Global Reaction – attack on base, Marines die in A-stan

UPDATE 7:20 PM EST-

The researchers at the Republican National Committee notice this alarming fact in President Obama’s sequestration plan:

Obama’s Sequestration Plan Would Cut $1.084 Billion From The State Department’s Diplomatic And Consular Program, Including $2 Million For The Protection Of Foreign Missions And Officials, And $129 Million For Embassy Security, Construction, And Maintenance.

The ineptitude and lack of foresight is blinding!

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Editor’s Note – Nine.Eleven.Eleven - a video reaction, or a concerted act?

Somehow a trailer that was posted on YouTube in July is supposedly the reason for all the unrest aimed at the USA two months later? The cheesy, poorly crafted, moronic video is just a prop. Yet, the White House says all the unrest is because of the video – not a concerted terror strike and a coordinated culmination of protests, oh by the way – on 9/11/12, the eleventh anniversary. Nine.Eleven.Eleven!

Apologies did not work – again, yet, that is the knee-jerk reaction; then appeasing the silly narrative that it was the video is naive and sophomoric. Foreign policy FAILURE! Could the current administration be any more inept – just plain wrong? The ‘Arab Spring’ dream of ‘democracy’ is an oxymoron, a complete misread as the USA continues to drive from the back seat - and when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs calls a private citizen and asks him to stop employing his first amendment rights also indicates that our top brass is also populated by “Keystone Kops”.

For a larger view of the many other instances across the globe, click on this image.

Meanwhile, the million person march in Egypt may not have reached a million, but it was huge.

BREAKING UPDATE: Two more American Marine deaths – this time in Afghanistan:

Heavily-armed insurgents attacked a British air base in southern Afghanistan Friday, killing two U.S. Marines and wounding several other troops, U.S. officials said.

Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, is stationed at the base on a four-month combat tour in Afghanistan. There was no immediate word on his whereabouts at the time of the attack. (Read the rest here.)

Additionally – another FAST team was dispatched, this time to the Sudan as well.

A look at the latest protests in the Mideast and elsewhere over an anti-Islam film

By AP – Star Tribune

Here’s a look at protests across the Middle East and elsewhere on Friday, four days after crowds angry over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad began assaulting a string of U.S. embassies in the region.

TUNISIA

Violent protests outside the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Tunis, were met with tear gas and gunshots, leaving two people dead, 29 others injured and plumes of black smoke wafting over the city.

Several dozen protesters briefly stormed the embassy compound, tearing down the American flag and raising a banner bearing the Muslim profession of faith. They also set fire to an American school adjacent to the embassy compound and prevented firefighters from approaching it. The school appeared to be empty and no injuries were reported.

EGYPT

Riot police clashed with hundreds of protesters blocks away from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, killing one protester, as the president broadcast an appeal to Muslims to protect embassies and tried to patch up strained relations with Washington. After weekly prayers, a crowd in Cairo’s Tahrir Square tore up an American flag, and waved a black, Islamist flag. When protesters tried to move toward the embassy, ranks of police confronted them, firing tear gas.

LEBANON

Security forces opened fire in the northeastern Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing one person after a crowd angry over the film set fire to a KFC and a Hardee’s restaurant. About 25 people were wounded in the melee, including 18 policemen who were hit with stones and glass.

SUDAN

Several hundred protesters stormed the German Embassy in the capital, Khartoum, burning a car parked behind its gates and trash cans before police firing tear gas drove them out. There appeared to be no injuries to embassy staff and no apparent damage to the building. Most protesters then dispersed, but one group marched to the nearby British Embassy.

YEMEN

Security forces 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. Police kept the crowd at bay about a block away. Friday’s demonstration came a day after hundreds stormed the embassy compound and burned the American flag.

INDIA

Thousands protested in the volatile Indian-controlled region of Kashmir, burning U.S. flags and calling President Barack Obama a “terrorist.” The top government cleric reportedly demanded Americans leave immediately.

In the southern city of Chennai, protesters threw stones at the U.S. Consulate, shattering some windows and burning an effigy of Obama. Police quickly cleared the area, arresting more than 100 protesters.

ISRAEL

The Israeli police say about 400 people marched toward the U.S. consulate in east Jerusalem in protest over the prophet film. Demonstrators threw bottles and stones at police, who responded by firing stun grenades. Four protesters were arrested and the crowd was prevented from reaching the U.S. consulate.

BAHRAIN

More than 2,000 protesters chanted against the film and burned American and Israeli flags after Friday prayers in Diraz, outside the capital, Manama. Security forces were absent. Separately, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry ordered media regulators to attempt to block access to the film clip.

BANGLADESH

Some 5,000 hardline Muslims marched in the streets of the capital, Dhaka, after Friday prayers, burning U.S. and Israeli flags and calling for the death of the filmmaker. Police prevented them from marching toward the U.S. Embassy several miles away.

AFGHANISTAN

About 1,500 protested outside the eastern city of Jalalabad, shouting “Death to America” and urging President Hamid Karzai to sever relations with the U.S.

IRAQ

Hundreds demonstrated in Baghdad’s northern Sunni neighborhood of Azamaiyah, some shouting: “No, no America! No, no to Israel,” and, “We are ready to sacrifice ourselves for our Prophet.” Dozens also marched in Baghdad’s poor Sadr City district. In the southern city of Basra, about 1,000 took to the streets and burned the American and Israeli flags. One banner said: “Freedom doesn’t mean offending two billion Muslims.”

IRAN

Thousands shouted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Tehran in a demonstration after Friday prayers. Some burned the American and Israeli flags. State TV says similar protests were held in other Iranian cities.

PAKISTAN

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 block off a diplomatic enclave where the U.S. Embassy and many other foreign missions are located.

SYRIA

About 200 protesters waved the Syrian flag and shouted anti-American slogans outside the long-closed U.S. Embassy in Damascus. The crowd held banners saying: “He who curses the Prophet doesn’t seek democracy” and “a nation whose Prophet is Muhammad, would never kneel down.” The U.S. embassy has been closed since February because of the country’s bloody conflict that has killed about 23,000 people.

QATAR

About 1,000 protesters gathered outside the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy in the capital, Doha, chanting anti-US slogans and calling for Washington to remove its military presence from the strategic Gulf nation.

An influential cleric reminded worshippers that the American government had no role in the film and that “loyalty to the Prophet is not expressed by attacking embassies.”

GREAT BRITAIN

In London, around 250 protesters marched noisily but peacefully through Britain’s capital to the U.S. embassy. The group, which called itself the “Defenders of The Prophet,” held placards denouncing the U.S. and perceived Western imperialism.

TURKEY

Hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul’s Beyazit Square to protest the film. The protest was organized by Turkey’s main Islamist political party, Saadet.

WEST BANK

In the city of Nablus, about 200 people demonstrated against the film as Muslim clerics throughout the territory preached against it in Friday sermons.

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