Inside the Public Relations Disaster at the Cairo Embassy

The Cable - Foreign Policy ^ | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 | Josh Rogin

[kristinn]

One staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was responsible for the statement and tweets Tuesday that have become grist for the presidential campaign, and that staffer ignored explicit State Department instructions not to issue the statement, one U.S. official close to the issue told The Cable.

Two additional administration officials confirmed the details of this account when contacted late Wednesday by The Cable.

The statement, issued as a press release on the U.S. Embassy website, has been attacked by Republican challenger Mitt Romney, lawmakers, and conservatives around the country as an inappropriate "apology" and a failure to stand up for American principles such as freedom of speech.

The White House distanced itself from the statement Tuesday, and Romney criticized it directly in his initial reaction to the attacks in Egypt and Libya shortly thereafter, accusing President Barack Obama of evicing sympathy for the attackers.

On Wednesday, Romney doubled down on that criticism, saying, "I think it's a terrible course for America to apologize for our values."

President Obama commented on the controversy in an interview to be aired Wednesday evening on 60 Minutes.

"In an effort to cool the situation down, it didn't come from me, it didn't come from Secretary Clinton. It came from people on the ground who are potentially in danger," Obama said. "And my tendency is to cut folks a little bit of slack when they're in that circumstance, rather than try to question their judgment from the comfort of a campaign office."

But Obama's remarks belie the enormous frustration of top officials at the State Department and White House with the actions of the man behind the statement, Cairo senior public affairs officer Larry Schwartz, who wrote the release and oversees the embassy's Twitter feed, according to a detailed account of the Tuesday's events.

[kristinn]

The Obama administration chooses incompetence over malice spin.

[wideawake]

“Hey, Larry. I’m Jeremiah Wright - welcome to the underside of the bus, and be careful not to step on Stanley Anne’s corpse.”

[TigerClaws]

That official said what Obama signed off on in 2009— curb free speech rights to not ihurt the feelings of Muslims.

[JohnBrowdie]

Under the bus for some embassy flunky. And I am sure he or she was just doing what they were told.

Just another sacrifice at the alter of the Obama campaign

[txrefugee]

If that apology statement was so objectionable, why did both Obama and Hillary pick up that same theme?

[elpadre]

I think we all knew they would come up with fall guy. And they did. But he will be well rewarded and live happily ever after.

[jwalsh07]

He’s an effin liar. If anybody thinks the Obama administrtion did not OK that tweet, they are either nuts or dead drunk. Not that it matters to Obama voters, they would still vote for him if he led the attack on our embassies. America is in a world of hurt these days.

[null and void]

What pnut22 said is worth repeating:

Obama spends a week bragging that he killed Bin Laden.
People storm an embassy saying we are all Osama.
The media blames a movie no one has ever seen or heard of.

[Paladin2]

Zer0 needs to go to Cairo immediately and straighten things out personally.

[dfwgator]

But of course, Romney’s the bad guy for pointing their incompetency out.

[Paladin2]

Valarie Jarret was apparently correct.

[null and void]

If you believe Valarie Jarret and he minions.

[El Cid]

I am not surprised that 'The Buck passes here' Administration would find some fallguy to try to pin the blame for this miserable apology. The problem is that the apology fits the meme of the Apology-palloza tour that Obama has led before; this apology was not repudiated for hours and not until Americans called out the travesty; and a similar apology was launched by the Washington DC State Department....

I.e., fallguy or not, apologizing to our enemies is part and parcel of the Obama Doctrine.

[DManA]

Rush mentioned that Bin Laden’s death was bragged about 21 times at the convention.

[TigersEye]

"In an effort to cool the situation down, it didn't come from me, it didn't come from Secretary Clinton. It came from people on the ground who are potentially in danger," Obama said.

It didn't take long for 0bama to be proved a liar again...

State Department: Hillary Responsible For Security Failures

The Cairo Embassy, of course, was busily tweeting just before it was attacked, condemning “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” After the Embassy was breached, they doubled down on the tweet, stating, “This morning’s condemnation still stands.” Then Clinton herself released a statement on the consulate attacks in Libya, in which she stated, “The US deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.”

[musicman]

[TigersEye]

ping to post #15, kabar. I think you’ll want to see this.

[kabar]

Thanks for the ping. It sounds like Hillary is invested in this language, which means she had a hand in either drafting or approving it.

[TigersEye]

That is what I would believe. I’m happy to see your friend vindicated too. Your appeal on her behalf was moving.

[kabar]

Before issuing the press release, Schwartz cleared it with just one person senior to himself, Deputy Chief of Mission Marc Sievers, who was the acting charge d'affairs at the embassy on Tuesday because Ambassador Anne Patterson was in Washington at the time, the official said. <.i>

Big revelation to me. Anne Patterson wasn't there. I mentioned that the language did not sound like something she would approve of. Now it is making more sense.