Jay Rockefeller: “before I say what I originally came down here to say, I want to join my colleagues in condemning the senseless, horrible…”

“before I say what I originally came down here to say, I want to join my colleagues in condemning the senseless, horrible attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya and pay tribute to the four Americans, including our Ambassador there, Chris Stevens, who were killed. I think all of us hope the killers will be brought to justice quickly, and I suspect that will be the case. Our country has lost four true public servants in the part of public service which is the least known and sometimes the most important. It is a high calling, public service in general, but especially in dangerous places around the world. Ambassador Stevens was a serious, dedicated, and highly experienced diplomat with a tremendous depth of expertise in Libya and the region. He and his colleagues spent their lives working on behalf of the United States of America and I hope their proud families and the entire diplomatic corps know we are deeply grateful as a people. This cowardly attack is a setback, but it will not stop us from our mission of promoting freedom and democracy for the people of Libya, and it should not. It will not keep our diplomats from their important work overseas. I remember when I was a student in Japan, the Ambassador there at the time, back in the early 1960s, was a fellow named Dr. Edwin Reischauer, who was probably at that time the preeminent Japanologist in America. He was a gentle, wonderful, marvelous person whom the Japanese loved.…”