What person ever says what he really knows at a funeral?  Eulogies bearing little or no resemblance to the deceased or to the facts are trotted out by people who are often bad actors, who though they know better, lie anyway.  It's almost acceptable behavior.

But any truth about the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christ Stevens and three other Americans appears to have been put six feet under as far as our current administration is concerned. 

According to Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose fiery speech is one of the best to be found on the subject of Benghazi, our president and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton knew a "stand down" order had effectively sealed the fate of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.  They died because men who could have saved them were not sent to help.  Pirro states both Obama and Clinton lied, leaving all four men to die.  Obama went to bed and rested up for his trip to Las Vegas, knowing all the while there was no enraging You-tube video.  They both knew the truth, but chose to lie.  But, Pirro said, after all, there was an election looming ahead.

We now know Obama knew.

But after the ambassador's death, President Obama gave a short eulogy. He lauded the fallen Stevens, calling him a:

"courageous and exemplary representative of the United States. Throughout the Libyan revolution, he selflessly served our country and the Libyan people at our mission in Benghazi. As ambassador in Tripoli, he has supported Libya's transition to democracy. His legacy will endure wherever human beings reach for liberty and justice. I am profoundly grateful for his service to my administration, and deeply saddened by this loss."

We now know Clinton knew, too.  She knew men enraged by an obscure video didn't cause Stevens death.  But she said, consoling a parent of one of those who died, "We're going to get the people that did that video."

Clinton acted as if she didn't know the truth.  She also eulogized Stevens, saying, ""He risked his life to stop a tyrant, then gave his life trying to help build a better Libya. The world needs more Chris Stevenses."

Both Obama and Clinton knew the truth about the deaths of four brave men left to die--murdered.  Both presented their eulogies with perfect decorum and correct masks of sorrow.

How dearly they loved the ambassador.

Did they love Chris Stevens the way Brutus loved Caesar?

Shakespeare puts the perfect words in the mouth of Mark Antony, who gave the eulogy for the fallen Julius Caesar.     

For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statua,
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.

Ingratitude and bloody treason were the reasons for the death of Caesar; as they may well be for the deaths of four brave Americans.  Let us hope the truth continues to come forth.

Did President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton love Chris Stevens the way Stalin loved Sergei Kirov?  Time will tell.

A New York Times book review tells the story of Kirov, who had rapidly risen through the Communist Party ranks, and who was one of Stalin's closest comrades, was assassinated by a gunman who put a bullet through Kirov's head.  Pravda, whose editors paid attention to every detail, rushed a report on the incident, making sure the public read the "correct" story -- that is, a story favorable to Stalin.  The story was further "corrected" when a key witness, Kirov's bodyguard, had an unfortunate accident while on the way to be questioned by Josef Stalin himself.

But Stalin was stoically and heroically noble in his response to Kirov's death. Pravda reported:

"In the first days when Leningrad was orphaned, Stalin rushed there. He went to the place where the crime against our country was committed. The enemy did not fire at Kirov personally. No! He fired at the proletarian revolution."

The press made a virtual saint of Kirov.  According to the NYT review:

"News about the funeral plans and Kirov's lying in state were interspersed with poignant statements about the loss from stricken workers and party members. According to one observer, a young Soviet diplomat named Alexander Barmine: 'The papers at the time of Kirov's death were filled with his praises, and with expressions of grief, actually far exceeding those which followed the death of Lenin.'"

Stalin's sister-in-law, Mariia Svanidze, testified:

"Stalin stood at Kirov's head. Chopin's funeral march was playing... Iosif [Stalin] climbed up the platform of the casket, leaned over and kissed the forehead of the dead Sergei Mironovich. The picture tore my soul, knowing as I did how close they were, and the entire hall sobbed. I heard, through my own sobs, men sobbing."

We now know it was all an act. 

As early as 1956, a mere three years after Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev, who was a veritable devil, gave his secret and justifiably famous anti-Stalin speech in which he said Stalin himself had given the order to put a bullet through the brain of  his beloved friend Kirov.

Stalin was to profit handsomely by the Kirov assassination, which he used to promote his political future.  He had already had a little practice at using death at a funeral to promote his political career, as he had given the eulogy at Lenin's funeral in 1924.   One excerpt will suffice to show the smarminess and hypocrisy we recognize in our own leaders' eulogies for our fellow Americans:

"Departing from us, Comrade Lenin enjoined us to hold high and guard the purity of the great title of member of the party, we vow to you, Comrade Lenin, we shall fulfill your behest with honour!"

What has occurred during and after the murder of brave Americans in Benghazi goes beyond ordinary lies and shading of truth.  It goes beyond classic example of personal betrayal such as the perfidy of a smooth-tongued Iago seeking the destruction of Othello and Desdemona, naïve but good people their "friend" wanted to destroy just for the hell of it.  It goes beyond the manipulative and cruel tactics depicted in Dangerous Liasons, wherein a good woman is tricked into giving up her virtue.

If the testimony of the "whistle blowers" and such outstanding truth tellers as Pirro is true, the Benghazi incident is the Judas kiss of betrayal of an entire nation.  It is treachery at the deepest level. The wider the circle of betrayal, the worse is the perfidy that is treachery.  The traitor to a nation takes down a huge circle of people, people beyond his immediate family but nonetheless in a special relationship of trust to him.  He betrays those who have not only done him no harm, but who have given their oath to serve him.  Such have reserved for them the very lowest circle of hell, as Dante points out in his Divine Comedy.

There seems to be increasing evidence of murder and treachery at the highest levels of our government.

Treachery to the slain, who were seeking to loyally serve their president and country.

Treachery to the living, who were doing their duty in reporting things as they saw them happen and who were punished for doing what was right.

Treachery to our military, which is sworn to a code of honor that demands its members give succor to fellow Americans, and yet which was told to stand down as White House staff apparently viewed the carnage.

Treachery by extension to all Americans.

Murder and treachery most foul.

Fay Voshell may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com