Did the U.S. apologize for the Cairo embassy attack?

Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo Sept. 11, 2012.

/ AP Photo

Updated 12:15 a.m. ET Sept. 12, 2012

(CBS News) After a massive crowd of angry Egyptians began amassing outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, furious over an anti-Muslim film produced in the U.S., the embassy there released a statement saying it did not support any anti-religious efforts.

"The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims - as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions," the statement began.

Conservatives have pounced on the statement, calling it an "apology," and the White House responded by saying it had not approved the statement before its release.

"The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government," an administration official told Politico.

It appears the White House was attempting to get ahead of an oft-used conservative trope on Democrats, namely that they have an apparent "apologize first" approach to foreign policy.

Mitt Romney's campaign wasted little time late Tuesday trying to turn the embassy's statement into an effort to strengthen his foreign policy credentials.

In a statement, Romney said: "I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It's disgraceful that the Obama Administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

Romney's statement was referring to a similar incident at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which one consulate worker was killed and another wounded on Tuesday by a crowd protesting the same film. No Americans were harmed at the incident in Egypt.

Early Wednesday, the Obama campaign responded with a statement of its own, saying, "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack."

Also Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed some of the tone of the Cairo Embassy's statement, but at the start of her official statement condemned "in the strongest terms" the attacks in Benghazi.

Clinton said: "Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

8 Photos

U.S. Embassy protest in Cairo

(Below, watch a report from CBSNews.com on the Cairo embassy attack.)

[Talldrinkawater]

The title reads like it's straight form Fox News or CNN gossip night. Associate Editor at CBSNews.com, Joshua? Whatever.

[RollotheNorman]

Nobody with a command of the English Language above around the 4th grade reading level could possibly interpret the embassy statement as any kind of apology. Willard is being entirely disingenuous all over again, as it appears is his natural proclivity.

Could some Arab in the street see it as an apology? Who knows, they might think it is a gumbo recipe.

[Darwin109]

Given that you don't see the priority of whether the embassy statement should discuss a trashy home video versus condemning the violence for free speech maybe you should look at school again. Your comments assuming the "Arab in the street" couldn't understand demonstrates your conceited attitude.

[robert1129]

You are 100% right. This is a lie that the Repubs have been trying to pin on Obama from Day One. The problem is when they are asked to give a specific occasion where he did apologize for the USA, other than the one below, they never can.

Obama did apologize to Karzai when a drone caused a host of civilian deaths in Afgan.

[duwaynea]

This incident simply illustrates Romney's lack of character, and his pathological tendency toward lying. First of all, there was never an apology. Ever. The statement given by the Embassy was an affirmation of American ideals of religious tolerance. It is a *lie* for Romney to call that affirmation an "apology." Secondly, the statement by the Embassy came *before* the Embassy walls were breached -- not afterwards, as Romney claims. We could chalk all this up to Romney being ignorant, but Romney has not apologized for issuing false statements -- rather, Romney has defended his false statements and stood by them. That makes them lies. It would be a disaster for America if this man becomes president. The damage he will do -- both domestically and in our foreign relations -- would be irreparable.

[Darwin109]

So you convince yourself they are all lies while our president has no clue. He couldn't correctly state that Egypt was in fact our ally. So the president shows immediately why our foreign policy is a mess and embarrasses our country in front of our allies. Seems fairly incompetent to me.

[RollotheNorman]

Go away, Darwin punk.

[helen123333]

Democrats and Republicans have always rallied behind the President in times of national turmoil, but not this crew of extreme right-wingers. Mr. Romney lost no time attacking his country. I see this as his Hail Mary pass... he is praying that the right-wing media ( which is now just about all of the media) will save it for him.

[TimeToEvolve]

He also has a few Wall Street billionaires who run the Republicon Party behind him. Robbed Me is their perfect plastic puppet.

[TobyPogi]

CLEARLY WHAT ROMNEY'S REMARKS WAS A SIGN OF POLITICAL DESPERATION ,HE MADE HIMSELF A FOOL. THE SITUATIONS IN LIBYA AND CAIRO STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR WHAT REALLY HAPPENS , AND MR. ROMNEY WITHOUT ANY EXPERIENCE IN FOREIGN POLICY HAS THE CONCLUSION ALREADY.

[askagain]

It is not rocket science to see how flawed Obama's foreign policy is. Obama did not come to the presidency with foreign policy experience. And it certain;y shows.

[tepeterso]

askagain-How does it show? To the contrary his ability to manage foreign affairs has been very amply dmeonstrated-much superior to W. The current mess was not of his doing but by the actions of some fools who don;t realize that there are situational limits to freedom of speech-like you don't yell fire in a crowded theater-or make a film slandering Islam. While that is not justification for the violence the makers of the film are partially responsible for the violence.

[SmittyinLA]

their statement to "not offend Muslims" offended them, they screwed up by opening their mouths but long before that we screwed up by putting these (Muslims) jerks in charge of a nation.

Here is the offensive statement "to not offend" those intolerant fascist Muslims: "as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions" right there they looped in Islam with all other religions, the muzzies don't like that.

Obama gets it.

[AOCGUY]

First we (the US) did not put anyone in charge of Egypt, Egyptians did it and without our help. I would also point out that there is no evidence that any Egyptian government workers had anything to do with the attack on the US Embassy in Cairo. And finally, since the missio of an embassy is diplomacy, explaining to the host country that the views of some nutcase filmmaker do not represent the values of our nation, is appropriate. The fact that some nutcases in Egypt recacted inappropriately not withstanding.

Now having been in the US Embassy in Cairo a number of times I do find it amazing that the protesters were able to access the compound. There is not a whole lot of room outside the walls to move around.

[askagain]

Obama repeatedly pressured Mubarak to step down and encouraged Mubarak's opposistion. Obama helped engineer further instability in the Middle East. To deny Obama's role is naive.

[audemus]

Republicans want to bomb first, and not apologize later.

[AOCGUY]

Notice that there are a predictable few that will drop the prverbial turd into the puchbowl then depart before having to answer for their actions.

[gove77]

This is a horrible venue to gather different views. Just lot's of people spewing hatred.

[DaudM]

On ocassion you do find a voice of simi-reason. see mik1235. This story wasn't fully fleshed before posting as it left out that salient point. The Embassy statement went out before the Lybian attack. That fact plays a big role in understanding the timeline here.

[mik12345]

The statement was made before the attack? !@#!$ what the !@#$ that is some very important info. Any news org. that does not report that should lose allot of credibility.

[DaudM]

Thank you Mik, That fact plays a big role in understanding the timeline here.