AP: U.S. destroying secret info amid Beirut unrest
Hezbollah supporters wave flags and hold up Arabic banners reading "At your service God's prophet, America equals terrorism, and America does not equal freedom" during a rally in Beirut Sept. 17, 2012, denouncing an anti-Islam film that has provoked a week of unrest in Muslim countries worldwide. / AP Photo
(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - Diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut have started to destroy classified material as a security precaution amid anti-American protests in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.
The leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah called for sustained protests in a rare public appearance at a rally in Beirut. Already Monday, rioting demonstrators battled with police outside a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia as violent protests over an anti-Islam film spread to Asia after a week of unrest in Muslim countries worldwide.
A State Department status report obtained Monday by The Associated Press said the Beirut embassy had "reviewed its emergency procedures and is beginning to destroy classified holdings." It also said that local Lebanese employees were sent home early due to protests by the militant Shiite group Hezbollah over an anti-Muslim film produced in the U.S.
The turmoil surrounding the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad shows no sign of ebbing nearly a week after protesters first swarmed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya in the eastern city of Benghazi. At least 10 protesters have died in the riots, and the targeting of American missions has forced Washington to ramp up security in several countries.
Violent anti-U.S. protests persist in 3 countries
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In Washington, a State Department official said there was no imminent threat to the heavily fortified Beirut embassy, which is about an hour away from where the nearest demonstration is planned.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss security procedures, said the decision to "reduce classified holdings" was routine and made by embassy staff.
In Libya, the ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi destroying classified documents with Sean Smith, the Foreign Service information management officer killed with Stevens in the attack Tuesday, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
After Tuesday's incidents, the State Department ordered all U.S. embassies and consulates around the world to review their security postures. As a result, a number of missions decided to destroy classified material, the official said. It was not immediately clear which other missions besides the one in Beirut had taken that step.
The official stressed it was normal under circumstances such as those of last week for embassies to reduce the amount of classified material that they hold. Classified documents are also routinely culled as part of normal embassy operations.
Earlier Monday, the State Department renewed its warning to U.S. citizens to "avoid all travel to Lebanon because of current safety and security concerns." It said U.S. citizens "living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks."
The new alert, which superseded a May 8 warning, said the potential for a "spontaneous upsurge in violence remains" in Lebanon and that Lebanese authorities are not able to guarantee protection if violence erupts quickly.
The warning also noted that the Fulbright and the English Language Fellow programs that gave grants to American scholars to live and work in Lebanon during the academic year have been suspended "because of the deteriorating security situation and the increased possibility of attacks against U.S. citizens in Lebanon."
Protests against the movie turned violent for the first time in Afghanistan on Monday as hundreds of people burned cars and threw rocks at a U.S. military base in the capital, Kabul. Many in the crowd shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to those people who have made a film and insulted our prophet." They also spiraled out of control in Indonesia and Pakistan, while several in the Middle East were calm.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group, has rarely been seen in public since his Shiite Muslim group battled Israel in a month-long war in 2006, fearing Israeli assassination. Since then, he has communicated with his followers and gives news conference mostly via satellite link.
On Monday, he spoke for about 15 minutes before tens of thousands of cheering supporters, many of them with green and yellow headbands around their foreheads -- the colors of Hezbollah -- and the words "at your service God's prophet" written on them.
Nasrallah, who last appeared in public in December 2011 to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashoura, said the U.S. must ban the movie and have it removed from the Internet and called for his followers to maintain pressure on the world to act.
"This is the start of a serious movement that must continue all over the Muslim world in defense of the prophet of God," he said to roars of support. "As long as there's blood in us, we will not remain silent over insults against our prophet."
He called for a series of demonstrations this week to denounce the video.
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No, the media is obsessed with finding every negative thing they can to say about Mitt Romney, no matter how dated, no matter how obscure, and they advance the argument that Mitt is "out of touch" with the electorate. Seriously? We have the equivalent of an international incident and you guys are focused on sound bites.
Unbelievable.
This is NOT TRUE.
For the record, I do business regularly in Indonesia, living part time in Bali, and also in Singapore. There have indeed been demonstrations in Jakarta and Bandung, (none in Bali, or Singapore) but all have been peaceful, and the leaders of the various Islamic organizations have been unified in keeping things calm and under control.
This from the local newspaper Kompas...
"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono regrets the assault on the United States Consulate in Bengazhi, Libya, and joined the calls from Muslim leaders in the country to ignore any acts of provocation.
Presidential spokesman for foreign affairs Teuku Faizasyah said Yudhoyono condemned the producer of Innocence of Muslims, the movie that triggered the attack in Benghazi that claimed the lives of four American diplomats, including US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.
"The incident was triggered by a video on YouTube that contains very sensitive content. The President objects to any acts of blasphemy, because it could trigger people's anger and antagonism. The latest incidents [in Libya] have resulted in deaths [of the US envoys], which are very regrettable," he said.
Faizasyah said that Yudhoyono had not commented on the implications of the attack nor on the relationships between Indonesia and both Libya and the US.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa also shrugged off any implications on Indonesia. "The issue has no direct relation to Indonesia," Marty told reporters."
Why the western press continues to try to paint all of Islam as some radical extreme religion, while at the same time excusing the deplorable acts of their own as "the actions of individuals", is a question whose answers are obvious, they wish to justify the calls for genocide coming from the most radical of the right wing fringe of their group.
Well if only my one voice is the one calling for truth in reporting, challenging the western journalists to resist becoming nothing more than the trumpet of right-wing war mongers, then so be it.
The western press should be a bit more introspective after being played for suckers in helping Bush spread his admitted lies to start wars.
Credibility was the core of what made the western press, once that has vanished, they become no better than tabloid sheets, and their income will be just as short-term. Be careful to whom you sell your souls.
Read it again, it is your perception and reading comprehension that is unraveling.
Chuckles...........7.38 EST stands for EASTERN STANDARD TIME just like CST,MST,PST.
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I know that. You stated EST when I asked your local time, and you aren't on EST.
I'm in TN, but can still state the time as being any time zone in the world, and still be accurate, unless I am talking about the LOCAL time, which would be CST.
So - what is your LOCAL time?
<crickets>
Quit dodging.
That just sounds plain stupid to me.
linkee that supports your claim that Camera.org has manipulated any transmission ?
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You made the claim that they were "unedited".
You make the claim, you bear the 'burden of proof', if you have any clue what that phrase means.
When did I ever say anything about nambla, earth? Quit projecting your sexual fantasies.
YOU made the claim that those are "unedited". The burden of proof remains on you.
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No, it isn't. You made the claim, so YOU back it up.
I never made any claim regarding nambla, so have no 'burden of proof', as you do.
You really aren't very good at debate. I hope you aren't expecting your masters there in Israel to give you a raise any time soon.