Posted on 09/11/2012 11:21:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Former deputy national security adviser Elliot Abrams and renowned Middle East scholar Barry Rubin lambasted the U.S. Embassy in Cairo’s response to Tuesday’s attack on it by Egyptian protesters.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was attacked by an Egyptian mob to protest an obscure and almost entirely unheard of American film being made that supposedly depicts the Muslim prophet Muhammad in a negative light. According to Reuters, some of the Egyptian vigilantes scaled the embassy walls, pulled down the American flag and burned it, and attempted to raise a black jihadi flag with the inscription, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.”
In response to the brazen attack, the American embassy in Cairo released a statement to criticize the film — not the protesters committing violence.
“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,” the embassy in Cairo said in a statement.
“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.”
Abrams, who advised President George W. Bush and is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Daily Caller that he found the embassy’s statement “bizarre and unacceptable.”
“[I]nstead of a protest the embassy has responded with a statement that says nothing about this failure by the government of Egypt to protect our people and property,” he wrote in an email. “Instead it criticized those who say mean things about Islam, when in fact in Egypt today it is non-Muslims, and Christians in particular, who feel threatened. So I find the embassy statement untimely on 9/11, bizarre and unacceptable.”
Rubin, who directs the The Global Research in International Affairs in Israel, found the embassy’s statement baffling.
“The response to an attack on the U.S. embassy by several revolutionary Islamist groups — one of which is the Egyptian affiliate of al-Qaida — is to apologize for hurting Muslim feelings!” he exclaimed in an email. “Yet the problem is not the production of some obscure film that no American knows anything about but the political program of the jihadists, Salafists, and Muslim Brotherhood to destroy U.S interests in the region.”
“And the administration doesn’t seem to notice that the new regime’s media and institutions are promoting anti-American incitement despite all the nice things Obama is doing for it,” Rubin added. “And all this on the anniversary of September 11!”
Abrams questioned why the Egyptian government didn’t do a better job protecting the embassy.
“On the anniversary of 9/11, thousands of Egyptians chose to protest at the U.S. Embassy, in essence making common cause not with the victims of 9/11 but with its perpetrators,” he said. “First, the United States embassy ought to be protesting the lack of police protection. The demonstration was planned, and known in advance. Why did police not protect the embassy? Why did they permit protesters to scale the walls?”
Late Tuesday evening, the Obama administration disavowed the embassy’s statement.
“The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” a senior White House official told Politico.
No embassy staff were reported to have been hurt in the attack in Cairo.
Two gunmen also attacked the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya Tuesday, killing one U.S. official.
Nonsense. If this were true why wouldn't you name the individual stating as much?
The Obama administration is a jalopy built on the wild left spectrum and corrupt realists looking to grift all they can. That's why they don't have a coherent policy on anything.
The US was attacked on the anniversary of the 911 Atrocities
while the Moslem undocumented pRes_ _ent gave an
Arabic speech, most likely beginning the attacks.
WHERE IS THE US CONGRESS?
On their knees to Islam and Marxism and Communism.
THAT QUOTE neeeds to be put on EVERY thread!!!
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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That said, it would be interesting if American Jews could make the Arab world explode in Obama's face in the weeks before the election, by simply publicly mocking Mohammed at every opportunity.
I think you are spot on and anyone in the Administration, particularly the State Department, who can’t make that connection should be fired for incompetence.
Same for our Crackerjack media.
THEY KILLED THE AMBASSADOR?! Watch Barry do nothing.
Amen but I’m still waiting for someone to get fired over 9-11
The press is the enemy of our Republic. And I read somewhere that nearly all the press people pay NO income taxes, or they are cheating on their income taxes. PRESS PEOPLE ===PAY YOUR TAXES ! You will be turned in!
seems like the chickens are coming home to roost on President Bowing and Scraping.
The dead of winter has come early to the Arab Spring.
We give Egypt $1 billion each year and recently promised more aid.
We spent $100 million a week bombing Libya.
What do we get: trashed embassies and four dead ambassadors.
These men were official representatives of the US government. This is an act of war and seems to require a military strike or SEAL team sniper job. We should find out who did this and kill them in their homes.
What a mess. It seems things are coming to a boiling point.
Stay well, Marine_Uncle. Thank you for your service.
While I was in law school, I wanted to join JAG, but in my last year, I found out I was pregnant—and all I wanted to do was to buy baby clothes. :) My GPA tanked after that. :)
Please tell your family member his or her service is appreciated, even by Americans living abroad. My two children were born in the States. My son was home sick on 9/11 this year; when they played the National Anthem on the t.v., I stood up, put my hand on my heart, and asked him, a 16-year old young man, to do the same. And he did. He will someday realize he was born in the best country in the world.
All the best,
Julie
bttt
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