Laura Ingraham: U.S. ambassador 'was dragged through the street' in Benghazi

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham restated a debunked talking point Sunday, claiming that the body of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was "dragged through the street" following the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. 

"We have to not forget, we have four dead Americans," Ingraham said during a roundtable discussion about the Benghazi attack on ABC's This Week. "The ambassador's body was dragged through the street. Okay? It was beyond heartbreaking and beyond infuriating." 

Stevens' body was not dragged through the street, at least not in the way Ingraham suggests, multiple accounts and three official reviews make clear. 

PolitiFact examined a similar claim in September 2013 and the facts remain the same. 

The bottom line: Good Samaritans took Stevens to a hospital where he could receive medical treatment. 

The most recent summary of the events came from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in January 2014. In an appendix, the report provides a timeline. It has this entry for 1 a.m. Sept. 12, 2012: 

"Local Libyans found the Ambassador at the Mission Facility and brought him to a local hospital. Despite attempts to revive him, Ambassador Stevens had no heartbeat and had perished from smoke inhalation." 

Two other government bodies said much the same thing. An Accountability Review Board, headed by former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen and veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering, declared that Stevens was brought to the hospital by six civilians. "To the best knowledge of the Board these were ‘good Samaritans’ among the hordes of looters and bystanders," the review concluded. 

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee -- controlled by Republicans -- reported that "local Libyans found the remains of Ambassador Stevens in the main diplomatic building at the Benghazi Mission and transported him to the hospital. The Libyans apparently did not realize who the Ambassador was, but they alerted the State Department of his location by using the cell phone that was in the Ambassador’s pocket. Libyan doctors tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate Ambassador Stevens upon his arrival at the hospital." 

The Associated Press interviewed the Libyan doctor who treated Stevens. CNN spoke to Libyans who said they had found Stevens. The CNN report includes amateur video that shows rescuers pulling Stevens through a window. 

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It seems established fact that Libyans brought Stevens directly to the hospital and there were no signs that anything else took place. 

Our ruling 

Ingraham said that the body of Ambassador Stevens was dragged through the street. We reached out to Ingraham but did not hear back.

After reading three government reports and independent press accounts, we find that Stevens, overcome by smoke from the fire, was brought to a Libyan hospital where efforts to revive him failed. To be dragged through the streets implies disrespect. There are no reports of public abuse of his body. 

This claim was debunked long ago and the truth has been widely available. We rate Ingraham's claim False.