US ambassador and 3 others killed at embassy in Libya by Islamists

OCD_OCD: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/news-agencies-us-ambassador-to-libya-killed-in-attack-outside-consulate/2012/09/12/665de5fc-fcc4-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_story.html

This is not good at all.

OCD_OCD: U.S. Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed Tuesday in an assault on the American consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, the White House said.

In a statement issued by the White House early Wednesday morning, President Obama said he had directed an increase in security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the world. CNN reported that the Defense Department has dispatched two Marine Corps anti-terrorism security teams to Libya to reinforce security there.

Egyptian protesters climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday, made their way into the courtyard and brought down the flag.

Stevens, 52, and the others were fleeing the consulate when a rocket-propelled grenade struck their vehicle, news reports from Benghazi said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton identified one of the dead as Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer. The names of the other two people killed were being withheld pending notification of their families.

“We condemn this vicious and violent attack that took their lives, which they had committed to helping the Libyan people reach for a better future,” Clinton said in a statement.

Stevens, a longtime Middle East hand in the State Department, was named ambassador to Libya in May. He had worked in Libya for a number of years, both before and after the fall of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.

Obama called Stevens a “courageous and exemplary representative” of the U.S. government, who “selflessly served our country and the Libyan people.”

“His legacy will endure wherever human beings reach for liberty and justice,” Obama said.

Clinton said she had called Libyan President Mohamed Yusuf al-Magariaf “to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya.”

The attack in Benghazi followed protests in neighboring Egypt, where a group of protesters scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday evening and entered its outer grounds, pulled down an American flag, then tried to burn it outside the embassy walls, according to witnesses. On Wednesday morning, a sit-in of several dozen protesters continued outside the Cairo embassy.

The attacks — apparently prompted by outrage over an amateur, anti-Muslim film made in the United States — are likely to prompt a deep rethinking of U.S. policy toward both Libya and Egypt, where the United States supported Arab Spring revolutions and was instrumental in providing financial and diplomatic support for their newly-democratic governments.

lavendar_star: I mentioned this in the other thread and its disgusting, first some people need to be more secure in their religion, secondly the guys who made this film are not even American why should America and Americans be responsible and be attacked this way, disgraceful. Obviously those that made it had their own political agenda and issues with Islam but still they have a right to be critical and be mocking of Islam and of the Prophet Mohammed, its called freedom of expression in a Western country. There has been plenty of films, books and documentaries since the last century that has been critical, mocking and shown negative stuff about Christianity, I remember when they jerry Springer Jesus show which was highly offensive to some Christians they protests here in the UK but peacefully. Sadly this behaviour by some, a minority whatever of Muslims feeds into whatever video said about Islam being a violent religion and people who hold prejudices about Islam.

In the West we have a tradition of being critical and examining the historical truth of religion, I don't think God spoke to Mohammed or the Koran is true just the same as I don't think Jesus is the son of God and that the Bible is true, I have right to say so without the risk of violence. I feel so sorry for the Ambassadors' family, the guy seems quite committed in helping at helping out Libya and he and the other Americans who died and who had nothing to do with the video, deaths should not of happened.

On CNN they said Al Qaeda were maybe behind this and using the video as red rag as a revenge attack against any American for killing their no 2 guy who was killed by American air-strikes and there is hostility by some Libyans who felt that US and Europe have left them to themselves( you cant win there , if they were involved too much be accused of being imperialists). But regardless of the truth peaceful protest is their right but to go all thuggish and murderous protest is plain stupid, disgusting and backward, we live in the 21 century not the 14 century and people have a right to be critical and examine the roots and historical accuracy of Islam and the Prophet Mohammed just like people have with Christianity and Jesus. The thing is the BBC had a documentary of Mohammed and they didnt show his face but there are murals and painting from the middle east showing Mohammed's face( I know I seen it online) that's a newish thing, its bloody silly. Maybe it was the better the devil we know with the previous leaders of Egypt and Libya, I mean gosh, its a no win no win situation.

OCD_OCD: Exactly, Lavendar. This will get very ugly.

lavendar_star: Its already ugly.

OCD_OCD: The thought of a religious war sickens me. We should have evolved past this point, but it seems that some religions and people haven't.

Fruitbat1919: I've always been anti organised religions. I do think faith is ok for an individual though.

OCD_OCD: I think that's the difference between being religious and spiritual, Bat. Religious people always have a religion, while spiritual people do not.

OCD_OCD: OMFG. They took photos.

OCD_OCD: Barbarians. Oh, hell. Sick bastards.

lavendar_star: That's truly disgusting and these protesters claiming they are doing it in the name of God if God is suppose to be good then what is the opposite evil. That is beyond comprehension and shows a complete lack of humanity.

micro88: How I abhor fanaticism that leads to violence! But then...I`m lucky enough to live in a country that reveres religious freedom (so far). If I was raised elsewhere where religion dictated my every move & thought, I would probably never have developed any insight or logic.

"Kill a U.S. ambassador & fear no reprisals" is the message the world will be seeing

micro88: This 'Sam Bacile'....stirring up trouble on purpose, has a death wish, or just really stupid? If he ends up dead it will be his own fault. No one can control rabid fanatics who are out to kill 'infidels'.
Thanks Sam, you jerk, there`s no closing this can of dangerous worms.

OCD_OCD: We may not like it, but we do have freedom of speech, no matter how ugly. What the guy did was ill advised, but within his rights here in the US.

micro88: No argument there. Well within his rights. I just wonder about his motives here, I suspect bad ones.

OCD_OCD: I haven't seen the video, so I have no idea. I do know that there's plenty of anti-christian, anti-semitic and anti-Western crap in the middle east, so for them it only works one way.

Fruitbat1919: All the makers of Southpark better watch out then!

micro88: For them Islamists, it does only work one way, their way. That`s all they know & they`re always willing to do what decent people would never do. That`s the scary thing. ugh

lavendar_star: Well they did get death threats didnt they the makers of south park, I dont agree with the makers of the video but that have a right to make the video, Islam cant be given special treatment and be immune to criticism or even mocking or satire we have been doing it to Christianity for a century now. The video apparently says Mohammed is a liar, has sex(he had 7 wives he had sex lol ) and says that he is violent and history has shown he lead battles against pagan tribes. I dont think this should reflect on all Muslims etc but there is no excuse for these violent protesters behaviour.

OCD_OCD: I believe that a person's religion, or lack thereof, is never an excuse for murder.

micro88: Righto! There is no excuse for murder. I wish everyone thought that way!!! But they don`t & that`s a problem I wish could be fixed.

lavendar_star: I dont think it can be fixed and it would take a generation but ignorance is taught and inherited.

OCD_OCD: If you think about where the fundamentalist Islamists come from, it is primarily tribal regions and regions where the population is kept in fear and ignorance.

lavendar_star: Yes very true OCD and those relgious leaders and other prey on that but still you cant be secure in enough in your religion where you want a world where nobody cant say anything about the Prophet Mohammed, you already had that dutch film maker who was killed because he made a film about Islam and another European who was killed for a cartoon he made. Your God want that from you, its warped and messed up logic.

OCD_OCD: Libya's Ambassador to Washington Ali Aujali said Wednesday that associates of disposed tyrant Muammar al-Qaddafi were behind the Tuesday attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four American officials, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

"We know that Qaddafi's associates are in Libya. Of course, they took this chance to infiltrate among the people," Aujali said in today in an interview. His claim contradicts most reports, which place the blame on radical Islamist groups that claimed to be reacting to an obscure American film they viewed as insulting to Islam.

Aujali said that the Libyan government has intelligence that unspecified Qaddafi forces were involved.

"I think it is not clear who [the attackers] are exactly but I am sure they were infiltrated by these people. They still have money. They still have support in countries like Tunisia and Mauritania and other countries who work together with them and finance these kinds of terrorists attacks."

His claim was viewed with skepticism in Washington, where analysts said Aujali's statements fit a pattern of the Libyan government refusing to confront the hundreds of militias that remain powerful, heavily armed, and beyond the reach of the law.

"The Libyan government has been blaming amorphous pro-Qaddafi elements for everything that goes wrong in their country," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch. "It's a way of denying the hard truth that the biggest threat they face to their hopes for democracy and the rule of law comes from among their own fellow former revolutionaries."

The Libyan government has failed to respond to a series of provocations by these groups, Malinowski said.

"The responsibility for this crime falls squarely on the people who perpetrated it and on the Libyan authorities, who have failed thus far to rein in armed elements that defy the law in Libya with impunity, whether by destroying Sufi shrines, attacking aid groups, or now murdering a U.S. ambassador," he said. "The majority of Libyans are not responsible for this, but they are responsible for stopping it by confronting these armed groups once and for all."

Aujali also said that the Libya government didn't have any direct advance knowledge of the attack and pledged that the Libyan government would work closely with the U.S. government to investigate the incident.

Aujali emphasized that the Libyan people are grateful for American support and he expressed confidence that the U.S.-Libya relationship would be maintained.

The Libyan government's failure to protect the consulate is due to a lack of resources and progress in rebuilding the security infrastructure in Benghazi, he said.

"Qaddafi left no intstitions. We have no army, no police forces. We have to build everything from zero, unfortunately. We still need some time," he said.

OCD_OCD: WASHINGTON - Intelligence experts and U.S. government officials are starting to view the attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi as a coordinated attack.

Sources, including officials at the Pentagon and the State Department, are discussing the possibility that it was a planned operation, and some say several developments seem to support the possibility.

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 location inside the building. This development raises questions about how the attackers knew the location of that secure facility, sources say.

On Sept. 11, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri put out a video eulogizing Abu Yahya al-Libi, an Islamist terrorist and high-ranking al-Qaida member, who was killed in a drone attack in June. Sources have said they believe the Libyan incident might have been revenge for the death of al-Libi.

The embassy was housed in a local building that had been contracted temporarily. It was not an "Inman" compound, which is a building designed with certain security protocols, such as "standoff" distances between the public street and the actual facility.

Fred Burton, a former diplomatic security agent at the State Department, says it is the host country's responsibility to provide adequate security for all diplomats inside their country.

"One of the more problematic events that you can ever deal with is a large mob that overtakes a facility," Burton says. "You never see that in the U.S. simply because we have adequate police presence and can set up perimeters and keep rolling out the resources to counter that kind of event taking place."

Burton was one of the first diplomatic security agents to staff the diplomatic security service when it began. He was one of the first agents to go to Libya to investigate hijackings of planes and kidnappings of westerners in the early 1980s.

Burton says it is unclear where Stevens was killed.

"Was he killed coming back to the mission or was he trying to exit the mission? Was he trying to exit the safe house that's now into play? There are a lot of unknown factors here," he says.

"You may have had a situation that deteriorated so rapidly that a snap decision was made to load up the ambassador, and 'Let's get the hell out of dodge,' and they just vacated and ran into a situation where you had a perimeter set up and RPGs were fired into the limo as it was departing," he says.

The president has ratcheted up security at embassies worldwide because of the incident.