Marines Heading To Libya

[redarrow]

By ROBERT BURNS, AP
2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say some 50 Marines are being sent to Libya to reinforce security at U.S. diplomatic facilities in the aftermath of an attack in the eastern city of Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three American members of his staff.

The Marines are members of an elite group known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, whose role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats and to reinforce security at U.S. embassies. They operate worldwide.

The officials who disclosed the plan to send the Marines spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

TRIPOLI, Libya — The American ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed when a mob of protesters and gunmen overwhelmed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, setting fire to it in outrage over a film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Libya's new president apologized Wednesday for the attack, which underlined the lawlessness plaguing a region trying to recover from months of upheaval.

Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as a crowd of hundreds attacked the consulate Tuesday evening, many of them firing machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

By the end of the assault, much of the building was burned out and trashed. Stevens was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979.

A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos of during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, the doctor, Ziad Abu Zeid, told The Associated Press.

Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said.

President Barack Obama ordered increased security to protect American diplomatic personnel around world. Hours before the Benghazi attack, Egyptians angry over the film protested at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, climbing its walls and tearing down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag.

"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi," Obama said, adding the four Americans "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe."

Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized to the United States for the attack, which he described as "cowardly." Speaking to reporters, he offered his condolences on the death of the four Americans and vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the United States.

The three Americans killed with Stevens were security guards, he said.

"We extend our apology to America, the American people and the whole world," el-Megarif said.

The spark for the protests in Libya and Egypt was an obscure movie made in the United States by a California filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer." Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

But the brazen assaults — the first on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country — underscored the lawlessness that has taken hold in Libya and Egypt after revolutions ousted their autocratic secular regimes and upended the tightly controlled police state in both countries.

Islamists, who were long repressed under the previous regimes, have emerged as a powerful force and made up the bulk of the protests in both countries.

Moreover, security in both countries has broken down. Egypt's police, a onetime hated force blamed for massive human rights abuses, have yet to fully take back the streets after Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.

On Tuesday in Cairo, riot police stood by the embassy's walls but continued to allow protesters to climb them for several hours. The protesters, however, appeared to intentionally stick to certain limits: A few entered the embassy grounds to remove the flags and come back, but otherwise the chanting youth stayed on top of the walls without storming the compound or damaging property.

The uproar over the film also poses a new test for Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who has yet to condemn the riot outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo or say anything about the offending film. The protest was by mostly ultraconservative Islamists.

In Libya, central government control is weak, arms are ubiquitous and militias are pervasive. The consulate in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, is a one-story villa in a large garden located in an upscale neighborhood. By the end of Tuesday night's attack, much of the building was black and smoldering. Libyans wandered freely around the burned-out building, taking photos of rooms where furniture was covered in soot and overturned.

The violence raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as knowledge of the anti-Islam movie spread. So far, however, the only sign of unrest on Wednesday was a protest by dozens of Gazans in Gaza City. Some of the protesters carried swords, axes and black flags, chanting, "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet." The rally was organized by supporters of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group aligned with the ruling Hamas movement.

Afghanistan's government sought to avert an outbreak of protests. President Hamid Karzai condemned the movie, which he describes as "inhuman and insulting." Authorities also temporarily shut down access to YouTube, the video-sharing site where excerpts of the movie were posted, said Aimal Marjan, general director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications.

Ultraconservative Islamists also were suspected of being behind the Benghazi attack. Advocating a strict interpretation of Islam, they have bulldozed Sufi shrines and mosques that house tombs in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and other cities, including ancient sites dating back to 5,000 years ago.

Heavily armed, ultraconservative groups like Ansar al-Shariah, or Supporters of Shariah, have claimed responsibility for the attacks on the shrines, declaring Sufi practices as "heretical."

Libya has been also hit by a series of recent attacks that served as evidence of the deep and persistent security vacuum in the country after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime, which was ousted by rebels backed by a NATO air campaign. Many Libyans believe that unrest in their country is in part the work of Gadhafi's loyalists who want to undermine efforts to rebuild the country after last year's ruinous civil war.

Stevens was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.

Before Tuesday, five U.S. ambassadors had been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979, according to the State Department historian's office.

The two-hour movie that sparked the protests, titled "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic and posted on YouTube.

Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer, said he wrote, produced and directed the movie. Bacile told The Associated Press he was an Israeli Jew and an American citizen. But Israeli officials said Wednesday they had not heard of Bacile and there was no record of him being a citizen. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to share personal information with the media.

Separately, the film was being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States.

Bacile said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant. He said he believes the movie will expose Islam's flaws to the world.

"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said in a solemn, accented tone.

Israel, however, sought to distance itself from Bacile.

"It's obvious we'll have to be vigilant. Anything he did or said has nothing to do whatsoever with Israel. He may claim what he wants. This was not done with or for or through Israel." Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Wednesday.

__

[Eric Gregg]

Why are muslims/islamist the only ones that get violent when their faith is talked about.
If Christians acted violently every time we get insulted, persecuted, etc....there wouldn't be much respect for our faith.
Could it be that we have been taught that we are to love one another, pray for those that do wrong to us and spitefully abuse us, to turn the other cheeck, bless those who curse us, forgive so that we can be forgiven......The god of Islam is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jecob and you can see it in their fruits.

I feel that we are on the verge of another middle eastern mess involving Ishmael's descendants.
I hope Israel will hold off until after the election but doesn't look too promising. The Christians here need to pray for and support our troops, our leaders to make wise choices, and Israel as we are looking at trouble coming.....

[lightsoutcalls]

"A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos of during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, the doctor, Ziad Abu Zeid, told The Associated Press.

Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said."

Although they didn't identify the source, I just heard on a conservative news program that a media person on the ground there in Libya said that the ambassador was dragged from his car by the mob and possibly hung.  Interesting the reports of "severe asphyxiation" and "bleeding in his stomach".  Seems both would be consistent with hanging.  It will be interesting to see if any additional information is provided. 

[Eric Gregg]

"A Libyan doctor who treated Stevens said he died of severe asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos of during the attack, Stevens was brought alone by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, the doctor, Ziad Abu Zeid, told The Associated Press.

Stevens was practically dead when he arrived close to 1 a.m. on Wednesday, but "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador had bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but no other injuries, he said."

Although they didn't identify the source, I just heard on a conservative news program that a media person on the ground there in Libya said that the ambassador was dragged from his car by the mob and possibly hung.  Interesting the reports of "severe asphyxiation" and "bleeding in his stomach".  Seems both would be consistent with hanging.  It will be interesting to see if any additional information is provided.

I believe that this could be classified as an act of war.....

[savduck]

They need to build crop dusting tanks on all our drones and get about 100 million galloons of pigs blood and start spraying everything over there. Show a video of us soaking our bullets in Pigs blood and then ask the muslims who is ready to fight.

We need to drop a "special" bomb and get this over with.

[BowBendr]

I don't believe the excuse they're (the media) using in saying that the youtube movie sparked the islamic radicals to violence.

That movie has been up for over a year. Fact.

This is the first Sept. 11th that has come since the "Arab spring" occured. This is the first Sept. 11th that all these countries where violence broke out, were under the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood and were free to celebrate the damage done on Sept. 11, 2011.

Obama led the way in these countries in saying that their former leaders and dictators be removed and... "let democracy take its course".....
He never once considered that what or who would take their place was 10 times worse, or did he ?
Represenatives of the Muslim brotherhood have visited the White House many, many times while Obama consistantly snubs Israel and misses over 2/3 of his daily morning security meetings.
He missed his daily world security briefing Tuesday the 11th. Fact. He was out campaigning. Suprised he wasn't out playing golf.

God bless the guys going over to secure our territories with-in these embassy and consulate sites.

[turkey slayer]

They need to build crop dusting tanks on all our drones and get about 100 million galloons of pigs blood and start spraying everything over there. Show a video of us soaking our bullets in Pigs blood and then ask the muslims who is ready to fight.

We need to drop a "special" bomb and get this over with.

I like your way of thinking!!

[tomstopper]

All I have to say is that I will pray for my Marine brothers being sent over there and if it comes down to it agian, I hope they send as many of them scumbags straight to hell.

[4nwtf]

They need to build crop dusting tanks on all our drones and get about 100 million galloons of pigs blood and start spraying everything over there. Show a video of us soaking our bullets in Pigs blood and then ask the muslims who is ready to fight.

We need to drop a "special" bomb and get this over with.

x2

[Frankinthelaurels]

Why not keep our noses out of all this mess...the entire place is not worth the life of one American kid..let them kill each other and then we'll deal with what's left...we always manage to get our kids "NOT THE KIDS OF THE POLITICIANS" involved in wars that we can't win under any condition, so let's just bring everyone home that's over there and screw the entire place, I'm tired of hearing about it for the last 50 years. It's not worth one second of our time...tell them to keep the oil and try to eat it..it will be painful but we can switch everything over to natural gas and wind power and the hell with the entire place..

[Eric Gregg]

Why not keep our noses out of all this mess...the entire place is not worth the life of one American kid..let them kill each other and then we'll deal with what's left...we always manage to get our kids "NOT THE KIDS OF THE POLITICIANS" involved in wars that we can't win under any condition, so let's just bring everyone home that's over there and screw the entire place, I'm tired of hearing about it for the last 50 years. It's not worth one second of our time...tell them to keep the oil and try to eat it..it will be painful but we can switch everything over to natural gas and wind power and the hell with the entire place..

The reason why we can't keep our noses out of it is because they are attacking us.
9-11 we were attacked, not Al Qaeda or any middle eastern country. This week our embassy was attacked and one of our diplomats was killed. Notic a trend here. The reason why we are involved is the same reason why we got involved when Japan attaked Pear Harbor......it is the same thing.

[Turkey Trot]

Consider these words from the epilogue of the book Black Hawk Down regarding US intervention in third world cesspools and the people that inhabit them.  The Battle of Mogadishu took place place in October 1993.  It seems that many never gleaned and many forgot the lesson observed.

"It was a watershed," says one State Department official, who asked not to be named because his insight runs so counter to our current foreign policy agenda.  "The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders.  Somalia changed that.  Here you have a country were just about everybody is caught up in hatred and fighting.  You stop an old lady on the street and ask her if she wants peace, and she'll say 'Yes, of course, I pray for it daily.'  All the things you'd expect her to say.  Then ask her if she would be willing for her clan to share power with another in order to have that peace, and she'll say, 'With those murderers and thieves? I'd die first.'  People in those countries--Bosnia is a more recent example--don't' want peace.  They want victory.  They want power.  Men, women, old and young.  Somalia was the experience that taught us that people in these places bear much of the responsibility for things being the way they are.  The hatred and killing continues because they want it to.  Or because they don't want peace enough to stop it."

Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down, pp. 334-35

[savduck]

Yep, like I said. One "special" bomb, takes em ALL out. If we are involved we should  kill em all or stay out of it.

[woodwzrd]

If we are involved we should  kill em all or stay out of it.

Agreed.

Just keep all those that are being deployed to these crap holes in your prayers that they may all return home safe.

My best friend from high school was actually on his way home on his last cruise before retirement and orders have been changed directing them to the shores of Libya. The Lord has kept him out of harms way for 20 years and I pray He continues to watch over my buddy and all our other service members till this blows over or at least quiets down.

[ccleroy]

It is an act of war and should be dealt with accordingly...... This would never happen on Reagan or Bush's clock as they ( the Libyans ) would have known the outcome. They need to be made an example of swiftly.