Today the full extent of attacks on the U.S. consulate in Libya and the embassy in Cairo on September 11th have come to light, with the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens and three other State Department employees being killed in Benghazi, Libya.
So what was the Obama administration’s first response? To apologize to the rioters.
“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.”
Jeff Poor at Daily Caller reports that syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer called a U.S. response “disgraceful,” yesterday (before the attack in Libya came to light).
“That’s a hostage statement. That’s a mob of al-Qaida sympathizers in Egypt forcing the United States into making a statement essentially of apology — on 9/11 of all days — for something of which we are not responsible. I would issue a statement saying to the mob, ‘Go to hell.’ The way America works, the way a democracy works, is that everybody has a right to express themselves. We don’t police our speech and you ought to apologize to the United States for storming an embassy and the violation of the ultimate sacred principle of democracy, which is protecting embassies and missions abroad. For the U.S. to what, essentially, issue a veiled apology, I think is disgraceful.”
After heavy criticizm the Obama administration has thrown the Cairo embassy under the bus:
The Obama administration is disavowing a statement from its own Cairo embassy that seemed to apologize for anti-Muslim activity in the United States.
“The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government,” an administration official told POLITICO.
The U.S. embassy in Cairo put out a statement early Tuesday that apologized for an anti-Muslim film being circulated by an Israeli-American real estate developer.
The whole thing started over a small film titled “Innocence of Muslims,” that mocks the life of Islam’s prophet Muhammad.
Maybe if the President attended some of his daily intelligence briefings he’d have been up to speed on this…
As Newt Gingrich noted on CNN this probably wasn’t two random, unrelated events.
“This is not just about Libya. You don’t get, simultaneously, attacks in Benghazi and Cairo, in Libya and Egypt on a purely local basis. And you don’t get them on 9/11, a day we’re already honoring terrorist attacks against the United States, without a fair amount of collusion and a fair amount of planning. I think you have to look at this in a larger context…. There’s a substantial faction, particularly in Benghazi, which was sending people to Iraq to kill Americans. There’s a substantial faction in Egypt which wants to defeat the United States and destroy Israel. That faction looks for opportunities to do things to hurt the United States and yesterday was the example of an attack that’s part of a very long war that we’re going to be at for a very long time.”
A fitting summary tweet was publicized by Glenn Reynolds, “This presidency started with an apology in Cairo & looks like its ending with an apology in Cairo.”
And what’s the New York Times take on this today? Who knows. They didn’t have room for it on the front page, but they did have room for a fluff Romney hit piece…
