THE NATION – Pakistan
WASHINGTON (AFP/Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Saturday rejected any denigration of Islam but said there is no excuse for attacks on US embassies, insisting he will never tolerate efforts to harm Americans.“I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “Yet there is never any justification for violence …. There is no excuse for attacks on our embassies and consulates.” “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” Obama said, quoting the Bible as he honoured four “American patriots” for embodying national qualities of courage, hope and idealism.“Their sacrifice will never be forgotten, we will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions,” Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.As he spoke, a furious wave of anti-American violence ripped across the Middle East and North Africa, with a crowd invading the US embassy compound in Tunis, and guards at the US embassy in Khartoum firing warning shots at protesters.Fresh violence erupted in Yemen and Cairo and demonstrations took place in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Morocco, Syria, Kuwait, Nigeria and Kenya. Six people were killed and dozens injured in Friday’s violence alone.Washington said it was deploying forces to cope with violence in as many as 18 different locations as deadly Muslim anger spreads over the anti-Islam movie. Two US marines were killed in Afghanistan when insurgents armed with guns and rockets stormed a heavily fortified air base late on Friday in an attack that the Taliban militia said was to avenge the film.US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington was configuring its forces to be able to cope with widespread violence following its deployment of Marine counter-terrorism units to Libya and Yemen and its stationing of two destroyers off the North African coast.“We have to be prepared in the event that these demonstrations get out of control,” Panetta told Foreign Policy magazine. He did not offer any specifics. But the magazine said that the Pentagon was discussing, but had not yet decided, whether to send a third platoon of 50 specially trained Marines to protect the US embassy in Khartoum. The Libyan attack and the US-directed outrage have raised questions about Obama’s handling of the so-called Arab Spring, a series of revolutions that have unseated entrenched authoritarian governments.The turbulence in the Middle East has had ripples in a tight US presidential election, with Obama’s Republican challenger Mitt Romney saying Obama has weakened US authority around the world. However, Obama repeated a vow to bring the attackers of the US consulate in Libya to justice. “We will not waver in their pursuit,” he said.He also urged Americans not to be disheartened by images of anti-American violence in the Islamic world, expressing confidence that the ideals of freedom America stands for would ultimately prevail. The UN Security Council strongly condemned attacks on US and other Western embassies and consulates, as violence raged over an American-made video mocking the Holy Prophet.“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the series of violent attacks against embassies and consular premises of member states in multiple locations on September 13 and 14,” said the statement read by German Ambassador Peter Wittig, who holds the council’s rotating presidency.The maker of a provocative anti-Islamic movie was briefly taken early Saturday to a California police station for questioning by his probation officer. Nakoula Besseley Nakoula was “given a ride” by sheriff’s deputies from his Cerritos, California, home shortly after midnight to the interview, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Don Walker told AFP. A local news affiliate reported that the man later emerged from the station wearing a coat, hat, scarf and glasses. Officials said federal officers wanted to find out whether Nakoula had violated his probation in an alleged bank fraud conspiracy. But according to Walker, the questioning of Nakoula did not take long. “He left the area a while ago,” the spokesman said. There was no word what conclusion, if any, the probation office had reached during the interview. In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Nakoula and others of fraudulently obtaining the identities and Social Security numbers of customers at several Wells Fargo branches in California and withdrawing $860 from them. Given the relatively small amount of money involved, he was put on probation as a result. Nakoula also served a year in jail after pleading guilty to possession of meth with the intent to manufacture it in 1997. Nakoula had agreed to the interview prior to the deputies arriving at his home and that the move was “entirely voluntary,” NBC News reported.
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