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Sept 2012: U.S. Ambassador in Libya and two others killed in attack of consulate

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This is not going to go down well.  Mobs are unhappy about a alleged movie that is insulting to Islam.

U.S. ambassador in Libya reported killed in consulate attack
Chris Stevens, 3 others killed over Prophet Muhammad film, reports say
CBC News Posted: Sep 12, 2012 6:27 AM ET

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, according to reports.

There are conflicting reports of the circumstances surrounding the death of Chris Stevens and the others Tuesday night.

Al-Jazeera is reporting Stevens died of smoke inhalation after a mob attacked the consulate and set it on fire. Reuters, citing an unnamed Libyan official, said the four Americans died after militants fired rockets at their car in Benghazi.

Filmmaker in hiding
The attack was prompted by Muslim outrage over a film by a Californian that depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

"I do condemn the cowardly act of attacking the US consulate and the killing of Mr. Stevens and the other diplomats," Libya's deputy prime minister, Mustafa Bushagar, said via Twitter.

"Amb. Stevens was a friend of Libya and we are shocked at the attacks on the US consulate in Benghazi," Bushagar said. "I condemn these barbaric acts in the strongest possible terms. This is an attack on America, Libya and free people everywhere."

Sam Bacile, who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, wrote, produced and directed the two-hour film, Innocence of Muslims, The Associated Press reported Bacile went into hiding on Tuesday.

In an interview with AP, Bacile called Islam a cancer and said he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

A 14-minute film trailer was posted on YouTube in an original English version, and another was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic.

U.S. condemns violence
Anger over the film also touched off protests in Egypt, where protesters climbed over the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, pulled down the American flag and replaced it with an Islamic banner.

The U.S. has condemned the violence over the film.

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behaviour as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement released by the State Department.

"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."

If confirmed, Stevens, 52, would become the fifth U.S. ambassador ever killed while on duty, and the first since Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan in 1979.

A career diplomat, Stevens took over as U.S. ambassador to Libya in May. He had previously done two diplomatic postings in Libya, including a stint in Benghazi during the revolt that brought down Moammar Gadhafi.

With files from The Associated Press

Mod edit of thread title clarify original Benghazi attack, not a newer/more recent attack
 
And people wonder why we pulled our staff from Iran  ::)

I know it's not the same country but extremists there could end up doing the exact same thing.
 
The fact that this and the attack on the Cairo embassy happened on 9/11 was no coincidence either.

Sadly, the US political and chattering class seems clueless to what is happening, the NYT conveiniently buried the story on page A4 (doesn't seem to support the "Smart Diplomacy" or "Arab Spring" narratives), and Instapundit has an evolving page on the responses by various people to this (the Embassy in Cairo sent a string of tweets which seemed to have inflamed the situation, then deleted them, for example).

All in all a sad day for the families of those killed, and a disaster for US diplomacy in the region.
 
Drudge is ahead of the NYT.

http://www.drudgereport.com/

IowaHawk is cutting in his tweets.

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog

 
50 Marines are being sent to Libya hopefully to evacuate anyone still there. We need to get everyone out of Egypt as well. At some point in the future maybe some payback.
 
tomahawk6 said:
50 Marines are being sent to Libya hopefully to evacuate anyone still there. We need to get everyone out of Egypt as well. At some point in the future maybe some payback.

The US supports the Egyptian military to the tune of something like 2 billion.....this is gonna hurt Egypt.
 
At this point it's hard to say what will happen.

I'd like to think the deplorable actions of a few individuals won't damn an entire country, but time will tell.

Either way, my thoughts are with the families of those that were killed.
 
I notice that even though there's freedom of speech, this twit who started it all, was the same one who was going to burn the Koran awhile back.

There's a limit to freedom of speech, especially when it edges on hate speech.....but nobody is taking him to task....
 
Since he is not committing fraud, liable, encouraging riotous behaviour, communicating secrets to the enemy or encouraging sedation against his home country, he has not crossed any lines.

The answer to poorly thought out speech is more speech, outlining better counter arguments or pointing out errors in the initial argument, not using force and coercion to silence the speaker.

The parties in the wrong are the ones in Egypt and Lybia
 
NBC News this evening was reporting that the protest in Cairo was most likely just that, but the attack in Benghazi was more likely a coordinated attack by extremists.

They point to the fact that RPG's and heavy MG's were used, the attack occurred in at least two waves, and the fact that the Ambassador would normally be located in Tripoli , and was only visiting the Consulate.

According to an analyst interviewed on NPR, there had been several smaller attacks over the past few weeks, and it was thought that extremist groups were looking for targets of opportunity.
 
GAP said:
I notice that even though there's freedom of speech, this twit who started it all, was the same one who was going to burn the Koran awhile back.

There's a limit to freedom of speech, especially when it edges on hate speech.....but nobody is taking him to task....

Terry Jones was tangentially involved in this, but did not make and was not substantially responsible for publishing the video.

He's a fool, a lackwit, and probably a coward- but he is not criminally liable for anything that is happened. It doesn't change that I'd be happy if he got hit by a bus, but he has, heretofore, been within his rights. He just sucks at the 'responsibility' thing.
 
Brihard said:
Terry Jones was tangentially involved in this, but did not make and was not substantially responsible for publishing the video.

He's a fool, a lackwit, and probably a coward- but he is not criminally liable for anything that is happened. It doesn't change that I'd be happy if he got hit by a bus, but he has, heretofore, been within his rights. He just sucks at the 'responsibility' thing.

He appears to be backing away from showing the movie at planned events at his church, after reporters pointed out that the movie itself contains several scenes that could be considered pornographic.

Denigrate a religious group apparently is OK, but porn is not. :facepalm:
 
Know who's responsible for all this?  Not someone who decided to make a film- the people who woke up and decided to go out and murder people.

The reaction pretty much proves the movie's (in so far as it could be called that) intent.

I don't like what you're saying so I'm going to murder strangers because of it. Yea...these psychopaths will come up with any justification they want to kill.

In the end it's the NDA 129 of religious excuses. God wills it.
 
680 News (Toronto) is reporting the US Navy is moving 2 warships into place off the coast of Libya.
 
The security team put up quite a fight. Their actions saved alot of people.

http://tinyurl.com/9y9vmyg


Gunfire, a burning building, "heavy, dark smoke" that separated Chris Stevens, the late U.S. ambassador to Libya, from a security officer: American officials painted a harrowing picture late Wednesday of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left the widely respected diplomat and three others dead. The officials, speaking to reporters on a conference call arranged by the State Department, shared what they readily acknowledged were incomplete details subject to change as a clearer picture emerges from the bloody raid.

The early details sketch out a chaotic situation in which apparently outgunned U.S. and Libyan security personnel fought for hours to retake the diplomatic compound in the eastern Libyan city from unknown gunmen and lost the ambassador. The account was provided to reporters on the condition that the officials giving it not be identified.

At about 10 p.m. local time in Benghazi, the compound housing the American diplomatic mission came under fire "from unidentified Libyan extremists," one of the officials said. Just 15 minutes later, the attackers had breached the perimeter and trained their fire on the main building, setting it ablaze.

Inside were Stevens, a regional security officer and Sean Smith, an information management officer with the State Department who was also killed. (Overall, the compound had about 25 to 30 people in it.)

"They became separated from each other due to the heavy, dark smoke while they were trying to evacuate the burning building," one official said. The security officer and others returned into the burning building to find the ambassador and Smith. "This was really quite a heroic effort."


"At that time, they found Sean. He was already dead, and they pulled him from the building," the official said. "They were unable, however, to locate Chris before they were driven from the building due to the heavy fire and smoke and the continuing small arms fire."

At 10:45 p.m., security personnel tried to retake the main building but were repelled. At 11:20 p.m., U.S. and Libyan security forces were able to retake the main building, evacuating personnel they found there to an annex. That annex came under fire at midnight, an onslaught that lasted two hours and claimed the lives of two more Americans and wounded another two. By 2:30 a.m., Libyan forces helped the Americans to take control.

"At some point in all of this—and frankly, we do not know when—we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport," an official said. "I think it was already dawn in Libya."

"There are reports out there that I cannot confirm that he was brought to the hospital by Libyans who found him," the official said. "Obviously, he had to get there somehow. No Americans were responsible for that."

"We were not able to see him until his body was returned to us at the airport," an official said when asked to confirm whether Stevens died from smoke inhalation. "You can imagine that we will not be able to say anything about the cause of death until we've had a chance to perform an autopsy."

American authorities brought in a chartered aircraft from Tripoli to Benghazi to evacuate all of the Americans to Tripoli. From there, they were evacuated to Germany.

The officials repeatedly ducked questions about Stevens' security arrangements. And they offered no details about the protests that reportedly came before the attack.

But they disputed the notion that he was under-protected.

"There was no information and there were no threat streams to indicate that we were insufficiently postured," one official said.
 
More on the coordination of the attacks, and the possibility that this is part of a larger pattern (again). Reaf the article, not just the headline:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/conservatives-rally-on-embassy-attacks/2012/09/12/c8344bec-fcfe-11e1-b153-218509a954e1_blog.html

Conservatives rally on embassy attacks
By Jennifer Rubin

Conservative foreign policy hawks, outraged at the media’s circle-the-wagons reaction to the attacks on two embassies, are speaking out in defense of Mitt Romney.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells Right Turn:”The perception of American weakness that provided the foundation for these attacks is largely because of Obama administration mistakes and lack of resolve. A repetition of 1979 in Tehran is nor fetched, especially given the weakness of Obama’s statement this morning.” He dismisses the media storyline as pure boosterism: “The press criticism of Romney’s statement is so clearly at the administration’s behest that they are giving lapdogs a bad name.”

Likewise, Danielle Pletka, of the American Enterprise Institute, zeroes in on the discrepancy between President Obama and his secretary of State says the media should focus on whether “Hillary Clinton was right or her boss?” Pletka observes that Clinton at least repudiated the connection to the anti-Mohammed film, but “her boss, not so much. This is the problem for the President. For Barack Obama, there’s always a reason for people to hate us. For Hillary, it’s clear there is no justifiable reason.”

A Romney supporter, along the same lines, told me, “Hillary answered the 3 a.m. phone call.” When it was Obama’s time to speak she appeared to “chaperone” him as he read a prepared statement, likely one she prepared.

Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill are irked by the White House response. Sen. Jim DeMint, for example, put out a statement:

    The death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, American Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith and two other Americans is an outrage. Governor Romney is absolutely right, there is no justification for these deadly attacks and we should never apologize for American freedom. Islamic radicals will use any pretext to justify their hatred of America and our freedom.

    It was disheartening to hear the administration condemn Americans engaging in free speech that hurt the feelings of Muslims, while real atrocities have been repeatedly committed by Islamic radicals against women, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East.

    American freedoms are not to blame for the terrorist attacks of 9/11 or the apparently coordinated attacks on yesterday’s anniversary. Islamic extremists are to blame and we must work with officials in Libya and Egypt to ensure those who attacked our embassies are brought to justice.

    These attacks raise serious questions about whether we were properly prepared and about the effectiveness of our policies and foreign aid in these nations. We need to get the facts on these attacks, the ongoing threats to America in these countries, and rethink our policies in Libya and Egypt going forward.”

And Gary Schmitt of AEI observed in an email to me that “the administration made much to do about its success in Libya, both removing Qaddafi and not getting our shoes muddy by having a presence in post-tyrant Libya. Well, leading from behind does have consequences…including instability, lost opportunities.”

You can expect more conservatives to join, not only because they see this as a flagrant case of media shilling for the president, but because they genuinely believe this is the inevitable consequence of the president’s foreign policy approach and lack of attention to national security. They will continue to press on a number of points.

Foreign policy gurus with whom I have spoken today were attuned to reports that this was a coordinated, planned assault on two embassies. CNN reported: “ The incident does not appear to be a random mob scene, but rather an opportunity that militants seized, sources say. The attackers used a rocket-propelled grenade, a weapon not traditionally carried by protesters, but commonly used by terrorists.The attack is believed to have come in two waves. The first wave got inside of the compound, and a second wave penetrated a secure room inside the building. This fact raises questions about how the attackers knew the location of the rooms inside, sources say.”

If this is the case, what intelligence chatter was picked up? What precautions were taken? What was in president’s briefing and did he attend those briefings? Why are we relying on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to protect Americans?

The reaction of the Obama administration, for those who lived through it, is eerily reminiscent of the Clinton administration when a series of bombings (the 1993 World Trade Center, the Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the U.S.S. Cole) were treated as discrete events without a significant U.S. response. This, the 9-11 Commission and others concluded, was a dangerous misstep and set the ground work for the 9-11 attacks. The repetition of this ominous pattern on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 shouldn’t be overlooked. It is the quickness to excuse Islamic violence and the lack of a forceful response that is deeply troubling to critics of the administration. We may be in the middle of a campaign, but the national security concerns are real and valid.

By Jennifer Rubin  |  02:29 PM ET, 09/12/2012
 
jollyjacktar said:
This is not going to go down well.  Mobs are unhappy about a alleged movie that is insulting to Islam.

It's not an alleged movie, just an incredibly bad one. It was deliberately made to be offensive and inaccurate. It's so poorly done that I feel sorry for the guy who supposedly spent millions making it. It does not even rise to the level of critique. It's ignorant trash not worth anyone's attention.

There will be no reform without rapprochement AND critique. Time to stand up for the right to criticize.
 
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