A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo

CNN ^

[roses of sharon]

– [Update 8:38 p.m. Cairo, 1:38 p.m. ET] A team of heavily armed Marine Corps security personnel have been sent to the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to provide additional security for the facility, defense officials tell CNN. The small team of Marines, about a dozen according to one of the officials, are part of a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST). The Marines are inside the embassy perimeter. Egyptian military and security forces continue to provide security outside the embassy, the officials said.

[Free Vulcan]

Pray for these guys. Personally I’d rather be in the thick of the fighting in Afghanistan than embassy duty in a riotous civilian powder keg like this with the thought of Iran 1979 in the back of my mind.

[Blueflag]

So CNN says they are heavily armed, meaning they carried ‘repeating rifles’ “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines” Oh-noes.

I wonder if the Marines would say they were heavily armed.

50 Cal. (plural)
LAWS
SAWs
Cases of grenades/ M203s

and some tracked vehicles.

NOW we are heavily armed. ;-)

[tgusa]

I wonder what ROE the FAST operates under?

[roses of sharon]

Amen.

Thanks for that prayer RoseofTexas.

[tgusa]

I wonder what ROE the FAST operates under?

[TexasCajun]

" Hey! ...That Not Me TC!!"

Yeah, Right Nutjob!

[bert]

The tweet seems quite reasonable to me and perhaps the most astute piece I have seen coming out of Egypt

Not a syllable of hype

[Mears]

bfl

[Scott from the Left Coast]

“Heavily armed”

Eh, how heavily...what does that mean? Did they bring an armored division along for the ride? Sounds like yet another trip wire sent in...problem is that when it comes to the Obama Administration, the trip wire isn’t attached to anything at all.

[ColdOne]

they had to party, no time for thinking about U.S.

[blasater1960]

And hopefully they have a contigent ready to protect the Suez canal if needed. If the Suez canal falls into enemy hands the world economy will crash. Again.

[roses of sharon]

I wonder also.

The Muslim youth protesting/rioting are demanding Egyptian security leave them alone, do not fire on them.

So, I would guess our Marines have the same exact orders.

[Marty62]

Prayers up.
AMEN!

[Dead Corpse]

Semper Fi Marines. You are in our prayers.

[McGruff]

God Bless our boys for putting themselves in harms way for others.

[roses of sharon]

guts and the sense to give the Marines permission to use lethal force to defend our embassy

I doubt it, since Egypt's own security forces have been told to stand down...hence the complete shut-down of society for the last 5 days there.

[momtothree]

Dear Lord in Heaven, please watch over these Marines in their times of need. Please protect them and bring them home to their families and loved ones. May the good Lord shield them from injury and assist them in their mission. Amen.

[JoeProBono]

Members of the U.S. Marine Corps Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team participate in a base defense drill during the 12-day joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises Key Resolve/Foal Eagle (KR/FE) 2009 in Chinhae, South Korea, Monday, March 9, 2009.

[Cvengr]

We aren’t safely heavily armed until we can nuke them from orbit.

[RoseyT]

It infuriates me that it has taken this long for 0 and company to take any sort of initiative to help ensure the safety of Americans. (If they did something earlier, someone please let me know.) IMHO, our fellow countrymen should have been out at least 2 days ago.

Praying for an uneventful mission for all involved.