Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attack on U.S. Consulate in Libya

Yeah, because, you know, the protests are all about this stupid viral video on YouTube.

At the Times of Israel, "Al-Qaeda indicates responsibility for killing US envoy in Libya, urges more attacks."

Al-Qaeda indicated responsibility on Saturday for Tuesday’s attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, in which US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

The terror group said the assault was executed in revenge for a US drone strike in June that killed the organization’s number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi. Libi was a Libyan national who served as lieutenant to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaeda.

“The killing of Sheikh Abu Yahya only increased the enthusiasm and determination of the sons of (Libyan independence hero) Omar al-Mukhtar to take revenge upon those who attack our Prophet,” Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said.

In a statement, the terror group urged more such attacks. ”Whoever comes across America’s ambassadors or emissaries should follow the example of Omar al-Mukhtar’s descendants, who killed the American ambassador,”it said. ”Let the step of kicking out the embassies be a step towards liberating Muslim countries from the American hegemony.”

Eastern Libya’s deputy interior minister, Wanis el-Sharef, said Friday that four people had been arrested in connection with the attack. Other reports Saturday said the Libyan authorities have identified 50 people involved in the attack.

In an audio recording released to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary, Zawahiri asserted an Islamic duty to “liberate” every inch of Muslim lands, and called upon Muslims to “purify” their countries of corrupt leaders during what he termed a period of “American weakness.” Muslims should “topple the western proxies” left in their countries “and especially the Saud clan and the gulf sheiks in the Arabian peninsula,” he declared.

More at the link.

And at ABC News, "Al Qaeda Praises Libya Consulate Attack as Anti-American Protests Subside."

Afghans Burn Obama in Effigy (VIDEO)

Because, the protests are all about the film, and not at all about Obama's foreign policy or the American people themselves.

At Agence France Press, "Afghans burn Obama effigy at film demo," and Vlad Tepes, "Protests in Afghanistan burn Obama in effigy."

Pamela Geller: President Obama Sanctions Anti-American Protests Across Mideast

She goes there.

At Atlas Shrugs, "Video: Pamela Geller on Fox and Friends, Islamic Supremacists in an Uproar."

Charlie Cook: Obama Could Win It

I trust very few elections forecasters, with Charlie Cook being one big exception.

At National Journal, "Obama’s a Good Bet":

By this time next week, there should be enough national and state-level polling data to present a pretty clear picture of where this election stands, post-Labor Day and after whatever bounces the candidates may have gotten from the conventions. But we have seen enough data in recent weeks to draw some preliminary conclusions about the contests for the White House, the Senate, and, to a lesser extent, the House.

The presidential race is still close and, in a tight election, either candidate can win. Any number of events, not the least of which are debates, campaign gaffes, and domestic or international developments, could put President Obama or Mitt Romney over the top. Although it is pretty clear that Obama has an edge over Romney in national and swing-state polling, the size of his advantage remains in doubt. Every event or development should be judged on whether it might change the path of this election.

My view is that if Obama is reelected, it will be despite the economy and because of his campaign; if Mitt Romney wins, it will be because of the economy and despite his campaign. This economy is an enormous millstone around Obama’s neck, yet he and his campaign have managed to secure the upper hand—albeit with a very tenuous grip. At the same time, despite an enormous advantage that the sluggish economy and the sentiment for change affords him, Romney and his campaign, to an astonishing degree, seem to have squandered too many opportunities and undermined his chances of winning.

It should be emphasized again and again that this campaign isn’t over and that the race is still awfully close. But without a change in the trajectory, it’s a good bet that Obama will come out on top. The questions are whether the opportunity will arise for that trajectory to change and whether the Romney campaign be able to effectively capitalize on it.

EXTRA: At the New York Times, "Poll Finds Obama Is Erasing Romney’s Edge on Economy."

(The economy is by far the leading issue for voters, but foreign policy is going to become a tough topic for Obama in the weeks ahead, so again, my sense is it's still way to close to call.)

PHOTO CREDIT: The White House Flickr Page.

President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton Speak at Dover Airbase for U.S. Diplomats Killed in Libya

I watched it live, and commented on it as well, so I might as well post it.

PREVIOUSLY: "White House Denies Islamic Protests Are Reaction to Obama's Foreign Policy."

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Calls On Muslims Worldwide to Unite Against United States and 'The Evil Zionists' Behind Controversial Muhammed Video

Hey, the Obama administration's appeasement policies are bearing fruit. Our mortal enemies are rallying the entire Middle East around a solid programmatic agenda: to unite against "Zionism and the U.S. government," and to make those behind the anti-Islam film "face a punishment proportionate to this great crime," which would of course be death to the infidels. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports, "Iran’s supreme leader blames ‘evil Zionists’ for anti-Islam film."

And see this outstanding piece at the Wall Street Journal, "Amid Chaos, Extremists Spur Violence: Inflamed by Anti-Islam Video, Marchers Target U.S. and Other Western Allies; Iran Calls for a 'United Response'":

BEIRUT—Many of the protests that spread across the Muslim world on Friday, with violent mobs targeting diplomatic compounds of the U.S. and its allies started out as relatively small and restrained but rapidly grew out of control when groups of extremists riled up the crowd.

Similar scenes were repeated in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, as crowds of men and women carried placards denouncing the video trailer for a purported film called "Innocence of Muslims," and directed their anger toward the U.S. and Israel. American flags were burned in Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Bangladesh during protests.

The sudden eruption of anger against the U.S. and its allies isn't new in the Islamic world. But the violence targeted at Americans in the fledging democracies of the Arab Spring presents a precarious challenge for its newly elected leaders. They must balance defending the U.S., an important ally that helped them come to power, against appeasing the raw sentiments of a minority of Islamist radicals with the power to destabilize the region.

In Benghazi, Libya—where a violent attack Tuesday on the U.S. Consulate resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans—several conservative imams preached a message of tolerance and nonviolence across their mosques during the Friday noon prayer.

Approximately 100 men stood in front of the city's largest hotel shouting slogans against the U.S. and the anti-Islamic video. Unlike Tuesday night, Friday's protest was muted, with no one brandishing guns. Many in the crowd carried the flag used by militant Islamists,

Mohammed al-Mifty, 25 years old, carried a hand-drawn sign saying, "They degrade our prophet and no one cares, but an American dies and the world turns upside down." His motivation for taking to the streets Friday was to defend Islam, he said. That is the reason why he also participated in the protest on Tuesday evening in front of the U.S. consulate.

The violence also reached Tunisia, one of the most moderate Muslim countries and the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Three people died during clashes as protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy compound, climbing over walls and breaking a locked gate. They set fire to cars parked in the embassy parking lot, and the American school sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air.

Demonstrators brought down the American flag and raised the black flag common to militant Islamist movements. Three people were killed and 28 injured, according to Tunisia's state-controlled news agency.

A Tunisian official said U.S. embassy security personnel gave Tunisian security forces permission to enter the embassy grounds and push out protesters with tear gas and bird shot after they forced their way into the compound. Armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails, protesters clashed with police into the night in the streets around the sprawling U.S. Embassy compound.

They later set the administration building of the nearby American school on fire. Around nightfall, a small group of protesters breached the walls of the U.S. compound and set a small fire inside the embassy building. according to witnesses.

A local Tunisian staff member at the U.S. Embassy said American staffers had been told to stay home in anticipation of the protests. The American School had similarly told students to stay home on Friday.

Continue reading.

UPDATE: Linked by Barbara at American Freedom. Thanks!

Muslim Protests in 20 Countries Focus on U.S. Embassies

An informative clip, from the PBS News Hour:

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Mideast violence offers reminder of 'Arab Spring' dangers":

WASHINGTON — The cascade of anti-American protests in the Middle East this week is a jolting reminder to the White House of a dangerous dimension of the "Arab Spring" revolutions: Freedom for long-suppressed Islamist groups that weak elected governments can't manage and that America can't control.

Although President Obama welcomed the uprisings that toppled authoritarian leaders like dominoes last year, attacks on U.S. missions and other protests across the Middle East and North Africa have created a deepening crisis in Washington as White House aides struggle to protect U.S. diplomats abroad, ease regional tensions and recalibrate American interests.

Violence flared again Thursday when hundreds of protesters attacked the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, Egyptian crowds scuffled with police firing tear gas, and demonstrations erupted in Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia. In Libya, police reportedly made several arrests for the assault that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans late Tuesday.

The challenge of the abrupt upheaval was clear from comments in which Obama appeared to reclassify America's view of Egypt, which is the second-largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid and has long been seen in Washington as a linchpin of peace in the Middle East.

"I don't think that we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy," Obama told the Spanish-language network Telemundo on Wednesday. He called the relationship with Cairo "still a work in progress."

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney downplayed those remarks. He said Obama was speaking in "diplomatic and legal terms" and that U.S. policy toward the Arab world's most populous nation had not changed.

"'Ally' is a legal term of art," Carney said during a campaign stop in Golden, Colo. "We do not have a mutual defense treaty with Egypt, like we do, for example, with our NATO allies. But as the president has said, Egypt is a long-standing and close partner of the United States, and we have built on that foundation in supporting Egypt's transition to democracy and working with the new government."

Jay Carney. Oh man.

The dude's the biggest f-king joke. A perpetual disaster machine. The most epic clusterf-k personified.

See: "White House Denies Islamic Protests Are Reaction to Obama's Foreign Policy."

Nicole Neal Rule 5

The lady's on Twitter.

Via Make Her Famous.

In Boost for Merkel, German Court Backs Euro Rescue Fund

This is interesting.

At the New York Times, "In Victory for Merkel, German Court Ruling Favors European Bailout Fund":

KARLSRUHE, Germany — The Federal Constitutional Court in Germany gave Chancellor Angela Merkel a significant victory on Wednesday in her bid to master the debt crisis that has buffeted the Continent for years and endangered its common currency, granting approval to one of the main pillars of her strategy.

With the ruling, the 17 European Union countries that use the euro will be able to move ahead with the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, something like a Continental version of the International Monetary Fund. The mechanism will handle bailouts and work in tandem with the European Central Bank to buy the bonds of countries like Italy and Spain that are straining under high interest rates.

The court ruled that Germany could proceed with its contribution to the mechanism, but it set certain conditions, including a requirement for parliamentary approval of any increase in the agreed-upon German contribution of 190 billion euros, or about $240 billion.

The fund, with $644 billion, is intended to buoy struggling countries and help protect the common currency, an impossible mission without Germany, which has the European Union’s largest economy. Although the ruling is unlikely to still Europe’s economic crisis entirely, a rejection could have unleashed new waves of instability and thrown the fitful march toward European integration into question.

“Once again, Germany today sends a strong signal out to Europe and the world beyond,” Ms. Merkel told Parliament. “Germany is decisively true to its responsibility in Europe as the largest economy and a reliable partner.”

For Ms. Merkel, rejection by the court would have been a severe political blow. Her coalition has been weak and fragmented at home. Her leadership in Europe has helped her clamber above the domestic political fray, even if many are leery of the growing financial commitments.

The court ruling cheered investors, with the Stoxx 50 index of euro zone stocks rising 1.1 percent in morning trading to its highest point since March. The euro rose to nearly $1.29, its highest since May. On Wall Street, the major market indexes were up at the close of the trading day.

More at the link.

Must See: Kirsten Powers Slams Obama-Media Coverage of Ambassador's Death in Libya

Via Lonely Con:

BONUS: At iOWNTHEWORLD: "Kirsten Powers Gets It – How Friggin Loony Does This Make The Rest of the Left?"

Bodacious Brunette Goodness

At Egotastic, "Lucy Pinder and Holly Peers and Friends Topless for Bodacious Brunette Goodness."

'For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated...'

The last time an ambassador was killed was in 1979, when Ambassador Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan.

The quote at the headline is from Richard Williamson, an advisor to Mitt Romney's campaign. See Philip Rucker, at the Washington Post, "Romney team sharpens attack on Obama’s foreign policy," via Hugh Hewitt on Twitter:

WaPo's @philiprucker breaks MSM omertà,reports on POTUS Egypt pratfall and Team Romney's critique without slanting washingtonpost.com/politics/decis…
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) September 14, 2012

Advisers to Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his sharp criticism of President Obama and said that the deadly protests sweeping the Middle East would not have happened if the Republican nominee were president.

“There’s a pretty compelling story that if you had a President Romney, you’d be in a different situation,” Richard Williamson, a top Romney foreign policy adviser, said in an interview. “For the first time since Jimmy Carter, we’ve had an American ambassador assassinated.”

Williamson added, “In Egypt and Libya and Yemen, again demonstrations — the respect for America has gone down, there’s not a sense of American resolve and we can’t even protect sovereign American property.”

The aggressive approach by Romney’s campaign thrust the issue of foreign policy to the forefront of the presidential campaign a day after the Republican candidate was widely criticized for blasting Obama while U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya were under attack.

Criticism from Republicans over their nominee’s handling of the situation overseas quieted Thursday, with influential voices in the party’s foreign policy establishment rallying to Romney’s defense. And it was Obama who faced criticism for saying that he did not consider Egypt an ally — a comment that his administration struggled to explain.

“The president can’t even keep track of who’s our ally or not. This is amateur hour — it’s amateur hour,” said Williamson, a former assistant secretary of state and ambassador. He was among those who counseled Romney to respond aggressively on Tuesday night and was offered by the campaign to speak about the candidate’s foreign policy.

Williamson was referring to Obama’s interview Wednesday night with Telemundo in which the president said that the U.S. relationship with Egypt was a “work in progress.”

“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama told Telemundo. “They’re a new government that is trying to find its way.”

Administration officials tried throughout the day to parse Obama’s statement on Egypt without appearing to contradict him.

More at the link.

Charles Krauthammer: 'America in Retreat' in Middle East

Krauthammer offers a devastating critique.

From this afternoon's Fox News panel with Bret Baier, via National Review, "Krauthammer’s Take: America ‘In Retreat’ and Now ‘Irrelevant’ in Middle East."

U.S. Marines' Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) Deployed to Sudan

We'll, who else you gonna call?

This is the third FAST company the U.S. has deployed since the uprisings broke out on Tuesday.

At Fox News, "Marines en route to Sudan to secure US Embassy":

A Marine fast team is en route to Khartoum, Sundan, to help secure the U.S. Embassy, Fox News confirms.

The move follows news that Marines arrived on the ground in Yemen to deal with the aftermath of another attack on the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Sanaa. They arrived in addition to an earlier contingent dispatched to Tripoli.

Pentagon spokesman George Little told Fox News the team is in Yemen as a "precautionary measure."

The move comes amid reports that protesters jumped over U.S. Embassy walls in both Sudan and Tunisia. At least 3 people have been reported dead and another 28 have been wounded during the Tunisia attack, Reuters reports, citing state television. Reuters also reported that protesters set fire to trees and broke windows inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Tunis.

PREVIOUSLY: "Protesters Storm Gemany Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan."

White House Denies Islamic Protests Are Reaction to Obama's Foreign Policy

Fox News broadcast the entire return ceremony earlier at the Dover Airbase. I felt deep sadness. But I was also shocked at Hillary Clinton's comments. She said that the protests were exclusively a response to the inflammatory "Innocence of Muslims" film, and were thus not directed against U.S. policy at all, or against the American people. All those burned American flags say otherwise, not to mention all the rage we're now seeing from Cairo to Khartoum. The video has snippets from the speeches today, but see the full transcript of Secretary Clinton's comments, "Remarks at the Transfer of Remains Ceremony to Honor Those Lost in Attacks in Benghazi, Libya":

This has been a difficult week for the State Department and for our country. We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the lives of those brave men. We’ve seen rage and violence directed at American embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with. It is hard for the American people to make sense of that because it is senseless, and it is totally unacceptable.

The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob. Reasonable people and responsible leaders in these countries need to do everything they can to restore security and hold accountable those behind these violent acts. And we will, under the President’s leadership, keep taking steps to protect our personnel around the world.

There will be more difficult days ahead, but it is important that we don’t lose sight of the fundamental fact that America must keep leading the world. We owe it to those four men to continue the long, hard work of diplomacy. I am enormously proud of the men and women of the State Department. I’m proud of all those across our government, civilian and military alike, who represent America abroad. They help make the United States the greatest force for peace, progress, and human dignity the world has ever known. If the last few days teach us anything, let it be this: That this work and the men and women who risk their lives to do it are at the heart of what makes America great and good.

The key part is highlighted. The protests are allegedly a response to a video that "we had nothing to do with," which is a way to absolve the administration of any pent up anger at its policies, or any generalized anti-Americanism that Obama's policies have failed to assuage, despite the president's shameful Islamic appeasement, beginning with the stupid Cairo apology speech in 2009.

But even worse is White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who claims that the protests were exclusively a "reaction to a video" and "not a reaction to 9/11 or US policy." See PJ Media, "Shocking Video: WH Spox Jay Carney Says Attacks are Reaction to Film, Not US Policy, and Were Not Pre-Planned." And also the Washington Times, "White House calls report ‘absolutely false,’ was not warned about Cairo attack: Says Middle East protests are against film, not Obama’s policies."

And Alana Goodman nails it, at Commentary, "Carney: Anti-Islam Video Completely to Blame for ‘Unrest’":

Even if the video fueled the protests, how did a low-budget Youtube film that nobody had heard of before last week get dubbed into Arabic and distributed around Muslim countries? The answer is fanatical Islamist leaders who used the film to incite outrage on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

And if you believe the video was the sole drive behind the protests, then why were U.S. flags replaced with the flags of al-Qaeda? Why were terrorists groups reportedly involved in organizing the protests weeks in advance — before the film even came to light?

The Obama administration does not want to talk about terrorism, because it wants to pretend it defeated terrorism by killing Osama bin Laden. They don’t want to mention al-Qaeda, unless of course it’s in the context of a drone our military dropped on one of its leaders. But as the embassy attacks illustrate, the Islamic terror threat has not disappeared. It hasn’t been vanquished by the lofty speeches of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning president, or eradicated by his policy of covert assassinations. The fact that the White House hasn’t seemed to grasp this is what made today’s briefing so tone-deaf, and so startling.

RELATED: At the New York Times reports, "Somber Ceremony as Bodies of Slain Americans Return."

Protesters Storm Gemany Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan

The New York Daily News reports, "Sudan protesters storm German embassy, raise Islamic flag."

Don't Blame 'Innocence of Muslims' — Worldwide Islamic Protests Burn From Anti-Americanism and Global Jihad

As Caroline Glick reported yesterday, the initial attacks on the U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya "weren't about a movie." The film was pushed as a cover for Islamist protests to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Below is the screencap from earlier today, at National Journal, "A Map of Muslim Protests Around the World." And there's commentary at Memeorandum.

The mainstream press continues the fiction that the "Innocence of Muslims" film sparked for protests, at the New York Times, for example, "Anti-American Protests Over Film Expand to More Than a Dozen Countries." But see Barry Rubin's analysis from Wednesday, "Egypt Kicks Sand in Obama’s Face; Obama Gives Money, Arms, and Apologies":

Egypt tells us everything we need to know about the horror of Obama’s Middle East policy. The latest development is that a group of several Salafist and jihadist groups — including the local affiliate of al-Qaeda — announced a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy. This was explained as a protest against some obscure film made in America by a mysterious man who is a crackpot or provocateur and who has told so many lies one starts to wonder whether this was all a set-up (by Islamists? Arab Christians?) to provoke riots and antisemitism.

But note well that everyone — except the Western media — understands that holding such a demonstration at the U.S. embassy in Cairo on September 11 means supporting the September 11 attack. The Egyptian government knew the time of the demonstration and the participants — it was all publicly announced — yet Egyptian security forces did not protect the embassy. And so the demonstrators scaled the wall, entered the compound, tore up the American flag, and put up the historic revolutionary flag of Islam (the eighth century black one, not the seventh century green one) in its stead. Why didn’t Egyptian security forces stop them? It was a deliberate decision no doubt taken at the highest level.

Rather than expose the phony excuse for the demonstration and condemn the Egyptian government’s behavior, the U.S. government groveled. It issued statements in English apologizing for the fact that someone had exercised his right of free speech within its country. The tweets it sent out in Arabic were even worse, pitiful pleas of the we-are-on-your-side-against-this-terrible-Islamophobia variety. And will Egypt’s failure to protect the embassy — because it is on the side of America’s enemies — have any effect on the Obama administration’s helping the Egyptian government get two German submarines (against Israel’s efforts), taking $1 billion off Egypt’s debt, and having a nice meeting with the visiting Egyptian president (while refusing to meet Israel’s prime minister, this supposedly super-pro-Israel president)? You know the answer.

This is a policy of institutionalized cowardice unprecedented in U.S. history...

Continue reading.

Expect updates...

Arab World Descends Into Further Chaos

Via Theo Spark:

'Innocence of Muslims' on Vimeo

YouTube pulled the so-called inflammatory anti-Muslim film from Egypt and Libya, and the White House is looking to have Google ban the film from YouTube altogether. See Michelle Malkin, "White House speech censors and the return of DhimmiTube." Added: From Alana Goodman, at Commentary, "WH Asks YouTube to Pull Anti-Islam Video."

But here's a copy at Vimeo for posterity:

And check the Los Angeles Times, "Charity, Ex-Con Linked to Islam Film."

Kate Middleton Topless!

At London's Daily Mail, "Photographs of Kate Middleton topless is a blatant invasion of privacy. But the French will see it differently..."

And at Independent UK, "Royals launch legal action after topless Kate Middleton photographs in French Closer magazine."

And Egotastic's server is getting slammed, but the photos loaded after a couple of tries: "Kate Middleton Topless in Closer Magazine! Somebody Snapped My Future Baby Mama Topless!"

And don't forget, Robert Stacy McCain's the inspiration for these gratuitous traffic slumming entries, "Ye Merry Olde Upskirt Traffic."

Added: At Scallywag and Vagabond, "NSFW: Kate Middleton naked nude pictures published. What now?"

More: At Evil Blogger Lady, "Kate Middleton topless photos? French magazine Closer publishes them. Rule 5 Britannia! Update: Reports of outraged Brits storming French embassy in protest!"

Still More: Robert Stacy McCain hops on board, "The Royal Pair: Why Are You Googling for ‘Kate Middleton Topless,’ You Sick Freaks?"