.

But as Ross Elder found out when he debunked the picture.

"I have seen this Benghazi meme on so many social media pages that I decided to inform people of its questionable provenance. I thought that would be helpful and that people would appreciate being told the truth. Boy, was I ever wrong. The negative reaction to the truth made me a little pissy, so I started being less nice about it... When I would attempt to explain the photo, I would be attacked and insulted."