It's Libyan for "thank you"

[Imran Siddiqui]

In pointing out the lack of civility on this site?

Using Sloww as a reference is.... dubious at best .

[Felch]

Too often we, unfortunately, link responsibility to "legal responsibility" and not moral responsibility. There is a far deeper level of responsibility than simply what is not illegal.

Isn't the moral responsibility of a Christian to convert souls?

[DinoDoc]

At least now we can dispense with the half hearted justifications that paint Muslims as tempermental children:

(CNN) — A pro-al Qaeda group responsible for a previous armed assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is the chief suspect in Tuesday’s attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, sources tracking militant Islamist groups in eastern Libya say.

They also note that the attack immediately followed a call from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri for revenge for the death in June of a senior Libyan member of the terror group Abu Yahya al-Libi.

The group suspected to be behind the assault — the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades — first surfaced in May, when it claimed responsibility for an attack on the International Red Cross office in Benghazi. The following month the group claimed responsibility for detonating an explosive device outside the U.S. Consulate, and later released a video of that attack.

Noman Benotman, once a leading member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and now based at the Quilliam Foundation in London told CNN, “An attack like this would likely have required preparation. This would not seem to be merely a protest which escalated.”

“According to our sources, the attack was the work of roughly 20 militants, prepared for a military assault; it is rare that an RPG7 is present at a peaceful protest,” Benotman said.

“According to our sources, the attack against the consulate had two waves. The first attack led to U.S. officials being evacuated from the consulate by Libyan security forces, only for the second wave to be launched against U.S. officials after they were kept in a secure location.”

That analysis is supported by U.S. sources who say the attack on the consulate is believed to have been pre-planned. The sources say the attackers used the protest as a diversion to launch the attack, although the sources could not say if the attackers instigated the protest or merely took advantage of it.

The sources do not believe the ambassador was directly targeted.

Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif, speaking at a news conference in Benghazi on Wednesday, said that “among the protesters, there were some who infiltrated the march to start chaos.”

Benotman, who had earlier warned of the likelihood of renewed attacks against U.S. interest in Libya, said the Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades is a prime suspect in the Benghazi attack Tuesday. He believes it is likely the deadly attack was also linked to a video statement released by al-Zawahiri on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In the video, al-Zawahiri confirmed the death of al-Libi — a prominent member of the al Qaeda-linked group — adding: “His blood is calling, urging and inciting you to fight and kill the crusaders.”

The video released by the Brigades in June showed nighttime explosions around the consulate, interlaced with footage of Osama bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, along with images from the 9/11 attacks. At the time the Brigades claimed it had launched the attack in response to the first reports of al-Libi’s death in a drone strike in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Notably, the Brigades said the June 5 attack was also timed to coincide with preparations for the arrival of a senior U.S. State Department official.

“The time frame of attacks shows that the group has been following and actively involved in gathering information about the activities of diplomatic missions in the country,” Benotman wrote in a June briefing paper on the group.

He adds that it appears the Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades was also responsible for a rocket attack against the convoy of the British ambassador in Benghazi on June 11 and an attack against the Red Cross in Misrata on June 12.

Libyan and Western security officials tell CNN that al Qaeda has taken advantage of a security vacuum to build up a presence in eastern Libya.

A senior Libyan official told CNN in June that the United States had flown surveillance missions with drones over suspected jihadist training camps in eastern Libya. The official said that, to the best of his knowledge, they had not been used to fire missiles at militant training camps in the area.

Another Libyan official told CNN at the same time that five radical Islamist militant commanders were operating in the Derna area, with 200 to 300 men under their command in camps in the area. Ironically, Christopher Stephens — the U.S. ambassador killed in Tuesday’s attack — had written extensively about the rise of Salafist factions in and around Derna in a 2008 diplomatic cable.

As CNN has previously reported, one of militant commanders, according to several sources, is Abdulbasit Azuz, a long-time associate of al-Zawahiri. Azuz was dispatched by al-Zawahiri to Libya from Pakistan’s tribal areas in the spring of 2011 to create a foothold for al Qaeda in Libya, the sources say.

Azuz is a veteran jihadist who fought the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan in the early 1990s, according to several sources. He later to moved to the United Kingdom, where he increasingly came on the radar screen of British security services for his radical recruitment efforts in Manchester.

In the period after the July 2005 London bombings, he was detained in the Belmarsh high-security prison and placed under a control order, according to the sources. He left the United Kingdom in 2009 and traveled to the tribal areas of Pakistan, according to the sources.

According to one source, Azuz has dispatched men as far west as Ajdabiya and Brega in his attempt to build up al Qaeda operations in eastern Libya.

According to Libyan security sources, within the militant ranks in Derna there are 20 to 30 hardcore jihadist fighters who are cause for most concern. One source said a number of Egyptian jihadists are also present in the Derna area, as well as fighters belonging to al Qaeda’s North African affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Another militant whose activities have caused concern in eastern Libya is Sufian bin Qumu , a released Guantanamo detainee who is believed to be operating a camp in a remote area outside Derna. His detainee assessment at the prison camp described him as having a “long-term association with Islamist extremist Jihad and members of Al-Qaida and other extremist groups.”

Libyan officials confirmed his presence in the area to CNN in June.

Libyan security services have so far not moved against the militants, casting doubt over their ability to bring security to the country. Many areas are still dominated by brigades that fought to topple Libya strongman Moammar al-Gadhafi and bands of heavily armed young men who have turned to criminality.

Derna has for years been a recruiting ground for al Qaeda. In his 2008 cable, Stephens described the area as “a wellspring of Libyan foreign fighters” for al Qaeda in Iraq, and outlined how high youth unemployment, discrimination by the Gadhafi regime and the influence of veteran Libyan jihadists from Afghanistan all played a role in radicalizing a new generation.

In recent months, hardline Salafists have increasingly asserted themselves in eastern Libya. In June hundreds of fighters wielding AK-47s and black Islamist banners converged on Benghazi to call for the imposition of sharia law. This spring al-Zawahiri’s associate Azuz was confident enough to address a large gathering in the town square of Derna, an online video of which has been seen by CNN.

Collectively, some of the Salafist and jihadist elements in eastern Libya began to become known as Ansar al Sharia, or “Partisans of Sharia.” According to reports, eyewitnesses have claimed Ansar al Sharia was responsible for organizing the demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate. But Benotman told CNN Ansar al Sharia is not really a grouping at all but rather a term applied to an amorphous coalition of Islamist and Salafist groups in eastern Libya with no leadership structure.

Despite concerns over the growing audacity of Salafist-jihadist groups, the victory of secular parties in elections in July had created a measure of optimism about Libya’s future.

Benotman tells CNN the reality is that a large majority of Libyans, including the majority of Islamists, are opposed to al Qaeda’s ideology of global jihad. He predicts a backlash against the perpetrators of the attack.

“People will curse them for this,” he told CNN.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The moral responsibility of a Christian is to show God's love unto all Creation and work on behalf of the Kingdom of God.

Not every Christian is (nor IMO should be) concerned with a "numbers game".

[The Mad Monk]

Where were the guards? They're sending marines now, why weren't already there?

[MrFun]

I enjoyed the apology the US gave to the people who attacked the embassy.

What are you talking about??

[The Mad Monk]

You're late.

[regexcellent]

Where were the guards? They're sending marines now, why weren't already there?

The unit of Marines responsible for embassy security worldwide isn't all that big. I think it might only be battalion strength, maybe even smaller. As I understand most embassies have very small armed security forces. It's probably because countries wouldn't think to kindly to hosting a full company of U.S. Marines or something of that nature.

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Security_Guard

[DinoDoc]

The unit of Marines responsible for embassy security worldwide isn't all that big. I think it might only be battalion strength, maybe even smaller. As I understand most embassies have very small armed security forces. It's probably because countries wouldn't think to kindly to hosting a full company of U.S. Marines or something of that nature.

edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Security_Guard

By international law, embassy security is partly the responsibility of the country hosting it. The better question than where the Marines where is where the hell the security forces of the respective states were.

[kentonio]

In Egypt's case, getting rid of Mubarak has brought nothing but bad things.

You mean except for the Egpytians not having to live under a dictator anymore?

It's not hard to see that a lot of these people are predisposed to hating the US

I wonder why that might be..

[Dauphin]

I'd be interested in knowing what the behind the scenes administration response was. Would those offended by Obama "apologising" prefer an "apology" with behind the scenes "retribution" or an "outrage" with no real action taken? I only ignore an "outrage" and "retribution", as that obviously hasn't happened and I assume is the actual desired response for many

Sorry for all the quotation marks, the words used need not have their literal meaning and so I want to avoid semantics.

[Jaguar]

I wonder why that might be..

For our freedoms? In this case, Freedom of Speech?

[rah]

I wonder why that might be..

I have no delusion that we're loved around the world.
But if you're going out to commit violence I'd like to think that it would require more direct provocation.
It's like killing your neighbor just because he's a Jew.
Not that I'd condone their actions if they had seen the movie first, but I'd be more likely to understand it better.

[Dauphin]

For our freedoms? In this case, Freedom of Speech?

Is that a serious comment. I've always found that argument rather vacuous.

[kentonio]

For our freedoms? In this case, Freedom of Speech?

Not the century of using their countries as pawns? Between Britain and the USA we're done some deeply despicable things to that part of the world right up until the present day. The US funded dictatorships that tortured, oppressed and murdered their citizens. Why wouldn't they be pissed off?