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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Romney's staff deounced a communication they alleged came from the Obama administration, when in fact the communication came from staffers in Cairo.
Mitt Romney Criticizes Obama Administration Over Response To Libya, Egypt Attacks
Posted: 09/11/2012 11:52 pm Updated: 09/12/2012 12:29 am
The campaign of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the Obama administration's handling of a violent and contentious day at two American facilities in the Middle East "disgraceful" in a statement released late Tuesday night.
The campaign had initially planned to hold the statement until after midnight -- and the end of the eleventh anniversary of September 11th -- but lifted the embargo an hour and a half early as the controversy flared over a series of attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi," Romney said in the statement. "It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."
The two diplomatic outposts had been the site of violent protests on Tuesday evening, as fundamentalist mobs swarmed in rage over rumors about an unreleased American film -- promoted in part by the Koran-burning preacher Terry Jones -- that supposedly projected the Prophet Muhammad in a harshly critical light.
Protesters breached the wall of the embassy in Cairo and burned an American flag on its grounds before replacing it with an Islamic banner. In Benghazi, a mob driven by the Islamist militant group Ansar al Sharia rampaged through the American consulate, firing at least one rocket-propelled grenade, according to the Wall Street Journal. At least one American staffer was killed in the violence.
The violence took a domestic political turn, in part thanks to a statement released early Tuesday by the staff of the Cairo embassy, which condemned the film and the "continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions."
The Romney campaign's statement seemed to be an attempt to capitalize on the appearance that the Obama administration -- which has overseen the Arab Spring, and the rise of Islamist governments in both Egypt and Libya -- was capitulating to the sensitivities of an unruly Muslim crowd, rather than backing the right of an American citizen to release a disrespectful film.
But the statement criticized by the Romney campaign came early in the day, before the attacks on the two embassies, and was put out not by the White House, but by the Cairo embassy itself.
The White House later disavowed the statement as not approved by Washington, according to a senior administration official speaking to Politico.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt also commented on the statement from the Romney campaign. “We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack,” LaBolt said in a statement
.
In a statement released late Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attack on the mission in Benghazi "in the strongest" terms, and added that while the U.S. "deplores" the denigration of religion depicted in the film, it would not countenance such violent responses.
"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet," Clinton said. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."
The Libyan government also released a statement condemning the attack on the American Consulate, calling it a "cowardly act." And the Muslim Brotherhood, the ruling Islamist party in Egypt, said on its Twitter page that that it "regret the attacks on [the U.S. Embassy] by angry protesters, and we urge citizens to express their opinion peacefully."
This story has been updated to include a statement from Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.
Also on HuffPost
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 7:39 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Hate monger Terry Jones and anti-Muslim, pro-Israeli and coptic Christians are initiating the insurrection.
The Atlantic
A Movie So Offensive That Egyptians Just Stormed the U.S. Embassy Over It
By Max Fisher
inShare.12Sep 11 2012, 2:22 PM ET412
Terry Jones, the Florida Koran-burner, is helping to promote a movie vilifying Egypt's Muslims, and the Egyptian media got ahold of some clips.
Right now, protesters in Cairo are gathered at the U.S. embassy compound, where some have scaled the walls and pulled down the American flag, with which they've replaced a black flag bearing the prayer "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger." They say they're protesting an American film that insults Prophet Mohammed. About half an hour in, someone took a photo that appears to show some of the protesters, of which Reuters estimates there to be 2,000, setting off celebratory fireworks.
The movie is called Innocence of Muslims, although some Egyptian media have reported its title as Mohammed Nabi al-Muslimin, or Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims. If you've never heard of it, that's because most of the few clips circulating online are dubbed in Arabic. The above clip, which is allegedly from the film (update: Kurt Werthmuller, a Coptic specialist at the Hudson Institute, says he's confirmed the clip's authenticity*) is one of the only in English. That's also because it's associated with Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the asshole who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts.* The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt.
Obviously, there's a lot to this story that's still unclear. What we do know is that some members of Egypt's sometimes-raucous, often rumor-heavy media have been playing highly offensive clips from the highly offensive film, stressing its U.S. and Coptic connections. In the clip below, controversial TV host Sheikh Khaled Abdallah (known for such statements as "Iran is more dangerous to us than the Jews" and that Tehran had engineered a deadly soccer riot in Port Said) hypes the film as an American-Coptic plot and introduces what he says is its opening scene.
As the fervor has built, both the Coptic Church and the U.S. embassy to Egypt issued formal condemnations of the film. The latter, made just this morning, began, "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." The statement also noted the September 11 anniversary, adding, "Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy."
What exactly does the film say? It's still not clear, but it appears to compare Mohammed to a goat and Muslims, according to one translation, to "child-lovers." The New York Times' Liam Stack, offering some offhand translations of the scene shown above, called it a "doozy." The man in the scene says of his donkey, "This is the first Muslim animal." He asks the goat if it likes girls; when it doesn't answer, he bursts into laughter and says, "He doesn't like girls," according to Stack. Other scenes in the above clip seem to portray Muslim Egyptian characters, who for some reason all have strong New York accents, as immoral and violent, particularly toward the Christians whom they pursue with near-genocidal fervor. A number of Islam's founding figures, including the prophet, are accused of homosexuality and child molestation.
The movie, like Terry Jones himself and his earlier Koran-burning stunt, have received attention far beyond their reach, which would be modest if not for obsessively outraged media. And yet, here the movie is, not just offending apparently significant numbers of people, but producing real-world damage. That damage is apparently limited to one American flag (CNN at one point reported that it had been torn, rumors continue to circulate that it was burned) and presumably the evenings of the U.S. embassy staff, but the U.S.-Egypt relationship is tense enough, and Muslim-Coptic mistrust has already produced scant but horrifying violence against the Christian minority. That doesn't mean this incident will become anything more than a bizarre moment of cross-cultural misunderstanding (the protesters seem to assume that, as in Egypt, movies must secure the state's approval), but that it could go so far is yet another reminder of the tensions just beneath the surface in Egypt.
Update: * - This sentence originally credited Terry Jones with producing the film, as some Egyptian media had suggested. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal now reports, Jones is playing a promotional role, but the film was in fact directed and produced by "an Israeli-American California real-estate developer who called it a political effort to call attention to the hypocrisies of Islam." Separately, members of a Libyan Islamist extremist group called Ansar al-Sharia attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, over the film, firing at the building with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:05 am
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:09 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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TPM- Talking Points Memo
Benjy Sarlin-September 12, 2012, 12:16 PM29286
Mitt Romney’s harsh and factually inaccurate condemnation of President Obama’s handling of a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya puts him well in front of the rest of his party.
Romney’s aggressive attacks on Obama are a reversal from Romney’s usual approach, where he waits for the party to reach a consensus before stepping in. Nowhere was this more clear than during the military operation in Libya that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, when Romney avoided taking a decisive stand in any one direction.
Romney issued a statement late Tuesday condemning Obama’s handling of the attack after news broke that an unnamed foreign service officer had been killed — and even suggested that Obama had expressed support for militants.
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” he said.
In fact, Romney was wrong: A statement from the U.S. Embassy in Egypt (later disavowed by the White House) condemning an anti-Muslim film made in America was issued before the compound was breached.
As the severity of the attacks became clear — including confirmation that Ambassador Chris Stevens had died in Benghazi, Libya — and Romney’s chronology was called out in the press as demonstrably false, few Republicans stepped forward to follow the Republican nominee’s lead.
In the House and Senate, top Republican leaders refrained from mentioning Obama, and instead offered messages of sympathy, unity and even praise for the State Department.
“Yesterday we commemorated the anniversary of the attacks of September the 11th, and today we are reminded that brave Americans serve us every day at the risk of their own lives,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement. “We honor the Americans we lost in Libya and we will stand united in our response.”
Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced plans for a moment of silence in the House and ordered flags at half staff.
“We mourn for the families of our countrymen in Benghazi, and condemn this horrific attack,” he said in a statement. “Eleven years after September 11, this is a jolting reminder that freedom remains under siege by forces around the globe who relish violence over free expression, and terror over democracy — and that America and free people everywhere must remain vigilant in defense of our liberties.”
A joint statement from three of the Senate’s most prominent foreign policy hawks, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), took a similarly measured response that acknowledged that the full story of what happened on Tuesday had not yet emerged.
“There is still much we do not know about what happened in Benghazi yesterday,” the statement read. “What is clear, however, is that the attackers must be apprehended and punished. We appreciate that senior Libyan leaders have condemned these cowardly attacks, and we now look to the Libyan government to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice, and that U.S. diplomats are protected. We have confidence that our own government will provide all necessary assistance to this end.”
McCain said later on Twitter that Clinton’s statement Wednesday morning condemning the attack, was “excellent and moving.” Graham, while critical of Obama’s broader foreign policy on FOX News Wednesday, reiterated that he sided with Clinton’s efforts to transition the government to democracy.
“Under Gaddafi it was the policy of the government to kill Americans,” he said. “This is an outrage and I think Hillary is right.”
Another key lawmaker popular with the right, rising star Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), refrained from criticizing Obama in a statement on Twitter as well.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke on Romney’s behalf at the Tampa convention, did not mention the Obama administration’s handling of the crisis in her own response mourning the ambassador’s death.
The most prominent backup Romney received from a top GOP official was RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who tweeted just after midnight eastern time (when the Sept. 11 anniversary had passed) that “Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt. Sad and pathetic.” Others siding with Romney included Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin.
The next morning, Priebus took a more mournful tack.
Our prayers are w/Ambassador Stevens’ family and the families of those killed in the attacks in Libya. We mourn their loss and grieve w/them
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 12, 2012
Update: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who is closely tied with the tea party movement, became the first Senator to back up Romney on Libya. “Governor Romney is absolutely right, there is no justification for these deadly attacks and we should never apologize for American freedom,” he said in a statement.
topics:2012, 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Egypt, Libya, Mitt Romney
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun. |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:09 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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September 12th, 2012
10:50 AM ET
3 hours ago
With attacks in Middle East, campaign turns to foreign policy
Posted by
CNN's Kevin Liptak
(CNN) – Mitt Romney continued a sharp line of attack against the administration of President Barack Obama Wednesday, saying the U.S. diplomatic response to attacks in Egypt and Libya amounted to sending "mixed signals" on American values and foreign policy to the rest of the world.
"I think President Obama has demonstrated a lack of clarity as to a foreign policy," Romney said in Jacksonville, Florida, continuing a line of criticism his campaign began late Tuesday, when it issued a statement that labeled the U.S. response to attacks on the American embassy in Cairo as "disgraceful."
Obama’s campaign, along with other Democrats, has pushed back, saying it was “shocked” to hear Romney injecting politics during a time of mourning in the U.S. diplomatic community.
Romney's statement came Tuesday night around 10 p.m. ET, as reports indicated an American diplomatic worker in Benghazi, Libya, had been killed in an attack on the consulate there. The Republican candidate's statement was sent before news broke that the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, had been killed in the attack.
In separate protests in Cairo, several men scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down its American flag. The violence in both Libya and Egypt stemmed from anger about an online film considered offensive to Islam.
In his statement, Romney said he was "outraged" by the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo, but took harsh aim at the Obama administration for what he characterized as a weak response to the violence.
"It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney wrote, an apparent reference to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that denounced the anti-Islam film that is the source of the protesters' anger. The embassy's statement was released before protesters stormed the American embassy in Cairo on Tuesday.
The embassy in Egypt wrote that it "condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions."
"Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy," the statement continued. "We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."
A second statement, from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said anger over the film did not justify the violence.
"The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," Clinton wrote. "Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."
Obama's presidential campaign responded quickly to Romney's statement, saying their rival was using events in the Middle East for blind political gain.
"We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack," Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt wrote.
In his remarks Wednesday in Florida, Romney said it was "never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values."
"I think it is a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values," Romney said. "That instead when our grounds are being attacked and being breached that the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of the sovereignty of our nation. And apology for America's values is never the right course."
The fact that the statement came from the American embassy in Egypt, and not from the president himself, doesn't negate Obama's responsibility, Romney said.
"Their administration spoke. The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth but also from his ambassadors, from his administration, from his embassies, from his State Department," the Republican candidate said.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and a surrogate for Romney, also said the Republican's statement was justified.
"Governor Romney's statement is pretty clear," Gingrich said on CNN's "Starting Point." "If Gov. Romney were president he would be enraged at the Egyptians for tolerating the attack on the embassy. Both countries have an obligation to protect our embassies."
Other Democrats quickly chastised Romney Wednesday, saying the Republican was crudely inserting politics where they didn't belong. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Romney's remarks "about as inappropriate as anything I've ever seen at this kind of a moment."
"They are flat wrong," Kerry said. "They demonstrate an insensitivity and a lack of judgment about what is happening now. To make those kinds of statements before you even know the facts, before families have even been notified, before things have played out, is really not just inexperienced, it's irresponsible, it's callous, it's reckless. And I think he ought to apologize and I don't think he knows what he's talking about frankly. It's that simple."
"I'm sorry the decision was made in the Romney campaign to make this a political issue. It is not," U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said. "It is a tragic human issue and we should be together as a nation condemning this terrible violence against our ambassador and those who worked in the Libyan embassy."
A second diplomatic flashpoint – the White House's reported refusal to grant a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama – also seemed poised to break into the presidential campaign Wednesday.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer, citing Israeli sources, reported that the Israelis were told Obama's schedule would not permit a meeting even though Israel offered to have Netanyahu travel to Washington.
Obama and Netanyahu are both due to address the United Nations in New York in late September but not at the same time.
The Obama administration pushed back later Tuesday.
"Contrary to reports in the press, there was never a request for Prime Minister Netanyahu to meet with President Obama in Washington, nor was a request for a meeting ever denied," the White House said Tuesday night in its statement, which made reference to "our close cooperation on Iran and other security issues."
Wednesday's detour to foreign policy comes after months of a near-singular campaign focus on jobs and the economy. Romney makes little mention of foreign policy on the stump, and was criticized for not mentioning Afghanistan during his speech at August's Republican National Convention.
The last time foreign policy was in the spotlight during the 2012 presidential campaign came in late July, when Romney traveled to England, Israel and Poland to meet with leaders and tour historic sights. Despite a few successes on the trip, including being endorsed by a beloved Polish labor leader, the foreign swing is remembered chiefly for a series of gaffes from the GOP candidate, including suggesting that London was not well-prepared for the Summer Olympics.
Voters consistently say in polls that Obama would better handle America's relationships with other countries if re-elected. In the latest CNN/ORC International survey released earlier this week, President Barack Obama had a 54%-42% advantage over Romney on foreign policy.
CNN's Ted Barrett and Paul Courson contributed to this report.
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:21 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Mitt Romney Response To Libya, Egypt Attacks Called 'Irresponsible,' 'Craven,' 'Ham-Handed'
The Huffington Post | By Jack Mirkinson Posted: 09/12/2012 Updated: 09/12/2012 4:23 pm
[b]Many members of the media reacted with puzzlement and criticism to Mitt Romney's continuing criticism of the White House response to the deadly attacks in Libya and Egypt.
The Romney campaign drew fire on Wednesday morning for issuing a blistering statement condemning the American embassy in Egypt for speaking against an incendiary anti-Muslim film, even though the embassy made the statement before any attacks had taken place. NBC's Chuck Todd, for instance, called the statement "irresponsible" and a "bad mistake." ABC's Jake Tapper said that Romney's attack "does not stand up to simple chronology."[/b]
CNN's Peter Hamby also criticized the response:
@PeterHambyCNN
Peter Hamby
Clinton issued statement condemning violence at 10pm EST Tues night. Yet Romney camp still went ahead w/ claim O "sympathizes" w/ attackers
September 12, 2012 1:20 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite
[b]National Journal's Ron Fournier called Romney's actions "ham-handed" and "inaccurate."
Conservative pundit Erick Ericson, while disagreeing with Todd's response, also warned Romney to be "cautious."
Despite that criticism, Romney continued this line of attack in an appearance on Wednesday morning, saying that the White House had made a "severe miscalculation."[/b]
This drew a fierce response from analyst Mark Halperin:
@MarkHalperin
Mark Halperin
Unless Mitt has gamed crisis out in some manner completely invisible to Gang of 500,doubling down=most craven+ill-advised move of '12
September 12, 2012 2:33 pm via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite
Other reporters were similarly baffled. "The Romney campaign's politicization of the embassy attacks is even worse than I expected," Foreign Policy writer Blake Hounshell tweeted.
Speaking on Fox News, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan was also blunt. "I don't feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors in the past few hours," she said. “Sometimes when really bad things happen, when hot things happen, cool words or no words is the way to go.”
"If you think the eye-rolling at Romney is just coming from the MSM, call up some Republican foreign policy hands," BuzzFeed's Ben Smith added.
Joe Scarborough responded to Smith's tweet:
[b]@JoeNBC
Joe Scarborough
@BuzzFeedBen I've been inundated with emails and calls from elected GOP leaders who think Romney's response was a mistake. Not today.[/b]
September 12, 2012 3:00 pm via TwitterrificReplyRetweetFavorite
[b]Later, the editorial board of the Washington Post weighed in, with a piece headlined, "Mr. Romney’s rhetoric on embassy attacks discredits his campaign." Romney's approach, the board said, was "stunning."[/b]
Also on HuffPost:
Media reactions to Mitt Romney Libya criticism
@davidgregory
David Gregory
Romney appears to have launched a political attack even before facts of embassy violence were known. Then uses day to issue vague FP vision. |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:32 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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J. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Ambassador To Libya, And 3 Embassy Staffers Killed In Attack On American Consulate In Benghazi (VIDEO)
AP/The Huffington Post | Posted: 09/12/2012 7:10 am Updated: 09/12/2012 8:58 pm
UPDATE: U.S. officials have told The New York Times and CNN that the deadly consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, may have been planned in advance.
According to the CNN report, "attackers used the protest outside the consulate as a diversion," though sources "could not say whether the attacker instigated the protest or merely took advantage of it."
Previously from AP:
TRIPOLI, Libya -- The American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed when a mob of protesters and gunmen overwhelmed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, setting fire to it in outrage over a film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Libya's new president apologized Wednesday for the attack, which underlined the lawlessness plaguing a region trying to recover from months of upheaval.
Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as a crowd of hundreds attacked the consulate Tuesday evening, many of them firing machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
By the end of the assault, much of the building was burned out and trashed. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.
A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos of during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, the doctor, Ziad Abu Zeid, told The Associated Press.
Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said.
President Barack Obama ordered increased security to protect American diplomatic personnel around world. Hours before the Benghazi attack, Egyptians angry over the film protested at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, climbing its walls and tearing down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag.
"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi," Obama said, adding the four Americans "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe."
Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized to the United States for the attack, which he described as "cowardly." Speaking to reporters, he offered his condolences on the death of the four Americans and vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the United States.
The three Americans killed with Stevens were security guards, he said.
"We extend our apology to America, the American people and the whole world," el-Megarif said.
The spark for the protests in Libya and Egypt was an obscure movie made in the United States by a California filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer." Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.
But the brazen assaults - the first on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country - underscored the lawlessness that has taken hold in Libya and Egypt after revolutions ousted their autocratic secular regimes and upended the tightly controlled police state in both countries.
Islamists, who were long repressed under the previous regimes, have emerged as a powerful force and made up the bulk of the protests in both countries.
Moreover, security in both countries has broken down. Egypt's police, a onetime hated force blamed for massive human rights abuses, have yet to fully take back the streets after Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.
On Tuesday in Cairo, riot police stood by the embassy's walls but continued to allow protesters to climb them for several hours. The protesters, however, appeared to intentionally stick to certain limits: A few entered the embassy grounds to remove the flags and come back, but otherwise the chanting youth stayed on top of the walls without storming the compound or damaging property.
The uproar over the film also poses a new test for Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who has yet to condemn the riot outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo or say anything about the offending film. The protest was by mostly ultraconservative Islamists.
In Libya, central government control is weak, arms are ubiquitous and militias are pervasive. The consulate in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, is a one-story villa in a large garden located in an upscale neighborhood. By the end of Tuesday night's attack, much of the building was black and smoldering. Libyans wandered freely around the burned-out building, taking photos of rooms where furniture was covered in soot and overturned.
The violence raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as knowledge of the anti-Islam movie spread. So far, however, the only sign of unrest on Wednesday was a protest by dozens of Gazans in Gaza City. Some of the protesters carried swords, axes and black flags, chanting, "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet." The rally was organized by supporters of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group aligned with the ruling Hamas movement.
Afghanistan's government sought to avert an outbreak of protests. President Hamid Karzai condemned the movie, which he describes as "inhuman and insulting." Authorities also temporarily shut down access to YouTube, the video-sharing site where excerpts of the movie were posted, said Aimal Marjan, general director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications.
Ultraconservative Islamists also were suspected of being behind the Benghazi attack. Advocating a strict interpretation of Islam, they have bulldozed Sufi shrines and mosques that house tombs in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and other cities, including ancient sites dating back to 5,000 years ago.
Heavily armed, ultraconservative groups like Ansar al-Shariah, or Supporters of Shariah, have claimed responsibility for the attacks on the shrines, declaring Sufi practices as "heretical."
Libya has been also hit by a series of recent attacks that served as evidence of the deep and persistent security vacuum in the country after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime, which was ousted by rebels backed by a NATO air campaign. Many Libyans believe that unrest in their country is in part the work of Gadhafi's loyalists who want to undermine efforts to rebuild the country after last year's ruinous civil war.
Stevens was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.
Before Tuesday, five U.S. ambassadors had been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979, according to the State Department historian's office.
The two-hour movie that sparked the protests, titled "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic and posted on YouTube.
Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer, said he wrote, produced and directed the movie. Bacile told The Associated Press he was an Israeli Jew and an American citizen. But Israeli officials said Wednesday they had not heard of Bacile and there was no record of him being a citizen. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to share personal information with the media.
Separately, the film was being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States.
Bacile said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant. He said he believes the movie will expose Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said in a solemn, accented tone.
Israel, however, sought to distance itself from Bacile.
"It's obvious we'll have to be vigilant. Anything he did or said has nothing to do whatsoever with Israel. He may claim what he wants. This was not done with or for or through Israel." Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Wednesday.
__
Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Joseph Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this story. |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:18 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Sabrina Siddiqui.
sabrina.siddiqui@huffingtonpost.com
Obama Responds To Libya Criticism: Romney Tends 'To Shoot First And Aim Later'
Posted: 09/12/2012 5:03 pm Updated: 09/12/2012 8:33 pm
President Barack Obama (R) makes a statement in response to the attack at the U.S. Consulate in Libya as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) looks on. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama responded to Mitt Romney's charge that the White House mishandled its response to the embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya by accusing his challenger of having a tendency to "shoot first and aim later."
"There's a broader lesson to be learned here: Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later, and as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that," Obama said in an interview with CBS News on Wednesday. "It's important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts and that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them."
When asked if he found Romney's statement "irresponsible," Obama responded, "I'll let the American people judge that."
The Republican presidential nominee has faced significant backlash for targeting the president for a public statement, made by the U.S. embassy in Cairo, that did not come directly from his administration. The statement was made by the embassy prior to an Egyptian demonstration in reaction to an anti-Islamic video. Other officials have accused Romney of prematurely politicizing an episode that took the lives of four diplomatic officials, including U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
Romney released his first statement on Libya and Egypt Tuesday night, in which he called the president's handling of the situation "disgraceful." He reiterated that criticism in a press conference Wednesday, stating, "The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth but also from the words of his ambassadors, from his administration, from his embassies, from his State Department."
"They clearly sent mixed messages to the world," Romney said. "The statement that came from the administration -- and the embassy is the administration -- the statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology. And I think was a severe miscalculation."
Obama delivered his own statement on the crisis in Libya on Wednesday, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by his side, but chose not to engage with Romney during his speech. He instead focused on the incident and lives lost, while making it clear that those responsible would be brought to justice.
"We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others," Obama said, "But there is no justification for this kind of violence. None."
UPDATE: 6:19 p.m. -- While aboard Air Force One on Wednesday evening, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney read more quotes from a transcript of Obama's "CBS News" interview, which makes up one portion of a larger package in this Sunday's edition of "60 Minutes."
From the pool report:
"I think most Americans, Democrats or Republicans, understand that there are times when we set politics aside, and one of those is when we've got a direct threat to American personnel who are overseas," President Obama said.
"And so I think that if you look at how most Republicans have reacted, most elected officials, they've reacted responsibly, waiting to find out the facts before they talk, making sure that our No. 1 priority is the safety and security of American personnel."
"It appears that Gov. Romney didn't have his facts right. The situation in Cairo was one in which an embassy that is being threatened by major protests releases a press release saying that the film that had disturbed so many Muslims around the world wasn't representative of what Americans believe about Islam."
"In an effort to cool the situation down, it didn't come from me, it didn't come from Secretary Clinton, it came from people on the ground who are potentially in danger. And my tendency is to cut folks a little bit of slack when they're in that circumstance, rather than try to question their judgment from the comfort of a campaign office," Obama said.
"I do have to say that, more broadly, we believe in the First Amendment. It is one of the hallmarks of our Constitution that I am sworn to uphold, so we're always going to uphold the rights of individuals to speak their minds. On the other hand, this film is not representative of who we are, and our values, and I think it is important for us to communicate that. That's never an excuse for violence against Americans, which is why my No. 1 priority and my initial statement focused on making sure that not only are Americans safe, but that we go after anyone that would attack Americans."
Obama said the U.S. will "remain vigilant," and that "even as we apply pressure on al Qaeda and other elements that are affiliated in big chunks of the world, such as North Africa and the Mideast, we've got a lot of dangerous characters, and we've got to make sure we're continuing to apply pressure on them. And that's something I'm determined to do" |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:35 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Washington Post
Editorial Board: Mr. Romney’s rhetoric on embassy attacks discredits his campaign
By Editorial Board
Published 6 hours ago
J. CHRISTOPHER STEVENS, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was a skilled and courageous diplomat who repeatedly placed himself at risk in order to support the cause of a democratic Libya. His death, along with those of three other Americans, during an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Tuesday is a tragedy that should prompt bipartisan support for renewed U.S. aid to Libyans who are struggling to stabilize the country. That it instead provoked a series of crude political attacks on President Obama by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a discredit to his campaign.
Mr. Romney’s first rhetorical assault came Tuesday night in response to a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, which was also besieged by demonstrators Tuesday. His statement claimed that the administration’s first response was “to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” In fact the embassy statement was issued before the protests began; referring to an ugly anti-Islam film that was the focus of demonstrators, it condemned “those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious belief of others.”
Mr. Romney did not then know the extent of the Benghazi incident — his statement referred only to “the death of an American consulate worker.” So it was stunning to see the GOP nominee renew his verbal offensive Wednesday morning, when the country was still absorbing the news of the first death in service of a U.S. ambassador since 1988, as well as the loss of three other Americans. Though reports were still sketchy, it appeared that a militant Libyan jihadist group, Ansar al-Shariah, took advantage of the Benghazi protest to stage an armed assault on the consulate that overwhelmed the Libyan security force.
At a news conference, Mr. Romney claimed that the administration had delivered “an apology for America’s values.” In fact, it had done no such thing: religious tolerance, as much as freedom of speech, is a core American value. The movie that provoked the protests, which mocks the prophet Mohammed and portrays Muslims as immoral and violent, is a despicable piece of bigotry; it was striking that Mr. Romney had nothing to say about such hatred directed at a major religious faith.
Mr. Obama struck the right tone on Wednesday, saying that “we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others” but that “there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence.” Lauding Mr. Stevens’s service, the president promised “justice” for “this terrible act” while also committing the administration to continue cooperating with Libya’s democratic government — which apologized for the attack.
Since the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gaddafi last year, Libya has been plagued by armed groups that have refused to submit to the new government. Now the United States must press the government to take action against Ansar al-Shariah and other jihadist organizations that have established themselves in the eastern deserts. Security assistance, which has been limited so far, ought to be stepped up, by the Obama administration and by other governments that joined last year’s NATO intervention.
As for Mr. Romney, he would do well to consider the example of Republican former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who issued a statement Wednesday lamenting “the tragic loss of life at our consulate,” praising Mr. Stevens as “a wonderful officer and a terrific diplomat” and offering “thoughts and prayers” to “all the loved ones of the fallen.” That was the appropriate response. |
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Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:51 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Israeli filmmaker in hiding after anti-Islam movie sparks deadly Libya, Egypt protests
Film by Sam Bacile, who self-identifies as an Israeli Jew, led to protests at the U.S. consulate in Libya and the U.S. Embassy in Cairo; one American staffer killed in clashes.
By The Associated Press | Sep.12, 2012 | 9:43 AM | 95
Clashes kill American staffer at U.S. consulate in Libya over ‘insulting’ film, sources say
By Reuters, DPA and
Haaretz
Sep.12,2012 | 9:43 AM
Maker of video that incited Libya attack may not be Israeli after all
By Haaretz | Sep.12,2012 | 9:43 AM
An Israeli filmmaker went into hiding on Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam's Prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by Muslims on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and in Libya, where one American was killed.
Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S.consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an American State Department officer on Tuesday. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.
Bacile, a California real estate developer in his fifties who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world. "
"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said in a solemn, accented tone.
The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.
The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. An English-language 13-minute trailer on YouTube shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons.
It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage.
Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.
Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.
"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile.
"America should do something to change it."
The film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone Bacile doesn't know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera.
The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.
MORE FROM HAARETZ.COM |
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Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:11 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Maddow Blog
When failure is a team effort
By Steve Benen
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Thu Sep 13, 2012 8:00 AM EDT.
Associated Press
Romney and his campaign team linked arms and screwed up together.
Towards the end of Mitt Romney's press event yesterday on developments in Libya and Egypt, a reporter asked the Republican whether he would have issued a false and accusatory statement, during a crisis, if he'd realized four Americans were being killed.
"I'm not going to take hypotheticals about what would have been known what and so forth," he said. "I -- we responded last night to the events that happened in Egypt."
Now, part of this is plainly untrue -- the response also reflected the developments in Libya -- but the "I - we" line stood out for me. Romney's first instinct was to take ownership of the scurrilous attack, but his second instinct was to broaden responsibility -- he and his team said this.
Any chance some random staffer made a late-night screw-up, issuing an offensive statement before the facts were in? Apparently not -- the New York Times published this fascinating piece late yesterday.
[O]n Tuesday evening, Mr. Romney, according to his staff, signed off on a blunt attack on a statement issued early in the day -- before the first protests had happened -- by the American Embassy in Cairo. [...]
And as an adviser to the campaign who worked in the George W. Bush administration said on Wednesday, Mr. Romney's accusation that Mr. Obama had invited the attacks because he had weakened America looked like "he had forgotten the first rule in a crisis: don't start talking before you understand what's happening."
The statement that seemed to backfire on Mr. Romney was a team effort, his aides said, written by a group of aides who focus on policy, another that focuses on political strategy and another on communications. Mr. Romney himself signed off on it, they said.
One of Romney's "senior advisers" told the Times they'd worked on a narrative -- Obama's foreign policy is "weak," all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding -- and the team "felt this was a situation that met our critique."
In other words, Romney and his aides had a line of attack, they thought events abroad reinforced their talking points, so they jumped -- like lemmings off a cliff -- before they had any idea what they were talking about. This wasn't some low-level staffer who screwed up after the senior staff had gone to bed; this was the candidate and his advisors linking arms and failing together.
This is no small revelation. Indeed, it's speaks directly to Romney and his team's ability to lead.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Fallows noted yesterday this was, to a real extent, Romney's "3 a.m. phone call" -- a test to see how he and the most trusted members of his team perform when there's a crisis. And not just any crisis, but a foreign crisis in which Americans are being killed abroad.
Romney has no practical experience in national security, military policy, or foreign affairs at all, so it's all the more important for him to use opportunities like these to show he's capable of being presidential.
And with less than eight weeks to go before Election Day, Romney blew it. Americans got a good look at how the former one-term governor responds when the heat is on, and we got to see him and his team fail.
Now, it's worth noting that the New York Times article cited above has since been edited, without explanation, but the piece originally included specific quotes from senior member of the Romney team, which warrant serious attention.
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Thu Sep 13, 2012 9:06 am |
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