AP: U.S. destroying secret info amid Beirut unrest
Hezbollah's rallies seem aimed at keeping the issue alive by bringing out large crowds. But the group also appeared to be trying to ensure it did not spiral into violence, walking a careful line. Notably, Hezbollah held Monday's protest in its own mainly Shiite stronghold of Dahieh in south Beirut, far from the U.S. Embassy in the mountains north of the capital or other international diplomatic missions.
© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. For the group, anger over the low-budget movie that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad provides a welcome diversion from the crisis in Syria, which has brought heavy criticism on Hezbollah for its support of President Bashar Assad. But stoking riots in Beirut could also bring a backlash in the tensely divided country.
The movie portrays Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester. Protesters have directed their anger at the U.S. government, insisting it should do something to stop it, though the film was privately produced. American officials have criticized it for intentionally offending Muslims -- and in one case, acted to prevent it being shown at a Florida church.
A number of Afghan religious leaders urged calm after protests broke out in several parts of Kabul.
"Our responsibility is to show a peaceful reaction, to hold peaceful protests. Do not harm people, their property or public property," said Karimullah Saqib, a cleric in Kabul.
On the main throroughfare through the city, demonstrators burned tires, shipping containers and at least one police vehicle before they were dispersed. Elsewhere in the city, police shot in the air to hold back a crowd of about 800 protesters and prevent them from pushing toward government buildings downtown, said Azizullah, a police officer at the site who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.
More than 20 police officers were slightly injured, most by rocks, said Gen. Fahim Qaim, the commander of a city quick-reaction police force.
The rallies will continue "until the people who made the film go to trial," said one protester, Wahidullah Hotak, among several dozen people demonstrating in front of a Kabul mosque, demanding President Obama bring those who have insulted the prophet to justice.
Several hundred demonstrators in Pakistan's northwest clashed with police Monday after setting fire to a press club and a government building, said police official Mukhtar Ahmed. The protesters apparently attacked the press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Upper Dir district because they were angry their rally wasn't getting more coverage, he said.
Police charged the crowd in the town of Wari, beating protesters back with batons, Ahmad said. The demonstrators then attacked the office of a senior government official and surrounded a local police station, said Ahmad, who locked himself inside with several other officers.
One protester died when police and demonstrators exchanged fire, and several others were wounded, police official Akhtar Hayat said.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, hundreds of protesters clashed with police for a second day in the southern city of Karachi as they tried to reach the U.S. Consulate. Police lobbed tear gas and fired in the air to disperse the protesters, who were from the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Police arrested 40 students, but no injuries have been reported, said senior police officer Asif Ejaz Shaikh.
Pakistanis have also held many peaceful protests against the film, including one in the southwest town of Chaman on Monday attended by around 3,000 students and teachers.
In Jakarta, hundreds of Indonesians clashed with police outside the U.S. Embassy, hurling rocks and firebombs and setting tires alight, marking the first violence over the film seen in the world's most populous Muslim country.
At least 10 police were rushed to the hospital after being pelted with rocks and attacked with bamboo sticks, said Jakarta Police Chief Maj. Gen. Untung Rajad. He said four protesters were arrested and one was hospitalized.
Demonstrators burned a picture of Mr. Obama and also tried to ignite a fire truck parked outside the embassy after ripping a water hose off the vehicle and torching it, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky. Police used a bullhorn to appeal for calm and deployed water cannons and tear gas to try to disperse the crowd as the protesters shouted "Allah Akbar," or God is great.
"We will destroy America like this flag!" a protester screamed while burning a U.S. flag. "We will chase away the American ambassador from the country!"
Demonstrations were also held Monday in the Indonesian cities of Medan and Bandung. Over the weekend in the central Java town of Solo, protesters stormed KFC and McDonald's restaurants, forcing customers to leave and management to close the stores.
German authorities are considering whether to ban the public screening of the film, titled "Innocence of Muslims" because it could endanger public security, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday. A fringe far-right political party says it plans to show the film in Berlin in November.
Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the West to block the film Monday to prove they are not "accomplices" in a "big crime," according to Iranian state TV.
Such an appeal falls into the major cultural divides over the film. U.S. officials say they cannot limit free speech and Google Inc. refuses to do a blanket ban on the YouTube video clip. This leaves individual countries putting up their own blocks.
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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.