http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/15/261665/the-october-surprise-to-carterize-obama/
In an attack designed to coincide with the protests, a Libyan death squad has assassinated the US ambassador to Libya and three of his associates. The US State Department has set up a crisis management center to monitor developments 24 hours a day.
The film in question was obviously designed as a provocation and nothing else. But was this film, as the US media claim, the work of the isolated Cerrito, California resident and Egyptian-American Nakoula Bassely Nakoula. aka Abanob Bassely aka Israeli citizen Sam Bacile, an ex-convict with a drug problem, and a few actors he hired? Persuasive evidence suggests that this is not the case.
Instead, we are dealing with an ambitious international intelligence operation aimed at creating an October Surprise (a few weeks early) to shock world and US public opinion for the purpose of discrediting and “Carterizing” the current tenant of the White House, and installing Netanyahu’s friend Mitt Romney in his place. Since the US public identifies Obama as the patron of the color revolutions and military interventions of the “Arab Spring,” attacks on US diplomats, assassinations, and possible hostage taking can be expected to weaken his case for reelection. If Romney prevails, control over US foreign policy would pass to the group of incorrigible warmonger neocons who are the Romney’s handlers for international affairs. The current crisis is a sign that the neocons and their friends are attempting a comeback.
The networks involved in this operation appear to be these:
The Netanyahu Likud During the past week, the reactionary Israeli Prime Minister has intervened blatantly and outrageously in US election-year politics in the attempt to secure the election of Mitt Romney, with whom he has been joined at the hip since the two worked together at the Boston Consulting Group in 1976.
About a week ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States has no “red lines” in regard to the Iranian nuclear program. Netanyahu replied with an angry outburst, raving that those who have no red lines have “no moral right” to give Israel a red light when it comes to starting a catastrophic aggressive war against Iran. This was interpreted in Washington as a call to vote for Romney. To underline the message, the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset appeared on MSNBC cable news one morning to demand immediate US war with Iran. Republican candidates are using this material for their campaigns.
Some observers have pointed out that, while Netanyahu demands that the US specify some future set of circumstances under which war must begin, the Israeli government has never specified any red lines of its own, meaning that Bibi wants Washington to be more Israeli than the Israelis. These brazen actions by Netanyahu have evoked a wave of American resentment and hostility, even in circles which are usually prepared to go along with the Israelis.
US Neocons The pro-Israeli neocons of the Bush-Cheney era have attached themselves to Romney as their main hope of getting back into power. This group includes John Bolton (the likely Secretary of State if Romney wins), Eliot Cohen, Robert Kagan, Robert Joseph, and Dan Senor (who now tells vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan what to say about foreign policy).
Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Saudi Arabian royal family would likely prefer Romney to Obama. Since the Saudi royals are the paymasters for the majority of the death squads now operating in the Middle East, including Libya and Syria, their support would be valuable in organizing operations like the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
The French imperialist ideologue Bernard-Henri Lévy, who had strongly advised President Sarkozy to start bombing Libya, is praising Stevens as a “secret craftsman of [Libyan] liberation.”
BHL says Stevens had accompanied Hillary Clinton to a meeting with Libyan rebel chief Mahmoud Jebril on March 14, 2011, and had later helped convince Hillary to call Obama and recommend that he order an immediate start to the bombing. (Le Monde, Sept. 12) Given the Arabic and French language skills of Stevens, he was then well qualified to serve as contact man with the pro-al-Qaeda militant groups of the Benghazi-Derna-Tobruk extremist axis which did much of the fighting against Qaddafi. Many of these armed groups have been transferred by NATO into Syria to fight against President Assad, raising the question of Ambassador Stevens’ role in these currently ongoing operations. Less clear is why he should be singled out at this time. Perhaps he was a witness whose testimony could have proved embarrassing later.
On Tuesday evening, Stevens had left the US consular compound and taken refuge in a secret safe house nearby. Somehow, the well-trained attackers knew of the existence of this safe house and directed professionally accurate mortar fire against these premises. How did they know where Ambassador Stevens was hiding? We would need to ask the CIA and the Saudis.
Nakoula/Bacile served almost two years in jail after conviction for identity theft and bank fraud involving credit cards. He is currently out on parole, and one of the conditions is that he not use a computer. If authorities can prove he posted the incendiary video, they can immediately revoke his parole and send him back to prison for four years. Nakoula/Bacile looks like a patsy - specifically a drug informant. (Peliske and Daly, Daily Beast, Sept. 14)
As for the film, it would appear to be the handiwork of a well-known Islamophobic network reputedly inspired by US intelligence. According to the Los Angeles Times, the permit for the film originally called “Desert Warrior” was requested by a “Christian nonprofit” calling itself Media For Christ of Duarte, California. The blogger Panglozz of The Daily Kos reports that Media For Christ is owned by Joseph Nasrallah Abdelmasih, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian activist and anti-Moslim firebrand. Nasrallah was prominent in the summer 2010 campaign to prevent the building of a mosque and Islamic community center not far from the site of the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Nasrallah was a speaker at a rally held at Ground Zero on September 11, 2010, to protest the mosque. This rally was organized by a well-connected Islamophobic organization known as Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA).
The main spokesperson and organizer for SIOA is Pamela Geller, a notorious professional Islamophobe and the hostess of the Atlas Shrugs blog. Geller, despite her venom, enjoys access to the US mainstream media. The SIOA rally just mentioned was also addressed via video link by Ambassador John Bolton, a top neocon, close adviser to Romney, and widely touted as a possible Secretary of State in a future Romney regime. Another speaker at this rally was the Netherlands xenophobic politician Geert Wilders, who also wanted to block the mosque. Wilders’ party has just suffered heavy losses in the Netherlands elections earlier this week.
Bolton took a leading role in trying to turn the Stevens assassination against Obama this past week. Bolton told a Washington, DC radio station: “I’ve said for 3½ years the President doesn’t care about national security. He doesn’t think the world is terribly threatening. I think a weak reaction, a failure to demonstrate American power and resolve, will help see this stretched throughout the region.” Bolton warned particularly that a new hostage crisis would replay the “destruction of the Jimmy Carter administration,” this time at Obama’s expense. (Politico, Sept. 13)
and....
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/9/14/middle-east-seeks-to-transform-the-united-states.html
http://beforeitsnews.com/terrorism/2012/09/two-us-universities-evacuate-campuses-texas-university-claims-al-qaeda-bomb-threat-2444082.html
all so predictable......
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/2/52909/World/UPDATED-Islamic-world-revolts-against-United-State.aspx
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/09/13/obama-egypt-is-neither-an-enemy-nor-an-ally/
“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said following masses of protesters who stormed the US Embassy in Cairo and tore up the American flag, sparked by offense over an anti-Muslim film made in the US.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before the attack that American diplomatic buildings may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert or to otherwise respond accordingly.
Imagine if that had happened in Syria - or with a visiting US diplomat to Iran, for example; Pentagon-based revenge already would be in effect. US consulates were never attacked when Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was in power in Libya; it happened under the watch of a "NATO rebel" regime fully sponsored by Washington.
Libya is now militia hell - from neighborhood-watch outfits to mini-armies. They won't disarm. They refuse to be part of government security forces because their logic is tribal. They're fighting one another. No weak central government in car-bomb-infested Tripoli will rein them in.
Another way to put it is that "liberated" Libya is now warlord country. Home of vendettas in the desert and tribal pogroms against other tribes - and even whole towns.
The Salafi-jihadis - with whom Washington, London and Paris were unashamedly in bed during their humanitarian bombing campaign - are based in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. Some have come from Iraq. Some are shuttling back and forth to and from Syria, aiming to destroy yet one more secular Arab republic.
They include the heavily armed gang that attacked the US consulate - the self-described Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, which surfaced only four months ago. Three months ago, hundreds of AK-47-equipped Salafi-jihadis held Benghazi hostage demanding sharia law.
The (disintegrated) police and army of "liberated" Libya could not possibly face them down. Local tribes don't care. Salafi-jihadis have been attacking Sufi mosques and tombs; Sufi Islam is infinitely more moderate - and intellectually sophisticated - compared with medieval Wahhabism. The training camps are near Derna - which has a history of being a top source of al-Qaeda-style jihadis, especially active in occupied Iraq. This does not mean all the Salafi-jihadis are affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM); it's a much more local Libyan affair.
Anyway, by now Derna must be under watch, millimeter by millimeter, by Obama's drones. Hellfire missiles will be raining down over Derna in no time. There will be collateral damage. No one will shed a tear.
As much as Salafi-jihadis are a minority in Libya, they are a highly motivated, trained and weaponized minority. They won't go down quietly. They will react if the Obama administration goes for all-out droning and a Hellfire feast; they will attack the weak central government in Tripoli. Somalization looms.
It's Hellfire time
Egypt is a much tougher, nuanced proposition - because it's the model for the uneasy Washington-Muslim Brotherhood (MB) love affair, with the US betting on moderate Islamists as provisional substitutes of friendly dictators of the Hosni Mubarak kind. A complicating factor is that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is in direct competition with local Salafis - who got 25% in the congressional elections. So the MB won't be very forceful in denouncing them - even though they are hated by the Salafis.
There's virtually nothing the Obama administration can do to pressure Morsi. He has been extremely cunning - playing the US, the House of Saud and Qatar against one another. Whatever happens, the brief honeymoon between the Obama administration and the MB is destined to sour. The only regional actor to savor this will be Israel - which detested the honeymoon in the first place.
The Obama administration was forced into this dead-end because - foolishly, one might stress - it has been playing the sectarian card, aligning itself with the medieval House of Saud and cunning mini-superpower Qatar, key protector of the MB, but also with all sorts of Salafi-jihadism, especially in Syria. All this to ultimately defeat the self-described "axis of resistance" - Iran-Syria-Hezbollah - whatever it takes. It takes facing repeated instances of blowback all across MENA and beyond. So what is Obama to do? The cosmically mediocre Mitt Romney accused him of being weak in the face of "terra-rists", but Romney is a foreign-policy pigmy, whose neocon-instilled agenda boils down to treating both Russia and China as enemies and bombing Iran. The Republican Party simply has no clue of what's going on in MENA.
Not that Obama has much to rely on. The old, cozy, dictator-led order has collapsed after Tunisia and Egypt. Washington is being kicked out of Iraq. Obama himself cannot position Egypt as an ally or a threat. What's left is to drone - somebody, anybody - to death. Send the marines. Deploy some warships. Display some military muscle. And hope for the best.
The last thing Obama needs now is to gloat over his success in finishing off al-Qaeda, or to get embroiled in a messy Arab Spring debate. If, as stellar pollster Nate Silver attests, he has an 80% chance of winning re-election, all he has to do is to calculate each and every move to prevent any serious controversy. After November, it's another story. The US may even develop a sound, coherent MENA policy.
October surprise to Carterize Obama
An Egyptian riot police officer fires tear gas towards protesters during clashes with police near the US embassy in Cairo on September 13, 2012. Police used tear gas as they clashed with a crowd protesting outside the US embassy in Cairo against a film mo
Demonstrations have occurred in the past few days at US embassies in more than 20 cities across the world to protest the scurrilous California film originally entitled “Desert Warrior” and then “The Innocence of Moslims.”
In an attack designed to coincide with the protests, a Libyan death squad has assassinated the US ambassador to Libya and three of his associates. The US State Department has set up a crisis management center to monitor developments 24 hours a day.
The film in question was obviously designed as a provocation and nothing else. But was this film, as the US media claim, the work of the isolated Cerrito, California resident and Egyptian-American Nakoula Bassely Nakoula. aka Abanob Bassely aka Israeli citizen Sam Bacile, an ex-convict with a drug problem, and a few actors he hired? Persuasive evidence suggests that this is not the case.
Instead, we are dealing with an ambitious international intelligence operation aimed at creating an October Surprise (a few weeks early) to shock world and US public opinion for the purpose of discrediting and “Carterizing” the current tenant of the White House, and installing Netanyahu’s friend Mitt Romney in his place. Since the US public identifies Obama as the patron of the color revolutions and military interventions of the “Arab Spring,” attacks on US diplomats, assassinations, and possible hostage taking can be expected to weaken his case for reelection. If Romney prevails, control over US foreign policy would pass to the group of incorrigible warmonger neocons who are the Romney’s handlers for international affairs. The current crisis is a sign that the neocons and their friends are attempting a comeback.
The networks involved in this operation appear to be these:
The CIA Mormon Mafia, featuring top officials across the US intelligence community who are members of Romney’s tightly-knit sect. This group can also be referred to as the Brent Scowcroft faction. Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger’s right-hand man, used his entrenched bureaucratic position over decades to help promote many of his co-religionists. This group wants Romney in the White House because Romney and his transition team boss Mike Leavitt, also a Mormon, are visibly embarked on a policy of favoring Mormons for top positions.
On Sept. 14, Google rejected an appeal by the Obama White House to remove the controversial film worldwide. As Wired magazine noted on May 11, 2012, “former National Security Agency chief Mike McConnell told theWashington Post that collaboration between the NSA and private companies like Google was ‘inevitable,’” and has been widely reported since January 2010. So Google’s refusal to cooperate with Obama tells us about the views of the NSA, and speaks volumes about which presidential candidate the intelligence community is backing.
The Netanyahu Likud During the past week, the reactionary Israeli Prime Minister has intervened blatantly and outrageously in US election-year politics in the attempt to secure the election of Mitt Romney, with whom he has been joined at the hip since the two worked together at the Boston Consulting Group in 1976.
About a week ago, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States has no “red lines” in regard to the Iranian nuclear program. Netanyahu replied with an angry outburst, raving that those who have no red lines have “no moral right” to give Israel a red light when it comes to starting a catastrophic aggressive war against Iran. This was interpreted in Washington as a call to vote for Romney. To underline the message, the deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset appeared on MSNBC cable news one morning to demand immediate US war with Iran. Republican candidates are using this material for their campaigns.
Some observers have pointed out that, while Netanyahu demands that the US specify some future set of circumstances under which war must begin, the Israeli government has never specified any red lines of its own, meaning that Bibi wants Washington to be more Israeli than the Israelis. These brazen actions by Netanyahu have evoked a wave of American resentment and hostility, even in circles which are usually prepared to go along with the Israelis.
Some have also speculated that, since Romney has shown repeatedly that he has no knowledge of world affairs, Netanyahu believes that he would be able to dictate US foreign policy through his friendship with Romney. During the Republican presidential debates, Romney promised to get Netanyahu’s approval for every US action in the Middle East.
US Neocons The pro-Israeli neocons of the Bush-Cheney era have attached themselves to Romney as their main hope of getting back into power. This group includes John Bolton (the likely Secretary of State if Romney wins), Eliot Cohen, Robert Kagan, Robert Joseph, and Dan Senor (who now tells vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan what to say about foreign policy).
Prince Bandar bin Sultan and the Saudi Arabian royal family would likely prefer Romney to Obama. Since the Saudi royals are the paymasters for the majority of the death squads now operating in the Middle East, including Libya and Syria, their support would be valuable in organizing operations like the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
The French imperialist ideologue Bernard-Henri Lévy, who had strongly advised President Sarkozy to start bombing Libya, is praising Stevens as a “secret craftsman of [Libyan] liberation.”
BHL says Stevens had accompanied Hillary Clinton to a meeting with Libyan rebel chief Mahmoud Jebril on March 14, 2011, and had later helped convince Hillary to call Obama and recommend that he order an immediate start to the bombing. (Le Monde, Sept. 12) Given the Arabic and French language skills of Stevens, he was then well qualified to serve as contact man with the pro-al-Qaeda militant groups of the Benghazi-Derna-Tobruk extremist axis which did much of the fighting against Qaddafi. Many of these armed groups have been transferred by NATO into Syria to fight against President Assad, raising the question of Ambassador Stevens’ role in these currently ongoing operations. Less clear is why he should be singled out at this time. Perhaps he was a witness whose testimony could have proved embarrassing later.
On Tuesday evening, Stevens had left the US consular compound and taken refuge in a secret safe house nearby. Somehow, the well-trained attackers knew of the existence of this safe house and directed professionally accurate mortar fire against these premises. How did they know where Ambassador Stevens was hiding? We would need to ask the CIA and the Saudis.
Nakoula/Bacile served almost two years in jail after conviction for identity theft and bank fraud involving credit cards. He is currently out on parole, and one of the conditions is that he not use a computer. If authorities can prove he posted the incendiary video, they can immediately revoke his parole and send him back to prison for four years. Nakoula/Bacile looks like a patsy - specifically a drug informant. (Peliske and Daly, Daily Beast, Sept. 14)
As for the film, it would appear to be the handiwork of a well-known Islamophobic network reputedly inspired by US intelligence. According to the Los Angeles Times, the permit for the film originally called “Desert Warrior” was requested by a “Christian nonprofit” calling itself Media For Christ of Duarte, California. The blogger Panglozz of The Daily Kos reports that Media For Christ is owned by Joseph Nasrallah Abdelmasih, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian activist and anti-Moslim firebrand. Nasrallah was prominent in the summer 2010 campaign to prevent the building of a mosque and Islamic community center not far from the site of the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Nasrallah was a speaker at a rally held at Ground Zero on September 11, 2010, to protest the mosque. This rally was organized by a well-connected Islamophobic organization known as Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA).
The main spokesperson and organizer for SIOA is Pamela Geller, a notorious professional Islamophobe and the hostess of the Atlas Shrugs blog. Geller, despite her venom, enjoys access to the US mainstream media. The SIOA rally just mentioned was also addressed via video link by Ambassador John Bolton, a top neocon, close adviser to Romney, and widely touted as a possible Secretary of State in a future Romney regime. Another speaker at this rally was the Netherlands xenophobic politician Geert Wilders, who also wanted to block the mosque. Wilders’ party has just suffered heavy losses in the Netherlands elections earlier this week.
Bolton took a leading role in trying to turn the Stevens assassination against Obama this past week. Bolton told a Washington, DC radio station: “I’ve said for 3½ years the President doesn’t care about national security. He doesn’t think the world is terribly threatening. I think a weak reaction, a failure to demonstrate American power and resolve, will help see this stretched throughout the region.” Bolton warned particularly that a new hostage crisis would replay the “destruction of the Jimmy Carter administration,” this time at Obama’s expense. (Politico, Sept. 13)
and....
http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2012/9/14/middle-east-seeks-to-transform-the-united-states.html
We warned early this year in “Arab Spring Turns To Winter” and numerous other articles that the Obama Administration initiative to put the full-force of America’s military and diplomatic clout behind leveraging “Arab Spring” protests to transform the Middle East into progressive democracies would lead to a disaster for the United States. The deaths of four diplomatic personnel during coordinated attacks by Sunni Muslim Jihadists on American Embassies in Cairo, Egypt and Benghazi, Libya confirms that U.S. policy has been the change agent that converted stable dictatorial regimes into impoverished hell-holes. Run by murderous tribal thugs, their only common interest is hatred of America as the Great Satan.
It was well known that the eleven year anniversary of the “911” terrorist attack on the United States would present an excellent opportunity to stage a highly visible attack on an American soft target. Middle Eastern papers were running inflammatory headlines and articles, such as Al Jazeera’s lead picture of a bound and blindfolded Arab under the headline: “Iraq Execution Spree under the Spotlight.”
In Cairo, approximately 3,000 Islamist supporters of the Salafist Sunni Muslim movement gathered at the US embassy in supposed protest against the amateur English language film, which had recently been dubbed into Arabic. Although there were “thousands of riot police guarding the American embassy,” protestors stormed into the inner wall of the embassy, tore down an American flag and put a black flag adorned with white characters that read, "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger," an emblem often used by Islamic radicals. Egyptian police eventually intervened without resorting to force, but the black flag remained up the rest of the day for all to see.
For the Salafist radicals, the political and recruiting value of demonstrating they can overwhelm the symbol of United States at the same location where last year tens of thousands turned out in opposition to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, is invaluable. The U.S. Cairo Embassy compounded the perceived defeat of American power by issuing a statement that seemed to echo fear of radical Islam:
"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,"
In Benghazi, Libya, where the United States militarily first intervened last year under the guise of a NATO humanitarian mission, which allowed the U.S. Air Force to bomb Western Libya and U.S. Special Forces “boots on the ground” to supervise Colonel Gadhafi’s execution, a radical Islamist group calling themselves: “Islamic Law Supporters," but known to be Ansar al-Sharia, planned and organized another attack on a U.S. consulate from their Libyan government sanctioned military compound in Benghazi.
The US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, had travelled to Benghazi from the capital city of Tripoli in what was described a short visit. But the trip may have been an effort to move to the birth-place of the revolution against Colonel Gadhafi as a safe-haven from expected protests in the capital city of Tripoli. When the embassy came under attack, the Ambassador was moved by security personnel to a secret “safe-house. The location of the safe-house was leaked to the Salafists and thepictures of the ambassador appear to indicate he was beaten to death and his body dragged through the streets.
The propaganda value of the successful attacks on the U.S. embassies and the first murder of a U.S. ambassador in 33 years are astronomical. As CNN national security contributor Fran Townsend stated:
"One such breach of an embassy or consulate's walls or security on any given day would be tremendous news. ... The fact that two of them happened on the same day that is the 9/11 anniversary where Americans are remembering those that we lost, you have to ask yourself, what are American officials trying to understand about this and whether or not these two are related?"
President Obama and his supporters celebrate the Arab Spring as a wonderful geo-political success and they have cranked up the Central Intelligence Agency to fund and equip a brutal civil war in Syria. Their Middle East initiatives may have sought to liberate tens of millions of oppressed people from stable dictatorships, but it delivered the people into the hands of barbaric butchers. With the transformation of the Middle East almost complete, the butchers are now ready to try to transform the United States. Cross-posted from Chriss Street's blog.
and.....
http://beforeitsnews.com/terrorism/2012/09/two-us-universities-evacuate-campuses-texas-university-claims-al-qaeda-bomb-threat-2444082.html
Two US universities have evacuated their campuses after receiving terrorist threats. Officials at the University of Texas at Austin say the man who targeted their school with an alleged bomb claimed to be a member of al-Qaeda.
The Director of Communications at the University of Texas-Austin, Rhonda Weldon, received a call from a man with a “Middle Eastern” accent who said he was part of al-Qaeda just after 8:30 a.m. local time Friday morning. The caller said that he had placed bombs“all over campus” that would go off after 90 minutes.
Wheldon sent an email telling the students and faculty at the 50,000-strong campus to “get as far away as possible.’‘ Buildings on school property were reported to be vacated within an hour, although Twitter messages sent from the scene suggest that students and faculty are still in the area.
Bobby Blanchard, a reporter with the school’s Daily Texas newspaper, reports via Twitter that students were still close to campus buildings despite pleas from authorities. Others, he reports, relocated to nearby coffee shops to take cover.
An hour-and-a-half after the supposed bomb was scheduled to detonate, Blanchard tweeted that there was no indication that any explosives went off, and that some stragglers were still inside campus buildings. Police had already began combing the scene for any dangerous devices, but were unable to immediately locate any,
Events at the University of North Dakota have followed a similar scenario, though the administrators there have not revealed anything about the identity of their caller.
At a third university, Valparaiso in Chicago, administrators posted a campus-wide alert about “an unspecific threat to campus was made through a graffiti message alluding to dangerous and criminal activity alleged to be carried out during the chapel break period.” MORE
The Director of Communications at the University of Texas-Austin, Rhonda Weldon, received a call from a man with a “Middle Eastern” accent who said he was part of al-Qaeda just after 8:30 a.m. local time Friday morning. The caller said that he had placed bombs“all over campus” that would go off after 90 minutes.
Wheldon sent an email telling the students and faculty at the 50,000-strong campus to “get as far away as possible.’‘ Buildings on school property were reported to be vacated within an hour, although Twitter messages sent from the scene suggest that students and faculty are still in the area.
Bobby Blanchard, a reporter with the school’s Daily Texas newspaper, reports via Twitter that students were still close to campus buildings despite pleas from authorities. Others, he reports, relocated to nearby coffee shops to take cover.
An hour-and-a-half after the supposed bomb was scheduled to detonate, Blanchard tweeted that there was no indication that any explosives went off, and that some stragglers were still inside campus buildings. Police had already began combing the scene for any dangerous devices, but were unable to immediately locate any,
Events at the University of North Dakota have followed a similar scenario, though the administrators there have not revealed anything about the identity of their caller.
At a third university, Valparaiso in Chicago, administrators posted a campus-wide alert about “an unspecific threat to campus was made through a graffiti message alluding to dangerous and criminal activity alleged to be carried out during the chapel break period.” MORE
all so predictable......
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/2/52909/World/UPDATED-Islamic-world-revolts-against-United-State.aspx
UPDATED: Islamic world revolts against United States over anti-Islam film
Muslims around the world, incensed by anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims”, held demos Friday at US embassies chanting name of Prophet Mohamed, and torching American flags. Ahram Online compiled a list of major protest sites.
Ahram Online, Friday 14 Sep 2012
Islamic world map (Photo: AP)
Afghanistan:
Hundreds of Afghan protesters took to the streets on Friday, setting fire to an effigy of US President Barack Obama and demanding the death of a film-maker who they say insulted the Prophet Mohammed – read more
Algeria:
Algeria's foreign ministry, meanwhile, condemned the low-budget movie, "Innocence of Muslims," reportedly made by an Israeli-American, which portrays Muslims as immoral and gratuitously – read more
India:
Indian Kashmir's most senior Islamic cleric has told all US citizens to "immediately leave" the region because of the privately-produced anti-Islam film that surfaced in the United States – read more
Indonesia:
More than 350 Muslim fundamentalists and their supporters staged an anti-US demonstration in Jakarta Friday, spewing anger at America over an anti-Islam film – read more
Iran:
A foreign ministry statement slammed the film, an amateur production made in the United States, as "repulsive" and said the US government's "silence" encouraged such offences to Islam – read more
Iraq:
Iraqi protesters burned US and Israeli flags as thousands of people demonstrated for a second day Friday in cities and towns across Iraq against an anti-Islam film – read more
Jordan:
More than 2,000 Islamists demonstrated in Amman on Friday to condemn an anti-Islam film, as the Jordanian government demanded YouTube remove trailers for the movie posted on its website – read more
Lebanon:
A demonstrator was killed and 25 people hurt in clashes with police on Friday after an angry crowd of Islamists set fire to a KFC restaurant in northern Lebanon – read more
Hundreds of Afghan protesters took to the streets on Friday, setting fire to an effigy of US President Barack Obama and demanding the death of a film-maker who they say insulted the Prophet Mohammed – read more
Algeria:
Algeria's foreign ministry, meanwhile, condemned the low-budget movie, "Innocence of Muslims," reportedly made by an Israeli-American, which portrays Muslims as immoral and gratuitously – read more
India:
Indian Kashmir's most senior Islamic cleric has told all US citizens to "immediately leave" the region because of the privately-produced anti-Islam film that surfaced in the United States – read more
Indonesia:
More than 350 Muslim fundamentalists and their supporters staged an anti-US demonstration in Jakarta Friday, spewing anger at America over an anti-Islam film – read more
Iran:
A foreign ministry statement slammed the film, an amateur production made in the United States, as "repulsive" and said the US government's "silence" encouraged such offences to Islam – read more
Iraq:
Iraqi protesters burned US and Israeli flags as thousands of people demonstrated for a second day Friday in cities and towns across Iraq against an anti-Islam film – read more
Jordan:
More than 2,000 Islamists demonstrated in Amman on Friday to condemn an anti-Islam film, as the Jordanian government demanded YouTube remove trailers for the movie posted on its website – read more
Lebanon:
A demonstrator was killed and 25 people hurt in clashes with police on Friday after an angry crowd of Islamists set fire to a KFC restaurant in northern Lebanon – read more
Libya:
American ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, along with three other embassy staff members, was killed Tuesday night following an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Another five Americans and ten members of the Libyan security forces were injured as mobs, allegedly protesting the anti-Islam film, stormed the US mission armed with rocket-propelled grenades – read more
Malaysia:
Muslims held demonstrations across Malaysia on Friday, calling for the United States to prevent distribution of an anti-Islam film they said was part of a plot by "Christian extremists" – read more
Morocco:
In Morocco's largest city Casablanca, between 300 and 400 Muslim activists gathered outside the US consulate, amid a heavy police presence, some shouting anti-US slogans, including "Death to Obama!" – read more
Nigeria:
Nigerian troops try to disperse crowd around mosque in city of Jos by firing in the air – read more
Pakistan:
Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities around Pakistan on Friday to denounce an anti-Islam movie, with some urging death for the film-maker and others demanding the expulsion of US diplomats – read more
Palestine:
Palestinians on Friday protested an anti-Muslim film, with thousands gathering in the Gaza Strip and hundreds in Jerusalem where there were clashes with Israeli police – read more
Sudan:
Around 5,000 protesters in the Sudanese capital angry over an anti-Islam film on Friday stormed the embassies of Britain and Germany, which was torched and badly damaged – read more
Tunisia:
Tunisian police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters gathered Friday outside the US embassy in a Tunis suburb to denounce a film mocking Islam – read more
Yemen:
Four Yemenis died in the capital Sanaa after police fired live rounds and tear gas against demonstrators who tried to storm the US embassy protesting a film mocking Islam - read more
American ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, along with three other embassy staff members, was killed Tuesday night following an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Another five Americans and ten members of the Libyan security forces were injured as mobs, allegedly protesting the anti-Islam film, stormed the US mission armed with rocket-propelled grenades – read more
Malaysia:
Muslims held demonstrations across Malaysia on Friday, calling for the United States to prevent distribution of an anti-Islam film they said was part of a plot by "Christian extremists" – read more
Morocco:
In Morocco's largest city Casablanca, between 300 and 400 Muslim activists gathered outside the US consulate, amid a heavy police presence, some shouting anti-US slogans, including "Death to Obama!" – read more
Nigeria:
Nigerian troops try to disperse crowd around mosque in city of Jos by firing in the air – read more
Pakistan:
Hundreds of people demonstrated in cities around Pakistan on Friday to denounce an anti-Islam movie, with some urging death for the film-maker and others demanding the expulsion of US diplomats – read more
Palestine:
Palestinians on Friday protested an anti-Muslim film, with thousands gathering in the Gaza Strip and hundreds in Jerusalem where there were clashes with Israeli police – read more
Sudan:
Around 5,000 protesters in the Sudanese capital angry over an anti-Islam film on Friday stormed the embassies of Britain and Germany, which was torched and badly damaged – read more
Tunisia:
Tunisian police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters gathered Friday outside the US embassy in a Tunis suburb to denounce a film mocking Islam – read more
Yemen:
Four Yemenis died in the capital Sanaa after police fired live rounds and tear gas against demonstrators who tried to storm the US embassy protesting a film mocking Islam - read more
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/09/13/obama-egypt-is-neither-an-enemy-nor-an-ally/
Obama: Egypt Is Neither an Enemy Nor an Ally
Washington has been scrambling for leverage in Egypt, but whether the new government will be sufficiently obedient to the US isn't clear
by John Glaser, September 13, 2012
President Obama said in a televised interview on Wednesday that the US does not consider Egypt’s Islamist-led government an ally or an enemy, even as Washington continues to flood the post-revolution country with billions in military and financial aid.
“I don’t think that we would consider them an ally, but we don’t consider them an enemy,” Obama said following masses of protesters who stormed the US Embassy in Cairo and tore up the American flag, sparked by offense over an anti-Muslim film made in the US.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi was slow to react to the issue of angry mobs outside the US Embassy, and administration officials were apparently waiting for him to condemn the protests and reaffirm his support for America and the defense of its Embassy.
Obama said the newly formed, democratically elected Egyptian government is trying “to find its way.” In other words, they haven’t yet been strong enough in their subservience to Washington, who propped up the former dictator Hosni Mubarak for decades.
If Egyptian officials show “they’re not taking responsibility,” Obama warned, then it would “be a real big problem.”
The White House cautiously stepped back from the comments on Thursday, saying ”folks are reading way too much into this,” and that “‘Ally’ is a legal term of art” and that Egypt is a “close partner of the United States.”
Despite the transfer of power in Egypt and the unsettling hand it dealt to Washington’s foreign policy elite, the US has continued to send about $1.5 billion to Egypt every year, mostly in security assistance, and offering even more in debt relief,apparently as a bribe to keep “American interests” a priority.
Since the Egyptian revolution, Washington has been scrambling for leverage in Cairo, playing both sides in being supportive of both the military leadership and the Muslim Brotherhood and asking for “a managed transition” to democratic rule as long as the leadership defers to US power on central issues, like adhering to treaties with Israel and favoring American presence as opposed to Chinese or Russian.
US support for the democratic victors will turn on a dime if these demands are not respected, and this is presumably what President Obama meant when he expressed trepidation about Egypt being an American ally or not.
and.....
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/201291482159758224.html
| Clashes intensify near US embassy in Cairo | |||||
Demonstrators angry over anti-Muslim video hurl stones at police, as US braces for more protests after Friday prayers.
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2012 10:46
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| Protesters in Egypt, angry at a video they say insults Prophet Mohammad, have hurled stones on a police force that prevented them from marching towards the US embassy in Cairo. On Friday, police in riot gear fired tear gas and threw stones back at the demonstrators. A burnt-out car was overturned in the middle of the street that leads to the fortified embassy from Tahrir Square. Police had tried to clear the Square on Friday ahead of a nationwide protest called by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most influential group. The Brotherhood propelled President Mohamed Mursi to power after popular protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year and ushered in the first democratic elections in decades.
Shortly after police cleared Tahrir, however, the demonstrators returned.
The Egyptian authorities had erected large concrete barriers to block the route to the embassy. "Before the police, we were attacked by Obama," shouted one demonstrator, blaming US President Barack Obama and the US government for insulting the Prophet. One banner held aloft by demonstrators read: "It is the duty of all Muslims and Christians to kill Morris Sadek and Sam Bacile and everyone who participated in the film." Several demonstrators waved green and black flags with Islamic verses on them. Protests feared US anticipated more protests after Friday prayers amid wave of violent demonstrations over anti-Muslim video that has spanned several countries.
The White House said on Thursday that it was prepared for more protests, but stressed that any violence would be unjustified. “It is important to note that as these protests are taking place in different countries around the world, responding to the movie, that Friday, tomorrow, has historically been a day when there are protests in the Muslim world,'' Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters in Colorado. “And we are watching very closely for developments that could lead to more protests. We anticipate that they may continue.” The US has put all of its diplomatic missions overseas on high alert after violent protests raged in parts of the Muslim world particularly Middle East and North Africa. Protests have also spread to the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, as well as Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Gaza Strip. And there have been demonstrations in Sudan and Tunisia.
'Provoke rage'
On Thursday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US secretary of state, delivered an explicit denunciation of the video. “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.'' However, Clinton stressed that no matter how offensive it was, the film could not be used as an excuse for violence like that seen in Egypt and in Yemen, where demonstrators tried to storm the embassy compound in Sanaa on Thursday. Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood has called for demonstrations after Friday prayers, as did authorities in Iran and the Gaza strip. At least four people were killed in protests in the Yemeni capital. There is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence,'' Clinton said. “We condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms. ... It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. These are places whose very purpose is peaceful: to promote better understanding across countries and cultures.'' She then reminded foreign governments that they have a responsibility to protect embassies as the US embassy in Cairo remained under siege. Obama vows On Tuesday, angry demonstrations raided US embassy in Benghazi in which at least 14 people were killed, including the US ambassador Chris Stevens. US officials said they suspected that the attack at the Benghazi consulate, which had also been the target of an unsuccessful attack in June, may have been only tangentially related to the film.
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Al-Qaeda and Possibly Infiltrators in Libyan Forces at Center of US Consulate Attack
The US had credible information about an attack but failed to warn the diplomatic mission in Libya
by John Glaser, September 13, 2012
The assault on the US consulate building in Libya Tuesday night was a planned attack by al-Qaeda militants that may have involved infiltrators within Libya’s new security forces.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before the attack that American diplomatic buildings may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert or to otherwise respond accordingly.
While the attack was initially thought to be solely in response to an insulting anti-Muslim film produced in the US, it included heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades and turned out to be a two-pronged attack too well coordinated to be a spontaneous protest.
Wanis el-Sharef, eastern Libya’s deputy interior minister, told the Associated Press the attacks were suspected to have been timed to mark the 9/11 anniversary and the recent killing of an al-Qada commander in Pakistan. The militants used civilian anger about the anti-Muslim film as cover for their action.
After the initial attack, Americans were taken out of the consulate building to hide out in a safe house, but that the safe house was then attacked in an equally coordinated attack. Sharef said infiltrators within the Libyan government forces may have tipped off militants to the safe house location.
The incident is turning out to be a serious and continuing security breach for the US government, according to The Independent: “Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.”
The US government led a NATO mission in Libya last year to unseat Muammar Gadhafi. From the beginning there were concerns that the rebel militias being aided in the war had extensive links to al-Qaeda. The new US-backed government has not been able to control the country since nominally coming to power, as rebel militias continue to hold power in many areas throughout the country and refuse to disarm. Militants linked with al-Qaeda remain in Libya, with several encampments in the east.
and....
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NI15Ak01.html
Brother Obama, where art thou?
Pepe Escobar
MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is on fire. The diffuse rage - even if manifested by a tiny minority - is distinctly anti-American. Protests in Cairo have reached Sanaa in Yemen and even Bangladesh. The administration of US President Barack Obama is perplexed beyond belief. There will be revenge. What's really going on?
It does not matter whether that infamous, crude, made-in-California anti-Islam and anti-Prophet Muhammad flick - actually financed/produced by an Egyptian Christian Copt and American protestants, instead of a non-existent Jewish real-estate developer - was just a pretext that led to the killing of the US ambassador in Benghazi and the protests in Cairo and beyond. Let's try to identify the consequences.
The militia ballet
The strategic target of the Salafi-jihadis who killed the USambassador in Benghazi was to torpedo the (already shaky) Obama-Muslim Brotherhood alliance.
Pepe Escobar
MENA (Middle East/North Africa) is on fire. The diffuse rage - even if manifested by a tiny minority - is distinctly anti-American. Protests in Cairo have reached Sanaa in Yemen and even Bangladesh. The administration of US President Barack Obama is perplexed beyond belief. There will be revenge. What's really going on?
It does not matter whether that infamous, crude, made-in-California anti-Islam and anti-Prophet Muhammad flick - actually financed/produced by an Egyptian Christian Copt and American protestants, instead of a non-existent Jewish real-estate developer - was just a pretext that led to the killing of the US ambassador in Benghazi and the protests in Cairo and beyond. Let's try to identify the consequences.
The militia ballet
The strategic target of the Salafi-jihadis who killed the USambassador in Benghazi was to torpedo the (already shaky) Obama-Muslim Brotherhood alliance.
Imagine if that had happened in Syria - or with a visiting US diplomat to Iran, for example; Pentagon-based revenge already would be in effect. US consulates were never attacked when Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was in power in Libya; it happened under the watch of a "NATO rebel" regime fully sponsored by Washington.
Libya is now militia hell - from neighborhood-watch outfits to mini-armies. They won't disarm. They refuse to be part of government security forces because their logic is tribal. They're fighting one another. No weak central government in car-bomb-infested Tripoli will rein them in.
Another way to put it is that "liberated" Libya is now warlord country. Home of vendettas in the desert and tribal pogroms against other tribes - and even whole towns.
The Salafi-jihadis - with whom Washington, London and Paris were unashamedly in bed during their humanitarian bombing campaign - are based in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. Some have come from Iraq. Some are shuttling back and forth to and from Syria, aiming to destroy yet one more secular Arab republic.
They include the heavily armed gang that attacked the US consulate - the self-described Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades, which surfaced only four months ago. Three months ago, hundreds of AK-47-equipped Salafi-jihadis held Benghazi hostage demanding sharia law.
The (disintegrated) police and army of "liberated" Libya could not possibly face them down. Local tribes don't care. Salafi-jihadis have been attacking Sufi mosques and tombs; Sufi Islam is infinitely more moderate - and intellectually sophisticated - compared with medieval Wahhabism. The training camps are near Derna - which has a history of being a top source of al-Qaeda-style jihadis, especially active in occupied Iraq. This does not mean all the Salafi-jihadis are affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM); it's a much more local Libyan affair.
Anyway, by now Derna must be under watch, millimeter by millimeter, by Obama's drones. Hellfire missiles will be raining down over Derna in no time. There will be collateral damage. No one will shed a tear.
As much as Salafi-jihadis are a minority in Libya, they are a highly motivated, trained and weaponized minority. They won't go down quietly. They will react if the Obama administration goes for all-out droning and a Hellfire feast; they will attack the weak central government in Tripoli. Somalization looms.
It's Hellfire time
Egypt is a much tougher, nuanced proposition - because it's the model for the uneasy Washington-Muslim Brotherhood (MB) love affair, with the US betting on moderate Islamists as provisional substitutes of friendly dictators of the Hosni Mubarak kind. A complicating factor is that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is in direct competition with local Salafis - who got 25% in the congressional elections. So the MB won't be very forceful in denouncing them - even though they are hated by the Salafis.
There's virtually nothing the Obama administration can do to pressure Morsi. He has been extremely cunning - playing the US, the House of Saud and Qatar against one another. Whatever happens, the brief honeymoon between the Obama administration and the MB is destined to sour. The only regional actor to savor this will be Israel - which detested the honeymoon in the first place.
The Obama administration was forced into this dead-end because - foolishly, one might stress - it has been playing the sectarian card, aligning itself with the medieval House of Saud and cunning mini-superpower Qatar, key protector of the MB, but also with all sorts of Salafi-jihadism, especially in Syria. All this to ultimately defeat the self-described "axis of resistance" - Iran-Syria-Hezbollah - whatever it takes. It takes facing repeated instances of blowback all across MENA and beyond. So what is Obama to do? The cosmically mediocre Mitt Romney accused him of being weak in the face of "terra-rists", but Romney is a foreign-policy pigmy, whose neocon-instilled agenda boils down to treating both Russia and China as enemies and bombing Iran. The Republican Party simply has no clue of what's going on in MENA.
Not that Obama has much to rely on. The old, cozy, dictator-led order has collapsed after Tunisia and Egypt. Washington is being kicked out of Iraq. Obama himself cannot position Egypt as an ally or a threat. What's left is to drone - somebody, anybody - to death. Send the marines. Deploy some warships. Display some military muscle. And hope for the best.
The last thing Obama needs now is to gloat over his success in finishing off al-Qaeda, or to get embroiled in a messy Arab Spring debate. If, as stellar pollster Nate Silver attests, he has an 80% chance of winning re-election, all he has to do is to calculate each and every move to prevent any serious controversy. After November, it's another story. The US may even develop a sound, coherent MENA policy.
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