Anti-American Protests Over Film Expand to Nearly 20 Countries
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, ALAN COWELL and RICK GLADSTONE – 14 September, 2012 – NYT

The broadening of the protests reflected what appeared to be a catharsis of rage at the Western powers and was unabated despite calls for restraint from world leaders including the new Islamist president of Egypt, where the demonstrations first erupted four days ago on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In Washington, the Pentagon announced that it was dispatching 50 Marines to Sana, Yemen, to secure the American diplomatic compound, which was partly defiled by enraged protesters on Thursday. At a bazaar about 30 miles east of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, protesters burned an effigy of President Obama.

The breaching of the American Embassy in Tunis, the birthplace of the Arab Spring revolutions, was at least the fourth time that an American diplomatic facility in the Middle East had been violated since the protests began. The Tunisian police said at least three protesters were killed and 28 people were wounded.

All of the embassy staff members had been safely evacuated beforehand, officials there said, but part of the compound was burned and looted.

The American Cooperative School of Tunis, which caters to expatriate families and is located across the street from the embassy, was burned and completely plundered by protesters, who carried away a range of items including hundreds of laptop computers, children’s toys and musical instruments, the director of the school and members of his staff said. All of the students and faculty members had been evacuated hours before the embassy protest.

“It’s ransacked,” the director, Allan Bredy, said in a telephone interview. “We were thinking it was something the Tunisia government would keep under control. We had no idea they would allow things to go as wildly as they did.”

Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin that the country’s embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, had been “stormed and in part set aflame” in an attack by “demonstrators capable of violence.” According to Mr. Westerwelle, embassy employees were safe. German missions in Muslim countries had already strengthened security measures because of the unrest. The Associated Press reported that the attack followed a call by a prominent sheik on state radio urging protesters to storm the embassy over what he called anti-Muslim graffiti on mosques in Berlin.

The police fired tear gas to drive off the attacks in Khartoum, where about 5,000 demonstrators massed on the German and British Embassies, a witness told the Reuters news agency. The crowd later moved onto the United States Embassy on the outskirts of Khartoum. The police opened fire but it was unclear whether the embassy had been breached, The A.P. reported.

Thousands of Palestinians joined demonstrations after Friday Prayer in the Gaza Strip. Since there is no American diplomatic representation in Gaza, the main gathering took place in Gaza City, outside the Parliament building, where American and Israeli flags were placed on the ground for the crowds to stomp. Some demonstrators chanted, “Death to America and to Israel!” Palestinians also clashed with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem and held protests in the West Bank.

Witnesses in Cairo said protests that first flared on Tuesday — the day J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador in Libya, was killed in an attack in neighboring Libya — continued sporadically Friday, with protesters throwing rocks and gasoline bombs near the American Embassy and the police firing tear gas. The bodies of Mr. Stevens and three other Americans killed in the Libya attack were returned to the United States on Friday.

In Lebanon, one person was killed and 25 injured as protesters attacked restaurants. There was also turmoil in Yemen, Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, India, Pakistan and Iraq, and demonstrations in Malaysia. In Nigeria, troops fired into the air to disperse protesters marching on the city of Jos, Reuters reported. In Syria, about 200 protesters chanted anti-American slogans outside the long-closed American Embassy in Damascus, news reports said.

State media in Egypt said more than 220 people had been injured in the clashes since Tuesday. In the Egyptian Sinai, a group of Bedouins stormed an international peacekeepers’ camp and set fire to an observation tower, according to Al Ahram Online, a state-owned, English-language Web site.. Three people, two Colombians and one Egyptian, were injured in the ensuing clashes.
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Outsourcing Its Security, Gulf Shows Fear of Public
By: Abd-al-Hadi Khalaf- 13 September, 2012 – Al Monitor

On Jan. 4, 2007, Bahraini runner Mushir Salem Jawhar won a marathon in Israel, thus becoming the first athlete from an Arab country to participate in an Israeli sports tournament. The Bahrainis were not happy to see one of their nationals raising their country’s flag in the Tiberias Sports Stadium. [The incident] was met with a wave of condemnation.

As a result, the Bahraini Athletics Federation removed Jawhar’s name from the federation’s lists, and the authorities decided to confiscate his passport and strip him of his Bahraini [citizenship]. The poor guy returned to Kenya, his country of origin, and to his real name, Leonard Moshiromaina, by which he was known in sports stadiums before he was brought to Bahrain as part of a campaign that aims to naturalize foreign athletes.

The “scandal” of the Kenyan/Bahraini runner did not put an end to the policy of athlete naturalization in Bahrain or other Gulf Arab states. Apart from requiring new naturalized athletes to not participate in sports competitions in Israel, Bahrain has not stopped the naturalization of athletes.

As we have seen in the London Olympics recently, 10 out of 13 male and female participants representing Bahrain were Kenyans and Ethiopians. To Bahraini sports officials, these athletes are the fastest and probably the cheapest way to raise the country’s flag in international arenas. As long as it is possible to obtain athletes from Africa and Asia, Bahraini officials will find no reason to provide the necessary infrastructure, services and training plans to prepare local athletes.

Bahraini officials perhaps also found it to be a prudent approach to rely on foreign athletes when they saw most Bahraini football players and other Bahraini athletes take part in the protests that swept the country at the height of the Pearl Roundabout uprising.

Athlete naturalization is offset by a more prevalent and dangerous [phenomenon] in the social fabric and political future of the Gulf countries: security naturalization. This is represented by granting Gulf citizenship to foreigners after they are recruiting into the armed forces, security services and police. …more

Dagestan: Syria comes to Russia
by F. William Engdahl – Voltaire Network – 13 September, 2012

The assassination of the most respected Sufi religious leader in Dagestan, Russia’s volatile Caucasus, comes as Salafist jihadists in Libya murder a US Ambassador who was actually a key player in ousting Gaddafi and bringing the Salafist Muslim Brotherhood and Jihadists into power. Throughout the entire Islamic world today, a wave of hate is being unleashed in the name of Islamic fundamentalism that could bring a new world war. This is the consequence of the Greater Middle East Project put in play in 2010 and earlier by circles in Washington, London and Tel Aviv. Manipulating religious fervor is an explosive cocktail as F. William Engdahl shows here.

Part I: Syria comes to the Russian Caucasus

On August 28 Sheikh Said Afandi, acknowledged spiritual leader of the Autonomous Russian Republic of Dagestan, was assassinated. A jihadist female suicide bomber managed to enter his house and detonate an explosive device.

The murder target had been carefully selected. Sheikh Afandi, a seventy-five-year old Sufi Muslim leader, had played the critical role in attempting to bring about reconciliation in Dagestan between jihadist Salafi Sunni Muslims and other factions, many of whom in Dagestan see themselves as followers of Sufi. With no replacement of his moral stature and respect visible, authorities fear possible outbreak of religious war in the tiny Russian autonomous republic. [1]

The police reported that the assassin was an ethnic Russian woman who had converted to Islam and was linked to an Islamic fundamentalist or Salafist insurgency against Russia and regional governments loyal to Moscow in the autonomous republics and across the volatile Muslim-populated North Caucasus region.

Ethnic Muslim populations in this region of Russia and of the former Soviet Union, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan and into China’s Xinjiang Province, have been the target of various US and NATO intelligence operations since the Cold War era ended in 1990. Washington sees manipulation of Muslim groups as the vehicle to bring uncontrollable chaos to Russia and Central Asia. It’s being carried out by some of the same organizations engaged in creating chaos and destruction inside Syria against the government of Bashar Al-Assad. In a real sense, as Russian security services clearly understand, if they don’t succeed in stopping the Jihadists insurgency in Syria, it will come home to them via the Caucasus.

The latest Salafist murders of Sufi and other moderate Muslim leaders in the Caucasus are apparently part of what is becoming ever clearer as perhaps the most dangerous US intelligence operation ever—playing globally with Muslim fundamentalism. …more

I couldn’t find a Department of State briefing on the killing of residents in Bahrain who suffocated via US Military grade CS Gas fired into their homes. One can only imagine a death as horrible the one suffered by US Ambassador Chris Stevens as he suffocated to death just like the Bahrainis who met with a similar gruesome end. Phlipn – out.

[excerpt from DoS briefing on killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya – full text HERE

So let me give you a little bit of the chronology to the best of our knowledge. Again, the times are likely to change as it becomes a little bit more precise, but this is how we’ve been able to reconstruct what we have from yesterday.

At approximately 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time yesterday, which was about 10 p.m. in Libya, the compound where our office is in Benghazi began taking fire from unidentified Libyan extremists. By about 4:15, the attackers gained access to the compound and began firing into the main building, setting it on fire. The Libyan guard force and our mission security personnel responded. At that time, there were three people inside the building: Ambassador Stevens, one of our regional security officers, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith. They became separated from each other due to the heavy, dark smoke while they were trying to evacuate the burning building. The Regional Security Officer made it outside, and then he and other security personnel returned into the burning building in an attempt to rescue Chris and Sean. At that time, they found Sean. He was already dead, and they pulled him from the building. They were unable, however, to locate Chris before they were driven from the building due to the heavy fire and smoke and the continuing small arms fire.

At about 4:45 our time here in Washington, U.S. security personnel assigned to the mission annex tried to regain the main building, but that group also took heavy fire and had to return to the mission annex. At about 5:20, U.S. and Libyan security personnel made another attempt and at that time were able to regain the main building and they were able to secure it. Then, due to continued small arms fire, they evacuated the rest of the personnel and safe havened them in the nearby annex.

The mission annex then came under fire itself at around 6 o’clock in the evening our time, and that continued for about two hours. It was during that time that two additional U.S. personnel were killed and two more were wounded during that ongoing attack.

At about 8:30 p.m. our time here in Washington, so now 2 o’clock in the morning in Libya, Libyan security forces were able to assist us in regaining control of the situation. At some point in all of this – and frankly, we do not know when – we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport.

Iran says Israeli threats to strike “foolish”
al Akhbar – 14 September, 2012

An aide to Iran’s supreme leader said Israel’s military threats endanger Israeli citizens, and that Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was ready to strike back against any Israeli aggression.

Yahya Rahim-Safavi, military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the increasing threats from Israel to strike Iranian nuclear facilities were “foolish,” the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported on Friday.

“The boldness and foolishness of Israeli officials in threatening the Islamic Republic, have put Israeli citizens one step away from the cemetery,” he said.

“If, one day, the Israeli regime takes action against us, resistance groups, especially Hezbollah … will respond more easily,” Safavi, a former commander in chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said.

Israel’s far-right leader Benjamin Netanyahu has made increasing hints in recent weeks that Israel could strike Iran and has criticized US President Barack Obama’s position that sanctions and diplomacy should be given more time.

The heightened rhetoric has stoked speculation that Israel may attack before US elections in November.

“A decision has been taken to respond and the response will be very great,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview this month in reference to any attack on Iran. …source

Bahrain: blocked UN website after Oral Intervention given by Prominent Human Rights Activist at the Human Rights Council
September 14th, 2012 – BYSHR

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its deep concern regarding the blocking of the UN (http://webtv.un.org) Website after the oral intervention given by Mr.Mohammed Al-Maskati-President of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights 0n 13 September 2012 at the Human Rights Council (Session 21) which was focused on reprisals.

Dozens of Bahraini citizens have informed the BYSHR that they could not enter the Web Site of the UN after the intervention of Mr. Maskati at the Human Rights Council. ( Mr.Al-Maskati intervention: http://byshr.org/?p=1168)

This blocking means that the people of Bahrain will not be able to lively follow up the UPR discussion on Bahrain scheduled on 19 September 2012.

Mr. Al-Maskati intervention at the Human Rights Council dealt with reprisals against human rights defenders in Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. Mr. Al-Maskati also talked about the threats received by Mr. Al-Maskati during his intervention during the meetings of the Human Rights Council.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights believes the blocking part of the on-going campaign of attacks directed toward human rights defenders in Bahrain including Mr. Maskati himself which aimed at preventing them from continuing their legitimate human rights work. …more

Pillay Condemns Bahrain’s “Reprisals and Intimidation” against Critics
14 September, 2012 – POMED

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay included Bahrain among the 16 nations accused of allowing government members to undertake “reprisals and intimidation against individuals” critical of regimes. Pillay said, “People may be threatened or harassed by government officials, including through public statements by high-level authorities. Associations and NGOs may see their activities monitored or restricted. Smear campaigns against those who cooperate with the U.N. may be organized. Threats may be made via phone calls, text messages or even direct contacts. People may also be arrested, beaten or tortured and even killed.” The report ranges from June 2011 to July 2012 and cites additional cases in Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, among others.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of Ahmed Radhi, a freelance journalist who was first detained four months ago after making critical comments about Bahraini-Saudi relations. Radhi now faces terrorism and other anti-state charges. CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said ”Bahrain must halt this practice of prosecuting critical journalists for their dissenting views.”

Finally, Mehdi Hassan writes that “While the fighting in Syria is debated in the corridors of the United Nations building and reported on the front pages of the world’s newspapers, the unrest in Bahrain is quietly ignored by our leaders,” and he calls the approach of the U.S. and U.K. “a moral disgrace.” …source

Shia towns in Syria under months-long blockade by Wahhabi insurgents
Voltaire Network – 14 September, 2012

More than 80,000 Shia Muslim in the northwestern Syrian towns of Nebbol and Az-Zahra’ are suffering from starvation under a siege imposed by Wahhabi terrorists.

The extremists are reportedly affiliated with the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has been fighting against the government forces over the past year.

The blockade has caused grave food and medical shortage in the towns, some 20 km away from the flashpoint city of Aleppo.

The towns had a population of 60,000 Shia Muslims but have been hosting an additional 15,000 displaced Shias taking refuge in there.

Thousands of others including families of the opposition escaping conflicts and Sunni Muslims refusing to join the anti-government camp have also fled to the towns.

In late June, insurgents practically cut off roads to Nebbol and Az-Zahra’ after clashes spilled over to Aleppo, accusing the residents of supporting Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The armed gangs have threatened to kill the people who tried to directly or indirectly enter basic needs for the people in the besieged towns.

Bread is a rarity due to lack of flour and patients are in dire need of medicine, while the residents live under constant threats of massive cleansing operations by the insurgents.

Syria has been the scene of deadly unrest since mid-March, 2011, and many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists and says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside. It accuses certain Western and regional countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, of arming and funding the insurgents. …more

Bahrain Attends Session On Harassment and Reprisals
13 September, 2012 – BNA

Geneva – (BNA) Bahrain today affirmed Bahrain’s commitment to continue cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and all UN agencies.

“The Kingdom is keen on preserving its precious record to maintain security and stability and consolidate human rights”, Bahrain Permanent Representative to the UN office and other international organisations Dr. Yusuf Abdulkarim Bucheeri said.

He affirmed Bahrain’s resolve to continue promoting equality between citizens, beyond any discrimination on the basis race, language, religion, gender or personal opinion.

Dr. Bucheeri voiced Bahrain’s stance as he led the Kingdom’s delegation to attend a discussion session on intimidation and reprisals against people and organisations that cooperate or co-operated with the UN and its representatives.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 21st session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC)`. He pointed out Bahrain’s strides in providing an arsenal of laws guaranteeing personal and religious liberties, freedom of opinion and publishing as well as the right to set up NGOs and trade unions.

He highlighted legislations guaranteeing equality between all citizens before the law in rights and duties – being an essential guarantor to ensure the stability of Bahraini society.

Addressing the session, he also affirmed Bahrain’s full cooperation with local and international watchdogs to promote human rights and basic liberties.

“Bahrain has allowed human rights watchdogs to visit jails, attend trials and launch their periodic reports in the Kingdom”, he said, deploring the one-sided approach adopted by human rights watchdogs.

“Some watchdogs are not evenhanded in dealing with the information they get, hearing one party and ignoring official replies”, he said, describing the approach as premeditated partiality.

Dr. Bucheeri urged the UN to rely on credible sources when documenting allegations of harassment and reprisals – especially when it comes to audio visual media, blogs and social websites. …source

Critical Bahraini journalist detained for four months
13 September, 2012 – Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, September 13, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the ongoing imprisonment of Ahmed Radhi, a freelance journalist who was first detained four months ago after making critical comments about Bahraini-Saudi relations. Radhi now faces terrorism and other anti-state charges which he says were lodged after he was abused and forced into making a false confession.

“Bahrain must halt this practice of prosecuting critical journalists for their dissenting views,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “Authorities should release Ahmed Radhi immediately.”

Radhi, a contributor to several local news websites, has been imprisoned since May 16, when he was held for several days without a lawyer present and without his family’s knowledge of his whereabouts, the reports said. He was last in court in Manama on August 30, when his detention was extended for 15 days, according to news reports. Although that extension appears to be running out, his next scheduled date was not immediately clear.

The case dates to May, when in press interviews Radhi made comments criticizing a proposed union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, news reports said. Radhi posted the comments on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, saying the union would justify the occupation of Bahrain by Saudi troops, which had been sent in March 2011 to stifle popular protests. The journalist’s family has said they believe his detention is a result of the public comments he had made, according to the Bahrain Center of Human Rights.

On June 16, a local court charged Radhi with “igniting a flame to achieve a terrorist purpose,” “possession of flammable substances (Molotovs),” and “participation in assembly to disturb public security and using violence to achieve that,” according to news reports. Radhi has told the court that he was tortured into making a confession and made to sign papers he had not read, the human rights group said. No evidence has been provided to support the allegations, the group said.

In a June letter to the human rights center, Radhi said security forces had beaten and blindfolded him and subjected him to physical and psychological torture to force him to confess to the charges brought against him, the Bahraini human rights group reported. In addition to his freelance work, Radhi has also worked for the pro-government daily Al-Ayyam and as a correspondent for the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar TV before the government withdrew his accreditation, news reports said. …more

Radical Allies and Moderate Subversives: U.S. Foreign Policy Threatens America’s Interests in the Gulf
13 Septemebr, 2012 – Anna Therese Day – Huffington Post

Just weeks ago, Nabeel Rajab, the “Gandhi of Bahrain,” spent his birthday in a prison cell. Originally “jailed for a tweet,” Rajab, the renowned president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, now faces up to three years in prison for allegedly inciting violence among protesters against the Bahraini monarchy. Bahrain has been engulfed in turmoil since early 2011 when the US-backed Al-Khalifa regime launched a violent crackdown against the nation’s popular non-violent reform movement. The regime has since selectively targeted the island’s ethnic-majority, its Shia population, and has gained a terrifying reputation for using brutal torture tactics on those citizens detained. Recently, Bahrain’s appeal courts upheld the sentence of 20 other opposition activists, ignoring domestic and international outcry.

In the Spring of 2011, I met Rajab and his family in their home in Bahrain. His then nine-year-old daughter, Malak, joined us for the interview. Just hours before our arrival, masked state security forces raided the Rajab’s family compound in the middle of the night, bombarding the grounds with teargas and forcing their way into the Rajab’s home with heavy weaponry. Needless to say, little Malak was far too traumatized to attend school that day.

Now Malak joins her brother, 15-year-old Adam, and her mother, Sumaya, to demand justice for her father whose appeal verdict will be announced on Thursday, September 27th. This date comes after the Bahraini court decision to postpone his hearing this week, a move that his lawyers claim was an attempt to prolong his jail-time. A countless number of international human rights organizations have joined in this call to action, and nearly 20 members of U.S. Congress demanded Rajab’s release in a letter to the King of Bahrain. Following his August 16th sentence, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called on Bahrain to “vacate” the charges against Rajab and called for “the government of Bahrain to take steps to build confidence across Bahraini society and to begin a meaningful dialogue with political opposition and civil society.”

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

These condemnations from the State Department, however, are not reflected in U.S. policy toward the Bahraini monarchy. Despite the well-documented violence against its citizens, the U.S. Department of Defense resumed arms sales to Bahrain, rekindling a relationship that sold $200 million worth of weaponry to the regime in 2010. American companies added further insult to injury by hosting international oil and natural gas conferences and the 2012 Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, amidst the curfews and kidnappings that characterized daily life for the majority of Bahraini citizens. This gaping distance between America’s actions and words continues to send a far louder message to Bahraini civilians than the lip-service of the U.S. Department of State.

Bahrain’s Radical Regime, Moderate Subversives

Rajab is famous throughout not only the Middle East and North Africa, but also internationally for his tireless human rights advocacy and his pioneering commitment to using social media for social justice. Identified by Al Jazeera as “the informal leader of the Bahraini uprising,” Rajab responded that he plans to “forever remain in civil society” when I asked him about any potential political aspirations. Throughout the entirety of the uprising, his commitment to reform has been as steadfast as his tactics have been innovative. …more

From Arab Spring to Autumn Rage: The Dark Power of Social Media
New America Media – Andrew Lam – 14 September, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO–In 2010 Time Magazine’s prestigious Person of the Year title went to two individuals. While its readers picked Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, Time’s editors picked Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.

“Facebook is now the third largest country on earth and surely has more information about its citizens than any government does,” the magazine noted. “Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, is its T-shirt-wearing head of state.”

Assange, founder of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, on the other hand, undermined entire nation states’ public narratives of themselves by providing a platform where individuals can anonymously whistle blow and show their government’s dark underbellies by uploading top secret documents. Spy agencies can only look on with envy and alarm.

In 2011, a fruit vendor made the cut. Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian who set himself on ablaze protesting police corruption, became literally the torch that lit the Arab Spring revolution that spread quickly throughout the Middle East. Bouazizi achieved this in his very public death because many who had cell phones saw it and the subsequent videos kick-started the uprising. The revolution took all governments by surprise.

Convicted Filmmaker’s Many Aliases

This year no doubt Time can add “Nakoula Basseley Nakoula,” aka “Sam Bacile,” as a major contender. An unknown amateur filmmaker until this week, fanned the flames in the Middle East with incendiary video clips. In effect, the film mocked and insulted the prophet Mohammed and turned the whole Arab Spring of 2011 into Autumn Rage of 2012 Against the USA.

Nakoula/Bacile is currently in hiding and may in fact be fictitious. Much evidence now points to him as a Egyptian Coptic Christian, who allegedly holds grudges against Islam. On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Nakoula was convicted two years ago on federal charges of financial fraud.

The jury is out on who instigated the violence against U.S. workers in Libya, resulting in the death of the American ambassador and three other personnel. The attack was carefully planned, it was reported, and not the mere work of angry protesters – but few doubt that the film has a direct effect in stoking a combustible anger in the Middle East against what many consider as yet another American act of profanity against the sacred.

In the global age, it seems that not only dictators or overzealous elected heads of state with power of preemptive strikes can direct history to the edge of an abyss, but also fruit vendors and lousy filmmakers.

If Zuckerberg is a kind of head of state of the third largest country and Julian Assange has become the equivalent of a CIA institution gone rogue, then Bouazizi, a private individual, has become the modern equivalent Joan of Arc.

Soon, too, the director of Innocence of Muslim, whoever he is, will become a kind of knuckle headed hater, who nevertheless emerged with the extraordinary power to incite violence against America. That would make Al-Qaeda, by comparison, seem tongue-tied.

For all its planning, for all its propaganda and brainwashing of the illiterate and easily duped to blow themselves up – merely to garner dwindling media attention in the West –Al-Qaeda hasn’t achieved what an inane video has. The film and its 13-minute YouTube trailer quickly undermined much of the United States’ soft diplomacy in a region it considers of utmost important.

In a blog for the Boston Globe, a friend of slain Ambassador Chris Stevens shared her shock with this headline: “How Could Chris Stevens Die Because of a YouTube clip?” Alas, the answer is: Why not? In our information age, the break up of a virtual friendship can lead to suicide, and misinformation can create a real lynch mob, half a world away. …more