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Sorry I forgot to get the source URL for this article.
It was from the Arizona Republic on Sept 12, 2012
Libya embassy attack kills U.S. ambassador by Maggie Michael - Sept. 12, 2012 06:19 AM Associated Press TRIPOLI, Libya -- The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob firing machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. He was the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in the line of duty since 1979. President Barack Obama ordered increased security to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel around world. "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." The attack in Libya came hours after Egyptian protesters climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, pulling down the American flag and temporarily replacing it with a black Islamic banner. The brazen assaults -- the first on U.S. diplomatic facilities in either country -- underscored the lawlessness that has taken hold in both Egypt and Libya after revolutions ousted their autocratic secular regimes and upended the tightly controlled police state in both countries. Islamists -- long repressed under the previous regimes -- have emerged as a powerful force but new governments in both nations are struggling to achieve stability. 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, riot police stood by the embassy's walls but continued to allow protesters to climb them for several hours. 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. The film was produced by a California filmmaker who identifies himself as both American and Israeli. The film was being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube. 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. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any fashion, much less in an insulting way. The 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper triggered riots in many Muslim countries. A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those that only express opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on specific videos. Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, "Innocence of Muslims," said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion. Bacile said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing 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.
Obama vows justice in embassy killings in LibyaIf Obama wants justice, those Arab freedom fighters are going to have to kill at least 100,000 more Americans to make up for all the murders the evil American Empire has committed in Afghanistan and Iraq.Obama vows justice in embassy killings in Libya by Jim Kuhnenn - Sept. 12, 2012 09:17 AM Associated Press WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday the United States would "work with the Libyan government to bring to justice" those who killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American personnel in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi. "Make no mistake. Justice will be done," he said in an appearance at the Rose Garden outside the White House. Obama, who ordered an increased in security at U.S. facilities overseas, said he "condemns in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking" attack. He spoke after Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney condemned the attack, and criticized the administration for its initial response to a separate incident on Tuesday, the breach of the U.S. embassy in Cairo. The president spoke with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at his side as the deaths in Libya quickly roiled the U.S. political campaign, now in its final seven weeks. As he departed the Rose Garden, the president did not respond to shouted questions from reporters asking him to respond to Romney's own statement. "Make no mistake we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people," he said, referring to the events in Libya. He also said, "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence, none." The incidents in both Arab countries were reportedly the work of protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Romney's criticism appeared limited to an initial statement issued the previous day by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. He said it was "akin to an apology," and that said as president, Obama bears responsibility for it. "They clearly sent mixed messages for the world," he said of the administration. The attacks occurred Tuesday night in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad, according to Libya officials. Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, was killed when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob guns and rocket propelled grenades. Three other Americans were also killed. Stevens is the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in an attack since 1979, when Ambassador Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan. The State Department identified one of the other Americans killed Tuesday as Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer. The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In a written statement earlier Wednesday, Obama called Stevens a "courageous and exemplary representative of the United States." ''I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi," Obama said in the statement. The four Americans, he said, "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe." Obama was informed about the developments in Libya by his National Security Adviser Tom Donilon as the president began a weekly meeting Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. The White House said Obama was kept apprised throughout the evening and then again Wednesday morning. The Pentagon said early Wednesday that it was working with the State Department on Obama's order for increased security around the world. "We are following this tragic incident closely with the State Department," Lt. Col. Steven Warren, a Defense Department spokesman said. "We are prepared to support the State Department in any way." U.S. officials said some 50 Marines were 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. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council has a long-scheduled meeting Wednesday morning to discuss Libya and diplomats said the United States is seeking a council statement on the attack. U.N. Undersecretary-General Jeffrey Feltman, a former American diplomat and close friend of Stevens', is scheduled to brief the council on Libya. 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 Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year. His State Department biography, posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy to Libya, says he "considers himself fortunate to participate in this incredible period of change and hope for Libya." Clinton said Stevens had a "passion for service, for diplomacy and for the Libyan people." "This assignment was only the latest in his more than two decades of dedication to advancing closer ties with the people of the Middle East and North Africa which began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco," Clinton said. He "risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started," she said. Stevens joined the Foreign Service in 1991 and spent his early State Department career at posts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Israel. After working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff for Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Stevens was posted to Libya as deputy chief of mission. In that post, Stevens wrote several confidential cables back to Washington, describing Gadhafi's bizarre behavior. During the 2011 revolt against Gadhafi, he was one of the last American diplomats to stay in Tripoli and after the embassy was closed, he was appointed to head the U.S. liaison office to the Transitional National Council. --- Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report.
Anti-Islam filmmaker in hiding after protestsSourceAnti-Islam filmmaker in hiding after protests by Shaya Tayefe Mohajer - Sept. 12, 2012 08:35 AM Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- A California-based filmmaker went into hiding after a YouTube trailer of his movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed. Speaking by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion. Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. Bacile said he is a real estate developer and an Israeli Jew. But Israeli officials said they had not heard of him 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. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner. "This is a political movie," Bacile told the AP. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas." Bacile said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world. "Islam is a cancer, period," he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented. The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it. The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. The14-minute trailer of the movie that reportedly set off the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons. It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries. Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence. "I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it." A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said the filmmaker is concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm. Klein said he vowed to help Bacile make the movie but warned him that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam. "We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said. Bacile's film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone he doesn't know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera. The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.
Marines headed to Libya to reinforce securitySourceMarines headed to Libya to reinforce security Sept. 12, 2012 11:35 AM Associated Press WASHINGTON -- About 50 U.S. Marines headed to Libya on Wednesday 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 other Americans, officials said. The Marines are members of an elite group known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, or FAST, whose role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats and to reinforce security at U.S. embassies. They operate worldwide. The contingent that was dispatched to Libya was based in Spain. The officials who disclosed the plan to send the Marines spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Marines were headed initially to the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, not to Benghazi. Several officials said the U.S. military was making no other moves to deploy troops, ships or aircraft in response to Tuesdays attack. A second Marine FAST element was standing by in Spain but had no orders to move, officials said. U.S. embassies, particularly in major countries and in unstable or less secure nations, usually have a resident contingent of Marine security guards. Early indications were that there were none at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. A consulate is a branch office in major cities outside the capital. These guards work under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at an embassy. The main role of Marine security guards is to protect classified national security documents, according to the website of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, which administers the security guard mission from a Marine base in Virginia. Their secondary role is to protect U.S. citizens and U.S. government property in the event of an emergency. The Marines began their security guard mission in 1948. They are trained at the Marine Security Guard School. In rare cases, the Marines send a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, or a portion of the team, to reinforce security at embassies. They were sent to Africa, for example, in response to the 1998 terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A FAST group also provided security aboard a Navy hospital ship in New York following the Sept. 11,2001 attacks.
Embassy attacks were days in the makingSourceEmbassy attacks were days in the making by Sara Lynch and Oren Dorell - Sept. 12, 2012 12:47 PM USA Today CAIRO -- Days of planning and online promotion by hard-line Islamist leaders helped whip up the mobs that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and launched a deadly attack on the U.S. Embassy in Libya that killed an ambassador and three others. As the U.S. tightened security worldwide at embassies and Libya's president apologized for the attack, details emerged of how the violence began, according to experts who monitor Egyptian media. Christopher Stevens, 52, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was killed, along with three other Americans, on Tuesday night when a mob of protesters and gunmen stormed the embassy in the eastern city of Benghazi. The killings there followed demonstrations in front of Cairo's U.S. Embassy, where protesters tore down the U.S. flag and scaled the embassy's wall. The protest was planned by Salafists well before news circulated of an objectionable video ridiculing Islam's prophet, Mohammed, said Eric Trager, an expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was announced Aug. 30 by Jamaa Islamiya, a State Department-designated terrorist group, to protest the ongoing imprisonment of its spiritual leader, Sheikh Omar abdel Rahman. He is serving a life sentence in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. When the video started circulating, Nader Bakkar, the spokesman for the Egyptian Salafist Noor party, which holds about 25 percent of the seats in parliament, called on people to go to the embassy. He also called on non-Islamist soccer hooligans, known as Ultras, to join the protest. On Monday, the brother of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, Mohamed al Zawahiri, tweeted that people should go to the embassy and "defend the prophet," Trager said. Zawahiri justified al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks in an interview with Al Jazeera last month."If America attacks the Arab peoples and their regimes do not defend them, somebody who does defend the Arab and Muslim peoples should not be considered a criminal," Zawahiri told the television network, according to a translation by MEMRI. "We have done nothing wrong." The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whose political arm holds 47 percent of seats in parliament and is led by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, announced new protests against the film to take place Friday at Tahrir Square, Trager said. "They've made no statements in Arabic against violence over this video," he said. "They've also pinned this video incorrectly on the Coptic (Christian) diaspora. They've used this video to advance sectarian tensions in Egypt." The Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday condemned the violence. "It's no problem for them to protest and have their demands ... but it doesn't mean you need to (inflict) any harm on the embassy here," said Dina Zakaria, a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood. "Just because you are against something doesn't mean you have to kill," she said. "I think it's really a disaster." President Obama on Wednesday condemned the attack and ordered stepped-up security at diplomatic installations around the world. "There is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. None," the president said. U.S. officials said about 50 Marines who are members of an elite group known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team are being sent to Libya to reinforce security at U.S. diplomatic facilities. The team's role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats, say officials, who disclosed the plan on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, "This was an attack by a small and savage group, not the government" or the people of Libya. She said it should "shock the conscience of people of all faiths around the world." "Violence like this is no way to honor religions or faith, and as long as there are those who will take innocent lives in the name of God, the world will never know true and everlasting peace," she said. Clinton said that Americans and Libyan security personnel fought alongside each other in an effort to defend the compound. She said Libyans brought Stevens' body to the hospital. Clinton earlier called on Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya. Clinton says El-Megarif described the attack as "cowardly" and offered his condolences on the death of Stevens and the three other Americans. Speaking to reporters, he vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain his country's close relations with the United States. He said the three Americans were security guards. "We extend our apology to America, the American people and the whole world," el-Megarif said. Stevens was killed when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try and evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The State Department identified one of the other Americans as Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer. The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Ziad Abu Zeid, the Libyan doctor who treated Stevens, said he had "severe asphyxia," apparently from smoke inhalation, causing stomach bleeding, but had no other injuries. 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 Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate this year. His State Department biography, posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy to Libya, says he "considers himself fortunate to participate in this incredible period of change and hope for Libya." Clinton said Stevens had a "passion for service, for diplomacy and for the Libyan people." "This assignment was only the latest in his more than two decades of dedication to advancing closer ties with the people of the Middle East and North Africa which began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco," Clinton said. He "risked his own life to lend the Libyan people a helping hand to build the foundation for a new, free nation. He spent every day since helping to finish the work that he started," she said. The attacks come nearly a year and a half after uprisings began against Gadhafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, which led to weakened security networks in both countries. The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), condemned the film that sparked unrest in a statement Tuesday. "The party considers the film a racist crime and a failed attempt to provoke sectarian strife between the two elements of the nation: Muslims and Christians," a statement said on the FJP's English-language website. "Moreover, the FJP considers this movie totally unacceptable, from the moral and religious perspectives, and finds that it excessively goes far beyond all reasonable boundaries of the freedoms of opinion and expression." The film is certainly a blatant violation of religious sanctities, international norms and conventions on human rights which emphasize that freedom of expression with respect to religion must be restricted by controls within the law that safeguard public interest, in order to protect lives, morals, rights and freedoms," the statement said. Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and who said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, Innocence of Muslims, said he had not anticipated such a furious reaction. Speaking by phone from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion. "Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said. Florida pastor Terry Jones, the Gainesville-area pastor known for his virulent opposition to Islam, issued a statement on his website defending the film. "The film is not intended to insult the Muslim community, but it is intended to reveal truths about Muhammad that are possibly not widely known," Jones said in statement. Some Muslims believe that any depiction of the prophet Mohammed, positive or negative, is not allowed."Depicting the prophet Mohammed isn't forbidden but it is discouraged because deifying a human being can distract the faithful from worshiping god," said M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and author of the book A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot's Fight to Save His Faith. Those who believe that you can commit violence against those who depict the prophet are considered radical groups, Jasser said. He said that the attacks in Libya are "nothing short of pure evil and in no way representative of the teachings and practices of the faith of Islam." ''These crowds are using the movie as an excuse to wreak violence on Americans in Libya and Egypt," Jasser said. "To most Muslims, these excuses for violence that ultimately, even if they are offending or violating a tradition of the prophet, in no way justify any of these types of activities."The Muslim Brotherhood burgeoned in popularity and presence after Mubarak was ousted in February 2011 and Morsi formerly headed its political party. "Some people in the Middle East don't understand the relationship between government and media and think the (U.S.) government controls the media like they do here," said Said Sadek, political sociologist and affiliate professor at the American University in Cairo. "They are putting the blame on the U.S. government, which has nothing to do with it." Stevens joined the Foreign Service in 1991 and spent his early State Department career at posts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Israel. After working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff for Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, Stevens was posted to Libya as deputy chief of mission. In that post, Stevens wrote several confidential cables back to Washington, describing Gadhafi's bizarre behavior. During the 2011 revolt against Gadhafi, he was one of the last American diplomats to stay in Tripoli and after the embassy was closed, he was appointed to head the U.S. liaison office to the Transitional National Council. Anti-American sentiments are so deep in much of the Arab world that the film that angered Egyptian and Libyan protesters should be seen "not as a cause of the protests, but a pretext," said Shadi Hamid, director of research for the Brookings Doha Center. In Egypt, especially, the U.S. government is seen as slow to support the uprising that felled Mubarak in February 2011, and supportive of a military-led transition, Hamid says. Egyptians know that U.S. administrations supported Egyptian dictators since the late 1970s, and supported other Arab ruling families and Israel for many decades more, he says.Anti-American sentiments are less strong in Libya, where the U.S. helped oust Gadhafi, but unlike in Egypt, the Salafis in Libya are armed, which contributed to the level of violence, Hamid said .Arab Muslims also "are not comfortable with the idea that freedom of speech can be used to attack religion," he said.Although Arab liberals rarely feel the need to join the outcry, ultra-conservative Salafists view themselves as defenders of the faith and use religion to mobilize grass-roots support, Hamid said."Rather than rally around the flag they rally around religion, and it works," he said. Dorell reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: Carolyn Pesce in McLean, Va.; the Associated Press
Attacks shift presidential campaign focus to foreign policy by Richard Wolf and Jackie Kucinich - Sept. 12, 2012 11:21 PM USA Today WASHINGTON - A presidential campaign that's been all about the economy shifted suddenly to foreign policy Wednesday following the murderous attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya, giving President Barack Obama an advantage over a challenger who has yet to start receiving national security briefings. By criticizing Obama's response to the killings and a violent protest in Egypt, Republican challenger Mitt Romney opened himself up to warnings from officials in both parties that politics should "end at the water's edge," in the words of former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. While Obama was condemning the attacks, vowing justice against the perpetrators and consoling the victims' families and State Department colleagues, Romney doubled down on a statement he initially released Tuesday night accusing the administration of sympathizing with the attackers. His accusations were aimed at a statement issued from the U.S. embassy in Cairo on Tuesday, in the midst of the protest, which sought to soothe anger among Muslims at a video blaspheming the prophet Mohammed. The statement condemned rhetoric that "hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." "I think it's a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values," Romney said Wednesday during a press conference in Florida, accusing the administration of sending "mixed messages to the world." His running mate, Paul Ryan, said in Wisconsin that the administration's "weakness" and "moral equivocation" emboldens America's enemies. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence, said the foreign policy contrast is "probably a fair debate to have in this upcoming election." But now, he said, is a time to focus on "the fact that we lost a United States ambassador." After holding its fire for most of the day, the White House later released part of Obama's interview with CBS' 60 Minutes in which he said Romney "didn't have his facts right." "Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later," Obama said. "And as president, one of the things I've learned is you can't do that, that it's important for you to make sure that the statements you make are backed up by the facts, and that you've thought through the ramifications before you make them." Unless the situation in the Middle East spins out of control, the attack and Obama's denunciation and actions in response could strengthen his hand, experts say, since he has successfully waged war on al-Qaida throughout the Middle East and northern Africa.
Protesters storm U.S. Embassy in Yemen by Iona Craig and Sara Lynch, Special for USA TODAY SANAA, Yemen -- American unrest escalated in the Middle East on Thursday as demonstrators burned U.S. flags in Yemen and protesters descended on the embassy in Cairo for a third straight day. Security was increased at American embassies and consulates around the world. In Yemen's capital of Sanaa on Thursday morning, black smoke billowed into the sky from burning SUVs inside the U.S. Embassy compound. Hundreds of angry demonstrators tried to storm the building, chanting "death to America" and death for the American filmmaker who made an anti-Islam film that helped spark a deadly attack on the embassy in Libya and protests in Egypt. Protesters marched on the embassy from three sides before being blocked by Yemeni security forces. Some demonstrators were able to breach the security cordon before eventually being pushed back by troops firing tear gas and live ammunition into the air. "They brought this on themselves," Abdullah Rahman Safi shouted above the sound of gunfire. "We want to close the American embassy for this insult on prophet Mohammed," he added, referring to the film Innocence of Muslims posted on YouTube depicting the Islam prophet Mohammed as a fraud and a womanizer. More aggressive demonstrators also called for the death of the American ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein. "I want to see him dead like the Libyan ambassador. This would be a good thing," said one protester, who would not give his name. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sharpened her criticism of the film Thursday calling it "disgusting and reprehensible" and a cynical attempt to offend people for their religious beliefs. But Clinton said the U.S. would never stop Americans from expressing their views, no matter how distasteful. She said the film is no justification for violence or attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities and personnel. Clinton said Thursday the U.S. is monitoring protests in Yemen. Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi apologized to President Obama for the attack on the embassy and ordered an investigation. The Yemeni Embassy in Washington condemned the attack and vowed to ensure the safety of foreign diplomats and to step up security measures around their missions in the country. It was similar to an attack on the U.S. Embassy in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday night. A mob of Libyans also attacked the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, killing American Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Attorney General Eric Holder, in Doha, Qatar on Thursday for the Arab Forum on Asset Recovery, said the FBI opened an investigation into the attack. Yemen is home to al-Qaeda's most active branch and the United States is the main foreign supporter of the Yemeni government's counterterrorism campaign. The government on Tuesday announced that al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader in Yemen was killed in an apparent U.S. airstrike, a major blow to the terror network. U.S. officials also were investigating whether the rampage in Libya was actually planned to coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. Egyptian protesters clashed Thursday with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo for the third day in a row. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and the two sides pelted each other with rocks. But unlike Tuesday, the police kept the protesters away from the embassy's compound. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said 16 protesters and 13 policemen were wounded in the clashes, which broke out overnight and were ongoing. Twelve protesters have been arrested, it said. The protests were going on around the Tahrir Square area -- the heart of last year's revolution that led to the ouster of dictator Hosni Mubarak and close to the U.S. Embassy. Protesters were initially primarily hard-line Muslims, but since Wednesday evening the composition of the crowd seemed to change and police battled young men aligned with a group called "Ultras" -- comprised of soccer fans who are growing more political. President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first Islamist president elected in June, is teetering between allowing freedom of expression and maintaining stability as nations worldwide adjust to power shifts propelled by the Arab Spring. Morsi, speaking while on a visit to Brussels, vowed on Thursday not to allow attacks on foreign embassies in Cairo, saying the Egyptian people reject such "unlawful acts." In Yemen, demonstrators gathered in the streets around the embassy compound chanting: "We will not leave until the Americans leave" as they burned tires in front of soldiers and water cannon trucks. Sustained gunfire rang out as troops attempted to disperse the crowds, with AK-47s and .50-caliber machine guns being fired over the heads of the chanting crowds. Medics on the scene said one man sustained a head wound from a falling bullet. Security had been stepped up on the approach roads to the embassy building in anticipation of protests following similar attacks in Libya and Egypt. Soldiers stood back allowing protesters through the concrete roadblocks toward the U.S. Embassy building and some marched alongside the demonstrators, before shots were fired over their heads by armored vehicles and other foot soldiers. The streets surrounding the U.S. Embassy in the northeast of the capital remained tense for several hours after the initial storming of the compound. Embassy staff have been living in Sanaa's Sheraton hotel, just a few hundred meters from the embassy building, since violence broke out during political unrest in the city last year. It was unclear how many staff were in the embassy when the compound was stormed. Troops responsible for security around the U.S. Embassy are from Yemen's Central Security Forces, commanded by Brigadier General Yahya Saleh, nephew of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh finally relinquished power last February after a year-long uprising against him. As part of recent structural changes within the military, under the terms of a U.S.-backed political transition deal, Yemen's new president, Abdu Rabu Mansor al-Hadi, has moved several members of the Saleh family from key army and air force positions. In Iraq on Thursday, hundreds of Shiite followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad because of the film. Protesters burned American flags and carried banners reading, "We reject the attack on the prophet Mohammed." "No, no, to Israel! No, no to America!" thousands shouted in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad. "Yes, yes for Messenger of God." Afghanistan's government, meanwhile, sought to avert any protests as past anger over perceived insults to Islam has triggered violence in the country. President Hamid Karzai canceled an official visit to Norway and spoke by phone with President Obama to convey his condolences for the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats, a statement said. He also discussed the "film and the insulting of holy Islamic values," but the statement provided no other details. Analysts say they don't believe the tragedy in Libya will impact its relationship with the current U.S. administration. "It's a very good and strong relationship," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "In general, the view of the U.S. after the revolution was a fairly positive image among most Libyans." But the region retains its challenges. "The Middle East is now going to be the wild Middle East in some ways and this kind of shoot em up action is, I am afraid, going to be part of the political landscape in the Middle East for some time to come," said Joshua Landis, director for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "We've got to brace ourselves." Lynch reported from Cairo. Contributing: Ruby Russell and Louise Osborne, Berlin; Carolyn Pesce, McLean, Va.; Donna Leinwand Leger, Washington, D.C.; Associated Press.
Protesters storm U.S. Embassy in Yemen in new attack Sept. 13, 2012 09:36 AM Associated Press SANAA, Yemen -- Chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel," hundreds of protesters angered by an anti-Islam film stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Yemen's capital and burned the American flag on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on American diplomatic missions in the Middle East. The string of assaults this week, in Yemen, Egypt and the storming of a U.S. consulate in Libya that killed four Americans, point to an increased boldness among Islamists who have become more powerful since last year's wave of revolts toppled authoritarian leaders. The anger over the movie denigrating Islam's Prophet Muhammad has also put the region's new leaders -- some of whom are themselves Islamists -- in a difficult corner, between a base demanding a free hand to respond to the insult and U.S. pressure to crack down. In the past, protests have broken out over perceived insults to Islam from the West, but in Arab countries they never escalated to the degree of breaching embassies, suggesting now hard-liners feel they can act with impunity. Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the U.S. for the embassy attack and vowed track down the culprits, just as Libya's president did. Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Morsi, who had been slow to speak out on Tuesday's assault on the embassy in Cairo, promised Thursday that his government would not allow attacks on diplomatic missions. U.S. officials suspect the Libya assault may have been a planned terror operation rather than a spontaneous mob assault. While protesters in other countries were unarmed, a crowd bristling with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades overwhelmed the consulate in Benghazi late Tuesday, killing the ambassador and three other Americans. Protests are also erupting in other countries. In Egypt, protesters clashed with riot police who had pushed them away from the embassy the night before. In Iraq, several hundred Shiite hardliners protested in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. The leader of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia that previously attacked U.S. troops, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, threatened anti-U.S. attacks. The movie "will put all the American interests in Iraq in danger," the militia leader, Qais al-Khazali, told The Associated Press. In Iran, about 50 protesters shouted, "Death to America," outside the Swiss Embassy, which looks after U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran. Riot police kept the crowd away from the building. Hundreds converged Thursday on the U.S. Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, which is heavily barricaded because of past al-Qaida-linked attacks on the compound. Yemeni guards at checkpoints on roads leading up to the compound did nothing to stop the crowd, said Ahmed Darwish, a witness who was at the scene. The crowd swarmed over embassy's entrance gate. Men with iron bars smashed the thick, bullet-proof glass windows of the entrance building while others clambered up the wall. Some ripped the embassy's sign off the outer wall. Inside the compound grounds, they brought down the American flag in the courtyard and replaced it with a black banner bearing Islam's declaration of faith -- "There is no God but Allah." They did not enter the main building housing the embassy's offices, some distance away from the entry reception. Demonstrators set tires ablaze and pelted the compound with rocks. Yemeni security forces who rushed to the scene fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, driving them out of the compound after about 45 minutes and sealing off the surrounding streets. The Embassy said nobody was harmed in the attack. "All embassy personnel are safe and accounted for," spokesman Lou Fintor said. Hadi, the president, offered his "sincere apologies" for the attack and promised to catch those behind it. He said the attack was carried out by a "rowdy crowd" as part of a conspiracy to derail Yemen's close relations with Washington. The assault appeared to be a copy-cat of the protest Tuesday night at the U.S Embassy in Cairo, when angry youths climbed the walls and brought down the flag, though they largely refrained from any material damage. Yemen is home to al-Qaida's most active branch and the United States is the main foreign supporter of the Yemeni government's counterterrorism campaign. The government on Tuesday announced that al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Yemen was killed in an apparent U.S. airstrike, a major blow to the terror network. The spreading violence comes as outrage grows over a movie called "Innocence of Muslims" produced by anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S. that mocked Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The amateurish video was produced in the U.S. and excerpted on YouTube. It depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres. Egyptian protesters clashed Thursday with police near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and the two sides pelted each other with rocks. But unlike Tuesday, the police kept the protesters away from the embassy's compound. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said 16 protesters and 13 policemen were wounded in the clashes, which broke out overnight and were ongoing. Twelve protesters have been arrested, it said. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, speaking while on a visit to Brussels, vowed on Thursday not to allow attacks on foreign embassies in Cairo, saying the Egyptian people reject such "unlawful acts." Afghanistan's government, meanwhile, sought to avert any protests as past anger over perceived insults to Islam has triggered violence in the country. President Hamid Karzai canceled an official visit to Norway and spoke by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama to convey his condolences for the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats, a statement said. He also discussed the "film and the insulting of holy Islamic values," but the statement provided no other details.
Islamic film protests spread to widest extent yet by Lee Keath - Sept. 14, 2012 08:07 AM Associated Press CAIRO -- One protester was killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in clashes with security forces, after a crowd of protesters set fire to a KFC and an Arby's restaurant. Protesters hurled stones and glass at police in a furious melee that left 25 people wounded, 18 of them police. Protests were held in cities from Tunisia to Pakistan after weekly Friday Muslim prayers, where many clerics in their mosque sermons called on congregations to defend their faith, denouncing obscure movie produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad. The numbers were not huge -- in most places, only a few hundred took to the streets, mostly ultraconservative Islamists -- but the mood was often furious. The spread of protests comes after attacks earlier this week on the U.S. Embassies in Cairo and the Yemeni capital Sanaa and on a U.S. consulate in Libya, where the ambassador and three other Americans were killed. After standing aside earlier this week in the face of protesters, security forces in Yemen and Egypt fired tear gas and clashed with protesters Friday to keep them away from U.S. embassies. Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, went on state TV and urged Muslims to protect foreign diplomatic missions -- his first direct public move to contain protests. "It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work," he said. He also condemned the killing of the American ambassador in Libya, saying it was unacceptable in Islam. "To God, attacking a person is bigger than an attack on the Kaaba," he said, referring to Islam's holiest site in Mecca. His speech was an apparent attempt to repair strained relations with the United States, which was angered by his slow response to Tuesday night's assault on the embassy in Cairo. Police did nothing to stop protesters from climbing over the embassy walls, and Morsi was largely silent about the breaching for days afterward. Ahead of the expected wave of protests on Friday -- a tradition day for rallies in the Islamic world -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an explicit denunciation of the anti-Muhammad video, aiming to pre-empt further turmoil at its embassies and consulates. The movie, called "Innocence of Muslims," ridicules the Prophet Muhammad, portraying him as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. "The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video," she said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. "We absolutely reject its content and message." "To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible," Clinton said. "It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage." Nonetheless, protests in several places attempted to move on American diplomatic missions -- and other Western countries were pulled into the dispute. Several thousand demonstrators protested outside the US embassy in Tunis and battled with security forces, throwing stones as police fired volleys of tear gas and shot in the air. Some protesters scaled the embassy wall and stood on top of it, planting a black flag with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet." Police chased them off the wall and took the flag down. In Sudan, a prominent sheik on state radio urged protesters to march on the German Embassy to protest alleged anti-Muslim graffiti on mosques in Berlin and then to the U.S. Embassy to protest the film. "America has long been an enemy to Islam and to Sudan," Sheik Mohammed Jizouly said. Soon after, several hundred Sudanese stormed into the German Embassy, burning a car parked behind its gates and setting fire to trash cans. Protesters danced and celebrated around the burning barrels as palls of black smoke billowed into the sky. Part of the embassy building was also in flames, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Berlin. "Fortunately... the employees are safe," he said. Police firing tear gas drove the protesters out of the compound. Some then began to demonstrate outside the neighboring British Embassy, shouting slogans, while others left, apparently heading to the American Embassy, which is outside of the capital. In east Jerusalem, Israeli police stopped a crowd of around 400 Palestinians from marching on the U.S. consulate to protest the film. Demonstrators threw bottles and stones at police, who responded by firing stun grenades. Four protesters were arrested. Security forces in Yemen shot live rounds in the air and fired tear gas at a crowd of around 2,000 protesters trying to march to the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Sanaa. Though outnumbered by protesters, security forces were able to keep the crowd about a block away from the mission. A day earlier, hundreds of protesters chanting "death to America" stormed the embassy compound in Sanaa and burned the American flag. The embassy said nobody was harmed. Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the United States and vowed to track down the culprits. In Egypt, several hundred people, mainly ultraconversatives, protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square after weekly Muslim Friday prayers and tore up an American flag, waving a black, Islamist flag. A firebrand ultraconservative Salafi cleric blasted the film and in his sermon in Cairo's Tahrir Square said it was upon Muslims to defend Islam and its prophet. Many in the crowd then moved to join protesters who have been clashing for several days with police between Tahrir and the U.S. Embassy. "With our soul, our blood, we will avenge you, our Prophet," they chanted as police fired volleys of tear gas. Ahead of the clashes, the president spoke for more than seven minutes on state TV, saying, "It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work." "So I call on all to consider this, consider the law, and not attack embassies, consulates, diplomatic missions or Egyptian property that is private or public, " he said. He denounced the killing of the American ambassador in Libya. "This is something we reject and Islam rejects. His own Muslim Brotherhood group called for peaceful protests in Tahrir to denounce the film. A small, peaceful demonstration was held Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. Hundreds of hardline Muslims held peaceful protests against the film throughout Pakistan, shouting slogans and carrying banners criticizing the U.S. and those involved in the film. Police in Islamabad set up barricades and razor wire to prevent protesters from getting to the diplomatic enclave, where the U.S. Embassy and many other foreign missions are located. Protests were also held in Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, where protesters shouted "Down with America" and some burned the U.S. flag. About 200 policemen and barbed wire ringed the U.S. Consulate in Lahore. About 1,500 protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad, shouting "Death to America" and urge President Hamid Karzai to cut relations with the U.S. A prominent cleric in Indonesia urged Muslims there to remain calm despite their anger about the film. But Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, on its website blamed the U.S. government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished." Meanwhile, the airport in Benghazi, the city where Tuesday's attack on the consulate took place, was closed for several hours on Friday. An airport official said the closure was due to security concerns, and the airport re-opened in the afternoon.
U.S. scrambles to rush spies, drones to Libya
Sept. 15, 2012 12:31 AM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is sending more spies, Marines and drones to Libya, trying to speed the search for those who killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, but the investigation is complicated by a chaotic security picture in the post-revolutionary country, and limited American and Libyan intelligence resources.
The CIA has fewer people available to send, stretched thin from tracking conflicts across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
And the Libyans have barely re-established full control of their country, much less rebuilt their intelligence service, less than a year after the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The U.S. has already deployed an FBI investigation team, trying to track al-Qaida sympathizers thought to be responsible for turning a demonstration over an anti-Islamic video into a violent, coordinated militant attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Ambassador Chris Stevens, and three other embassy employees were killed after a barrage of small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars tore into the consulate buildings in Benghazi on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of 9/11, setting the buildings on fire.
President Barack Obama said in a Rose Garden statement the morning after the attack that those responsible would be brought to justice. That may not be swift. Building a clearer picture of what happened will take more time, and possibly more people, U.S. officials said Friday.
Intelligence officials are reviewing telephone intercepts, computer traffic and other clues gathered in the days before the attacks, and Libyan law enforcement has made some arrests. But investigators have found no evidence pointing conclusively to a particular group or to indicate the attack was planned, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding, "This is obviously under investigation."
Early indications suggest the attack was carried out not by the main al-Qaida terror group but "al-Qaida sympathizers," said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
One of the leading suspects is the Libyan-based Islamic militant group Ansar al-Shariah, led by former Guantanamo detainee Sufyan bin Qumu. The group denied responsibility in a video Friday but did acknowledge its fighters were in the area during what it called a "popular protest" at the consulate, according to Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a private analysis firm that monitors Jihadist media for the U.S. intelligence community.
The U.S. had been watching threat assessments from Libya for months but none offered warnings of the Benghazi attack, according to another intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about U.S. intelligence matters.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, questioned whether the consulate had taken sufficient security measures, given an attempt to attack the consulate in Benghazi a few months ago.
Carney said that given the 9/11 anniversary, security had been heightened.
"It was, unfortunately, not enough," he said.
That paucity of resources also applies to the intelligence officers available to monitor Libya on the ground.
With ongoing counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, as well as the civil war in Syria, the CIA's clandestine and paramilitary officer corps is simply running out of trained officers to send, U.S. officials say, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deployment of intelligence personnel publicly. The clandestine service is roughly 5,000 officers strong, and the paramilitary corps sent to war zones is only in the hundreds, the officials said.
Most of the CIA's paramilitary team dispatched to Libya during the revolution had been sent onward to the Syrian border, the officials said.
The CIA normally hires extra people to make up for such shortfalls, often retired special operators with the requisite security clearance, military training and language ability. But the government mandate to slash contractor use has meant cutting contracts, according to two former officials familiar with the agency's current hiring practices.
To fill in the gaps in spies on the ground, the U.S. intelligence community has kept up surveillance over Libya with unmanned and largely unarmed Predator and Reaper drones, increasing the area they cover, and the frequency of their flights since the attack on the consulate, as well as sending more surveillance equipment to the region, one official said.
But intelligence gathered from the air still needs corroboration from sources on the ground, as well as someone to act on the intelligence to go after the targets.
The Libyan government, though it claims it is eager to help, has limited tools at its disposal. The post-revolution government has been slow to rebuild both its intelligence capability and its security services, fearful of empowering the very institutions they had to fight to overthrow Gadhafi. They have made a start, but they lack a sophisticated cadre of trained spies and a large network of informants.
"The Libyans in just about every endeavor are just learning to walk, let alone run," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA official and author of the book "Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy."
"There is confusion and competing elements within the new provisional government which complicates the task of creating new institutions, including the intelligence service," he said.
"There are still some aspects of the intelligence services that still work," says Barak Barfi of the New America Foundation think tank, including eavesdropping on cellphone calls and spying on computer traffic using equipment from the Gadhafi era. Barfi spent months with members of Libya's transitional government as they tried to rebuild the nation's services and infrastructure.
But the Libyans have not yet even taken full command their own security services almost a year after Gadhafi's fall, Barfi said. That's given the tens of thousands of militiamen who helped overthrow Gadhafi the time they needed to organize and seek new targets, especially Western ones, he said.
Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
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