AND, if I remember correctly, Chris just arrived in April of this year ... so he was a newbie to THIS locale ... not to arab nations or embassadorships.
He was instrumental in overthrowing Ghadaffi, so he may not have been new to Libya, just to being the ambassador. There are too many articles for me to remember where I read about this history with arming the rebels and so on. He was fluent in Arabic and French as well, IIRC.