Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 19/12
France Braces for Mohammed Cartoons Backlash
Al-Azhar Slams French Mohammed Cartoons
French weekly publishes Mohammed cartoons
French embassy security bolstered in Beirut
Report: Syria has 'Nothing to Lose' in Sharing Chemical Weapons with Hizbullah
Exclusive: Iran arrests 3 Fordo sabotage suspects who entered from Azerbaijan
Canada and U.A.E. Forge Stronger Ties
 Turkey Finds Jet Downed by Syria in International Airspace
SANA: Assad Says 'War Targets Resistance Axis'
IDF chief orders surprise Golan Heights drill
Syria Opposition Says Wary of Iran in Contact Group
Iran confronts the reality of its limited influence
U.S. activist says he was deceived over anti-Muslim film
Mursi warns Iran its support for Assad hampering relations with Egypt
Syria accuses West of nuclear 'double standards' over Israel
No rules, no regrets for French cartoonists in Prophet storm
Muslim leaders decry Prophet cartoons, urge peaceful protest
Israel Army Holds Surprise Drill at Northern Border
Pope Calls for Unity Against Violence, Thanks Lebanon's Muslim Leaders
Miqati Heads Security Meeting as Inmates Set for 'Prisons Revolt'
Lebanon: Joint Parliamentary Committees Suspend Session on Electoral Law over Lack of Quorum
Lebanon's March 14 Slams Anti-Islam Film: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Remarks Violate Lebanese Sovereignty
Lebanon: Arrest Warrants Issued against 5 al-Meqdad Clan Members
South Lebanon: KFC Outlet in Nabatiyeh Comes Under Machinegun Fire
Qatari PM denies visas halted for Lebanese Shiites
Sayyed admits returning from Syria in Samaha’s car
National Dialogue back on track
March 14, Aoun trade accusations over vote law
 

Pope Calls for Unity Against Violence, Thanks Lebanon's Muslim Leaders
Naharnet /19 September 2012/ope Benedict XVI on Wednesday called for Christians and Muslims to unite against violence, following a trip to Lebanon last week in which he condemned fundamentalism in any religion."I think the time has come... for us together to issue a determined rejection of violence and wars," the pope said at an audience in the Vatican. The pope also thanked the Muslim leaders he met in Lebanon for their hospitality, adding: "I proposed a message of dialogue and collaboration."
"I was able to speak from the heart, to stand before the suffering and the dramatic events in the Middle East and to express my prayerful encouragement for the legitimate aspirations for peace there," he said.
The pontiff also asked the Christian minorities in the Middle East to find strength "amid trying circumstances to celebrate the victory of love over hate, of forgiveness over revenge and of unity over division."
The 85-year-old German pope was speaking in front of 7,000 faithful in the Vatican at his weekly audience following the three-day visit.
During his trip to Lebanon, the pope also called for an end to the supply of arms to both sides in the civil war raging in Syria.
SourceAgence France Presse.

South Lebanon: KFC Outlet in Nabatiyeh Comes Under Machinegun Fire
Naharnet /19 September 2012/Unknown assailants opened fire from their machineguns on a KFC restaurant in Nabatiyeh at dawn Wednesday, causing material damage, media reports said.
The drive-by shooting took place at 3:30 am, they said.The Army Intelligence immediately cordoned off the area and launched an investigation, the reports added. The incident was most likely linked to the attack on another KFC restaurant in the northern city of Tripoli last Friday when an an angry crowd of Islamists set fire to the U.S. fast-food chain's outlet.
After setting the restaurant alight, the demonstrators tried to attack a Burger King outlet but army troops prevented them.A demonstrator was killed and 25 people hurt in the clashes with police during the protest against a U.S.-made film that mocks Islam.

Arrest Warrants Issued against 5 al-Meqdad Clan Members
Naharnet/19 September 2012/Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein kicked off on Wednesday investigations with detained members of the al-Meqdad clan members. He interrogated and then issued arrest warrants five of the suspects. They are being held on charges of forming an armed group aimed at carrying out terrorist attacks, kidnapping people, and possessing weapons and explosives. Six members of the clan were originally arrested when the army carried out raids in their neighborhood in Beirut's Dahiyeh southern suburb. Interrogations are set to resume on Thursday with the remaining clan member, as well as three Syrians who were also detained during the raids.The clan's military wing had abducted in August a number of Syrians and a Turkish national in retaliation to the kidnapping of their relative, Hassan al-Meqdad, in Syria that same month.

March 14 Slams Anti-Islam Film: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Remarks Violate Lebanese Sovereignty
إNaharnet/19 September 2012/The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the anti-Islam film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed, saying its broadcast is aimed at placing Muslims in a “violent” confrontation with the West. It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The real confrontation should not be directed against western people or governments, but with a handful of saboteurs seeking to tarnish the image of the Arab Spring and the promising future of the people of the region.”
In addition, it noted that Hizbullah's calls to stage rallies in protest against the film “is an attempt to divert attention away from the crimes of the Syrian regime.”
“A person cannot defend human dignity over such an offense, while simultaneously defend Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that is violating human dignity at every moment,” it continued.
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had called for a series of rallies throughout the week in order to protest the anti-Islam film that sparked outrage across the Muslim world.
Commenting on Iranian Revolutionary Guards head Mohammed Ali Jaafari's recent remarks that members of its elite Quds Force are present in Lebanon and Syria, it said: “They are a blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty.” The March 14 General Secretariat praised President Michel Suleiman for his summoning on Monday of the Iranian ambassador to request an official clarification of the remarks, demanding that the government take action on the international scene to bolster Lebanon's independence and sovereignty.
It also slammed Syria's repeated violations of Lebanon's border, saying: “We have paid a heavy price to eliminate foreign influence over Lebanon and Iran today announced its violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and independence.”“The Lebanese people have strived to drive Israel out of Lebanon and they have long strived to eliminate Syrian hegemony. Today we are obligated to strive to eliminate Iran's arms,” it declared. “The Lebanese state alone is obligated to defend the country. According to the constitution, there can be no room for any internal or regional group to share this responsibility,” noted the March 14 General Secretariat. Jaafari revealed on Sunday that members of the Quds Force were present in Lebanon and Syria, where they are playing a “counselor” role.
He denied that they are providing the countries with military assistance. On Monday however, the Iranian Foreign Ministry denied the claims, saying they were taken out of context.

Report: Syria has 'Nothing to Lose' in Sharing Chemical Weapons with Hizbullah
Naharnet/19 September 2012/The Syrian regime had considered supplying chemical weapons to Hizbullah as a war between the party and Israel will “only be good for Syria,” the former head of Syria's chemical arsenal told The Times newspaper in an interview published Wednesday.
Major-General Adnan Sillu said he defected from the Syrian army three months ago after being party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.
"They wanted to place warheads with the chemical weapons on missiles -- to transfer them this way to Hizbullah. It was for use against Israel, of course," he told The Times.
He suggested that the regime now had "nothing to lose" in sharing the weapons and added: "If a war starts between Hizbullah and Israel it will be only good for Syria."
In his first interview since his defection, General Sillu said the Syrian regime plans to deploy chemical weapons against its own people "as a last resort.”
"We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas," he told the newspaper, referring to a meeting held at Syria's chemical weapons center south of Damascus.  "We discussed this as a last resort -- such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo."
Speaking from Turkey, General Sillu told The Times that he was certain President Bashar Assad's regime would eventually use chemical weapons against civilians, adding that the discussion had been "the last straw" which triggered his defection.
His comments come after German press reported Tuesday that the Syrian army had tested a chemical weapons delivery system.
Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard also attended numerous meetings to discuss the use of chemical weapons, he said.
"They were always coming to visit and to advise. They were always sending us scientists and bringing our scientists to them. They were also involved on the political side of how to use the chemical weapons."
The German magazine Der Spiegel, citing "witnesses,” reported Monday that the Syrian army has tested a chemical weapons delivery system, firing shells at a research center in its northwestern desert region.
"Five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir," east of the city of Aleppo, Der Spiegel reported. The Safira research center in question is regarded as Syria's largest testing site for chemical weapons.
Source/Agence France Presse.

France Braces for Mohammed Cartoons Backlash
Naharnet/19 September 2012, 08:57
France stepped up security and appealed for calm Wednesday after a weekly magazine published cartoons of a naked Prophet Mohammed that risked fanning outrage in the Islamic world.
Security was reinforced at French missions and other institutions in countries feared most at risk of a hostile reaction.
Embassies, consulates, cultural centers and international French schools in around 20 countries will be closed on Friday in case they are targeted in demonstrations following weekly Muslim prayers.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius admitted he feared a backlash in the Muslim world, where tempers are already running high over an anti-Islam film made in California and posted on the Internet.
Police were deployed outside the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine which published the cartoons. The magazine said its Internet site had been hacked and was not accessible.
The left-wing, libertarian publication's offices were firebombed last year after it published an edition "guest-edited by Mohammed" that it called Sharia Hebdo.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault urged "responsibility" and said anyone offended by the caricatures could sue.
But he and Interior Minister Manuel Valls said freedom of speech, including caricature, was a "fundamental right" backed by the law.
Leaders of the large Muslim community in France said an appeal for calm would be read out in mosques across the country on Friday but also condemned the magazine for publishing "insulting" images.
The weekly carried a total of four cartoons which include images definitely intended to represent Mohammed, as opposed to any other Muslim.
In two of them, the Prophet is shown naked.
One is inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film "Contempt" and features the Prophet Mohammed asking the director "You like my buttocks?" -- parroting a line delivered by Brigitte Bardot in the film.
Another shows the founder of Islam crouched on all fours with a star coming out of his behind with the inscription "A Star Is Born."
The film references were supposedly an attempt to satirize the crudely-made short movie "Innocence of Muslims" which has triggered the worldwide protests since it was released on the Internet.
But the explicit, arguably vulgar, nature of the drawings made it inevitable they would cause offense.
Another cartoon depicts a cover of Closer, the magazine which last week created a furore by publishing photographs of Prince William's wife Catherine, topless promising exclusive snaps of "Mrs. Mohammed".
The figure shows a man's gap-toothed, bearded head on top of a woman's body with bared breasts.
Ayrault said anyone offended by cartoons could take the matter to the courts but made it clear there would be no action against the weekly.
"We are in a country where freedom of expression is guaranteed, including the freedom to caricature," he said.
"If people really feel offended in their beliefs and think there has been an infringement of the law -- and we are in a state where laws must be totally respected -- they can go to court," Ayrault said.
He also said a request to hold a demonstration in Paris would be refused. France's Interior Ministry has already banned all protests over the controversial film following a violent demonstration last weekend near the U.S. embassy.
Charlie Hebdo's editor, Stephane Charbonnier, defended the cartoons, slamming critics as "ridiculous clowns."
Charbonnier, a cartoonist, said Ayrault should be "supporting press freedom and the republic rather than allowing himself to be influenced by these ridiculous clowns who are protesting".
Meanwhile the magazine's Facebook page was inundated with messages defending or attacking its action, while news sellers reported that customers were buying up their stocks of the weekly specifically to destroy them.
SourceAgence France Presse.

Exclusive: Iran arrests 3 Fordo sabotage suspects who entered from Azerbaijan
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 18, 2012/Iran is holding three suspects who entered the country from Azerbaijan under intense grilling to discover their role in the mid-August explosion of the power lines to the underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, debkafile’s exclusive Iranian sources reveal. Tehran is also questioning the engineers, planners and company heads who built the facility to find out why it was not provided with an independent power generator. Fordo was forced to be idle for several days until the Revolutionary Guards were able to set up an alternative electrical network at top speed. Iranian investigators suspect that local builders of Fordo may have been bribed by Israeli and American agents to omit this back-up system and so leave the enrichment plant vulnerable to external attack that would interrupt its continuous operation. Their inquiries have even reached the Atomic Energy Commission inspectors who supervised construction, some of them very close to the commission’s chairman Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, and demanded explanations for letting the omission stand. The act of sabotage showed Iran how simple it would for aggressors to bring the Fordo plant to a total standstill simply by cutting its 40- kilometer power link to the Qom power station. An electricity cut would additionally disarm the facility’s security system, including the radar and air defense batteries guarding it.
According to debkafile’s sources, the Iranians have kept the three arrests under tight blackout in the hope of rounding up the rest of the team suspected of responsibility for the explosion and, above all, identifying the hand behind it. Their main suspect is Israel. Our Iranian sources have discovered that the three detainees hail from Tehran, Tabriz in the north and Zahedan in the southeast. They are all in their twenties. According to our intelligence sources, the Iranian inquiry so far points to their having trained at a secret military base in Azerbaijan 25 kilometers south of Baku and infiltrated Iran shortly before the operation. It was to this attack Abbasi referred Monday, Sept. 17, when he stood up at the nuclear watchdog’s annual meeting in Vienna and flatly accused the IAEA of being infiltrated by “terrorists and saboteurs” and of foreknowledge of the explosion. Already, Iranian officials have turned the incident into a propaganda tool.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi used his first ever Egyptian television interview Tuesday, Sept. 18 to comment: “Israel can’t carry out an attack against such a big country [like Iran], and it knows that.” He called Israeli warnings about a possible strike “empty.” Salehi also said (apropos of nothing) that his “country’s neighbor, Azerbaijan, would not assist Israel in carrying out any attack on Iran.”
debkafile: The Iranian foreign minister’s show of contempt for Israel was meant to dull the huge impact the explosion at the Fordo plant has had inside Iran and across the Arab world, whereas his remark on Azerbaijan was a signal to Baku that it is under heavy Iranian suspicion of complicity in the blowing up of the power line.

SANA: Assad Says 'War Targets Resistance Axis'
Naharnet/19 September 2012/President Bashar Assad told Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday that the war engulfing Syria is targeting not just it but the "resistance axis," state news agency SANA reported. Assad's regime, Iran, and Hizbullah refer to themselves as a "resistance axis" in their common opposition to Israel.
"The ongoing battle is targeting the whole of the resistance axis, not just Syria," Assad told Iran's visiting Ali Akbar Salehi.
Meanwhile, Assad said "Syria has shown openness in dealing with all initiatives put forward to find a solution to the crisis. The key to any initiative's success is the sincerity of the intentions behind it."
Earlier on Wednesday, Salehi said the solution to the conflict "lies only with Syria and within the Syrian family, in partnership with international and regional organizations."
Assad and his allies in Iran, China and Russia have systematically blamed the conflict on foreign powers, notably the West, Gulf countries and Turkey.
SourceAgence France Presse.

Canada and U.A.E. Forge Stronger Ties
Ministers agree to enhanced nuclear cooperation, as well as expanding business and trade ties
September 18, 2012 - Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird today announced that Canada and the United Arab Emirates have successfully concluded a nuclear cooperation agreement (NCA). Baird made the announcement during a signing ceremony in Ottawa alongside his U.A.E. counterpart, His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“This pact is testimony to bilateral ties that are strong and getting ever stronger,” said Baird. “Our access to the U.A.E.’s civilian nuclear energy market will create business opportunities and help to create jobs for Canadians, while ensuring that Canadian-supplied nuclear items are used for peaceful, civilian purposes.”
The U.A.E. is already an important partner in Middle East peace and security. As Canada’s largest export market in the Middle East, it is also rife with economic opportunity. Nuclear energy production in Canada generates about $5 billion in annual revenues. Canada’s nuclear industry is responsible for 21,000 direct jobs and a billion dollars a year in uranium exports. The NCA allows Canada to take necessary measures to ensure exports of this material to the U.A.E. remain secure.
“Canada can help the U.A.E. meet its growing energy needs,” said Baird. “This agreement provides a number of opportunities for our countries to work together as strategic partners, and for Canadian companies to offer the full array of their equipment, services and uranium supply to the U.A.E.’s civilian nuclear market.”
Canada and the U.A.E. are also expanding person-to-person ties, working to establish a Canada-U.A.E. business council to deepen business and trade ties.
These efforts will be helped enormously by the U.A.E.’s recent decision to reduce the cost of visas for Canadians. “A welcome development,” said Baird. “We are excited to make more progress on this file.”This development will allow Canadians, particularly business people, to engage more frequently with their U.A.E. partners.

It's Not Just the Sparks That Caused This Fire in the Middle East
Michael Singh/The Washington Institute.
Foreign Policy
September 18, 2012
The United States must avoid the temptation of misapprehending the current spurt of violence in the region or rashly disengaging in frustration over longstanding problems.
Precisely eleven years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the question of U.S. relations with Islamic countries and communities is once again at the top of the foreign policy agenda. As violent anti-American protests rage around the world, the Obama administration has focused on safeguarding U.S. citizens and installations on one hand, and seeking to dampen the fury of the protests on the other by pointing out that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the anti-Islamic video that ignited this burst of anger.
While this immediate focus on quelling the crisis is prudent, the U.S. response cannot stop there. While the video in question may have catalyzed these protests, it cannot accurately be described as the cause of them. In any event, any effort to quash future provocations of this sort is bound to be futile -- given the ease by which such media can now be produced and distributed -- as well as profoundly contrary to the American belief in the right to free expression.
The current unrest is not in fact a result of a single offensive video, but is rather a continuation and outgrowth of the Arab uprisings of 2011. Those revolutions were the result of deep-seated political and economic grievances that had been decades in the making: the absence of economic prosperity or the hope of individual advancement, paired with the inability to do anything about it as a result of the simultaneous absence of political rights.
But while the Arab uprisings resulted from those grievances, they did not by any means resolve them. Indeed, economies like Egypt's and Libya's are worse off now than they were at the beginning of 2011, as unrest and political uncertainty have driven away tourism and investment and politicians have as frequently sought to settle old scores instead of taking their countries forward. Political participation has increased, but it has not brought results sufficient to meet the (unrealistic) expectations of the people in these countries.
In such circumstances, it is not unusual for people to look for others to blame. As much as the recent anti-American protests and attacks on U.S. embassies have conjured an image of a U.S.-Islamic conflict, the United States is in fact just one of many parties upon whom blame for the Middle East's woes has been cast. The former regimes, religious minorities, wealthy businessmen, Israel, and liberals are among those who have been targeted in these Arab uprisings.
Just as there is no shortage of parties to blame, there have been an abundance of parties both within and without these countries ready to stoke these hatreds to advance their own agendas. Radical Islamists have perhaps been the most pervasive and vocal of these, but certainly not the only ones. In many Middle Eastern states, secular politicians have been as vocally anti-American as their Islamist counterparts. Whatever their ideology, the angry voices have drowned out the introspective ones, and those preaching simple fixes have too often prevailed over those offering sensible albeit difficult paths forward. In highly-charged environments where security and political institutions are either absent or non-functioning, it is a small step from rhetorical attacks on such perceived foes to physical attacks.
At such a pivotal moment, it is important that we correctly understand what is happening and why, and mount the appropriate policy response. We must in particular avoid the temptation of misapprehending the current spurt of violence as the harbinger of some sort of epic civilization-level conflict between the West and Islam, or the urge to disengage with the Middle East in frustration over the persistence of anti-Americanism and chaos there. The Middle East remains a region which is vital to U.S. interests, and we cannot afford either to ignore it or to act in a rash or naive manner there.
Since the beginning of the Arab uprisings, the Obama administration has adopted a passive, hesitant approach to events, conveying the sense that America is increasingly disengaged, indifferent, or both when it comes to the Middle East. This can be seen in the disconnect between rhetoric and action on Syria, diffidence in dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, "leading from behind" in Libya, and even in the talk of a "pivot" to Asia in our foreign policy. The result has been a diminution rather than an enhancement in both U.S. influence and -- despite strenuous efforts to avoid disputes with new governments in the region -- our popularity.
Going forward, the United States should not lose our hope for a positive future in the Middle East or confidence in our own ability to shape outcomes there. However, we should be clear-eyed about the challenges that we face and the long timetable which lies before us to accomplish what we set out to achieve. Foreign policy has three fundamental objectives -- to promote American security and prosperity and to advance U.S. values. This should be the starting point for successful policy in the region -- firmly and unapologetically advocate our interests, help governments to reform politically and economically, and support and work with parties within and without the region who share our interests and values.
Any spark can start a fire, but a sustained conflagration requires fuel and oxygen to sustain itself. There is little U.S. policymakers can do to prevent future sparks of the sort that triggered the violence convulsing the Middle East today. But through a clear understanding of the region's challenges and a principled and realistic response to them, we and our allies can hope to prevent them from becoming infernos which engulf our interests and those of the region's citizens.
*Michael Singh is managing director of The Washington Institute.
 

The Rape of Christopher Stevens
by Raymond Ibrahim/FrontPageMagazine.com
http://www.meforum.org/3341/christopher-stevens-rape
By obsessing over the 14-minute YouTube Muhammad video and its maker, the mainstream media ultimately exonerates the inexcusable and murderous response of the Islamic world.
There is only one question: did those who make this movie break any law? No, they did not—and so the matter should end there, and the media should move on. Focusing on those who did not break any American laws as a way to take the focus off those who murdered and initiated an act of war against the United States is not only misleading; it validates and gives Islamic blasphemy laws precedence over American freedoms.
Worse, even if making movies deemed offensive to Muslims was illegal in the U.S., the fact is, these embassy attacks, which "coincidentally" began on September 11, have nothing to do with the movie. On September 10, I wrote an article titled "Jihadis Threaten to Burn U.S. Embassy in Cairo." The demand that the U.S. release its imprisoned jihadis, including the Blind Sheikh, was behind these threats. There was no mention of "offensive movies." My source, El Fagr, an Arabic website, reported all this on September 8.
In other words, several days before Muslims were angry about this movie they were threatening to burn down the U.S. embassy in Cairo. I had even seen sporadic Arabic reports, from months back, talking about "extremist elements" threatening the embassy. The movie is just a pretext—aided and abetted by the media, not to mention the Obama administration: Hillary Clinton called the video "disgusting and reprehensible," wording which is more befitting those who murdered (and possibly raped, see below) Americans; the U.S. embassy itself apologized for those who "hurt the religious feelings of Muslims"; and the administration asked YouTube to remove the 14 minute trailer.
Thus the U.S. administration validates Islam's blasphemy laws and, once again, aligns itself with America's jihadi enemies.
Seventy-year-old, retiring Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) put it well, when he suggested that the administration's response to the embassy attacks was akin to a court asking a rape victim for an apology, saying: "It's like the judge telling the woman who got raped, 'You asked for it because of the way you dressed.'"
Nor is the rape entirely allegorical. According to the Arabic website Tayyar, "the American ambassador in Libya [Christopher Stevens] was sexually raped before being killed by the gunmen who stormed the embassy building in Benghazi last night [Tuesday, September 11], in protestation of a film insulting to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings upon him."
Sexual abuse and degradation is a common tactic used against non-Muslims, especially women, as the repeatedly raped Lara Logan found. For example, a report in Arabic media that just appeared discusses how Christian women—identified by wearing crosses around their necks or simply not wearing a hijab—are subject to sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and even threats of rape on the streets of Egypt. This has only "become much more blatant and terrifying [after the embassy attacks]—and has even reached the point of threats of genocide and purging the land of Egypt of infidel Christians," writes one female Christian in Egypt.
Nor are men immune from such rapes. In fact, the photos of Ambassador Stevens—stripped of clothes, bloodied and tortured right before he was killed—very much resemble the photos of Gaddafi right before he was killed. One U.S.-supported "freedom-fighter," for example, can be seen sodomizing Gadaffi with a rod as others dragged him along.
The al-Qaeda affiliated men who sexually abused and killed Gaddafi are the same sort of men who sexually abused and killed America's ambassador. We were told that the late Libyan dictator was killed because he was an evil oppressor of his people. Why was the American ambassador killed, who had hailed the revolution and was there helping to "build a better Libya"?
These are the questions the media and the Obama administration need to be answering—not obsessing over a second-rate YouTube video and questioning hard-won American freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. They should be explaining why it is that, after four years of appeasing the Islamic world in ways unprecedented, including by helping oust America's longstanding allies like Egypt's Mubarak to empower Islamists, all we have to show for it are dead and violated Americans, stormed embassies, burned U.S. flags, and greater anti-American sentiment than ever before.
**Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.