U.S. agencies didn't issue high alert over Mideast threat

[dkf]

(Reuters) - U.S. officials say they believe an Arabic talk show last Saturday showing parts of an anti-Muslim video made in the United States was the spark that set off violent attacks on U.S. missions in Libya and Egypt, but acknowledge the broadcast did not prompt a major upgrade in security precautions.

On Tuesday, four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in an attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that U.S. officials said may have been planned by one or more militant factions. On the same day, protesters in Cairo breached the U.S. Embassy's walls, and the protests have since spread to other countries, including Yemen, Bangladesh and Kuwait.

An Egyptian TV network, al-Nas, broadcast last Saturday what its presenters described as extracts from an English-language film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, which it said had been uploaded on the YouTube website by "migrant Coptics," a reference to exiled members of a Christian sect with a large minority presence among Egypt's Muslim majority.

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One official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was at least one specific warning about possible unrest in the region that was circulated within the government, but was not so alarming as to lead to a major upgrade in security for a possible emergency.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/14/us-protests-warnings-idUSBRE88C1MG20120914

[slackmaster]

1. Who would stand to benefit most from embarrassing the US government right now?

[dkf]

2. Al Qaeda? Don't they just hate us period?

[slackmaster]

7. Think about the President's biggest boasts for his first term

Does anything ring a bell in relation to Al Qaeda?

[bhikkhu]

8. Do you have anything specific to quote?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[slackmaster]

9. How did Osama bin Laden die?

Is that a good enough hint?

[madashelltoo]

3. This certainly does reek of Rove.

[SunsetDreams]

6. hmmm..let's see

I sure wish I had some homegrown tomatoes right now.

[nc4bo]

4. Which Republican/neocon accused POTUS of not reading his briefings? I'd start there

and work my way around, under and out.

[SunsetDreams]

5. From your same article "U.S. facilities in the Middle East were already on heightened alert

U.S. facilities in the Middle East were already on heightened alert earlier this week due to the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington."

Also from the article...

"The number of potentially inflammatory things that are said or broadcast every week (is so large) ... that warning about all of them would be useless," said Paul Pillar, former top U.S. intelligence analyst for the Middle East and South Asia. It was "impossible to predict" the kind of violent reaction that occurred in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere.

One U.S. official said, "You can't freak out on everything that's broadcast."

That official and others said the airwaves and Internet were filled with hateful material and U.S. authorities could be "crying wolf" if they issued a warning every time an anti-Islamic broadside was aired or posted online.

Notice what the official said where the source was named.

[bigtree]

11. there it is. Shitty the way salacious headlines aren't backed by the article content

. . . par for the course.

[bigtree]

10. I seriously doubt we're going to find

. . . that the embassies in the region weren't already on high alert due to the 9-11 anniversary.

[dkf]

12. I wonder why he wasn't told to stay there.