News and Analysis (9/25/12)

“It’s a catastrophic intelligence loss…. We got our eyes poked out.” The “consulate” in which Chris Stevens died turns out to have been just one building a compound from which the CIA was conducting covert operations targeting groups that included Ansar al Sharia which launched the attack against the  compound:

• Deadly Attack in Libya Was Major Blow to C.I.A. Efforts (NY Times)

“The CIA’s programme of ‘targeted’ drone killings in Pakistan’s tribal heartlands is politically counterproductive, kills large numbers of civilians and undermines respect for international law, according to a … study by Stanford and New York universities’ law schools”:

• Drone Attacks in Pakistan Are Counterproductive, Says Report (Guardian)

“[A]s Arabs strive to establish new governments in the wake of the 2011 uprisings, those minorities pose challenges far beyond their size – not only for their governments, but for US policy:

• Middle East Protests: Signs of Hope, Challenge for Fledgling Democracies (Christian Science Monitor)

“‘There is no speech that justifies mindless violence,’ such as the attack that left the four Americans dead in Libya, Obama said. ‘The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect,’ says Obama …

• Obama Condemns Anti-Muslim Film & Violence (NBC Miami)

… but the “US differs from European nations in the extent to which it protects free expression. In most European nations and Canada, expression is more limited. Hate speech, for example, which is legal in the US, is banned in many European countries ad Canada. Denying the Holocaust is also a crime in some European countries”:

• Anti-Islam Video Clip Spotlights Difference in Global Free Speech Limits (Christian Science Monitor)

The American actress who struggles to obtain justice in her suit “for fraud and slander against Internet search giant Google, which owns YouTube, and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man behind the video who has gone into hiding since it rose to prominence last week”  …

• Cindy Lee Garcia & ‘Innocence Of Muslims’: Actress Wants Judge To Block Anti-Muslim Film, Request Denied (Huffington Post)

… might take a tip from the Queen whose complaint that Britain’s own Egyptian troublemaker was couldn’t be arrested for although he conducted “radical activities and he called Britain a toilet[,] … was incredibly anti-British”even while “was sucking up money from this country” led to the miscreant’s prosecution for “for soliciting murder and racial hatred” …

•  BBC Apologises to Queen for Revealing Private Conversation About Abu Hamza (Guardian)

… and now, despite his and his co-defendants’ arguments “that they would face degrading treatment because they would be sent to the notorious ADX supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, … the grand chamber of the European court in Strasbourg unanimously decided there would be ‘no violation’ of the European Convention of Human Rights”:

• Radical Muslim Preacher Set for Extradition to US (Mail & Guardian)

“In an apparent allusion to recent comments by U.S., Israeli and Iranian officials, Ban” warned, “I … reject both the language of delegitimization and threats of potential military action by one state against another,” Ban said. “Any such attacks would be devastating”:

• U.S. Will ‘Do What We Must’ on Iran, Ban Ki-moon Opposes Threats (Reuters)

What would Jesus (peace be upon him) do?  A radical Christian proposal for dealing with the Muslim threat:

• Tennessee Billboard: ‘Love Your Muslim Neighbors’ (Washington Post)

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