#frederick buttaccio

The U.S. State Department has confirmed today that three Americans have died in the Algerian hostage situation, which was declared resolved on Saturday.

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland identified the three Americans as Victor Lynn Lovelady, Gordon Lee Rowan, and Frederick Buttaccio. Mr. Buttaccio had been previously identified as the only American killed.

While Washington D.C. romps in revelry on Inauguration Day, it is imperative that we all take note of the fact that the President has not, in any formal capacity, acknowledged the lives of three Americans lost to his disastrous foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa.

At this point there isn't much we know about Frederick Buttaccio. We know he was from Texas. We know he was working at the British Petroleum natural gas facility in Algeria when it was stormed by Islamic radicals affiliated with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb three days ago.

And now we know that he's dead. And so we know that somewhere in the Great State of Texas, a family mourns the loss of a loved one.

We mourn with them, as we mourned with the families and friends of J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

Mr. Buttaccio died in Algeria. Mssrs. Stevens, Smith, Doherty and Woods died in Benghazi, Libya.

They may well have been killed by some of the same people. We know they were killed by the same organization. We know that AQIM are not "protesters". We know that the attack in Libya was not a response to an obscure YouTube video and we know that the attack in Algeria is not "workplace violence".