That doesn't mean O isn't dumb enough to agree to cripple the security in exchange for a (worthless) promise they'll negotiate with him later for the hostage release.
Well, O isn’t dumb. He’s playing the islamist hand, and he knows AQ. Since he *is* AQ. So he knew very well what the events were going to be.
He needed Stevens gone.
Now, there are reports that Stevens had converted to islam.
So, the need for Stevens to begone may have been twofold:
Stevens may have had personal knowledge of O’s “downlow” activity and deaths (and now feeling more loyalty to Allah), and Stevens may have had all that inside knowledge of O’s gunfrunning.
Either way, he was a liability.