Giving Offense
Details have emerged about the movie which allegedly sparked two attacks on US diplomatic installations in the Middle East.
A movie attacking Islam’s prophet Muhammad sparked assaults on U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday. A Libyan security official reported an American was shot to death as protesters burned the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and in Cairo, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy walls and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner. …
Sam Bacile, an American citizen who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction.
“I feel sorry for the embassy. I am mad,” Bacile said.
Speaking from a telephone with a California number, Bacilesaid he is Jewish and familiar with the region. Bacile said the film was produced in English and he doesn’t know who dubbed it in Arabic. The full film has not been shown yet, he said, and he said he has declined distribution offers for now.
“My plan is to make a series of 200 hours” about the same subject, he said.
Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Christian in the U.S. known for his anti-Islam views, told The Associated Press from Washington that he was promoting the video on his website and on certain TV stations, which he did not identify.
Both depicted the film as showing how Coptic Christians are oppressed in Egypt, though it goes well beyond that to ridicule Muhammad – a reflection of their contention that Islam as a religion is inherently oppressive.
Down with Bacile! It is of course not true that Islam is oppressive. The attacks on the US diplomatic installation show how far this is from the truth. A State Department spokesperson explained that the attacks viewed from a certain perspective are really a good thing.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland cautioned reporters not to assume that the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today reflected growing anti-American sentiment among the Egyptian people …
Nuland pointed out that such protests are only possible because dictator Hosni Mubarak was thrown out of power. “So obviously, one of the things about the new Egypt is that protest is possible,” she told reporters. “Obviously we all want to see peaceful protest, which is not what happened outside the U.S. mission, so we’re trying to restore calm now. But I think the bigger picture is one of the United States supporting Egypt’s democratic transition and the Egyptian Government very much welcoming and working with us on the support that we have to offer.”
The health of democracy in the Islamic world is expressed in the new willingness to burn US embassies and consulates. But to produce a YouTube video bemoaning the fate of the Copts not so much. The people who really don’t understand how Democracy works are Americans. The US Embassy in Cairo issued this statement decrying the propensity to give offense to the Islamic world.
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.
We Are Outraged At Our Countrymen
The real driver behind these attacks is unlikely to have been some obscure YouTube video which drove thousands of ordinary Muslims in two separate countries somehow to attack two diplomatic establishments. The timing and similarity of the attacks suggest they were planned. The “offense” was whatever came conveniently to hand.
The real incitement is the palpable weakness and the groveling attitude the administration has displayed toward Islamic radicals. There seems to be no apology they will not make, no accomodation they will not attempt, no payoff they will not undertake, no confession they will not blurt out in an effort to appease.
The Obama administration has disavowed the statement of the American embassy in Cairo. Note to readers: it was on the US Embassy website, see the screencap above.
The White House is disavowing a statement from its own Cairo embassy that apologized for anti-Muslim activity in the United States.
“The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” a senior administration official told POLITICO.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo put out a statement early Tuesday that apologized for an anti-Muslim film being circulated by an Israeli-American real estate developer.
The US consulate in Benghazi, Libya is now reported to be looted and burned.
In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, a large mob stormed the U.S. Consulate, with gunmen firing their weapons, said Wanis al-Sharef, an Interior Ministry official in Benghazi. A witness said attackers fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the consulate as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility.
Outnumbered by the crowd, Libyan security forces did little to stop them, al-Sharef said.
The crowd overwhelmed the facility and set fire to it, burning most of it and looting the contents, witnesses said.
The New York Times says “Anger Over a Film Fuels Anti-American Attacks in Libya and Egypt”.
A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, the mainstream Islamist group and the sponsors of Egypt’s first elected president, Mohamed Morsi, urged the United States government on Tuesday to prosecute the “madmen” behind the video, according to the English-language Web site of the state newspaper, Al Ahram.
The spokesman asked for a formal apology from the United States government and warned that events like the video were damaging Washington’s relations with the Muslim world. He also emphasized that any protests should remain peaceful and respect property.
There should be “civilized demonstrations of the Egyptian people’s displeasure with this film,” the Brotherhood spokesman said, according to the Web site. “Any nonpeaceful activity will be exploited by those who hate Islam to defame the image of Egypt and Muslims.”
The American Embassy had released a statement shortly after noon that appeared to refer to Mr. Jones: “The United States Embassy in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions,” it said. “Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
That statement has been reportedly disavowed, but time will tell whether the apology demanded by the Islamists may not be reinstated in some way.
Belmont Commenters
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The Three Conjectures at Amazon Kindle for $1.99
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No Way In at Amazon Kindle $8.95, print $9.99
Past as prologue. I remember tears of rage welling in my eyes when the US Embassy was seized in Tehran in November 1979 and Americans were taken hostage. Today an American has been killed when the US Consulate in Benghazi was burned. Perhaps Hegel was right about history repeating itself first as tragedy and then as farce.
Forward! Into the Past!
Our Brilliant President will out manuever them with a …….gutsy call!
Or expose his belly and grovel and hope for “Peace in our time!”
Mark 1,
That wasn’t Hegel, it was Marx “The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon.”
Somebody owes Rudy Giuliani an apology. All the friends and fans of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andrew Serrano who shed ink accusing the Mayor of Fascism because he didn’t feel an obligation to spend public money supporting the Brooklyn Museum against the wishes of the voting taxpayers, after the museum spent good money to exhibit pornography and works like “Piss Christ,” actually they used the elephant dung Virgin Mary, should be loaded on an airplane and sent to give lectures on Tolerance to the Ummah.
People need to learn how to conjugate Respect. To become Respected you must be Respectable and to be seen as Respectable you you must demonstrate that you are Respectful. When you are full of Respect then more will come to you. Respect is one of those odd forms of political magnetism, like Max Weber’s “charisma” that flows from those with little to those with more, who then feed it back to the society as a whole. The Islamists are full of something but it isn’t Respect.
George Galloway, a man who offers and deserves no respect, fronted the Islamic Socialist political party “Respect.”
The old expression “dumb as a cow” will now be replaced with “dumb as a Nuland”.
I’m sticking with my prediction that within a tear or so , Egypt will be as bad as Syria. Speaking of Syria, another 5,000 died last week. How do those of you resisting American intervention feel? Blood on your hands still sticky?
I’m also predicting that the world will shift orbit by about 3 meters after 7 Billion people sigh with relief when Mitt is elected. Even the Europeans will not miss that long legged mack daddy.
If the President would just invite Islamic leaders out to play golf then the power of Hope&Change! would fix everything.
Isn’t The Religion of Peace wonderful?
Hopefully this Obama fiasco is over in November. Hopefully Congress will have a Conservative majority. That is the hope and change I look forward to. It all depends if America is regaining her collective sanity. We will know in less than two months and I am counting the days.
USMC Embassy Guard may need CAS upgrade.
John Bolton for Secretary of State!
Best regards,
m
We have the most cowardly administration of moral lepers any nation has ever had to endure.
Lemmings in Lockstep, offering up their kin to the following fox.
I got yer offense right here.
Just as Obama conducts himself in a manner designed to infuriate half the nation, the FBI just installs a national, billion dollar facial recognition system. Have the paranoid-seeming conspiratorialists been right all along about this un-American monster?
Blast from the Past 3.
That was Marx ostensibly quoting Hegel.
“Bacile said the film was produced in English and he doesn’t know who dubbed it in Arabic.”
Doesn’t know who, why, nor conceivably how considering the full film hasn’t been released yet. I’m guessing it was someone who speaks English and Arabic, and has possession of a copy. That rather narrows the list.
This guy should team up with Salman Rushdie to make infomercials: Making Money Now, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Muhammad.
9/11 – Muslims attack U. S. embassy and consulate.
9/11 – 0bama refuses to meet with Netanyahu ’nuff said.
Ripley: “I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
The Islamic world will start respecting America the moment it starts respecting itself. For as long as there are people willing to shame and degrade themselves to any extent; who are willing to grovel and toady without limit; who jump at the chance of pouring scorn on themselves; whose idea of duty is to take the side of anyone who marches against them and who delight in sympathizing with thugs who have burned and killed consular officers then there will be those who’ll see if the monkey will eat another s**t sandwich.
Give him another, see if he eats it. And what do you know, the creature does! How the infidel laps it up. He must be well-educated and doubtless he is — for a monkey.
One can understand how Islamists will fight their side. Right or wrong, it is their side. What is despicable are those who won’t even fight their corner. What on earth are they? How can they look themselves and the family of that dead consular officer in the face?
It is not the inbred, tribalist, mutts of Islam that anger me so much as the semi-educated inbred tribalist of the American leftist “Elite” do.
Harsh words to follow.
I swear, at least half of our leadership, academic, artistic (fancy that), and journalist/propaganda classes are on serious mind-altering drugs…And they seem to believe that a similarly compromised [enabling] critical mass of the population is on ‘em too.
Hopefully they’re wrong, but something insane has found its way into the collective koolaid.
It is being reported that the White House has issued a statement that Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu spoke for an hour this evening and denied that PM Netanyahu had requested a meeting. Mind, this is after they issued an explanation that it was a scheduling problem. This on the same day that two of our embassies were attacked, one American embassy staffer killed in the Libya attack on our embassy. Reuters says there will still be no meeting between Pres. Obama and Netanyahu. I am appalled on multiple levels with the State Dept., with this Administration and this President. We have chasms opening under our feet in every direction and he makes Nero look good!
If Obama is re-elected, we’re totally fucked.
Morton D. @ 9:
Ah, Mort, it is much more than the long-legged mack-daddy. It goes to institutional rot in both parties. DNC & GoP both suffer from the same malady, the belief they are entitled to be our rulers. They have forgotten the roots of their positions – the consent of the governed. Until we withdraw the consent and re-assert our G-d given, inalienable rights nothing will change. The question remains:
Will it be the application of the 3rd box of Liberty or the 4th that restores the Republic?
I am afraid the saying of:
Rope.
Lamppost.
Politician.
Some assembly required.
may be our last and best hope.
Nov. 6 MATTERS more than ever before.
The sure way to extract a robust response to this outrage is to tell the President that the attackers are suspected of being members of the Zionist Tea Party.
“I say we pull out and nuke ‘em from orbit. It’s the only way to make sure.”
- FO Ripley.
Islam delenda est.
Gee, I wonder why HUSSEIN Obama isn’t cracking down on these freaks?
The world wonders.
Knight, Nero set the fire of Rome himself — then blamed the Christians, so he had an excuse to kill them all. Plus ca change. . . .
Wretchard, I agree wholeheartedly. If we had just gone Anglo-Saxon Viking on their ass on Sept. 12th, we would have beaten them into a clamourous whining, and then silence. Of course, they will always be looking for an opening, but they do grudgingly respect strength.
AP thought it was important to note in its news article that Sam Bacile was “speaking from a telephone with a California number.” Was this a subtle effort by AP to jeopardize Bacile’s personal safety?
So what about the rights of the Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, etc in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Iran, etc, etc Where is the State Dept outrage on their abuse, murder and persecution?
Ugh.
I’m not a good writer, but I want to get a few thoughts down because I have no idea how I will feel on the other side of sleep. That urge to wrath that I felt that day eleven years ago smolders in my heart again.
Today’s date was no secret, and it seems that someone had prepared at the embassy (it seems there was nobody there, or just a skeleton crew). Yet, the higher-ups seem to have been caught by surprise.
Does the black flag of al-Qaida still fly over our embassy? The answer should have been couched in terms of scorn and defiance, yet we are tweeted cowardice and equivocation. Okay, okay, we’re dealing with diplomats, but they should have been able to deliver defiance, and they should have been able to deliver it in a timely manner.
Now an embassy burns and smolders and there is the question is which one is next? In which country? After all, if occupying one and burning another gets the response you want….
Ugh.
A picture is worth several million words:
http://www.navytimes.com/mobile/news/2012/09/navy-russian-warships-displayed-dnc-veterans-tribute-091112
It’s looking like your regularly scheduled October Surprise may be right on track.
I hope Buraq had a nice chat with “The Pimp With A Limp” today. What a way to honor the fallen on 9/11.
I echo those who are saving their real disgust for the our Western elites. The scorpion is who he is. We’re apparently determined to be the dipshit frogs giving him a nice ride across the river.
18 @exhelodrvr
I think we’re already in that state, but just don’t know it yet. I suspect that the tendrils which Obama has codified in to our laws (and executive orders and signing memos and executive edicts, etc.) and placed into all levels of the bureaucracy haven’t even begun to bear fruit yet. That’s where the real damage will start to come, because the GOP is too cowardly to do things like old Billy Jeff did and fire all of the US Attorneys. If Romney wins and does something like fire the entire DOJ, I would be utterly shocked (see J. Christian Adams blog posts if you don’t know why this should be done). That kind of cleansing is necessary, but won’t be done.
God have mercy upon all of us if Obama manages to cling to the Presidency for a second term.
Not only did the black flag of al-Qaeda fly over the US diplomatic offices. They flew over them in countries whose rulers would not be there but for the support or inaction of the United States. How grateful are they? That grateful.
Doubtless we will be told that nobody in the Libyan or Egyptian government knew this was going down. The State Department has already said that this only shows how live and vibrant democracy in the Middle East is.
I wish they would avoid adding to injury the insult of assuming that anyone would believe that pile of shit. What do they take us for? Morons? But on second thought they are probably thinking, with some justification, that anyone dumb enough to vote and vote again for the present administration has already proved his imbecility beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt.
They have us now.
fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the consulate as they clashed with Libyans hired to guard the facility.
And when did the USA stop having the US Marines as embassy guards overseas? That’s US territory, and warrants giving as good as it get in defense.
Oh – Obama’s relegated his oursourcing of US security to Libyan natives. Ever so much less offensive to the thugs of Benghazi.
29 @w
As you said in different words, the whole Buraq Regime has been a series of escalating shit sandwiches shoved down our throats. Today was the effing 6-foot Subway Party Platter. And yet, I don’t get the sense that the general populace really has a great feeling of outrage over this latest obscenity.
I’ve seen it opined that the strategy is to flood the zone with so much lawlessness and boundary pushing that 1) there is no way to keep any sustained opposition to more than 1 or 2 of the many, many incursions, 2) any resistance is kept off balance and on defense at all times. If that was your strategy, you wouldn’t see it more well executed than right now. The Overton Window is being shoved at relativistic speeds right now.
So my answer to you, fine sir, is that they are getting double-duty out of this. They enjoy pulling the wool over the ~30% base of true believers and get and even bigger kick out of being so insulting to the other 30% or so of us who know the score.
They have us now.
I wish I had some neat quote from LoTR or something to rebut you, but unfortunately I feel the same way.
25. Tim Wilson – So what about the rights of the Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, etc in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Iran, etc, etc Where is the State Dept outrage on their abuse, murder and persecution?
They know your concerns too well, so don’t be manipulated. The ginned up hate for American leaders is supposed to compensate for the goofballs we support overseas. That’s leading by example.
Note the several posts in the last hour, the regime not only denies all the allegations, but they deny all the alligators.
The American embassy in Cairo says in part “Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. “ That must be why Obama and his administration recently showed complete
respectdisrespect for the beliefs of the Catholic Church.Charles Krauthammer was absolutely correct to call the Cairo embassy statement “a hostage statement”. In a previous thread Wretchard called the strike by the Chicago teachers a harbinger of things to come. This “please master, I am unworthy of your respect, please kick me” posture of the Administration in Cairo is a grim harbinger of worse things to come.
No matter how Obama spins this, fly-over country is gonna puke.
APOLOGIES R US
Obama thinks it’s all our fault
He thinks it’s time for us to halt
The way some speak of Muslims and their kind
He thinks a smile will bring us love
He thinks a shining snow white dove
Will in his hands bring peace and ties that bind
He thinks a bogus Nobel prize
Makes him a man who’s of so wise
And all the rest of us a bunch of boobs
Who question why he does such things
As bow to stinking Arab kings
And smirk and smile while we go down the tubes
The mirror tells him he’s the best
The prettiest of all the rest
Of us who think our embassies are ours
And when our flag is in the dirt
We want to wave the bloody shirt
And get the bombers there in two short hours
We’re tired of these apologies
To guys who use technologies
Invented by their betters to do harm
They have to know that we won’t fail
To teach them when they twist our tail
That each and every bastard’s bought the farm
That the Obama Administration and U.S. State Department initially apologized for an attack like this on 9/11 is just beyond belief. These are the experts on foreign policy?
Zombie has a most excellent commentary about this latest humiliation.
It’s all so counter-intuitive that the average person likely cannot grasp what is happening at this moment: The United States is switching sides.
My only correction is that the switch happened a while ago, poor Zombie just noticed it now.
FWIW, the English version of the film can be viewed here:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/09/11/the-second-911-today-will-go-down-in-infamy-as-the-day-our-government-became-our-enemy/
As the writer of the post notes, the film is almost embarrassingly amateurish: “Imagine taking this as a legitimate and serious threat to your existence.”
Meanwhile, if you can believe it, Teh Won is doing the walkback walkabout: The White House is disavowing a statement from their own Cairo embassy that apologized for anti-Muslim activity in the United States.
“The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” a senior administration official told POLITICO…
“Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. 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,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a Tuesday statement.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/11/senior-administration-official-the-cairo-embassys-tweets-do-not-reflect-the-view-of-the-u-s-government/
What emboldened the President and his handlers in recent weeks was the sheer lack of resistance from the Democratic Party and its allies to his most egregious acts. Not once did they fail to back him, no matter how many shit sandwiches he fed them. The conservatives spat them out — that was no surprise — but the alacrity with which the media, the Democratic Party faithful and the unions ate them in exchange for chump change must have astonished and delighted him to no end.
Until now he did not know whether he had an army behind him. Now he knows. He knows the depth of their quality, or rather the lack thereof. The liberal Jews would still keep voting for him whatever he does to Israel. Their vanity will prove greater than their humanity. The labor unions will lie and hustle for him however improbable his pension promises are; the academe will pimp for him to any extent he asks. The media will lie for him, invent stories, tell fibs, suppress data just so they could perch at the bird feeder. He has looked at the base and seen sheep as far as the eye can see.
There is in the President now a new found sense of exuberance. He can come out of the closet and be more natural. And what a sight he is. What plumage and what display. So now he’ll say, “I’m leading in the polls”. And the MSM will echo “yes you are” like zombies. He’ll say “let’s not insult al-Qaeda” and the intelligensia will say “that would be insensitive”. He’ll sic his harridans on his enemies for the price of a condom and a birth control pill and they’ll jubilantly rush forward. He has discovered how cheaply his minions come and how easily he can order them around.
I am less disappointed in the conservatives — though there’s a lot to be disappointed about — than in the liberals. What cheapass frauds they have turned out to be. What a comedown from their supposed moral high horse. What pompous bluster. I wish I had never seen the day, so sad it is
Of course they’ll deny it, but on this day in their hearts they must know the truth deep within even if they shake their heads. The thing is, I am sorrier for them than they could ever be themselves.
The word for today, September 11, 2012, is brought to you by the United States Department of State, Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama:
APPEASEMENT
“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
They can deny all they wish, but they officially released this pile of fecal matter. The embassies take their lead from Washington DC.
On this, the 11th anniversary of an Islamic terrorist attack that killed thousands of American civilians, the Muslim Brotherhood has invaded and attacked American soil in the form of two American Diplomatic Missions: the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
In Cairo, the mob breached our compound, tore down our flag, ripped it up, burned it, and flew the Muslim Brotherhood flag in its place. In Libya, the compound was attacked with military weapons including at least 1 RPG-7 anti-tank missile. One American is reported dead, several are wounded in Benghazi. The Consulate compound has been burned.
The Americans in the diplomatic missions, including the Marines in the Embassy, were apparently ordered NOT to resist by higher authority. If there were no such orders, there had better be courts martial for the embassy guards. However, having a nephew who has been both a Marine embassy guard and later in command of an embassy guard force; I have every faith that unless ordered to stand down, they would have defended American soil.
International law and diplomatic usage require the host country to defend diplomatic missions outside their grounds. The host government is itself responsible for any attacks on our soil and diplomats. The Embassy in Cairo has not been in the crowded downtown for a long time. It is located SSW of downtown about midway between downtown and Giza, in a defensible area near the Nile River at 5 Tawfik Diab Street, Garden City, Cairo, Egypt. The mob was able to openly assemble and attack the Embassy with no interference by Egyptian civil or military authorities. On June 13, the existing Martial Law decree was extended, and may still be in force; aggravating the offense.
In Libya, the Libyan force assigned to protect the Consulate turned and ran from the mob.
The governments and people of Egypt and Libya are responsible for attacks on sovereign US soil, US diplomatic personnel, and the death and injuries incurred.
The response of the government of the United States has been to formally apologize for any offense that a private American citizen in the United States may have committed; if the reported, unreleased movie he is said to have made is in fact the unspecified insult to Islam they are complaining about. Apparently, anything said by an American, anywhere in the world, that a Muslim objects to is defined by the United States Government as an “Abuse of the right of Free Speech”.
We can expect no more from the regime of Buraq Hussein Obama; which honors the Constitution, the Law, and American interests solely in the breach rather than the observance.
IF we had a President of the United States instead of a President of the Leftist Cronies; I would hope that he would declare the following:
Unless the governments of Egypt and Libya offer formal apologies for the breach of their duty to protect American diplomatic missions, issue guarantees that there will be no repetition of attacks, and said governments will pay cash reparations for damages to our facilities, to the family of the American killed, and the Americans injured;
1.) Any Non-Governmental Organizations operating in Egypt and Libya under US government contract or approval will have such contract or approval cancelled and their personnel will be directed to leave the country. Any who remain will do so at their own risk.
2.) ALL cash, credit, food, military, technical, or other aid from the United States Government to Egypt and Libya are suspended, and all US personnel involved in such aid will be withdrawn forthwith. It is noted that 60% of the caloric intake in Egypt is imported grain. About 75% of Libyan food is imported. Given the collapse of the Egyptian economy over the last few years, it is estimated that their hard currency reserves for the purchase of food will run out before the end of the year. Libya can earn hard currency through oil sales, but there is a worldwide shortage of grain to be exported.
3.) All US nationals in either country will be directed to leave Egypt and Libya immediately, and any who remain will do so at their own risk.
4.) All non-diplomatic Egyptian and Libyan nationals in the US not already present on an immigrant visa as of September 11, 2012 will be expelled.
5.) The US government reserves the right to embargo all private sales of all materials and goods to Egypt and Libya in the event of non-compliance.
It is noted that in this time of a world grain shortage, the effect on American farmers will be miniscule, as there are plenty of customers worldwide and domestically.
Note that there is no violence involved, no military attacks on the countries who have attacked American soil. Those are reserved in case of further attacks on US soil; either after or concurrent with the severing of diplomatic relations.
Now, we do NOT have a President of the United States instead of a President of the Leftist Cronies. So I expect no such declaration, or any action if attacks continue.
However, it is theoretically possible that from January 2013, we may have an American president again. And it would be most interesting to see the reaction if Mitt Romney would announce in the next few days that in the absence of apology, guarantees, and reparations; something along the line of Items 1-5 are on the table from the moment his hand comes off the Bible.
Subotai Bahadur
pac @ 38: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a Tuesday statement
Oh, a Hillary sighting, be still my heart!
wretchard, remember, Romney’s strategy from day one has been rope-a-dope, waiting for Obambus to punch himself out, or hang himself, or whatever. With luck, that’s what we’re seeing here. I don’t like it as a strategy, but mebbe.
–
sb @ 41: Unless the governments of Egypt and Libya…
Too wordy, save your breath. Just pull the trigger. That’s how it’s done.
–
Ever read Niven’s Ringworld, where we meet Speaker to Animals?
“You scream and you leap”.
Yeah OK, that didn’t work all that well for the Kzin … not really parallel cases, but you’ve got to like the clarity.
#42 Josh
We are not allowed to. At least until this regime falls. A declaration by Romney [granting that is not likely] to this effect would rally Americans to his side and against the Enemy. If I had my druthers, we would take out the Aswan High Dam, and take out all the oil terminals on the Libyan coast. And let them stew. I am not a nice person, but I have a sense of what is possible. Talking back to Muslims is right at the edge of possible but not probable. We will not do anything, even after they take our Embassy [It's coming, bet on it.]
Subotai Bahadur
Hmmm…this attack on the consulate in Benghazi is troubling for a couple of reasons. Allow me a few thoughts.
I went to Libya a few months ago and my sense at the time was that there were some Islamic crazies running around but that the moderates and liberals far outnumbered the nut jobs. I’d say the recent election results in the country bear this out.
One thing people may not be aware of, however, is just how many Egyptian nationals live in Libya. Out of a population of around 7 million in Libya, about 1 million are Egyptians. For years the Libyans imported them into the country to work as cooks, laborers, etc. Just about every hotel I went to in Tripoli was staffed by Egyptians. I’d say there’s a better than average chance that the guys who attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi were Egyptians who coordinated the attack with their counterparts in Cairo.
Based on my experiences, most Libyans remain pro-American and extremely wary of Egyptians. The MB guys in Egypt can’t be happy about that. I predict that the MB starts stepping up their efforts to further destabilize Libya. The longer that Libya remains weak and unorganized, the more opportunities the MB and other Islamists have to influence it. From an American standpoint, we should be doing more in Libya, not backing away from it. We have a very narrow opportunity to help build up a moderate, even liberal-leaning government in the Middle East. But the goodwill we’ve built up over there is quickly slipping away.
Wretchard, it is me or are you more pissed today than I have ever seen you?
This day has been in the making for 3 1/2 years. The fools in the Obama Administration and the State Department think some groveling apology for some honest truth telling by American Citizens will put an end to these attacks on American Embassies and Consulates.
Boy, are they wrong.
We all know this is only the beginning. An apology to Islam only eggs them on.
And to inflame the situation as a protest for the outrageous behavior of this Administration , I am in the mood for checking out that movie ASAP and distributing it to as many people as possible.
I pity the Copts in Egypt. By Friday the pederast Imams of Islam will have stoked the verminous Muslims into a frenzy. The wheels won’t stay on the charade much longer. Did I post it here or elsewhere… Remember that just last week Obama did another endrun around congress and ‘forgave’ $1,000,000,000 in Egyptian debt. His people have a funny way of showing the love…
Unsk @45: Why bother asking that question?
Wretchard is often so elegant in his prose that he says what needs to be said artfully, without rancor, and we here all get the message clearly. He then leaves it to the rest of the club to add to his case more brashly from our unique perspectives.
For myself, I simply don’t recall him resorting to expletives or dehumanizing rhetoric ever. What I am happy to see, in particular, was his showing less than satisfaction with those who claim to be conservative. I don’t exactly want to applaud this turn of events, but I think it’s long overdue. Frustrations grow from repeated disappointments. The most decent of men are human too.
As for your “fools in the state department” remark. Fools? Who are the fools here? If Foggy Bottom actually was behaving foolishly during the Carter admin, shouldn’t they have learned this doesn’t work? Who are the fools here? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. This is taking their Arabphilia policy that has been around since FDR a bit too far don’t you think?
I’m watching Victoria Nuland giving a statement on the attacks in Cairo and Benghazi.
“We are working with the Libyans now to secure the compound,” Nuland said. “We condemn in strongest terms this attack on our diplomatic mission.”
*face palm*
She looks and sounds like a preschool teacher explaining to 4 year olds that throwing crayons is NOT OKAY. Wake up Vicky, they just effing killed one of your staff members and this is the best you can come up with?
AMERICAN PATRIOTS’ MOVEMENT OF AMERICA
National Headquarters: Hilo, Hawaii
It should be very clear to any American (but, unfortunately too many are ignorant and blind) that Islam physically declared War on America on 9/11/01.
Today on 9/11/12 we are again attacked this time in Egypt and Libya and what does the U.S. government do? It apologizes!
That is complete insanity.
Presently we don’t have a legal president in office, nor do we have a Christian.
Barack Hussein Obama II is a Kenyan born Muslim.
What we do have in office is a Islam Muslim General who is doing everything possible to destroy America and Israel.
Muslim General Barack Hussein Obama II must be removed from the White House, arrested and charged in Federal Court for being a false president and a foreign born terrorist.
The American people demand justice in defending the United States Constitution.
Pascal, I not sure what burr got up your butt, but my question to Wretchard was genuine and serious.
For Wretchard to be this angry must mean something. Perhaps he sees these incidents as the beginnings of something larger – a tipping point of some sort. The Arab Spring has unleashed forces that have given the Islamists the upper hand across the Sunni world, and the coordinated demonstrations and attacks like this based upon on this flimsy, trumped up excuse indicate we may be in for a very rough ride shortly.
The State Department has represented our enemies interests for as long as I can remember. Yes, shame on the Pubs for not reining them in a long time ago, but if you remember, much to the chagrin of many, the Republican Platform, apparently with Romney’s blessing, just a few weeks ago actually praised the Arab Spring and recent events in the Arab world. I too deplore and despise the gutless RINO’s who seem to undermine at every turn any effort that stands up for America’s interests. But it is what it is.
But the real blame for these attacks must go to Obama. He is ultimately responsible. If there is any silver lining in these attacks, it is that the American Public may finally see what a complete a-hole traitor this leftist in the White House really is.
Lest we forget:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/NewBeginning
(No, life isn’t always fair… On the other hand, isn’t t here some way to blame Bibi for this?—Maybe the real reason for the mobs’, um, exuberance, was because Obama spent a whole hour on the phone with Bibi last night. A whole hour!!)
File under: Just give me one more chance. Please….. Just one more chance….
No burr Unsk. Whereas you unstintingly called what you see as traitorous behavior, why soft-pedal any of it by describing any DOS apparatchiks as fools as you first did? There are far too many Hanlon’s razor peddler’s already whose purpose is to blunt charges of malice and thus letting the malevolent to continue on their merry way.
W’s anger is clear to us regulars. I provided my surmise based on past performances, and from what I personally know of frustration. If he explains it other than as I conjectured, then your question will indeed be relevant.
Since you indicated a desire to see it, here’s the link to the movie trailer that is allegedly the cause of all this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4 It has awful production values and would not garner much attention were it not for the uprisings. Knowing what we do of the duplicitous nature of the Left, would it be a surprise to find out that a major studio encouraged this cartoonish effort knowing how the Mohammed Cartoons were received? I think it simply provided another excuse to attack infidels on September 11 as has been done many times in history, not just in 2001.
Reuters just reported that the US Ambassador to Libya and three other staffers were killed in a rocket attack in Benghazi as well. The notification was up there for a few minutes and then taken off the site. I’m hearing the State Dept won’t comment on the rumors. Not good.
Dunno if it’s true, but if it is, I guarantee this is Egypt’s work.
Unsk and Pascal, yep, it’s a tipping point. As sure as the Nile flows north and is straddled by a really big damn, as sure as Wretchard is not only really angry, but he’s truly most sincerely angry, it’s a tipping point.
Jimmy Carter seems to be a doppelganger for the Bamster–or Baraq is Jimmuh’s doppelganger, whatever.
Jimmuh lost Iran and then our embassy therein; Baraq Hussein al-Honolulu did the same with Egypt. Only of course the current WH occupant’s behavior is more “true to character” from everything we know about him.
This is September, guys. The “October Surprise” is unfolding as it did four years ago, in September 2008. Only this time it is a foreign situation that’s developing–at least at first.
Just how far will all this go?
Of course, I don’t know that Obama or his string pullers planned this–it may be a classic case of “Events, dear boy, events…”. Time will tell. But everything bad in the Mid-East seems coming to a head at once.
PS E2 at 44, thanks for this info; you make perfect sense.
An Préachán
This is quite a spectacle. In this corner we have the credentialed Children of the Enlightenment who on any given Tuesday don’t know asshole from teakettle about right or wrong beyond a sentimentality that one should never hurt an oppressed third worlder’s feelings.
In the other corner we have the Sunni Mohammedans who officially outlawed reason as a human faculty in the 13th Century.
Advantage to the Mohammedans who don’t have to waste time with sentimentality or even thinking through anything because they already have a detailed playbook. Want to know what they’ll do next? Read the book.
About 100,000 Christians are being murdered every year in Islamoworld. How does the Administration deal with that nasty fact? Easy. Excise every reference to religious freedom in the State Department’s country survey. Poof. This Tuesday’s reality remains intact and we can continue to “go forward”.
Let’s roll. The only people who successfully defended America on 9/11/2001 were ordinary citizens led by a gay rugby player. It’s down to us. All of us. The government is as useless as teats on a boar hog.
Well, sir, again, I don’t wish to give offense…
…when I suggest that this country should select…
…a king or even a queen, rather than a president.
One isn’t that quick to shoot a king or a queen.
The majesty of royalty, you see.
Maybe you don’t wish to give offense, sir…
…but you are giving it pretty thick.
This country don’t need no queens whatsoever, I reckon.
Are they talking about this goofy video? It’s not even new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmodVun16Q4
Pascal, I didn’t soft pedal any behavior by the buffoons at State. My point was this time, their behavior will likely come back to bite them. And unfortunately, we have already seen that with the murder of our Libyan Ambassador and three of his staff. But this is just the beginning, unless the Buffoon in the White House body slams muy pronto , ( and I don’t mean issuing another meek condemnation statement) those responsible in both Egypt and Libya which likely includes the government of each of those States. And I for one will settle for no less than 10,000 of them killed for every American murdered by these wackos. We now have a major score to settle.
These guys threw in some Terry Jones Church. It was called the “Dove Outreach Center” and things in Gainesville Florida have not gone well for him. He has sort of disappeared locally. I wonder if Jones is involved at all or if his “name of infamy” simply adds to the rage value.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/52567/Egypt/Egypt-army-intervenes-to-pacify-Salafist-protest-a.aspx
unless the Buffoon in the White House body slams muy pronto
That would prove he’s no Carter, wouldn’t it? Tremendous. The An Préachán’s have it.
The US hostages in Iran were released thirty minutes…. literally, thirty minutes… after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan.
Just sayin’.
Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy
Unless we’re talking about contraceptives and abortifacents.
sb @ 43: If I had my druthers, we would take out the Aswan High Dam, and take out all the oil terminals on the Libyan coast. And let them stew.
The last part yes, I don’t think we need anything so kinetic. Just announce an immediate halt to foreign aid, military aid, and food to Egypt.
Libya is a harder case, as they have no government.
I would start by firing the US ambassadors to both countries, and Hillary.
Subotai 41 please thank your son for me.
I would love to see what you described as much as you do. Excellent and true to form from my countryman!
Best regards,
m
Anonni Moose (7),
Oh, I don’t know–the Russians put on a pretty spectacular show of incompetence exactly one century ago.
A lot has happened in the couple of days since I last posted. My prayers for the families of those killed and injured in these attacks. The ambassador grew up in my neck of the woods in Northern California.
The thoughts and arguments I set forth a few threads back are contingent on an America that is respected, the “stong horse” as Lee Smith and Bing West have written about. Good choices are rewarded and poor choices are justly but ruthlessly punished.
The Muslim Brotherhood is our enemy, as are those who provide any sort of political and financial support or cover. Although Al Qaeda is more violent and Hezbollah more organized, more heavily armed, and highly motivated and trained by local standards, the threat presented by MB poses could be more existential in nature. Their long track record of building influence, corrupting political processes, and judiciously using violence to further their ends should be becoming evident now. Subotai has presented this case very throughly. However, we have to recognize that the web of patronage and support may lie even deeper.
For what its worth, my recommended course of action:
1.) Bypass Morsi and have a late-night face-to-face meeting with whoever is pulling his puppet strings, whether in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Give them a 48-hour unlimatum to solve the problem and either turn those responsible over to US authorities or impose a permanent solution according to long local tradition.
2.) Just to let them know we are serious, locate the area where the protesters staged before marching on the embassy. Cordon off a one-block radius with Marines and go through it, house by house. Collect biometrics on everyone. Let those with no evidence of hostile purpose go with some of their personal belongings and see to it that they are escorted to a comfortable holding area a safe distance away. Place those who are under suspicion into custody for further questioning. Those who resist–place two in the chest, one in the head and repeat as needed. Once the area is cleared, level it with bulldozers or MK 84s. Send the Marines back in time for chow and Sports Center.
3.) While waiting for the expected non-answer in 48 hours, identify individuals with a long record bankrolling MB or other terrorist activities. Pick 20 who are well-connected but otherwise anonymous to the general public.
4.) In the event that the 48 hours has passed with no satisfactory outcome, issue orders to terminate the 20 people on the target list within a 24-hour timeframe, less if possible to maximize shock value.
5.) Slide copies of the “Kick Me” sign that had been on America’s back under the doors of Saudi and Iranian embassies across the world. Be sure to inlude boxes of chocolate and a “kiss” mark on the note.
6.) Repeat and scale up as needed.
To borrow a phrase from the Marines: “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.”
Highlander out.
If one were to wish to drive the Egyptian government absolutely to a frothing state of terror without giving any openings for the conventional counter-attacks, it really is quite simple. Hillary Clinton should go, with a fairly big check, to the Ethiopians and fund their Nile mega-dam project. Then a speech should be made extolling the opportunity for further Nile water projects in Ethiopia and other upstream states. Every Congressman and Senator west of the Mississippi would have understood the declaration of water war and backed it, regardless of party.
We could have done that today, if we actually had a crew at State capable of smart diplomacy. Instead we have a crew that labels their diplomatic droppings “smart diplomacy” no matter how daft they are.
The only regret is that it would also likely earn President Obama a considerable number of votes. Well, country before party I say.
Just to add something to the AP report linked at the beginning
which mentioned:
there is this ABC link to a
News
article:
Was it fear of being recognized or just to inflame things a bit more in the Muslim world by bringing in Jew and Israeli?
TMLutas @68
Spot on! That’s a great idea.
4. stoicheion
“Speaking of Syria, another 5,000 died last week. How do those of you resisting American intervention feel? Blood on your hands still sticky?”
However much I detest BHO, I agree with him on Syria. That is “When your enemies are busy killing each other, don’t just do something, stand there!
Just like the deadly malicious acts of Federal-associated Prosecutors and Judges in the politically-trumped up case against a man who defended his own life — George Zimmerman, the murderous vile Obama Regime marks another man for execution by inflaming a mob against him.
Under the Obama-supported post-Mubarak “Democracy Movement” regime in Egypt, fundamental sharia was being implemented, and Coptics were being — let’s be honest here — exterminated. Literally. Coptic Christians in Egypt are being murdered. Without the protection of Mubarak’s police and military, the fundamentalist Mohammedeans act out in violence, intimidation, riot, arson and murder against the Copts.
The filmmaker made a film that from HIS OWN COPTIC PERSPECTIVE AS A CONTINUAL VICTIM OF FUNDAMENTAL MUSLIM HATRED AND VIOLENCE, was very understandable, and in many facets, the truth. Yes, it does vilely mock Mohammed, and that is problematic. But FAR MORE “PROBLEMATIC”, FAR MORE DESERVING OF SCORN is what the Muslims in Egypt are doing to, or allowing to be done, to the Copts.
That set of actions and lack of needed counter-action of Muslims in Egypt has a name. That name?
GENOCIDE.
Allowing a man like Obama, a woman like Hillary, the vile Democrats (most of them) now in positions of power in that party, to run foreign policy is itself being a accomplice to genocide.
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/09/13/us-identifies-anti-muslim-filmmaker/