Pictured for the first time: Mother who murdered her son and set him on fire for failing to learn the Koran

Pictured for the first time: Mother who murdered her son and set him on fire for failing to learn the Koran Sara Ege is facing life sentence after being found guilty of murder Seven-year-old Yaseen was beaten 'like a dog' if he couldn't recite passages Originally thought fun-loving boy died in house fire but he died from beatings and his mother then tried to burn the body to destroy the evidence Sara Ege, 32, used stick to abuse her boy in months leading up to murder Ege earlier told officers she had been frustrated her son could not learn 35-pages of Islamic holy book in three months, saying he 'wasn't very good' Mother told GP she was told to kill him by Shaitan - Islamic name for devil By Larisa Brown PUBLISHED:18:30 GMT, 5 December 2012| UPDATED: 20:39 GMT, 5 December 2012 Comments (267) Share . . This is the mother who murdered her young son then set him on fire when he struggled to learn the Koran off by heart. Pictured for the first time, Sara Ege, 32, leaves court today preparing to face life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder. Ege, 32, used a stick to beat her seven-year-old son Yaseen 'like a dog' when he couldn’t recite passages from the Islamic holy book. Murderer: Sara Ege, pictured for the first time, beat her son Yaseen to death with a stick before burning down the house A court heard the beatings were so brutal he died from his injuries and his mother tried to burn the body to destroy the evidence. Fun-loving Yaseen was originally thought to have died in a tragic accident in the house fire. But a post mortem examination showed Ege had been beating and abusing her little boy in the months leading up to his murder. More... Two men suspected of killing friend and resorting to cannabalism after getting lost for three months on fishing trip to Siberia Sefton rider injured in IRA bombing killed his two young children over violent breakdown of his marriage, inquest hears Prosecutor Ian Murphy said: 'When the smoke had cleared it emerged that Yaseen was dead before the fire had started. 'He had suffered significant abdominal injuries that were the cause of his death. 'There were multiple injuries including fractures which were non-accidental. 'Sara Ege made no attempt to seek the medical attention he so obviously needed. 'He clearly suffered terribly. She started the fire to hide what she had done.' In a police interview Ege told officers she was trying to teach her son the Koran but he was not very good. Beaten: Yaseen Ali, seven, was beaten by his mother for failing to learn parts of the Koran by heart University graduate Ege said: 'I was getting more and more frustrated, if he didn’t read it properly I would be very angry - I would hit him. 'We had a high target, I wanted him to learn 35 pages in three months. I promised him a new bike if he could do it. 'But Yaseen wasn’t very good - after a year of practice he had only learned a chapter.' Cardiff Crown Court heard Ege and her taxi driver husband Yousef, 38, had enrolled Yaseen in advanced classes at their local mosque. They wanted him to become Hafiz - an Islamic term for someone who memorises the Koran. Ege told the court: 'Memorising the whole of Koran is a great reward for the whole family. 'It brings honour and increases the standing of the whole family in the local community.' But mischievous Yaseen preferred to play with his friends and got behind with his studies. The schoolboy was coming to the end of a three-month trial period at the mosque and Ege was keen for him to impress his Imam. The court heard Ege become more and more frustrated with her son’s inability to learn the passages he needed to. She told officers: 'I was getting all this bad stuff in my head, like I couldn’t concentrate, I was getting angry too much, I would shout at Yaseen all the time. A sketch shows Sara Ege sitting in the dock at Cardiff Crown Court. She has been found guilty of her son's murder today 'I was getting very wild and I hit Yaseen with a stick on his back like a dog. 'He would be doing his work and wouldn’t complain and I would hit and hit him more and more. 'He was a good boy but I used to get angry and he wouldn’t even stop me or say anything to anyone.' The court was told how Ege would hit Yaseen with a stick, a hammer, a rolling pin and a slipper as well as repeatedly punching him. In the months after Yaseen’s death Ege told her GP she had been told to kill him by Shaitan - an Islamic name for the devil. She said: 'It is Shaitan - it is the devil which is telling me to do all these bad things. 'I have become so harsh, I even killed my own son.' Ege told her doctor she felt '100 per cent better' after her seven-year-old son died. Notes kept by her GP record her as saying: 'It is like something has been released. For three or four months I have not been normal. 'Voices told me to hit Yaseen and then hit him more and more.' Police and the fire service were called to the family’s home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, in July 2010 after a blaze ripped through the top floor. Yaseen was pulled from the blaze by firefighters who fought to revive the schoolboy. At first Yaseen’s death in the fire was treated as a tragic accident. But a post mortem examination discovered Yaseen was dead before the blaze began. Pathologists found multiple injuries on Yaseen’s body including broken ribs, a fractured arm and a fractured finger. Funeral: Cardiff Crown Court has heard Ege grew increasingly frustrated with her seven-year-old son Tragedy: Ege hit her child with a hammer, a rolling pin and a slipper as well as punching him repeatedly Barbecue lighter fuel was found on Ege’s clothing when she was arrested after the post mortem examination. Ege initially denied murdering Yaseen and burning his body to hide what she had done. Later she said she burned her son’s body after discovering he had died in the house and panicked. Her story changed again when she admitted beating little Yaseen in the months leading up to his death and burning his body to hide the injuries. Ege's husband Yousef Ege pictured outside Cardiff Crown Court. The five-week trial heard Mr Ege would drive Yaseen to mosque for his Koran practice before and after school. He said he had never seen his wife raise a hand against Yaseen But Ege finally retracted all her previous confessions and told police they had all been lies. She said her husband and his family had threatened to kill her and her family is she didn’t take the blame for her son’s death. Her husband denied causing or allowing the death of a child by not stopping his wife’s beatings of Yaseen. The five-week trial heard Mr Ege would drive Yaseen to mosque for his Koran practice before and after school. He said he had never seen his wife raise a hand against Yaseen and that she was a 'perfect mother'. He told police: 'The last time I saw my son he looked fine. 'He was very happy and had written out a list of things he was going to do in the summer holidays.' Ege was found guilty of murder and perverting the course of justice by burning little Yaseen’s body. Her husband was cleared of causing or allowing the death of a child by failing to protect him. The jury returned unanimous verdicts after eight hours of deliberation. As the verdict was read out Ege broke down in the dock, holding her head in her hands and crying. Her husband showed no emotion as he walked free from court. Ege’s parents, who had travelled from Hyderabad in India, sat in the public gallery quietly as the jury returned. Judge Justice Wyn Williams told Ege she faces a term of life imprisonment But he said he would determine a minimum sentence in the New Year after a medical report had been completed. Sara Ege remains in medical custody at the Llanarth Court Hospital in Gwent, South Wales. Scene: Police and firefighters rushed to the family home in Pontcanna, Cardiff, after the blaze broke out in July 2010 Mr Ege’s solicitor said outside the court: 'He would like to thank everyone for the support they given him.' The lawyer was asked if Mr Ege had any thoughts for his wife but he refused to answer before the two men got into a waiting car. Police and the Crown Prosecution Service paid a tribute to 'bright and friendly' Yaseen. Speaking outside court Detective Constable Kim Roche said: 'Throughout this investigation we have heard many tributes to Yaseen. 'Quiet, hardworking, bright, well-behaved, obedient, respectful, polite and smiley are just some of the words used to describe him. 'It is a tragedy that such a promising young life was taken and those that loved him most will not be able to see him grow up to be a young man.' District Crown Prosecutor Deborah Rogers said: “The deeply tragic nature of this case has been all too apparent to anyone that has followed this trial. 'We should not forget that at the heart of the case is the loss of a bright and friendly young boy who had his whole life ahead of him.' MOST READ NEWS Previous 1 2 3 Next 'I'm looking forward to being a grandfather': Prince Charles... 'These allegations are totally untrue': PR to the stars Max... 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Add your comments Comments (267) The comments below have been moderated in advance. Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated . View all. . She's mentally ill. That's got nothing to do with her religious affiliations. - Suzycat , London, 06/12/2012 14:53 Click to rate Rating 19 Report abuse . She clearly was a mad woman, she was trying to use her child to make herself feel better. She needed psychological help. The system needs to do more to protect children from sick individuals like her. - SalamMaya , London, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 14:51 Click to rate Rating 41 Report abuse . She is a disgrace to my religion. You cannot FORCE a little boy to read, learn and memorise a massive book in a language that he probably doesnt even speak written in such a time where the language was very 'old school'. She deserves life in prison. And in my mind. She is not only an abomination to my religion, but she is no true Muslim. She is a murderer. And I do not kow of a single religion that condones that of an innocent life. - SK13 , London, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 13:37 Click to rate Rating 69 Report abuse . RIP Yaseen. - marlen140 , ST. AUSTELL, 06/12/2012 13:28 Click to rate Rating 34 Report abuse . Yet another reason for bringing back Capital Punishment. What a totally vile mother, and how her poor little boy must have suffered. - Frenchiegirl , Paris. France, 06/12/2012 13:03 Click to rate Rating 52 Report abuse . she needs help as she is obviously crazy. how horrific that she didnt get the help she needed before the poor child lost his life in her hands - Paula , Stockport, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 12:36 Click to rate Rating 17 Report abuse . Sick!!!! I hope she rots in prison, she doesn't deserve to ever come out of there! - Zoe03 , London, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 11:46 Click to rate Rating 39 Report abuse . This is not about religion, its about crime and a sick criminal! - sk , MUMBAI, India, 06/12/2012 11:41 Click to rate Rating 29 Report abuse . RIP you poor little boy - pinksky , BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 11:15 Click to rate Rating 24 Report abuse . hope she serves hard time in prison - bagus , Birmingham, United Kingdom, 06/12/2012 11:03 Click to rate Rating 24 Report abuse . Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2243558/Mother-facing-life-sentence-murdering-son-set-failing-learn-Koran.html#ixzz2EJXpTR21 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'.": U.S. embassies attacked in Yemen, Egypt after Libya envoy killed: Democracy is the last thing on the minds of bearded Salafists and Islamic fundamentalists

Posted 07 September 2012 - 10:36 AM In Syria: only the tails of the feuding lions will be left intact! Air force General Hafez Al-Assad came to power in September1968 with the help of the CIA to topple the leftist government of Al-Attassi, Bachus, Y.Zain and Salah Jidid. At the time late King Hussein’s forces were attacking the Palestinians in Al-Baqaaa and the leftist Syrian government ordered the army to enter Jordan to assist them. This would have incited Israel to interfere, that was why Dr Kissinger asked the CIA to give a green light for Assad senior to be in control. Assad senior didn’t forget the CIA’s help and returned the favour and went to embrace US policies and plans. It was not a mere coincidence that Dr Madeline Albright, US secretary of state went to attend his funeral. Furthermore, Syria has rendered all assistance to the US and to the British in attacking Iraq in 1991 and in 2003. As it is usual, the Americans Use-and-Dump the ones they groom to serve their interests. Right now, Assad Jr is being castigated and the Americans insist that he must go the way Saddam and Gheddafi had gone under the force of the gun. Unlike Gheddafi and Saddam Syria has many friends and the opposition movement is made up exclusively of Sunni Arabs, Turks, and Kurds. This means that the Alawayites will fight to the end supported by Shiats from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. The money of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK and US and the logistic and armed support from Turkey, Germany, Israel and France are trying to takeover the country, topple the Assad regime and to deny Iran a foot hold on the Israeli borders. While the Assad regime is being characterised as undemocratic, the opposition groups are labelled as being agents of foreign powers, not necessarily interested in the democracy or freedom of the Syrian people. So the lions will continue to fight it out until nothing is left except their tails. The country will be fragmented, the infrastructure will be destroyed, and democracy is the last thing on the minds of bearded Salafists and Islamic fundamentalists. One can’t help but laugh at the US governments and their European allies for embracing Saudi Arabia plans to democratise Syria. Some parties may profit from seeing the Middle East destroyed a country at a time. It must be part of an USraeli plan to redraw the Middle East map using local agents. Posted 05 September 2011 - 10:54 AM The US and most European governments, didn’t practice what they preached or what they had been announcing to their respective people; at least not when it comes to matters concerning Libya or the Geddafi regime. The documents uncovered in Libya so far have exposed many secret dealings and illegal activities in helping Geddafi punish his opponen while at the same revealing names of high US, French and British officials (e.g. Sir Mark Allen). Furthermore, it has shown that State Department and Pentagon officials visited Libya few months ago rendering advice in order to save Geddafi regime from further NATO attacks. As a result of such consultation, Libyan diplomats travelled to Israel to normalise relations with the National Zionist (NAZI) State as it is called by JEWWATCH.com. The Americans were right in being concerned as the collapse of Geddafi regime will lead to some embarassing exposures. Besides their part in the rendition and torture of terror suspects (e.g. Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the current military commander in Tripoli) there is a risk that the significant payments made to Tony Blair, to Sir. Mark Allen, to US officials and to Nikolas Sarkozi will be made public. In addition, the Israelis were unhappy to see Geddafi gone since many believe that he has a Jewish blood and wanted to compensate Jews with $US billions for the properties left behind when they immigrated out of the country in 1967, following the Israeli attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria. So what has made the West rush to bombard Libya and to risk loosing Geddafi and the ensuing consequences? Squeezed between revolutions in Tunisa and Egypt, the US, UK, and France were aware that the Islamists will eventually take control of Libya and convert the North African state into another Iran. The present chaos in Libya is expected to continue long after Geddafi had left the scene. There is a Libyan saying, one doesn|t have to go out to know it is winter.The Islamist commander in Benghazi has already called on the head of the NTC (National Transitional Council) to resign for being too close to Geddafi in the past and for being too cosy with NATO. The same commander was involved in the killing of Rebel General Abdul Fattah Younis and the burning of his remains near Benghazi. While the Islamist commander of Tripoli has called on the US and the UK to apologise for helping Geddafi in kidnapping and torturing him at the notorious Bu Slim prison where he was held for seven years. One can say that Libya is not Iraq, but the US-led NATO chaos is familiar. Money in the hands of te crooks will not result in stable, secure or prosperous Libya. So far the US had spent over $two trillion on Iraq and Afghanistan. There re still $7 billion un accounted for in Iraq. Mr Paul Bremer, US-appointed first ruler of occupied Iraq, was accused of pocketing $300 million. The infrastrucre and services in Iraq are one million times worse than when criminal Saddam was in charge. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times =========== Thu, Sep 13 11:18 AM EDT 1 of 18 By Mohammed Ghobari and Edmund Blair SANAA/CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassies in Yemen and Egypt on Thursday in protest at a film they consider blasphemous to Islam and American warships headed to Libya after the death of the U.S. ambassador there in related violence earlier in the week. Hundreds of Yemeni demonstrators broke through the main gate of the heavily fortified compound in eastern Sanaa, shouting "We sacrifice ourselves for you, Messenger of God". Earlier they smashed windows of security offices outside the embassy and burned cars. "We can see a fire inside the compound and security forces are firing in the air. The demonstrators are fleeing and then charging back," one witness told Reuters. A security source said at least 15 people were wounded, some by bullets. An embassy spokesman said its personnel were reported to be safe. In Egypt, protesters hurled stones at a police cordon around the U.S. embassy in central Cairo after climbing into the embassy and tearing down the American flag. The state news agency said 13 people were injured in violence which erupted on Wednesday night after protests on Tuesday. Islamist gunmen staged a military-style assault on the U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi, eastern Libya on Tuesday. The U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died in the assault, carried out with guns, mortars and grenades. Eight Libyans were injured. U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to "bring to justice" those responsible and the U.S. military moved two navy destroyers towards the Libyan coast, in what a U.S. official said was a move to give the administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets. Obama said security was being increased at U.S. diplomatic posts around the globe and on Thursday the U.S. consulate in Berlin was partially evacuated after an employee fell ill on opening a suspicious envelope. About 1,000 Bangladeshi Islamists tried to march on the U.S. embassy in Dhaka after protests earlier in the week outside U.S. missions in Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco. The U.S. military dispatched a Marine Corps anti-terrorist team to boost security in Libya, whose leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in a U.S.-backed uprising last year. The attack, which U.S. officials said may have been planned in advance, came on the 11th anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. FILM The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. Clips of the "Innocence of Muslims," had been circulating on the Internet for weeks before the protests erupted. They show an amateurish production portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, a homosexual and a child abuser. For many Muslims, any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous and caricatures or other characterizations have in the past provoked protests all over the Muslim world. An actress in the California production said the video as it appeared bore no resemblance to the original filming. She had not been aware it was about the Prophet Mohammad. Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al Qaeda and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy. Former Libya militant commander Noman Benotman, now president of Britain's Quilliam think-tank, said Western officials were investigating a possible link with a paramilitary training camp about 100 miles south of the eastern Libyan town of Darnah. U.S. officials said there were suggestions members of al Qaeda's north-Africa based affiliate may have been involved. Yemen, a key U.S. ally, is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. The attacks could alter U.S. attitudes towards the revolutions that toppled secularist authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and brought Islamists to power. The violence also could have an impact on the closely contested U.S. presidential race ahead of the November 6 election. Republican Mitt Romney, Obama's challenger, criticized the president's response to the crisis. He said the timing of a statement from the U.S. embassy in Cairo denouncing "efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims" made Obama look weak as protesters were attacking U.S. missions. Obama's campaign accused Romney of trying to score political points at a time of national tragedy. The attack raised questions about the future U.S. diplomatic presence in Libya, relations between Washington and Tripoli, and the unstable security situation after Gaddafi's overthrow. SAFE HOUSE Stevens, a 52-year-old California-born diplomat who spent a career operating in perilous places, became the first American ambassador killed in an attack since Adolph Dubs, the U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, died in a 1979 kidnapping attempt. A Libyan doctor pronounced him dead of smoke inhalation. U.S. information technology specialist Sean Smith and two other Americans who have not yet been identified also were killed when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the diplomats from the safe house came under mortar attack. "It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it," Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said of the safe house. Libyan leader Mohammed Magarief and Yemeni President Mansour Hadi both apologized to the United States over the attacks and Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi condemned them on television while also rejecting any "insult to the Prophet". Many Muslim states focused their condemnation on the film and will be concerned about preventing a repeat of the fallout seen after publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. This touched off riots in the Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2006 in which at least 50 people died. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called the making of the movie a "devilish act" but said he was certain those involved in its production were a very small minority. The U.S. embassy in Kabul appealed to Afghan leaders for help in "maintaining calm" and Afghanistan ordered the YouTube site shut down so Afghans would not be able to see the film. (Additional reporting by Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Hadeel Al Shalchi in Tripoli, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, Sarah N. Lynch, Arshad Mohammed, Andrew Quinn, Matt Spetalnick, Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball in Washington, William Maclean in London and Reuters reporters in Cairo and Benghazi; writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Ralph Boulton and Janet McBride) (This story was refiled to correct the attribution of quotation in paragraph 25) ============== 'Anti-US protests hit Kuwait, Saudi Arabia LAST UPDATE Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:25:13 GMT Anti-US protests have spilled over into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait days after the release of a US-made movie attacking the Islam's Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Protesters gathered on Thursday in front of the US Embassy in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a similar protest was also held outside the American consulate in the port city of Jeddah. Activists have called for mass demonstrations in front of US diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia on Friday. Meanwhile, the US Embassy staff in Kuwait were evacuated amid reports of protests against the blasphemous film. The Muslim world is seething with anti-US sentiments over the release of the $5-million movie which -- financed by more than 100 Zionists -- insults the glorious religion's Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Angry protesters across the world have poured into the streets to condemn the blasphemous movie and demand the US government apologize to the Muslim world. MRS/JR === ‘US, Zionists prime anti-Islam suspects’ Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:12:29 GMT The Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has slammed the antagonistic policies of Zionism and the US as the root cause of the recent production of an American movie desecrating Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Ayatollah Khamenei issued a message on Thursday following the anti-Islam move. The full text of the message follows: In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful Dear Iranian nation; the great Islamic ummah The filthy hand of the enemies of Islam once again revealed its deep-rooted malice by insulting the Grand Prophet [Mohammad] (PBUH) and with an insane and deplorable measure showed the fury of the evil Zionists at the daily-increasing radiance of Islam and Holy Qur’an in the present world. Regarding the disgrace of the agents of this crime and great sin it suffices to say that they have targeted the most sacred and luminous figure among the world sanctities with their disgusting nonsense. Behind this evil move lie the antagonistic policies of the Zionists and the US and other heads of the global arrogance, who in their vain delusions want to knock down the Islamic sanctities from their lofty position in the eyes of the young generations in the world of Islam and to extinguish their religious sentiments. Had they not backed the previous links in this evil chain, namely Salman Rushdie, the Danish cartoonist, and the US pastors who burned the Holy Qur’an and had they not made orders for [production of] tens of anti-Islam movies to companies affiliated to the Zionist capitalists, things would not have lead to this great and unforgivable sin today. The prime suspects in this crime are Zionism and the US government. If the US politicians are honest in their claim of not being involved [in production of this film], [they] must bring the perpetrators of this hideous crime and their financial backers, who have wrenched the hearts of Muslim nations, to face a punishment proportionate to this great crime. Muslim brothers and sisters must know that this desperate move by the enemies in the wake of the Islamic Awakening is a sign of the grandeur and importance of this uprising and heralds its increasing growth. Seyyed Ali Khamenei September 13, 2012 ============================================= Honoring dead from Libya, Obama vows to 'stand fast' Fri, Sep 14 17:01 PM EDT 1 of 4 By Margaret Chadbourn ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed on Friday to "stand fast" against violent anti-American protests sweeping the Muslim world as he honored the return of the remains of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed in an attack in Libya this week. Leading a somber ceremony with the flag-draped caskets of the Libya dead laid out beside him, Obama pledged to do everything possible to protect U.S. diplomats abroad and said he would hold foreign governments responsible for helping to safeguard them. "The United States will never retreat from the world," Obama told a crowd that included grieving family members, diplomatic personnel and military service members inside a vast aircraft hangar at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. Obama spoke as growing fury about a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East and other parts of the Muslim world after weekly prayers on Friday, with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at U.S. missions. The obscure California-made film triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on Tuesday, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. The attack and the spread of anti-U.S. violence to other Muslim countries have raised questions about Obama's handling of the Arab Spring revolutions of the past year even as he seeks re-election in November in a closely contested race. The wave of attacks has reverberated into the presidential campaign, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his allies seizing the chance to reassert their accusations that Obama has weakened U.S. global leadership. U.S. RESOLVE Obama acknowledged "these are difficult days" but expressed firm resolve. "We will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions," he said. "We will continue to do everything in our power to protect Americans serving overseas, whether that means increasing security at our diplomatic posts, working with host countries which have an obligation to provide security, and making it clear that justice will come to those who harm Americans," he said. The ceremony was held to honor the return to U.S. soil of the bodies of Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy SEALS. Some U.S. officials believe the deadly attack could have been plotted in advance, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday he had no information suggesting the assault on the Benghazi consulate was "pre-planned." Clinton repeated that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the making of the inflammatory film, and she insisted the violent response was "totally unacceptable." She said countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, which had cast off authoritarian rulers, "did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of the mob." At the start of the ceremony, Marine pallbearers hoisted the caskets one by one from a military cargo plane and carried them into the hangar while a military band played somber music. As Obama spoke, he was flanked by four hearses. The remains were to be flown to a military mortuary at an air base in Dover, Delaware. (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Lisa Lambert, writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Will Dunham) ======================================================\ Anti-American fury sweeps Middle East over film Fri, Sep 14 18:09 PM EDT 1 of 7 KHARTOUM/TUNIS (Reuters) - Fury about a film that insults the Prophet Mohammad tore across the Middle East after weekly prayers on Friday with protesters attacking U.S. embassies and burning American flags as the Pentagon rushed to bolster security at its missions. The obscure California-made film triggered an attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya's city of Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on Tuesday, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on the United States. In Tunis, at least three people were killed and more than two dozen wounded, state television said after police gunfire near the U.S. embassy in the city that was the cradle of last year's Arab Spring uprisings for democracy. At least one person died in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, a doctor said, after some of thousands of protesters had leaped into the U.S. embassy. As U.S. military drones faced Islamist anti-aircraft fire over Benghazi, about 50 marines landed in Yemen a day after the U.S. embassy there was stormed. For a second day in the capital Sanaa, police battled hundreds of young men around the mission. In Khartoum, wider anger at Western attitudes to Islam also saw the German embassy overrun, with police doing little to stop demonstrators who raised a black Islamist flag. Violence at the U.S. embassy followed protests against both Washington and the Sudanese government, which is broadly at odds with the West. The wave of indignation and rage over the film, which portrays Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool, coincided with Pope Benedict's arrival in Lebanon for a three-day visit. The protests present U.S. President Barack Obama with a new foreign policy crisis less than two months before seeking re-election and tests Washington's relations with democratic governments it helped to power across the Arab world. He was at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to greet a flight bringing home remains of the four dead from Benghazi. It also emerged that Libya had closed its airspace over the second city's airport for a time because of heavy anti-aircraft fire by Islamists aiming at U.S. reconnaissance drones flying over the city; Obama vowed to bring the ambassador's killers to justice. The closure of the airport prompted speculation that the United States was deploying special forces in preparation for an attack against the militants who were involved in the attack. A Libyan official said the spy planes flew over the embassy compound and the city, taking photos and inspecting locations of radical militant groups who are believed to have planned and staged the attack on the U.S. consulate. There were protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. MARINES TO YEMEN The Pentagon said it had sent a "fast" platoon of Marines to Yemen to bolster U.S. embassy security after clashes in Sanaa. U.S. embassies were the main target of anger and protest but most embassy staff were not at work because Friday is the Muslim weekend across the Arab World. The frenzy erupted after traditional Muslim Friday prayers. Fury over the film has been stoked by Internet video footage, social networks, preachers and word-of-mouth. Protesters clashed with police near the U.S. embassy in Cairo. Two Islamist preachers in Egypt told worshippers that those who made the movie deserved to die under Islamic law but they urged protesters not to take their anger out on diplomats. In the restive Sinai peninsula, militants opened fire on an international observer base near El Gorah, close to the borders of Israel and the Gaza Strip, and burned tires blocking a road to the camp, a witness and a security source reported. The source said two members of the force were wounded. The Sudanese who broke into the German embassy in Khartoum and hoisted an Islamic flag, while one person was killed in protests in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. Police in the Sudanese capital had fired tear gas to try to disperse 5,000 protesters who had ringed the German embassy and nearby British mission. A Reuters witness said police stood by as a crowd forced its way into Germany's mission. Demonstrators hoisted a black Islamic flag saying in white letters "there is no God but God and Mohammed is his Prophet". They smashed windows, cameras and furniture in the building and then started a fire. Staff at Germany's embassy were safe "for the moment", Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in Berlin. He also told Khartoum's envoy to Berlin that Sudan must protect diplomatic missions on its soil. Sudan's Foreign Ministry had criticized Germany for allowing a protest last month by right-wing activists carrying caricatures of the Prophet and for Chancellor Angela Merkel giving an award in 2010 to a Danish cartoonist who depicted the Prophet in 2005 triggering protests across the Islamic world. BASHIR UNDER PRESSURE President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is under pressure from Islamists who feel the government has given up the religious values of his 1989 Islamist coup. The official body of Sudan's Islamic scholars called for the faithful to defend the Prophet peacefully, but at a meeting of Islamists, some leaders had said they would march on the German and U.S. embassies and demanded the ambassadors be expelled. The Foreign Ministry said in its statement: "The German chancellor unfortunately welcomed this offence to Islam in a clear violation of all meanings of religious co-existence and tolerance between religions." Sudan used to host prominent militants in the 1990s, such as Osama bin Laden, but the government has sought to distance itself from radicals to improve ties with the West. A Lebanese security source said a man was killed in Tripoli as protesters tried to storm a government building. Earlier, a U.S. fast food restaurant was set alight. Twelve members of the security forces were wounded by stones thrown by protesters, the source said. Protesters also clashed with police in Yemen, where one person died and 15 were injured on Thursday when the U.S. embassy compound was stormed. U.S. and other Western embassies in other Muslim countries had tightened security, fearing anger at the film may prompt attacks on their compounds after the weekly worship. Obama has promised to bring those responsible for the Benghazi attack to justice, and the United States also sent warships towards Libya which one official said was to give flexibility for any future action. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington had nothing to do with the crudely made film posted on the Internet, which she called "disgusting and reprehensible", and the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff called a Christian pastor in Florida to ask him to withdraw his support for it. Palestinians staged demonstrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli police, some on horseback, used stun grenades and made a number of arrests outside Jerusalem's Old City as a few dozen demonstrators tried to march on the nearby U.S. consulate. "Israeli police prevented an illegal demonstration from reaching the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem and used stun grenades after rocks and bottles were thrown at them," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. In Nablus, in the northern West Bank, several hundred people protested and burned an American flag, witnesses said. AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED The largest protests were in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Islamist group Hamas, with at least 30,000 Palestinians staging rallies across the coastal territory. Some 25,000 took to the streets of Gaza City, answering a call by Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad faction and waving the green and black flags of the two factions. American and Israeli flags were set alight, along with an effigy of the film's producer. Protesters in Afghanistan set fire to an effigy of Obama and burned a U.S. flag after Friday prayers in the eastern province of Nangarhar. Directing their anger against the U.S. pastor who supported the film, tribal leaders also agreed to put a $100,000 bounty on his head. About 10,000 people held a noisy protest in the Bangladeshi capital. They burned U.S. flags, chanted anti-U.S. slogans and demanded punishment for the offenders, but were stopped from marching to the U.S. embassy. There was no violence. Thousands of Iranians held nationwide protests. There were also rallies in Malaysia, Nigeria, Jordan, Kenya, Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iraq. (Additional reporting by Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa, Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Ulf Laessing and Khalid Abdelaziz in Khartoum, Gareth Jones in Berlin, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Benghazi, Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Libya, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Raissa Kasolowsky in Abu Dhabi, Aref Mohammed in Basra, Iraq, Siva Sithraputhran in Kuala Lumpur, Anis Ahmed in Bangladesh, Regan Doherty in Doha, Roberto Landucci in Italy and Mirwais Harooni in Kabul; Writing by Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Peter Millership and Alastair Macdonald) ============================= Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip Fri, Sep 14 18:04 PM EDT By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protests in the Middle East. The Internet company said it was censoring the video in India and Indonesia after blocking it on Wednesday in Egypt and Libya, where U.S. embassies have been stormed by protestors enraged over depiction of the Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and philanderer. On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in a fiery siege on the embassy in Benghazi. Google said was further restricting the clip to comply with local law rather than as a response to political pressure. "We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007." White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service. The guidelines can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines. Google said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines. U.S. authorities said on Friday that they were investigating whether the film's producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year old Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California, had violated terms of his prison release. Basseley was convicted in 2010 for bank fraud and released from prison on probation last June. (Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Toni Reinhold)============ Lebanon Protesters Destroy Kentucky Fried Chicken And Hardee's Over 'Muslim Innocence' Film [PHOTOS] By Eric Brown: Subscribe to Eric Brown's RSS feed September 14, 2012 6:22 PM EDT Lebanon Protesters Destroy Kentucky Fried Chicken And Hardee's Over 'Muslim Innocence' Film [PHOTOS] In the wake of anti-American demonstrations over the incendiary film "Muslim Innocence," protesters in Tripoli, Lebanon, have taken to attacking not an American consulate, but an American fast-food restaurant, according to Reuters. Rioters were seen burning down a combination Hardee's and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the northern Lebanon city. Many demonstrators were also enraged about Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Lebanon, shouting, "We don't want the pope" and "No more insults (to Islam)." The film "Muslim Innocence" was filmed in California as an inflammatory piece of anti-Islamic propaganda by Egyptian Nakoula Basseley Nakoula under the pseudonym "Sam Bacile," according to the Associated Press. "Federal court papers filed against Nakoula in a 2010 criminal prosecution noted that Nakoula had used numerous aliases, including Nicola Bacily and Robert Bacily," AP reported. Nakoula allegedly hired a cast and crew under the pretense that they were making a film called "Desert Warriors" about the life of an ancient Egyptian. In post-processing, Nakoula overdubbed lines in the film to make specific derogatory comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, referring to him as a "child molester," among other things. Nakoula, in the guise of "Sam Bacile," publicly referred to Islam as a "cancer" while attempting to drum up publicity for the self-produced film. After Middle Eastern audiences became aware of the film's existence, "Muslim Innocence" sparked outrage across the Muslim world, leading to anti-American protests over the film's content. One attack killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. American officials such as Hilary Clinton have roundly criticized both the film and the violence it incited, as the protesting continues. ============================= 'Innocence of Muslims': Sound Expert Says Islamophobic Dialogue Definitely Dubbed [Exclusive Transcript] By Christopher Zara: Subscribe to Christopher's RSS feed September 13, 2012 1:17 PM EDT Most actors have virtually no control over the direction of a movie once it reaches the editing room, so it's not uncommon to hear a few of them moan and groan (quietly, if they want to get hired again) after they see the final cut. (Photo: Youtube) A 13-minute clip of the movie that has sparked protests throughout the Middle East contains several instances of overdubbed dialogue, according to a sound-recording expert. But few actors in Hollywood or elsewhere have more of a reason to be outraged over post-production than the ones who appeared in "Innocence of Muslims" -- that is, if we are to believe a joint statement released by the 80 cast and crewmembers who supposedly worked on the low-budget project (to call it a film would be an insult to celluloid). The statement, posted on Wednesday by CNN, said this: "The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer. We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred." The actors claim they responded to a casting call for a film called "Dessert Warrior." That movie, which they say they shot with a filmmaker who called himself Sam Bacile, had nothing to do with religion, according to one actress quoted Wednesday by Gawker. Instead, the director said the movie was simply about life in Biblical times. According to the actors, they were just as surprised as everyone to see the blatantly anti-Muslim sentiments in the clips, which sparked riots in Egypt and Libya and may have resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. As of Thursday, the rioting has spread to Yemen and Iran, according to several reports. The actors say that significant portions of their dialogue were re-dubbed during post production to give the storyline an anti-Muslim context that had not appeared in the original script. Judging from the 13-minute clip posted on YouTube by someone with the username Sam Bacile, the actors' explanation is certainly plausible. Much of the dialogue does not synch up with the actors' mouths, and the sound quality varies drastically from one line to the next. Although the sound quality of the entire clip is poor, many instances of overdubbing appear to be more than just a case of slapdash editing. "You can totally tell it's two different voices," said Marshall Grupp, a sound engineer at Sound Lounge, an audio post-production house based in New York. "It's so obvious they did that. The question is why." Grupp, who has 30 years of experience in sound editing, went through the one of the clips of the movie that first showed up YouTube -- 13.57 minutes of footage posted on July 2. (The title of the clip is called "Muhammad Movie Trailer," but it's more a sequence of scenes than a trailer.) The low-budget clip appears to be set in the modern-day Middle East as well as in Biblical times. Grupp said all the instances of overdubbing are references to Islam and the Muslim faith. Grupp emailed his notes to the International Business Times on Thursday. One of the most obvious examples of overdubbing, he said, takes place at 6:31, when a sword-wielding character yells in anger, "Mohammed is our messenger and the Koran is our constitution!" The dialogue in that scene does not even remotely synch up with the character's mouth, Grupp said. Grupp's transcription of the overdubbing instances follows below, along with his notes on each instance. 1:34- "protect Islamic crime"- sounds similar to actor but seems over-dubbed 1:56- "Islamic terrorist"- definitely over-dubbed, but again sounds like actor 2:54- "his name is Mohammed, we can call him the father unknown"- definitely over-dubbed by another actor 3:07- "Mohammed, Mohammed the bastard, your lady summons you"- definitely over-dubbed 3:42- "come in Mohammed"-sounds like actress but over-dubbed 6:31- "Mohammed is our messenger and the Koran is our constitution"- definitely over-dubbed 7:09- "have you heard what god has said in the Koran" - over-dubbed 8:32- "now go and read the Koran"- over-dubbed 9:04- "is your Mohammed a child molester"- over dubbed 10:11- "Islamic nation forbids adoption because of......" over-dubbed 10:16- "that is the next version of the koran"- seems like it is over-dubbed 10:32- "i have not seen such a murderous thug as Mohammed"- over-dubbed with another actress 13:37- "every non-Muslim"- over dubbed The movie's original dialogue in these instances remains unclear, but if the reaction from the actress quoted by Gawker is any indication, the original context was far less inflammatory: "Now we have people dead because of a movie I was in," she told the website. "It makes me sick." To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: c.zara@ibtimes.com To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com ====================== Sep. 16, 2012 5:13 PM ET Clashes over prophet film; Hezbollah urges demos By ADIL JAWAD and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press AIM Share A Pakistani protester holds stone as others hang a flag at the entry of the gate of the U.S. consulate during a demonstration in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012. Hundreds of Pakistanis protesting an anti-Islam video produced in the United States clashed with police Sunday as they tried to march toward the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi, while thousands of others held peaceful demonstrations in other parts of the country. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan) 1 of 5 More News Video Latest developments on anti-Islam film protests Sep. 16, 20122:28 PM ET Paris prosecutor to probe protest at US Embassy Sep. 16, 201212:53 PM ET China aims at Japan's economy in island protests Sep. 16, 201210:03 AM ET Panetta: violence leveling off; protests to go on Sep. 16, 20126:33 AM ET Al-Qaida calls for more attacks on embassies Sep. 15, 20125:43 PM ET Advertisement Advertisement Buy AP Photo Reprints KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Hundreds of Pakistanis protesting an anti-Islam film broke through a barricade near the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi on Sunday, sparking clashes with police in which one demonstrator was killed and more than a dozen injured. In a move that could escalate tensions around the Arab world, the leader of the Hezbollah militant group called for protests against the movie, saying protesters should not only 'express our anger' at U.S. embassies but urge leaders to act. The film, which denigrates Islam's Prophet Muhammad, has sparked violent protests in many Muslim countries in recent days, including one in Libya in which the U.S. ambassador was killed. The U.S. has responded by deploying additional military forces to increase security in certain hotspots. In a televised speech, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the U.S. must be held accountable for the film, which was produced in the United States. The U.S. government has condemned the film. "The ones who should be held accountable and boycotted are those who support and protect the producers, namely the U.S. administration," Nasrallah said. He called for protests on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to call on their leaders to express their anger too. "We should not only express our anger at an American embassy here or there. We should tell our rulers in the Arab and Muslim world that it is 'your responsibility in the first place' and since you officially represent the governments and states of the Muslim world you should impose on the United States, Europe and the whole world that our prophet, our Quran and our holy places and honor of our Prophet be respected," he told his followers in a televised speech. Nasrallah said he waited to speak out about the film until Sunday, when Pope Benedict XVI ended his three-day trip to Lebanon. In Pakistan, police fired tear gas and water cannons at the protesters in Karachi after they broke through the barricade and reached the outer wall of the U.S. Consulate, police officer Mohammad Ranjha said. The protesters threw stones and bricks, prompting the police to beat back the crowd with their batons. The police and private security guards outside the consulate also fired in the air to disperse the crowd. One protester was killed during the clash, said Ali Ahmar, spokesman for the Shiite Muslim group that organized the rally. An official with the main ambulance service in the city, Khurram Ahmad, confirmed they carried away one dead protester and 18 others who were injured. All Americans who work at the consulate, which is located in the heart of Karachi, were safe, Rian Harris, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said. Thousands more held peaceful demonstrations against the film in other parts of the country, including the eastern city of Lahore and the northwest city of Dera Ismail Khan. The demonstration in Lahore was organized by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, believed to be a front organization for a powerful militant group blamed for attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed over 160 people. The protesters shouted anti-U.S. slogans and burned an American flag. "Our war will continue until America is destroyed!" shouted some of the protesters. "Dog, dog, America is a dog!" chanted others. The head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, addressed the crowd and demanded the Pakistani government shut down the U.S. Embassy and all consulates in the country until the filmmakers are punished. The protests were set off by a low-budget, crudely produced film called "Innocence of Muslims," which portrays Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. A 14-minute excerpt of the film, which is both in English and dubbed into Arabic, has been available on YouTube, although some countries have cut access to the site. The violence began Tuesday when mainly Islamist protesters climbed the U.S. Embassy walls in the Egyptian capital of Cairo and tore down the American flag from a pole in the courtyard. Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, also was killed Tuesday along with three other Americans, as violent protesters stormed the consulate in Benghazi. President Barack Obama has vowed that the attackers would be brought to justice but also stressed that the U.S. respects religious freedom. In a security shake-up following the attack on the consulate, the Libyan interior minister has fired three security officials in the eastern city, including the head of the Benghazi security sector, and the deputy interior minister in Benghazi, said senior security official Adel Rajouba. The decisions came following a government meeting and the three were fired because of "the lawlessness," Rajouba said. The intensity of the anti-American fervor initially caught U.S. leaders by surprise, but in the last several days the Obama administration has called for calm and urged foreign governments to protect American interests in their countries. "I think that we have to continue to be very vigilant because I suspect that ... these demonstrations are likely to continue over the next few days, if not longer," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Sunday. It has been unclear how much of the violence was spontaneously triggered by the film and how much of it was spurred on by anti-American militants using it as a tool to grow and enrage the crowds. Libya's Interim President Mohammed el-Megarif said Sunday that the attackers who killed the U.S. ambassador in the country appeared to have spent months preparing and carefully choosing their date — the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He pointed to a second raid on a safe house. "All this indicates clearly that the attackers are well trained and well prepared and have planned this in advance," he said in an interview. But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, brushed aside his assessment, saying evidence gathered so far indicated it was a spontaneous reaction to the anti-Islam video and not a premeditated or coordinated strike. "It seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons," said Rice, referring to the mortars and rocket-propelled grenades used in the attack. Whether the attackers had ties to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups has yet to be determined, Rice said, noting that the FBI has yet to complete its investigation. It wouldn't be the first time that Western works critical of Islam have triggered spontaneous unrest throughout the Middle East, she said, pointing to the novel "Satanic Verses" by British author Salman Rushdie and the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a Danish newspaper in 2006. A semiofficial religious foundation in Iran increased a reward it had offered for killing Rushdie to $3.3 million from $2.8 million, a hard-line Iranian newspaper reported Sunday, a move that appeared to be linked to the protests against the video. ___ Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan; Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan; and Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report. Associated Press ===================== Monday 17 September 2012 Robert Fisk: Al-Qa'ida cashes in as the scorpion gets in among the good guys A Damascus friend of mine called this weekend and was pretty chipper. "You know, we're all sorry about Christopher Stevens. This kind of thing is terrible and he was a good friend to Syria – he understood the Arabs." I let him get away with this, though I knew what was coming. "But we have an expression in Syria: 'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'." His message couldn't have been clearer. The United States supported the opposition against Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, helped Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias and had now reaped the whirlwind. America's Libyan "friends" had turned against them, murdered US ambassador Stevens and his colleagues in Benghazi and started an al-Qa'ida-led anti-American protest movement that had consumed the Muslim world. The US had fed the al-Qa'ida scorpion and now it had bitten America. And so Washington now supports the opposition against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was helping Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias (including Salafists and al-Qa'ida) and would, inevitably, be bitten by the same "scorpion" if Assad was overthrown. My friend's sermon was not quite in line with Syrian government policy. Assad's argument is that Syria is not Libya, and that Syrians, with their history, culture, love of Arabism, etc, did not want a revolution. But the Arab fury at Hollywood's obscene little anti-prophet video has occasioned almost as much rewriting of history in the West. The US media has already invented a new story in which America supported the Arab Spring saved the city of Benghazi when its people were about to be destroyed by Gaddafi's monstrous thugs – and has now been stabbed in the back by those treacherous Arabs in the very city rescued by the US. The real narrative, however, is different. Washington propped up and armed Arab dictatorships for decades, Saddam being one of our favourites. We loved Mubarak of Egypt, we adored Ben Ali of Tunisia, we are still passionately in love with the autocratic Gulf states, the gas stations now bankrolling the revolutions we choose to support – and we did, for at least two decades, smile upon Hafez al-Assad; even, briefly, his son Bashar. So we saved Benghazi with our air power and expected the Arab world to love us. We ignored the composition of the Libyan militias we supported – just as Clinton and Hague don't dwell on the make-up of the Free Syrian Army today. We pay no attention to Assad's warnings of "foreign fighters", just as we largely ignored the Salafists who were moving among the brave men who fought Gaddafi. Go back further, and we did pretty much the same in Afghanistan after 1980. We backed the mujahedin against the Soviets without paying attention to their theology and we used Pakistan to funnel weapons to these men. And when some of them transmogrified into the Taliban and nurtured Osama bin Laden and the scorpion bit on 9/11, we cried "terrorism" and wondered why the Afghans "betrayed" us. Same story yesterday, when four US Special Forces were murdered by their ungrateful Afghan police "trainees". The tragedy of this pathetic cycle of events is that the Assad regime is horrible and its secret police thugs have tortured and murdered thousands of innocents, its personnel have committed war crimes and Syria's civil war is consuming a generation who should be building a nation rather than destroying it. And Turkey has now taken on Pakistan's role as an arms funnel and rest-and-recreation centre for Syria's mujahedin. Will Turkey turn out to be the Pakistan of the Middle East? Syria's war is now taking on the carapace of Lebanon's 1975-90 conflict: sympathise with Palestinians and you were anti-Christian – express Christian fears and you were pro-Israeli. In Syria, the government's brutal snipers are killers of children. On the other side of the front line, the Free Syrian Army sniper is romantic; he gets married to a frontline nurse, only too sorry the family can't attend their nuptials. The mere suggestion that the opposition might be committing the occasional atrocity, and a reporter is asked – as I was – how much he is being paid by the Syrian mukhabarat intelligence service. So over to the Department of Home Truths. When he was murdered, Osama bin Laden was a has-been. No Arab revolutionary carried his picture. But this wretched organisation has now decided to cash in. Hence this weekend's al-Qa'ida call to Egyptians to continue their protests against the anti-Muslim video. Hence Benghazi. The scorpion has got in among the good guys. All you need then is a Hollywood crackpot. And a bit of hypocrisy. For Washington reluctantly says it can't ban the video since this would endanger free speech – the same free speech which America's dictators forbad their Arab people for so many decades ===================== Bank of America website slows; Prophet film threat made Tue, Sep 18 16:33 PM EDT By Rick Rothacker and Jim Finkle (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp's online banking site suffered intermittent problems on Tuesday amid threats on the Internet that a group was planning to launch cyber attacks on the bank and other U.S. targets to protest a film that has stirred unrest in the Middle East. Someone claiming to represent "cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam" said it would attack the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a "first step" in a campaign against properties of "American-Zionist Capitalists." "This attack will continue until the Erasing of that nasty movie. Beware this attack can vary in type," said the statement on an internet bulletin board known as pastebin.com, where hackers often post such threats. It was not possible to verify the identity of the person who posted the statement. A short film mocking the Prophet Mohammad, made with private funds in the United States and posted on the Internet, has ignited days of demonstrations in the Arab world, Africa, Asia and in some Western countries. Bank of America said its website is available but some customers may experience occasional slowness. "We are working to ensure full availability," bank spokesman Mark Pipitone said. Asked whether the website was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, he said: "I can tell you that we continuously take proactive measures to secure our systems." The New York Stock Exchange, operated by NYSE Euronext, declined to comment. Bank of America customers reached by Reuters in New York, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan said they could not access the website. Last year, the No. 2 U.S. bank experienced six days of problems with its website, which it blamed on heavy traffic and an upgrade of its systems. The site allows customers to check balances, transfer money and make payments. (Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina and Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn) =============== U.S. official says Benghazi consulate was "terrorist attack" Wed, Sep 19 13:03 PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last week in which four Americans died was a "terrorist attack" that may have had an al Qaeda connection, a top U.S. counterterrorism official told Congress on Wednesday. Rocket-propelled grenades and mortars struck the consulate on September 11, the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans died. "They were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy," Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in response to a question at a Senate hearing. Olsen said whether the attack was planned for September 11 was under investigation, but the information so far indicated it was "an opportunistic attack" that "began and evolved, and escalated over several hours." There were well-armed militants in the area, he said. "What we don't have at this point is specific intelligence that there was a significant advance planning or coordination for this attack." Whether or not the attack was planned well in advance has become a point of dispute between the Obama administration and Republican lawmakers who say it bears the hallmarks of a premeditated assault. Senior Libyan officials have said the attack was planned in advance. At the same hearing, Republican Senator Susan Collins said she agreed with Libyan officials that the attack was premeditated, planned and associated with the September 11 anniversary. She expressed concern about the security at the consulate, where no Marines were present and security was handled by foreign nationals. Olsen told lawmakers U.S. authorities are investigating who was responsible for the attack, and it appeared that a "number of different elements" were involved, including individuals connected to militant groups. "As well, we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates, particularly Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," he said. "The picture that is emerging is one where a number of different individuals were involved, so it's not necessarily an either-or proposition," Olsen said. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell, Tabassum Zakaria and Donna Smith; Editing by Warren Strobel) ============================================== ..Obama: Libya attack ‘wasn’t just a mob action’ . .By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News White House Correspondent .Posts .By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 1 hr 6 mins ago....Email Share0Print...... President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama appear on the ABC Television show “The View” in New York (Pablo …President Barack Obama said Monday that the Sept. 11 attack that claimed the life of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans "wasn't just a mob action," but he stopped short of explicitly labeling the assault as an act of terrorism. Obama's comments came as he taped an interview with "The View" during a brief trip to New York to address the annual United National General Assembly. He had been asked whether the attack on the U.S. Consulate compound in the city of Benghazi was a terrorist act. "There's no doubt that the kind of weapons that were used, the ongoing assault, that it wasn't just a mob action," the president said. "What's clear is that, around the world, there are still a lot of threats out there." Obama's remarks were collected by pool reporter David Boyer of the Washington Times. The head of the National Counterterrorism Center has called the attack an act of terrorism. White House spokesman Jay Carney said it's "self-evident" that that is the case. But Obama did not explicitly do so. Still, his remarks reflected a day-by-day shift in how his administration has described the attack. At first, the White House described it as a spontaneous act resulting from demonstrations against an anti-Islam video on the Internet. That video has led to angry anti-U.S. protests throughout the Muslim world. Obama noted that, but he underlined that "there's never an excuse for violence." And he said the best response to the video would be to "ignore it"--even though aides said he would discuss the film in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. The incident has raised questions about whether the slain ambassador, Chris Stevens, should have had more protection. And Republicans led by Mitt Romney have pointed to the demonstrations across the region as a sign that the president has botched his response to the so-called "Arab Spring" uprisings that have swept authoritarian regimes from power. ...==============

US apologizes to Afghans for Quran burning & Massacre

http://youtu.be/s9kAVlnGMTU

Associated PressAssociated Press – 9 hrs ago

Video: Quran burning sparks angry Afghan protestAP 1:18 | 3926 views
Protesters throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase . The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into a report that troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans"View Gallery

Protesters throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase …

Article: Taliban: Changed, but still a potent threat

Sat, Feb 11, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is apologizing for the burning of Muslim holy books in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Press secretary Jay Carney says it was a "deeply unfortunate incident" that does not reflect the respect the U.S. military has for the religious practices of the Afghans.

Carney echoed military officials Tuesday in saying that the Quran burning at Bagram Air Field happened unintentionally, and an investigation was being undertaken to understand why it did and ensure it would not happen again.

A Western military official said the Qurans were removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages. Carney did not address those specifics, referring questions to defense officials.

He said the administration was following the matter closely.

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U.S. Embassy in Kabul on lockdown amid protests
Wed, Feb 22 02:08 AM EST
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KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said on Wednesday its staff were on lockdown and all travel was suspended amid violent protests across the capital over the burning of Korans at NATO's main base in Afghanistan.

"The embassy is on lockdown; all travel suspended. Please, everyone, be safe out there," the embassy's official Twitter feed said of the protests where demonstrators screamed "Death to America!"

Police fired shots as around 1,000 protesters gathered for a second day of violent clashes after copies of Islam's holy book were burned on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Georgy)

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Taliban urge Afghans to kill "invaders" after Koran burnings
Thu, Feb 23 01:16 AM EST
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KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban urged Afghans on Thursday to target foreign military bases and "beat and kill" Westerners in retaliation for burnings of copies of Islam's holy book, the Koran, at NATO's main base in the country as a third day of protests began.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied across the country on Wednesday, some chanting "Death to America!" and demanding U.S. and foreign military forces leave Afghanistan, Reuters witnesses and local officials said.

"Our brave people must target the military bases of invader forces, their military convoys and their invader bases," read an e-mailed Taliban statement released by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

"They have to kill them (Westerners), beat them and capture them to give them a lesson to never dare desecrate the holy Koran again."

The U.S. government and the American commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan apologized for "unintentional" burnings after Afghan laborers found charred copies of the Koran while collecting rubbish at the huge Bagram Airbase, about an hour's drive north of Kabul.

The largest protests on Thursday were in eastern Laghman province, with others erupting in the eastern city of Jalalabad and in the capital Kabul.

Six people were killed and dozens wounded in demonstrations on Wednesday across the country, prompting President Hamid Karzai to urge calm.

(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Rob Taylor and Nick Macfie)

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Feb. 23, 2012 10:12 AM ET
US official: Afghan soldier kills 2 US troops
AMIR SHAH, Associated Press
PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

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Afghan security forces arrive at the scene of an anti-U.S. demonstration at a NATO military base in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Anti-American demonstrations continued for a second day Wednesday in Afghanistan over what the U.S. has said was the inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
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US official: 2 NATO troops killed by Afghan soldier during Quran protests were American

Feb. 23, 2012 10:01 AM ET
Afghan president's office: Obama has sent a letter formally apologizing for Quran burning

Feb. 23, 2012 7:47 AM ET
UN panel compiles list of top Syrian officials who could face 'crimes against humanity' probe

Feb. 23, 2012 5:03 AM ET
Officials: Death toll in attacks across Baghdad and Iraq provinces rises to 48

Feb. 23, 2012 3:57 AM ET
Police say death toll from bus terminal bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to 8

Feb. 23, 2012 1:49 AM ET

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. official says both international troops killed by a man in an Afghan army uniform were Americans.

NATO reported Thursday that the two service members were killed by a man dressed as an Afghan soldier in eastern Afghanistan.

Mohammad Hassan, a local Afghan leader in Nangarhar province, says the shooting occurred outside an American base in the province during a riot against the Quran burnings. He says the gunman was an Afghan soldier.

President Barack Obama has apologized for the burning of Qurans and other religious texts earlier this week at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul. The incident has sparked violent demonstrations across the Muslim nation.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan president's office says it has received a letter from President Barack Obama formally apologizing for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The statement from President Hamid Karzai's office says the U.S. ambassador delivered the letter on Thursday.

In the letter, which is quoted in the statement, Obama expresses his "deep regret for the reported incident" and offers his "sincere apologies."

According to the statement, Obama wrote: "The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."

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Feb. 23, 2012 10:12 AM ET
US official: Afghan soldier kills 2 US troops
AMIR SHAH, Associated Press
PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

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Afghan security forces arrive at the scene of an anti-U.S. demonstration at a NATO military base in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Anti-American demonstrations continued for a second day Wednesday in Afghanistan over what the U.S. has said was the inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
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US official: 2 NATO troops killed by Afghan soldier during Quran protests were American

Feb. 23, 2012 10:01 AM ET
Afghan president's office: Obama has sent a letter formally apologizing for Quran burning

Feb. 23, 2012 7:47 AM ET
UN panel compiles list of top Syrian officials who could face 'crimes against humanity' probe

Feb. 23, 2012 5:03 AM ET
Officials: Death toll in attacks across Baghdad and Iraq provinces rises to 48

Feb. 23, 2012 3:57 AM ET
Police say death toll from bus terminal bombing in northwest Pakistan has risen to 8

Feb. 23, 2012 1:49 AM ET

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. official says both international troops killed by a man in an Afghan army uniform were Americans.

NATO reported Thursday that the two service members were killed by a man dressed as an Afghan soldier in eastern Afghanistan.

Mohammad Hassan, a local Afghan leader in Nangarhar province, says the shooting occurred outside an American base in the province during a riot against the Quran burnings. He says the gunman was an Afghan soldier.

President Barack Obama has apologized for the burning of Qurans and other religious texts earlier this week at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul. The incident has sparked violent demonstrations across the Muslim nation.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Afghan president's office says it has received a letter from President Barack Obama formally apologizing for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

The statement from President Hamid Karzai's office says the U.S. ambassador delivered the letter on Thursday.

In the letter, which is quoted in the statement, Obama expresses his "deep regret for the reported incident" and offers his "sincere apologies."

According to the statement, Obama wrote: "The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."

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Twelve killed in protests across Afghanistan
Fri, Feb 24 15:25 PM EST
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By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed on Friday in the bloodiest day yet in protests that have raged across Afghanistan over the desecration of copies of the Muslim holy book at a NATO military base with riot police and soldiers on high alert braced for more violence.

The burning of the Korans at the Bagram compound earlier this week has deepened public mistrust of NATO forces struggling to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops withdraw in 2014.

Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.

Chanting "Death to America!" and "Long live Islam!," protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above.

Friday is a holy day and the official weekly holiday in Afghanistan and mosques in the capital drew large crowds, with police in pick-up trucks posted on nearby streets.

Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where they killed one demonstrator, said police at the scene. In another Kabul rally, police said they were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.

Seven more protesters were killed in the western province of Herat, two more in eastern Khost province and one in the relatively peaceful northern Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.

U.S. President Barack Obama had sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base, north of Kabul, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.

Afghanistan wants NATO to put those responsible on public trial.

In neighboring U.S. ally Pakistan, about 400 members of a hardline Islamist group staged protests. "If you burn the Koran, we will burn you," they shouted.

To Afghanistan's west, Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami said the U.S. had purposely burned the Korans. "These apologies are fake. The world should know that America is against Islam," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio.

"It (the Koran burning) was not a mistake. It was an intentional move, done on purpose."

Most Westerners have been confined to their heavily fortified compounds, including at the sprawling U.S. embassy complex and other diplomatic missions, as protests that have killed a total of 23 people, including two U.S. soldiers, rolled into their fourth day. The embassy, in a message on the microblogging site Twitter, urged U.S. citizens to "please be safe out there" and expanded movement restrictions to relatively peaceful northern provinces, where large demonstrations also occurred Thursday, including the attempted storming of a Norwegian military base.

The Taliban urged Afghan security forces Thursday to "turn their guns on the foreign infidel invaders" and repeatedly urged Afghans to kill, beat and capture NATO soldiers.

Germany, which has the third-largest foreign presence in the NATO-led war, pulled out several weeks early of a small base in the northern Takhar province Friday over security concerns, a defense ministry spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Amira Mitri in TEHRAN, Imtiaz Shah in KARACHI, Sabine Siebold in BERLIN, Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Georgy and Ed Lane)
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Afghan protesters torch 20 NATO trucks

LAST UPDATE

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:39:57 GMT

Angry protesters in Afghanistan burn 20 NATO oil tankers on the fourth day of protests against the desecration of the Qur'an in a US-run military base in the country, Press TV reports.

The incident occurred on Friday in the southeastern province of Khost where Afghan protesters attacked a convoy of trucks supplying oil to US-led NATO forces in the country.

The attack took place during a demonstration near a US military base near the provincial capital city of Khost, leaving a number of people killed and injured.

There were no immediate reports specifying the number of casualties.

Earlier in the day, more than a dozen protesters were killed in clashes with Afghan law enforcement across the country.

Fatalities were caused in the capital city of Kabul and three more provinces including Herat, where police opened fire on demonstrators after they tried to storm the US consulate.

At least 36 people, including two American troops, have been killed since anti-US protests erupted in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

The violence was triggered by the burning of copies of the Holy Qur’an and other Islamic texts at the US-run Bagram Airbase, southeast of the city of Charikar in Afghanistan's Parwan Province.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to his Afghan counterpart Karzai, apologizing for the burning of copies of the Holy Qur’an by American forces in Afghanistan.

Obama told Karzai that the incident, which has sparked angry protests against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was not intentional.

Afghans have rejected the apology and demanded an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from their country.
========American officers killed in Afghan Interior MinistrySat, Feb 25 16:52 PM ESTimage 1 of 10 By Hamid Shalizi and Amie Ferris-RotmanKABUL (Reuters) - Two American officers were shot dead at close range in Afghanistan's Interior Ministry on Saturday, a U.S. official said, as rage gripped the country for a fifth day over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base.NATO recalled all staff working at ministries in the Afghan capital, Kabul, following the attack, with its top commander in Afghanistan calling the killer a coward."For obvious force protection reasons, I have also taken immediate measures to recall all other ISAF (NATO's International Security Assistance Force) personnel working in ministries in and around Kabul," said General John Allen, adding that the attacker's actions "will not go unanswered."The two American officers, advisers to the ministry, were fired on at close range, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they did not know the identity of the shooter and that there was no known witness to the crime.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the shootings, which it said were in retaliation for the desecration of copies of the Koran by foreign troops at NATO's Bagram air base. Afghan security sources said the two dead were a U.S. colonel and major with NATO forces.U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a letter to his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, apologizing for what Washington says was the unintentional burning of the Korans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.The Koran burnings ignited anti-Western fury. Thousands have taken to the streets and at least 27 people have been killed in the protests. Two American soldiers were shot to death on Thursday by an Afghan national army soldier who joined the rallies.Obama spoke with Allen after Saturday's shootings and the White House said the president supported the steps taken to protect U.S. service members in Afghanistan."We welcome President Karzai's statement this morning encouraging peaceful expressions and his call for dialogue and calm," the White House said in a statement. "The United States remains committed to a partnership with the government and people of Afghanistan."HIGH SECURITY CLEARANCEAn Afghan security source said the American officers killed on Saturday had been found dead with gunshot wounds deep inside the heavily fortified Interior Ministry."There is CCTV (closed-circuit television) there and special locks. The killer would have had to have the highest security (clearance) to get to the room where they were killed," the source told Reuters.U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called on the Afghan government on Saturday to take decisive action to protect NATO forces and the curtail violence sweeping the country.Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, in a phone call with Panetta, apologized and said Karzai was assembling religious leaders, parliamentarians, justices of the Supreme Court, and others in an effort to curb violence, according to a Pentagon description of the conversation.In Kabul, Allen met with Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, who pledged his complete cooperation with the investigation, the Pentagon said.ISAF declined to say if the shooter was a member of the Afghan security forces.If the shootings are linked to Afghan forces, new questions will arise about Taliban infiltration as well as their ability to secure Afghanistan once NATO combat forces withdraw in 2014.NATO is supposed to be moving away from a combat role to an advise-and-assist mission as early as next year. That will require NATO to place more staff in ministries."The fact that NATO is recalling staff from ministries suggests they are worried about a deep malaise in the Afghan security forces, that they expect more of these attacks," said Kamran Bokhari at STRATFOR global intelligence firm.The Koran burnings have underscored the deep cultural mistrust between Afghans and the foreign troops who invaded a decade ago to oust the Taliban from power.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement four high-ranking Americans had been killed. The Islamist group often exaggerates and inflates claims of casualties."The attack came from the mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate in revenge for the American soldiers' repeated desecration of our religion, especially the latest intentional incident in the Bagram airfield which they burnt Korans," Mujahid said, using another name the group calls itself.DESECRATIONAn Afghan security source said the shooting of the two Americans in the Interior Ministry could be connected to the burning of the Korans.Muslims consider the Koran to be the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.Hundreds of people tried to overrun a compound in the northern Kunduz province housing workers from the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, but were held back by police, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.In April last year, protesters angry about the burning of Korans by an obscure pastor in the United States stormed a U.N. compound in northern Balkh province, killing seven people.The protests could dent plans for a strategic pact that Washington is considering with Kabul that would allow a sharply reduced number of Western troops to stay in the country well beyond their combat exit deadline.There have been several instances of Afghan troops and forces turning on NATO troops. NATO servicemen and staff live and work primarily at their bases but also frequent the barricaded Afghan ministries dotted around Kabul on official business.(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni in Kabul, Phil Stewart and Matt Spetalnick in Washington, Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Georgy and Bill Trott)

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Afghan policeman suspect in killing of U.S. officers: sources
Sun, Feb 26 05:29 AM EST
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By Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan authorities said on Sunday they believe an Afghan police intelligence officer may have been involved in the shooting deaths of two U.S. officers inside the interior ministry a day earlier, prompting NATO to recall all its staff from ministries.

Abdul Saboor, 25, is the main suspect in the killing, which took place at close range well inside the heavily fortified ministry in the centre of the capital, Kabul, senior security sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"Abdul Saboor is at large right now. He is the main suspect for us but we can not draw any conclusions over whether or not he is the killer," one of the sources said, adding that CCTV footage shows that Saboor had access to the Command and Control Centre where the slain Americans were found.

The killing of the American officers took place as rage gripped the country for a fifth straight day over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a NATO base, despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama.

If the shootings are found to be linked to Afghan forces, new questions will arise about Taliban infiltration as well as their ability to secure Afghanistan once NATO combat forces withdraw in 2014.

The Taliban took responsibility for the American deaths.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai repeated his plea for calm and restraint on Sunday. "I hope people will be calm and be assured that we are seriously pursuing this matter," he said of the burning of the Korans.

Riots across the country killed 29 people and wounded 200 more, Karzai said, including the shooting of two U.S. soldiers by an Afghan army officer who joined the protests earlier in the week.

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Ed Lane)

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Only burning White House will compensate for burning Quran: Iran military official

Sunday, 26 February 2012
Commander of Iran’s Basij force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said nothing short of burning the White House and hanging American military commanders can compensate for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. (File photo)
Commander of Iran’s Basij force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said nothing short of burning the White House and hanging American military commanders can compensate for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan. (File photo)
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By Al Arabiya

In a move likely to irk tension between Iran and United States, a top Iranian military commander said on Saturday that nothing short of burning the White House and hanging American military commanders can compensate for the burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan last week.

“The U.S. has committed such an ugly act and burnt Qurans because of the heavy slap it has been given by Islam,” commander of Iran’s Basij force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi told the semi-official Fars news agency.

U.S. President Barack Obama wrote a letter of apology to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on Thursday, in an effort to quell furor among Afghans who have been protesting for five days after charred remains of the Muslim holy book was found at the Bagram air base outside of Kabul.

However in response to Obama’s apology, Nagdi said “nothing but burning the White House can relieve the wound on us, the Muslims, caused by burning the Quran.”

“Their apology can be accepted only by hanging their commanders; hanging their commanders means an apology,” he added.

According to Fars, Nagdi stressed that Muslims can no longer give consent to U.S. apologies, since the Americans have made numerous mistakes in Afghanistan and continue to so only to then offer an apology and “this is simply not acceptable.”

Nagdi’s comments came after two U.S. military advisers took the death toll from raging anti-U.S. protests in Afghanistan to around 30.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's shooting, saying it was in revenge for the burning of Qurans

Karzai issued a statement urging demonstrators and Afghan security forces to exercise restraint, saying the government was pressing Washington “on the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime”.

On Friday, the prayer leader in Tehran said the burning of the Quran was intentional and proves American aggression towards Islam.

“Based on reports by reporters, this was an intentional move prompted by the hatred of American statement for Islam,” Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said.

“I announced with a loud voice, the world should know that the U.S. administration is hostile to Islam; Americans’ insult was not a mistake, rather deliberately because Washington rulers are hostile to Islam.”

On Saturday, Karzai issued a statement urging demonstrators and Afghan security forces to exercise restraint, saying the government was pressing Washington “on the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime.”

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Two U.S. soldiers killed at base in Afghanistan
Thu, Mar 01 15:21 PM EST

By Michael Georgy

KABUL (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were shot and killed on Thursday in an attack involving at least one Afghan believed to be a soldier and a civilian, Western and Afghan officials said, the second such incident in a week and one likely to deepen doubts about Afghanistan's security forces.

The killings at a base in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan came after two senior U.S. officers were gunned down in the Afghan Interior Ministry on Saturday by what Afghan security officials say was a police intelligence official.

At least five NATO soldiers have been killed by Afghan security forces since the burning of copies of the Koran at a NATO base last month triggered widespread anger and protests.

Western and Afghan officials initially said the attack had been carried out by one man in an Afghan military uniform and a second in civilian clothes.

But the Pentagon said later it appeared three Afghans were involved, including two soldiers who were killed by members of the International Security Assistance Force and a civilian who may have been an instructor at the base. It was not immediately clear whether the civilian had escaped or not.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said the motive for the attack was not initially clear. About 70 members of the NATO-led force were killed in 42 insider attacks from May 2007 through the end of January this year.

Some of these incidents have been carried out by Afghan security forces reacting to the recent Koran burning, some have been due to private grievances and others have been carried out by the Taliban insurgency.

The killing of the U.S. officers in the Interior Ministry on Saturday stunned NATO and cast doubt on its strategy of replacing large combat units with advisers as the alliance tries to wind down the war, now in its 11th year.

NATO immediately moved to withdraw all its advisers from Afghan ministries in Kabul. Britain, Germany and Canada then withdrew their advisers.

Some NATO staff have been allowed to go back to the ministries, said Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson, the spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

"STAYING THE COURSE"

Little disputed suggestions that the recent killings mean the alliance's strategy is not working. He said that Afghan soldiers themselves have been killed in the past week while trying to tamp down the violence provoked by the Koran burnings at an ISAF base where detainees are held.

"I strongly reject the notion that our strategy in Afghanistan is failing," he said. "There have been suggestions this week that the wheels on the bus are falling off and that is simply not the case."

When viewed broadly "the overall trends are positive," Little said, adding, "we are staying the course in Afghanistan."

Despite such assurances, Afghan officials worry that further attacks by Afghan forces on Western troops could damage ties with NATO.

Such incidents became more frequent after the United States sent tens of thousands of more soldiers to Afghanistan as part of a surge to fight in Taliban strongholds.

"There are Taliban sympathizers in uniform inside Afghan security forces who are not in fact sent or recruited by the Taliban," said an Afghan government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Despite tighter vetting procedures, such unfortunate incidents do occur. This problem will not go away. We need more time, more resources and manpower."

Some of Washington's partners have shown even greater sensitivity to insider attacks. In January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suspended training and support operations and announced that France would withdraw entirely by the end of 2013 after four French troops were killed by a rogue Afghan soldier.

The United States hopes Afghan forces will be able to confront the Taliban and handle security on their own before NATO combat troops' scheduled departure by the end of 2014.

"Unfortunately, this situation is a point of concern for us," General Afzal Aman, head of the operations department at the Ministry of Defence, told Reuters, referring to the insider killings of NATO troops.

(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi in Afghanistan and David Alexander in Washington, Editing by Robert Birsel and Xavier Briand)

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Six killed in attack on US base

LAST UPDATE

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:28:56 GMT

At least six people have been killed in an attack on the US Nangarhar base in eastern Afghanistan amid growing public fury over the desecration of the Qur'an by American soldiers, Press TV reports.

No one has claimed responsibility yet, but some sources say locals attacked the base in retaliation for the Qur’an burning at the US-run Bagram Airbase.

Earlier on Wednesday, a car bomb ripped through a group of US-led foreign troops in Lashkar Gah in the troubled southern province of Helmand.

Witnesses said the blast left a number of casualties among US-led foreign forces and civilians.

Police officials and witnesses said the blast left at least seven people injured, including members of the US-led foreign forces and some Afghan civilians.

Afghans have been holding rallies for over a week against the desecration of the holy Qur’an by US troops in Afghanistan on February 21.

Following the Qur’an desecration US President Barack Obama sent a letter to his Afghan counterpart Hamed Karzai, apologizing for the actions of American forces in Afghanistan. Obama told Karzai that the incident was not intentional.

Afghans have rejected the apology and demanded an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from their country. The incident has sparked angry protests against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.

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Try Qur'an burners in public: Clerics

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:04:02 GMT

Top Afghan clerics have demanded a public trial for those involved in the burning of copies of the Holy Qur’an at the US-run military airbase in Bagram.

Members of a senior council of Afghan clerics made the demand after a meeting with President Hamid Karzai on Friday.

The Ulema Council "insists that such a devilish act is not forgivable by apologies and that the perpetrators of this crime should soon be publicly tried and punished", the president’s office said in a statement.

"The council strongly condemns the heinous, inhumane, barbaric act of disrespecting the Koran and other religious books by American forces in Bagram base."

The clerics reiterated Karzai’s calls for the handover of the US-run prison at Bagram to Afghan control and an end to night raids, noting that the US-led foreign militaries have failed to positively respond to the “righteous demands."

On February 21, US troops in the Bagram airbase torched copies of the Muslim holy book they had collected from the Afghan prisoners in there.

The desecration ignited days of anti-US protests in which some 40 people died in Afghanistan, plunged relations between the US-led forces and their Afghan allies to an all time low and forced US President Barack Obama to apologize.

Afghans have, however, rejected the apology and demanded an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from their country.

The incident has also sparked angry protests against US and NATO forces in other Muslim countries, such as Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia.

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US rejects Afghan trial in shooting spree

LAST UPDATE

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:39:57 GMT

The Pentagon says the US military will prosecute the American soldier responsible for the killings of at least 17 Afghan civilians, rejecting calls for his trial to be held in Afghanistan.

Pentagon spokesman George Little on Monday rejected calls for the prosecutions of the American soldier "before the people of Afghanistan."

Little said that investigations and the prosecutions of US service members were governed by "agreements in place with the government of Afghanistan.”

"The United States military has very strong means to address wrongdoing," he added.

Earlier, Afghan lawmakers called for the public trial of the American troops involved in the recent massacre of 17 civilians, including women and children.

"We seriously demand and expect that the government of the United States punish the culprits and try them in a public trial before the people of Afghanistan," the lawmakers said in a Monday statement.

On Sunday, a US soldier opened fire on Afghan civilians inside their homes, killing at least 17 and injuring several others in the district of Panjwaii in southern Kandahar Province.

In November 2005, a massacre in the Iraqi town of Haditha by US soldiers left 24 civilians dead. Later, US military trials cleared seven of the accused soldiers and sentenced an eighth soldier to 90 days in prison but not required to serve any time.

Last year, Washington decided to pull out all its troops from Iraq, after Baghdad refused to agree to give US military personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts.
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Afghan government team attacked, Taliban fume over massacre
Tue, Mar 13 08:18 AM EDT
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By Rob Taylor and Mirwais Harooni

KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected insurgents opened fire on Tuesday on senior Afghan investigators of the massacre of 16 civilians by a lone U.S. soldier, Afghan officials said, just hours after the Taliban threatened to behead American troops to avenge the killings.

The gunmen shot from long range at two of President Hamid Karzai's brothers, Shah Wali Karzai and Abdul Qayum Karzai, and security officials at the site of the massacre in Kandahar's Panjwai district.

Karzai's brothers were unharmed in the brief battle, which began during meetings with local people at a mosque near Najiban and Alekozai villages, but a soldier was killed and a civilian wounded. The area is a Taliban stronghold and a supply route.

The Taliban had earlier threatened reprisals for the weekend shooting spree, which came weeks after deadly riots across the country over the burning of copies of the Koran by U.S. troops at NATO's main base in the country. That violence led to calls to accelerate a 2014 goal for the exit of most foreign combat troops.

"The Islamic Emirate once again warns the American animals that the mujahideen will avenge them, and with the help of Allah will kill and behead your sadistic murderous soldiers," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, using the term by which the Islamist group describes itself.

The grim warning, which was unlikely to have any impact on heavily-protected NATO soldiers on the ground, followed the February beheading of four Afghan men by insurgents in a country where such killings are relatively rare.

Tuesday's attack, which was carried out despite tight security around Karzai's siblings, Kandahar governor Tooryalai Wesa and Tribal Affairs Minister Asadullah Khalid, underscored the insurgents' ability to strike at fledgling Afghan government forces.

The first protests over Sunday's massacre also broke out in eastern city Jalalabad, where around 2,000 demonstrators chanted "Death to America" and demanded President Karzai reject a planned strategic pact with Washington that would allow U.S. advisers and possibly special forces to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

An unnamed U.S. soldier -- reported to have only recently arrived in the country -- is accused of walking off his base in Kandahar province in the middle of the night and gunning down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.

A U.S. official said the accused soldier had suffered a traumatic brain injury while on a previous deployment in Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking after a phone call with Karzai -- who is said to be furious over the latest deaths -- said the shootings had only increased his determination to get American troops out of Afghanistan as planned.

However, Obama cautioned there should not be a "rush to the exits" for U.S. forces who have been fighting in Afghanistan since late 2001 and that the drawdown set for the end of 2014 should be done in a responsible way.

The soldier, from a conventional unit, was based at a joint U.S.-Afghan base used by elite U.S. troops under a so-called village support program hailed by NATO as a possible model for U.S. involvement in the country after the 2014 drawdown.

Such bases provide support to local Afghan security units and provide a source of security advice and training, as well as anti-insurgent backup and intelligence.

"CAN NO LONGER BE CALLED ROGUE"

A spokesman for the Kandahar governor Wesa said tribal elders in the area of the massacre would urge against protests and work to dampen public anger if the investigation process was transparent.

"They are supporting the government and will accept any conclusion by the investigators. Today we have meetings with people in the area and all will become clear," spokesman Ahmad Jawid Faisal said.

NATO officials said it was too early to tell if the U.S. soldier would be tried in the United States or Afghanistan if investigators were to find enough evidence to charge him, but he would be under U.S. laws and procedures under an agreement between U.S. and Afghan officials.

Typically, once the initial investigation is completed, prosecutors decide if they have enough evidence to file charges and then could move to an Article 32 or court martial hearing.

NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, Marine General John Allen, has promised a rapid investigation of the massacre, while security was being reviewed at NATO bases across the country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the death penalty could be sought in the U.S. military justice system against the soldier, but portrayed the shooting as an isolated event that would not alter withdrawal plans.

While Afghan MPs in parliament called for a trial under Afghan law, Karzai's office was understood to accept that a trial in a U.S. court would be acceptable provided the process was transparent and open to media.

Afghan MPs protested against the shooting for a second day in the capital Kabul by walking out of a session.

Analysts said the incident would complicate U.S. efforts to reach agreement with the Afghan government on a post-2014 security pact before a May summit in the U.S. city of Chicago on the future size and funding of Afghan security forces.

Thomas Ruttig of the Afghanistan Analysts Network said that despite NATO and White House references to the killings as the work of a "rogue" soldier, similar events had happened before, including a "kill team" apprehended in Kandahar in 2010.

"In the stress of an environment of escalated violence - by both sides, but particularly after Obama's troop surge in early 2009, it looks as if most soldiers simply see Afghanistan as a whole as 'enemy territory' and every Afghan as a potential terrorist. This can no longer be called 'rogue'," Ruttig said.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Crashed vehicle causes scare for Panetta at Afghan base

14 Mar 2012 22:25

Source: reuters // Reuters

(Adds details)

* Afghan man drove stolen vehicle onto runway ramp

* Pentagon chief was arriving in Afghanistan

* Incident underscores troubled security situation

By Phil Stewart

BASTION AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 14 (Reuters) - An Afghan man driving a stolen pickup truck sped onto a runway ramp at an air base in southern Afghanistan and then emerged from the vehicle ablaze at around the time U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was arriving aboard a military plane, U.S. officials said.

The Pentagon chief, making an unannounced visit at a time of high tensions after a U.S. soldier massacred 16 Afghan villagers on Sunday, was not hurt in the incident at Bastion Airfield, a British base, and continued on with his schedule of events.

The Afghan man, a civilian who was not believed to be carrying explosives, was being treated at the base for severe burn injuries, U.S. officials said. No explanation was given for how the man caught on fire.

The pickup trunk apparently approached the runway ramp - where aircraft park - at high speed before ending up in a ditch, officials said.

U.S. officials did not rule out the possibility that the incident in southern Helmand province was an attempted attack on Panetta, but said there was no indication that this was the case. They said an investigation was ongoing.

"There is no evidence right now that the driver had any idea who was on that aircraft," U.S. Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters in Washington.

The incident was a reminder of the tense security situation in Afghanistan more than a decade after U.S. forces invaded to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda network responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

Many questions about the incident remained after briefings by U.S. officials.

The Afghan man's vehicle neither caught fire nor exploded, and there were not explosives there either - raising questions about how he came to be on fire, Pentagon spokesman George Little said in Afghanistan, denying Afghan media reports.

"For reasons that are totally unknown to us at this time, our personnel discovered that he was ablaze," Little said.

"Base personnel put the fire out and he was immediately treated for burn injuries and is still being treated. He sustained considerable burn wounds," Little added.

One NATO service member was injured in the apparent car-jacking, U.S. officials said. This service member's nationality was not disclosed.

"A coalition member was injured in the theft of the vehicle," Kirby said. "... My understanding was (that the service member was) pulled out and potentially hit by the vehicle, too."

Tensions are high in Afghanistan in the wake of Sunday's massacre and the furor over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, at a NATO base last month.

Reporters traveling with Panetta on his aircraft were not told about the incident for about 10 hours after it took place shortly before 11 a.m. local time. Panetta carried on with his schedule, talking to troops at Camp Leatherneck about the importance of the decade-old war effort.

Shortly before he arrived to speak, U.S. troops and other allies were told to put their weapons outside the tent - a highly unusual move that officials downplayed later. The commander in Helmand, U.S. Major General Mark Gurganus, said he wanted foreign troops to be unarmed since Afghan troops would be.

Little said the removal of the firearms and the incident involving the pickup truck were "absolutely not" linked.

Panetta's team apparently became aware that something was amiss shortly before landing at Bastion but details only came later.

"We did know that we were diverted to a different runway. And we learned soon after landing that there may have been an incident," said Little, who was traveling with Panetta.

"Again, the security of the secretary was never in question. He carried on during the event." (Additional reporting by David Alexander and Missy Ryan in Washington; Editing By Warren Strobel and Will Dunham)

======

Robert Fisk: Madness is not the reason for this massacre


Robert Fisk Author Biography

Saturday 17 March 2012
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I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course. The 38-year-old staff sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, near Kandahar this week had no sooner returned to base than the defence experts and the think-tank boys and girls announced that he was "deranged". Not an evil, wicked, mindless terrorist – which he would be, of course, if he had been an Afghan, especially a Taliban – but merely a guy who went crazy.

This was the same nonsense used to describe the murderous US soldiers who ran amok in the Iraqi town of Haditha. It was the same word used about Israeli soldier Baruch Goldstein who massacred 25 Palestinians in Hebron – something I pointed out in this paper only hours before the staff sergeant became suddenly "deranged" in Kandahar province.

"Apparently deranged", "probably deranged", journalists announced, a soldier who "might have suffered some kind of breakdown" (The Guardian), a "rogue US soldier" (Financial Times) whose "rampage" (The New York Times) was "doubtless [sic] perpetrated in an act of madness" (Le Figaro). Really?

Are we supposed to believe this stuff? Surely, if he was entirely deranged, our staff sergeant would have killed 16 of his fellow Americans. He would have slaughtered his mates and then set fire to their bodies. But, no, he didn't kill Americans. He chose to kill Afghans. There was a choice involved. So why did he kill Afghans? We learned yesterday that the soldier had recently seen one of his mates with his legs blown off. But so what?

The Afghan narrative has been curiously lobotomised – censored, even – by those who have been trying to explain this appalling massacre in Kandahar. They remembered the Koran burnings – when American troops in Bagram chucked Korans on a bonfire – and the deaths of six Nato soldiers, two of them Americans, which followed. But blow me down if they didn't forget – and this applies to every single report on the latest killings – a remarkable and highly significant statement from the US army's top commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, exactly 22 days ago. Indeed, it was so unusual a statement that I clipped the report of Allen's words from my morning paper and placed it inside my briefcase for future reference.

Allen told his men that "now is not the time for revenge for the deaths of two US soldiers killed in Thursday's riots". They should, he said, "resist whatever urge they might have to strike back" after an Afghan soldier killed the two Americans. "There will be moments like this when you're searching for the meaning of this loss," Allen continued. "There will be moments like this, when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back. Now is not the time for revenge, now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are."

Now this was an extraordinary plea to come from the US commander in Afghanistan. The top general had to tell his supposedly well-disciplined, elite, professional army not to "take vengeance" on the Afghans they are supposed to be helping/protecting/nurturing/training, etc. He had to tell his soldiers not to commit murder. I know that generals would say this kind of thing in Vietnam. But Afghanistan? Has it come to this? I rather fear it has. Because – however much I dislike generals – I've met quite a number of them and, by and large, they have a pretty good idea of what's going on in the ranks. And I suspect that Allen had already been warned by his junior officers that his soldiers had been enraged by the killings that followed the Koran burnings – and might decide to go on a revenge spree. Hence he tried desperately – in a statement that was as shocking as it was revealing – to pre-empt exactly the massacre which took place last Sunday.

Yet it was totally wiped from the memory box by the "experts" when they had to tell us about these killings. No suggestion that General Allen had said these words was allowed into their stories, not a single reference – because, of course, this would have taken our staff sergeant out of the "deranged" bracket and given him a possible motive for his killings. As usual, the journos had got into bed with the military to create a madman rather than a murderous soldier. Poor chap. Off his head. Didn't know what he was doing. No wonder he was whisked out of Afghanistan at such speed.

We've all had our little massacres. There was My Lai, and our very own little My Lai, at a Malayan village called Batang Kali where the Scots Guards – involved in a conflict against ruthless communist insurgents – murdered 24 unarmed rubber workers in 1948. Of course, one can say that the French in Algeria were worse than the Americans in Afghanistan – one French artillery unit is said to have "disappeared" 2,000 Algerians in six months – but that is like saying that we are better than Saddam Hussein. True, but what a baseline for morality. And that's what it's about. Discipline. Morality. Courage. The courage not to kill in revenge. But when you are losing a war that you are pretending to win – I am, of course, talking about Afghanistan – I guess that's too much to hope. General Allen seems to have been wasting his time.


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Several Thousand Salafists Demonstrate for Islamic Law, Attack Dramatists in Tunis
Ahmed Ellali | 25 March 2012 | 16 Comments

Salafist demonstrators wave Caliphate flag on top of Tunis clocktower

A group of several thousand Salafists and their supporters demonstrated in downtown Tunis today in support of the Koran, claiming that the Muslim holy book was under threat by more secular elements of Tunisian society. Demonstrators climbed the clock tower of Tunis to fly black caliphate flags from the top of the tower and chanted slogans such as “the people want a new caliphate.”

At the same time and on the same street, the Tunisian Association for Drama Arts held a celebration for the upcoming World Day of Theater (usually March 27th) in front of the Municipal Theater. As the Salafist protest came to a close, a number of Salafist demonstrators attacked the Theater celebration.

According to Yassine Ouni, a student from the Higher Institute for Drama, the Ministry of Interior was responsible for the confrontation because they gave permits for both events knowing there would be a conflict. “The Tunisian Association for the Drama Arts event and the Salafist demonstration was held at the same time. We want to hold the Interior Ministry accountable since it gave permission to the two movements on the same day and the Ministry knew there would be tension since Drama is sacred for all artists and religion is sacred for every citizen.”

Salafists gather in front of the Municipal Theater

The permit given to the dramatists was supposed to allow them to celebrate theater in the space between the municipal theater and the Africa Hotel while the Salafists had a permit to demonstrate by the Tunis clock tower. While the Salafist organizers agreed to separate the events at first, a group of Salafists later came and damaged equipment, disrupted outdoor performances and threw eggs, empty bottles and sharp objects at those celebrating theater.

Fawzi Guara, one of the demonstrators at the Salafist organized event for supporting the Koran blamed the theater celebration organizers for the confrontation. “Some Tunisians are not respecting our religious sanctity, campaigns against our religion confirm that there are elements here who want to provoke us. They don’t respect our views.”

Members of the Tunisian Association for Drama Arts in front of the Municipal Theater

Guara admitted that the Tunisian Association for Theater had received permission to hold an event first, but he said the Koran was more important than theater. “We knew they got permission before us, but they should give priority to defending the Koran and our religion. Anarchy can happen at any time, and simply by calling themselves ‘Theater of Resistance’ they are provoking us, resistance to whom? Did we sell out our country?”

For Guara, his demonstration was necessary because he sees Islam as being under attack. “Today Tunisia is witnessing a historical day. Tunisians went to the street to show their disapproval against the desecration of the Koran in Ben Guerdene, against the six pointed star on the wall of the Al-Fateh Mosque.”

He added that opponents of Salafists have been making a big deal out one Salafists’ desecration of the Tunisian flag at Mannouba University, just to give them a bad name. “We do love our country and our flag but the priority is for our religion and what is sacred. Islam does not oppose civility. We are here today to express our love for the Koran, for the prophet, for our holy sites. Our slogans are in support of the Koran, defending that which is sacred and rejecting discord and strife between Tunisians,” Guara said.

Kouichi Shirayanagi contributed to this report

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Afghan gun massacre families paid compensation
Mon, Mar 26 01:22 AM EDT
image

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have given cash compensation to the families of Afghans killed in a shooting rampage allegedly carried out by an American soldier in Kandahar province, a family member and a tribal elder said on Sunday.

The families received around $50,000 for each person killed and about $10,000 for each wounded in the shootings in two villages in Panjwai district earlier this month. Afghan officials say 16 people, including nine children and women, were killed in the attacks.

"We were invited by the foreign and Afghan officials in Panjwai yesterday and they said this money is an assistance from Obama," Haji Jan Agha, who said he lost his cousins, told Reuters, referring to U.S. President Barack Obama.

The U.S. embassy directed all questions to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which is fighting the war in Afghanistan.

An ISAF spokesman said he was in not in a position to either confirm or deny whether compensation was given, and if so how much.

Lieutenant Commander Brian Badura said that as a matter of policy ISAF does not make restitution for losses resulting from combat, combat-related activities or operational necessity.

"Individual troop contributing nations may participate in some form of restitution consistent with the cultural norms of Afghanistan," he said. "Settlement can come in a number of forms which may (be) but is not always financial."

"As a settlement of claims in most cases is a sensitive topic for those who have suffered loss it is usually a matter of agreement that terms of settlement remain confidential."

The United States normally pays up to $2,500 for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, a 2010 report by Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict said. Other countries with soldiers in Afghanistan have paid different amounts.

On Friday, U.S. authorities investigating the killings charged Staff Sergeant Robert Bales with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Initial reports from Afghanistan put the death toll at 16 people, and it was not immediately clear where the extra count came from.

The killings have further damaged U.S.-Afghan relations that were already under severe strain, and come at a time when foreign forces are preparing to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces ahead of a planned withdrawal by the end of 2014.

"The Americans came to Panjwai and handed over compensation to the families," said Haji Agha Lalai, an influential tribal elder and member of the provincial council.

(Reporting by Ismail Sameem; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Lawyer says U.S. blocks investigation of Afghan massacre
Fri, Mar 30 20:45 PM EDT
image
1 of 2

By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The lawyer defending the U.S. soldier accused of murdering 17 Afghan civilians claims U.S. authorities are blocking his ability to investigate the incident.

John Henry Browne, the lawyer for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, said U.S. forces in Afghanistan have prevented his team from interviewing injured civilians at a hospital in Kandahar, and are allowing other potential witnesses to scatter, making it difficult to track them down.

"When prosecutors don't cooperate, it's because they are concerned about the strength of their case,"

said Browne at a press conference at his downtown Seattle office on Friday.

Bales was formally charged last week with the murders of eight adults and nine children in a pre-dawn shooting rampage in southern Afghanistan on March 11, which further eroded U.S.-Afghan relations already strained by a decade of war.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

No date has been set for a trial, but U.S. military prosecutors are putting together their case while Browne is preparing his defense.

Browne said he has a team of investigators in Afghanistan now, but they are receiving little cooperation from military prosecutors who filed the charges.

"We are facing an almost complete information blackout from the government, which is having a devastating effect on our ability to investigate the charges preferred against our client," he said in a statement released earlier on Friday.

A reliable account of the events of the night of the massacre has not yet emerged. A recent report indicated Afghan villagers doubt Bales acted alone. Other reports suggest Bales left his base twice during the night.

"I don't believe that's the case, but we don't know for sure at this point," Browne said on Friday.

Browne said his investigators had spoken to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan but had not managed to contact any witnesses.

DENIED ACCESS

"When we tried to interview the injured civilians being treated at Kandahar Hospital we were denied access and told to coordinate with the prosecution team," Browne said in the earlier statement.

"The next day the prosecution team interviewed the civilians injured. We found out shortly after the prosecution interviews of the injured civilians that the civilians were all released from the hospital and there was no contact information for them." That means potential witnesses will scatter and could prove unreachable, Browne said.

Prosecutors had not shared their investigative findings with his team, and would not share images captured by a surveillance camera on a blimp above the base which the Army says shows Bales returning to the camp after the alleged shooting, he said.

The next step in the case is for Bales - who is being held at a military detention center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas - to undergo a mental assessment by Army doctors independent of both the prosecution and defense, to determine if he is fit to stand trial, known as a "sanity board" in the Army.

That could take several months, Browne said.

After that has occurred, the military justice system requires a preliminary hearing, known as an "Article 32" hearing, to establish whether there is a strong enough case to proceed to a court martial.

Browne said it was too early to say whether post-traumatic stress disorder would feature in his defense against the charges. "I don't know whether it will at all," said Browne.

"First thing we have to find out is whether the government has a case. Until we're convinced the government has a case, we're not going to start speculating on what our defenses are going to be."

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Todd Eastham and Paul Simao)

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