Protests inspired by an anti-Islam film targeted more U.S. facilities in
the Muslim world Thursday, testing the will and capacity of foreign governments
to protect Americans and the ability of the Obama administration to cool the
growing anger.
As the anti-U.S. demonstrations spread, the administration acted on a
variety of fronts to convey two messages: that it had nothing to do with the
offending video and that violence was not an acceptable response to the
material.
The impact of the administration’s message remained in question. In Sanaa,
Yemen, the U.S. Embassy was overrun Thursday by protesters who stormed a wall,
set fire to a building inside the compound, broke windows and carried away
office supplies and other souvenirs before being dispersed by local security
forces.
“We want to expel the American ambassador,” Abdelwadood al-Mutawa said as
he and other protesters left the compound. He said he was motivated by reports
of the movie mocking the prophet Muhammad. “We cannot accept any insult to our
prophet,” Mutawa said. “It’s a red line.”
In Cairo, clouds of tear gas floated through the fortified area around the
U.S. Embassy as security forces clashed with protesters for the third straight
day. Smaller demonstrations were reported throughout the region, as well as in
Iran and Bangladesh.
In Pakistan, where anti-American demonstrations are frequent, the
government said it had “banned” the American-made video and blocked access to it
online. Although Afghanistan reportedly did the same, “Innocence of Muslims” was
easily available there on the Internet on Thursday night.
Two days after the deaths of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to
Libya, and three other Americans in an outbreak of violence in the Libyan city
of Benghazi, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took the lead in trying
to distance the U.S. government from the movie, calling the film “disgusting and
reprehensible” and condemning the violent response to it.
“The U.S. government had absolutely nothing to do with this video,” Clinton
said at a meeting in Washington with a delegation from Morocco. “We absolutely
reject its content and messages. But there is no justification — none at all —
for responding to this video with violence.”
The message went out from Washington throughout the day, in White House
briefings, in speeches in Arab capitals and through official Web sites, e-mails
and Twitter feeds from the State Department and its embassies around the
globe.
Some governments responded to U.S. calls for strong statements against
violence. After days of relative silence, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi,
speaking during a visit to Brussels, condemned the attacks on the embassy in
Cairo and vowed to defend the security of U.S. diplomatic buildings.
But Morsi also denounced the film and called on “the American people” to
“declare their rejection” of such provocations. His Muslim Brotherhood movement
joined other groups in calling for major but peaceful anti-U.S. demonstrations
Friday, the traditional day of protest in the Muslim world and a time when
appeals for tolerance will be tested.
In a possible sign that influential Egyptian political and clerical leaders
calling for protests were worried that the tone had gotten too heated, the
ultraconservative Nour political party said the demonstrations should take place
away from embassies and condemned both violence and the video.
“We appreciate and value . . . the statement from the American embassy that
condemned the insult to Islam and its prophets,” the party said in a
statement.
Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, meanwhile, quickly apologized to
the United States for the damage to the embassy in Sanaa and ordered an
investigation into the incident.
In a telephone call with Hadi on Thursday, the White House said, President
Obama “reiterated his rejection of any efforts to denigrate Islam and emphasized
that there is never any justification for the violence we are seeing.”
Clinton spoke alongside Moroccan Foreign Minister Saad-Eddine el-Othmani,
who offered condolences for the death of Stevens and the three other State
Department employees. He echoed his government’s “clear position against
violence and against any confrontation as a way to solve problems and settle
conflicts.”
Othmani also thanked Clinton for speaking out against the “insult” of the
video.
President Obama spoke by phone with Libyan President Mohamed Yusuf
al-Magariaf late Wednesday, accepting condolences for the deaths and expressing
appreciation for the cooperation between the United States and Libya in the wake
of the attack, the White House said.
Administration officials added little Thursday to accounts of how Stevens
died. He became separated from others in the smoke and gunfire of the attack on
the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and was not seen by colleagues until hours later,
when Libyans delivered his body to the airport during diplomatic evacuation
efforts. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland repeated earlier
information that officials were told that Stevens had first been taken from the
consulate to the local hospital, but she said they could not confirm that.
“We don’t have any definitive information of our own as to exactly when he
passed or what the precise causes of death were,” Nuland said. “I would guess
that this is among the things that’ll become clearer as the Libyans work on
their investigation with our support.”
The body of one of the other Americans, Sean Smith, was found inside the
consulate when U.S. personnel regained control of it early Wednesday morning. On
Thursday night, Clinton issued a statement identifying the other two as Glen A.
Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods, both former Navy SEALs who had served in
Afghanistan and Iraq and were working as security personnel for the State
Department. Clinton said both had “died protecting their colleagues.”
On Capitol Hill, CIA Director David H. Petraeus briefed lawmakers about the
Benghazi attack, but according to one person who attended the closed-door
session, Petraeus said it remained unclear who was behind the attack, whether it
was planned or whether there was evidence pointing to al-Qaeda involvement. The
person spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
session.
At the State Department, Nuland said Clinton “wanted to speak so strongly
and so directly” because the government was concerned “that people in the region
don’t understand our culture and society, that [the video] was, in fact, a
private effort, that it has nothing to do with the U.S. government, that we
don’t do these kinds of videos, and that, in fact, as a government, we found it
disgusting and reprehensible.”
“I hope all of you will disseminate and broadcast [her message] as broadly
as you can,” Nuland told reporters at the daily briefing. Clinton’s remarks were
“extremely intentional,” Nuland said, “because we are concerned that this is not
understood well.”
In a State Department reception Thursday night to celebrate the Eid holiday
marking the end of Ramadan, Clinton told gathered Muslim diplomats and others,
“When all of us who are people of faith — and I am one — feel the pain of
insults, of misunderstanding, of denigration to what we cherish, we must expect
ourselves and others not to resort to violence.”
They and the United States, she said, must “recommit ourselves to working
toward a future marked by understanding and acceptance rather than distrust,
hatred and fear. We can pledge that whenever one person speaks out in ignorance
and bigotry, ten voices will answer.”
In emotional remarks, Libya’s ambassador to the United States, Ali Aujali,
told Clinton and the others of his friendship with Stevens, whom he called “a
real hero.” Aujali said it was “our responsibility, and the responsibility of
the Libyan people . . . to protect the Americans” and other diplomats in his
country. He said that without continued U.S. and international help, “we will
not be able to do it.”
Earlier in the day, Clinton acknowledged during her appearance with the
Moroccan foreign minister that “it is hard for some people to understand why the
United States cannot or does not just prevent” such videos “from ever seeing the
light of day.” But she said stopping such expressions was not only “impossible”
but also against U.S. values of free expression.
Google, which owns YouTube, said it had acted on its own to stop access to
the video in Egypt and Libya. A Google official said the company was “watching
carefully” events in other countries.
The administration has criticized other governments for trying to shut down
the Internet, bar certain content or jam cellphone and other communications it
finds displeasing. It also has assisted dissidents in countries such as Syria in
making their voices heard electronically. And it has struggled to develop its
own ability to promote U.S. messages through social media. In separate programs,
the State Department and the Pentagon have spent tens of millions of dollars to
monitor the public communications of others and send out their own.
In a measure of the tension between American diplomats in Cairo and the
Egyptian government, a minor tempest broke out Thursday on Twitter between
representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood and U.S. Embassy public affairs
officials.
The Brotherhood posted a message of support for the embassy staff, saying
it was “relieved” that no diplomatic worker had been harmed in the Cairo
demonstrations and expressing hope that relations between the countries would be
maintained through the “turbulence of Tuesday’s events.”
In response, the U.S. Embassy feed said, “Thanks. By the way, have you
checked out your own Arabic feeds? I hope you know we read those too,” an
apparent reference to the calls for more protests.
“We understand you’re under a lot of stress,” the Brotherhood replied. “But
it will be more helpful if you point out exactly the Arabic feed of
concern.”
Birnbaum reported from Cairo. Greg Miller in Washington, Richard Leiby in
Kabul and Mohammad al-Qadhi in Sanaa contributed to this report.
