Speaking this morning in Golden, Colorado, wrapping a two-day swing through Western battleground states Nevada and Colorado, President Barack Obama said that those who killed four Americans in Libya, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, will be “brought to justice.” Obama sounded a martial note: “To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America.”
** QUICK HITS. The board of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, voted today in Vienna, Austria to censure Iran for accelerating its nuclear enrichment program and evading scrutiny from inspectors. Russia and China joined in today’s vote. Only Cuba voted against the motion, with Egypt and two other nations of the 35 represented abstaining. … Conservative Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, campaigning in Virginia, backed away from his doubled-down criticism of President Barack Obama for supposedly “apologizing” to the people who attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, the US embassy in Cairo, and killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Well, duh. The only question is why he doubled-down yesterday when it was clear that he was wildly off-base. … Yet right-wing Republicans today tried to make Obama out to be the second coming of Jimmy Carter — who merely launched a covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and launched a daring but unsuccessful special ops raid inside Tehran — for allowing days of protest against the ludicrous yet wildly offensive anti-Muslim video that lit the fuse on this crisis. Allowing protest in other countries? … As I suspected yesterday, the lethal attack on our diplomats in Benghazi is looking more and more like a plot, using the protest as a cover. (See below.) And the “movie?” Right now, it looks like the work of fundamentalist Christian zealots who, falsely self-identified as Jews and Israelis and thoroughly baked in the Southern California desert sun, wanted to stir up extremely bad trouble.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE X FACTOR AND THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE and CONSIDERING THE SEMI-BONDIAN DARK KNIGHT RISES (RISEN TO $1 BILLION AND RISING).
** NEW SURVEY: LIBYANS, A LARGELY PRO-U.S. POPULATION (AS WELL THEY SHOULD BE, GIVEN THE NATO INTERVENTION) WANT MILITIAS DISARMED. A Gallup Poll survey in Libya from the spring shows near unanimous support for the disarming of local militias.
It’s increasingly evident that a heavily armed militia took advantage of the cover provided by a protest against anti-Islamic video to attack and burn the US consulate in Benghazi and kill the US ambassador and three other Americans.
Nearly all Libyans (95%) surveyed early this spring, before Tuesday’s deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, agreed that local militias should be required to hand in their weapons to authorities immediately. …
The attack on the U.S. Consulate comes at a time when the new Libyan government is struggling to establish its authority over the whole of the country, with many groups that opposed Gadhafi remaining heavily armed after the conflict. Attacks in recent weeks on Sufi mosques and shrines highlight the increasing militancy of ultra-conservative Salafi groups in the country and the government’s inability to stop them.
Reflecting their concern about this situation, the majority of Libyans see Islamic militant groups and Gadhafi loyalists as a major threat to their country’s future. Still, Libyans are among the most hopeful populations in the Arab world that regional uprisings will actually bring about improved security, governance, and economic prospects — and many see a role for the West in helping them achieve this. In fact, Libyans reported record-high approval of U.S. leadership in March and early April, and they expressed a strong desire to cooperate militarily with the West at that time.
Here is the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya where the attack which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans took place on the 11th anniversary of 9/11. The investigation is underway into the attack, which increasingly looks like a well-planned assault which utilized the protest against an anti-Muslim movie as cover.
** NEW COLUMNS COMING UP … THE X FACTOR AND THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE and CONSIDERING THE SEMI-BONDIAN DARK KNIGHT RISES (RISEN TO $1 BILLION AND RISING).
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is in Colorado and Washington, DC.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at a campaign event at Lions Park in Golden, Colorado.
At 12:50 PM Pacific, Obama departs Golden, Colorado on Air Force One en route Washington, DC.
At 3:50 PM Pacific, Obama arrives Joint Base Andrews, where he boards Marine One.
At 4:05 PM Pacific, Obama lands on the South Lawn of the White House.
At 5:15 PM Pacific, Vice President Joe Biden subs for Obama and delivers remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 35th Anniversary Awards Gala at the Washington Hilton.
Conservative Republican rival Mitt Romney campaigns today in Virginia and fundraises in New York.
With Romney coming under bipartisan fire for his wildly overreaching reaction to the tragedy in Libya, Obama is sending a contingent of special operations Marine security personnel to Libya, securing US embassies worldwide, and ordering all non-essential personnel out of Libya in case of further attacks. Quite a few hard right Republicans are backing Romney on this, but criticism has been bipartisan.
Ironically, the Libyan government, comprised of many friends of assassinated Ambassador Chris Stevens after an election dominated by relatively secular moderates, selected its new prime minister yesterday, longtime Gaddafi opponent Mustafa Abu-Shakour, who had been deputy prime minister in the interim government and a leading member of the rebel council in Benghazi.
In my opinion, the murder of Stevens was no chance or coincidental event. His success in working with such facility in the Arab and African worlds was a threat to jihadist interests.
Libyan sources today are saying that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants.
Libyan leaders have made some arrests in the killings of the four American arrests. There were no Marines in Benghazi when the assault took place; there is a special contingent of Marines on hand now in Libya, with two US Navy destroyers coming on station off the Libyan coast.
Libya has been free from incident today. But there were small demonstrations in Cairo, controlled by the Egyptian police. New President Mohamed Morsi denounced the attack on the US embassy Tuesday.
And there was a major assault on the US embassy in Yemen, where government forces fought hard to turn back thousands of protesters.
It’s all spurred by the ridiculously offensive “movie” called Innocence of Muslims.
Not at all surprisingly, it turns out that there is no “Sam Bacile,” the purported Israeli-American real estate developer from California who raised $5 million from Jewish contributors for the anti-Islamic movie.
Bacile is actually Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an LA-area rip-off artist.
There is no way that “movie” cost $5 million. The offensive language about the the Muslim prophet appears to have been dubbed over whatever the cast originally said during what I understand was a one-day shoot in Santa Clarita, a city in the dry foothills 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
The film permit was taken out by a group called Media for Christ.
Nakoula is apparently a Coptic Christian, the Coptics being the largest Christian sect in Egypt. He is not Jewish and is not an Israeli citizen. The fact that he claimed to be seems more evidence of his intention to spur fighting between volatile Middle Eastern religious groups.
It’s not yet clear who translated the video into Arabic, thus turning a moribund project into a major geopolitical spark.
Yemen’s government apologized for today’s attack by thousands of protesters on the US embassy in that nation’s capital. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the virulently anti-Muslim video which spurred the protests, while insisting that it provides no excuse for the violence against Americans.
Obama got some disappointing news today on the economy, with new unemployment claims up slightly on the week.
But the Federal Reserve, sensing the stalling economy, will buy $40 billion a month in mortgage bonds and extend record low interest rates.
Obama is monitoring several geopolitical crises involving the Arab Awakening, Iran and Israel, Syria, Iraq, AfPak, and the South China Sea.
Military Crisis Zone Times: The Persian/Arabian Gulf is ten hours ahead of Pacific time and Afghanistan is eleven and a half hours ahead of Pacific time. The time in Manila, on the South China Sea, is fifteen hours ahead of Pacific time.
** FROM THE JERRY FILES. Governor Jerry Brown is in Northern California.
At 10 AM, Brown will attend the funeral service for CHP Officer Kenyon Youngstrom in Vacaville. The officer was murdered during a traffic stop.
At 2:30 PM, he and state Attorney General Kamala Harris will present three public safety officers with the Medal of Valor award in the Governor’s Council Room in the Capitol.
Yesterday afternoon, Brown issued a statement on the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens:
“All Californians mourn the loss of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three Americans killed in Libya on September 11th. As a graduate of Piedmont High School and UC Berkeley, Ambassador Stevens represented the very best that California and the United States have to offer. His dedicated service to our country and our world will never be forgotten.”
Brown, of course, continues to work on the pile of legislation passed during the recently concluded session and on his Prop 30 revenue initiative. See yesterday’s “Jerry-Rigging” on that.
** WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED SINCE 9/11? … From my September 11th essay.
** PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE ELEPHANT: THE CONVENTIONS AND THE CLIMATE. … From my September 8th essay.
** WHILE ONE CLINTON WOWS AT THE OBAMARAMA, ANOTHER PIVOTS TO THE LONG GAME. … From my September 6th essay.
** SO WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED WITH CLINT EASTWOOD? (AND THE PERILS OF ARGUING WITH IMAGINARY OBAMAS). … From my September 4th essay.
** AFTER THE ROMNEYRAMA, AND MORE SERIOUS MATTERS. … From my August 30th essay.
** SPACE, JERRY BROWN’S PLACE, AND A RACE. … From my August 27th essay.
** AN INSULAR ROMNEY STRUGGLES WITH HIS SURPRISINGLY HEARTFELT VEEP PICK AFTER STRIKING OUT INTERNATIONALLY. … From my August 23rd essay.
** RECALLING TOTAL RECALL: INTRIGUE, ULTRA-VIOLENCE, HUMOR AND WHAT ELSE THAT IS MISSING FROM THE SCHWARZENEGGER REMAKES. … From my August 17th essay.
** LONDON’S GRAND OLYMPICS, ON AND OFF THE TRACK. … From my August 13th essay.
** FROM GOVERNATOR TO MOONBEAM. … From my January 3rd, 2011 feature.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th, 2009 Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in major military operations in the region, and the Arab awakening underway, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer from the Russia Today channel. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the state-run channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, 2008, crude oil is trading around $98 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
This is up about $64 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program, reflecting a low point in global economic activity, and down about $16 per barrel from the price at the time of the Osama bin Laden raid.
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| Comments (32) |
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the Libya crisis.
Good news video of the Yemen government and Hillary Clinton statements.
Good statement by Hillary on the ridiculous offensive video…
It looks like they are starting to get to the bottom of the plot…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the Libya crisis.
Great statement by JB for a great Californian.
BB:Yesterday afternoon, Brown issued a statement on the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens:
“All Californians mourn the loss of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three Americans killed in Libya on September 11th. As a graduate of Piedmont High School and UC Berkeley, Ambassador Stevens represented the very best that California and the United States have to offer. His dedicated service to our country and our world will never be forgotten.”
Yah, what kind of protesters bring rocket launchers and machine guns to a demonstration??
BB:Libyan sources today are saying that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants.
Disgusting. What was he really doing??!!
BB: Not at all surprisingly, it turns out that there is no “Sam Bacile,” the purported Israeli-American real estate developer from California who raised $5 million from Jewish contributors for the anti-Islamic movie.
Bacile is actually Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an LA-area rip-off artist.
There is no way that “movie” cost $5 million. The offensive language about the the Muslim prophet appears to have been dubbed over whatever the cast originally said during what I understand was a one-day shoot in Santa Clarita, a city in the dry foothills 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
More crisis video today?
The protestors are way too persistent…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:27 am
Good news video of the Yemen government and Hillary Clinton statements.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:42 am
Good statement by Hillary on the ridiculous offensive video…
It can’t get more obvious that there is one.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:46 am
It looks like they are starting to get to the bottom of the plot…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the Libya crisis.
Heh. Indeed.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:59 am
Yah, what kind of protesters bring rocket launchers and machine guns to a demonstration??
BB:Libyan sources today are saying that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants.
Obama shows he has the Presidential aura down in that Colorado speech this morning. Romney looks less and less like a President when he shoots his fool mouth off like he did.
Good news video of President Obama on the Libya crisis.
I dont know if I am buying that another war gets started almost by a few crazy Christian fundamentalists.
Great that Barack and Hillary got China and Russia on board finally.
** QUICK HITS. The board of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, voted today in Vienna, Austria to censure Iran for accelerating its nuclear enrichment program and evading scrutiny from inspectors. Russia and China joined in today’s vote. Only Cuba voted against the motion, with Egypt and two other nations of the 35 represented abstaining. …
Romney is such a tool…
… Conservative Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, campaigning in Virginia, backed away from his doubled-down criticism of President Barack Obama for supposedly “apologizing” to the people who attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, the US embassy in Cairo, and killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Well, duh. The only question is why he doubled-down yesterday when it was clear that he was wildly off-base. …
Is it really only Crazy Christians who started this nightmare??
… As I suspected yesterday, the lethal attack on our diplomats in Benghazi is looking more and more like a plot, using the protest as a cover. (See below.) And the “movie?” Right now, it looks like the work of fundamentalist Christian zealots who, falsely self-identified as Jews and Israelis and thoroughly baked in the Southern California desert sun, wanted to stir up extremely bad trouble.
What Muslim movie crisis video today?
A wave of protest … but a shallow wave.
Perhaps, though it does push the bizarre meter very hard.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 5:29 pm (Edit)
Is it really only Crazy Christians who started this nightmare??
… As I suspected yesterday, the lethal attack on our diplomats in Benghazi is looking more and more like a plot, using the protest as a cover. (See below.) And the “movie?” Right now, it looks like the work of fundamentalist Christian zealots who, falsely self-identified as Jews and Israelis and thoroughly baked in the Southern California desert sun, wanted to stir up extremely bad trouble.
I have really had it with the guy.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 5:28 pm (Edit)
Romney is such a tool…
… Conservative Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, campaigning in Virginia, backed away from his doubled-down criticism of President Barack Obama for supposedly “apologizing” to the people who attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, the US embassy in Cairo, and killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Well, duh. The only question is why he doubled-down yesterday when it was clear that he was wildly off-base. …
It may help. Or not.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 5:27 pm (Edit)
Great that Barack and Hillary got China and Russia on board finally.
** QUICK HITS. The board of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, voted today in Vienna, Austria to censure Iran for accelerating its nuclear enrichment program and evading scrutiny from inspectors. Russia and China joined in today’s vote. Only Cuba voted against the motion, with Egypt and two other nations of the 35 represented abstaining. …
It is quite a confluence of events, isn’t it?
> Cooper Hawks says:
September 13, 2012 at 4:39 pm (Edit)
I dont know if I am buying that another war gets started almost by a few crazy Christian fundamentalists.
What a spectacle he makes of himself. Imagine if he were president.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 13, 2012 at 2:36 pm (Edit)
Obama shows he has the Presidential aura down in that Colorado speech this morning. Romney looks less and less like a President when he shoots his fool mouth off like he did.
Glenn Reynolds.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 13, 2012 at 2:16 pm (Edit)
Heh. Indeed.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:59 am
Yah, what kind of protesters bring rocket launchers and machine guns to a demonstration??
BB:Libyan sources today are saying that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants.
Indeed.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 13, 2012 at 2:16 pm (Edit)
It can’t get more obvious that there is one.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:46 am
It looks like they are starting to get to the bottom of the plot…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the Libya crisis.
Anger and hatred and fear, my friend, are powerful motivators.
> Jack Aubrey says:
September 13, 2012 at 2:09 pm (Edit)
The protestors are way too persistent…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:27 am
Good news video of the Yemen government and Hillary Clinton statements.
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:42 am
Good statement by Hillary on the ridiculous offensive video…
Unclear.
>
Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm (Edit)
Disgusting. What was he really doing??!!
BB: Not at all surprisingly, it turns out that there is no “Sam Bacile,” the purported Israeli-American real estate developer from California who raised $5 million from Jewish contributors for the anti-Islamic movie.
Bacile is actually Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, an LA-area rip-off artist.
There is no way that “movie” cost $5 million. The offensive language about the the Muslim prophet appears to have been dubbed over whatever the cast originally said during what I understand was a one-day shoot in Santa Clarita, a city in the dry foothills 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
People using a big diversion, that’s who.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:59 am (Edit)
Yah, what kind of protesters bring rocket launchers and machine guns to a demonstration??
BB:Libyan sources today are saying that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants.
It’s nice.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:58 am (Edit)
Great statement by JB for a great Californian.
BB:Yesterday afternoon, Brown issued a statement on the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens:
“All Californians mourn the loss of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three Americans killed in Libya on September 11th. As a graduate of Piedmont High School and UC Berkeley, Ambassador Stevens represented the very best that California and the United States have to offer. His dedicated service to our country and our world will never be forgotten.”
Getting there.
> Capitol Boy says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:46 am (Edit)
It looks like they are starting to get to the bottom of the plot…
Jonas says:
September 13, 2012 at 11:24 am
Good bad news Al Jazeera news video on the Libya crisis.
[...] Libyan sources last Wednesday said that a jihadist group, Ansar al-Sharia (Support for Islamic Law) used the demonstration at the US consulate as cover for a coordinated assault on it and, later, on an American safe house where most personnel fled after the compound was overrun by heavily armed militants. [...]