Some of the anti-American sentiment that you see in Egypt is because they think that U.S. policy was far too long on the side of Mubarak and repression. They don't look at us like great liberators. And I don't think the president is putting us forward as the force that so-called liberated the Middle East. These are democracies that are working their way through new governments, and they're dealing with extremist elements in their own midst. What happened in Libya, what happened in Egypt and the other places, are very different. In Libya, protesters don't bring rocket launchers to protests. So this was evidently a planned attack; probably had something to do with the 9/11 symbolism. We'll see. There are some people under arrest as well. But the Libyan government did intercede to the best of their ability. Libyans carried the body of the ambassador to the hospital. And I don't think we can hold the Libyan people or American foreign policy guilty for a handful of terrorists. And just as they need to root out terrorists in their society and extremists in their society, so do we. This film was total propaganda, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called that Florida preacher and told him that he was endangering national security. I'm not excusing what happened, but to then condemn all of foreign policy is certainly not the answer. -Eleanor Clift

Share |

U.S. diplomatic missions were hit by two separate attacks, both on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Twin Towers, Shanksville and Pentagon atrocities. In Cairo, Egyptian protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy, desecrated a U.S. flag, and raised in its stead a black Islamic flag that praised the prophet Mohammed. In Libya, the attack at the U.S. Benghazi consulate turned deadly when militants fired guns, stormed the compound and burned the building. Four Americans were murdered, including the ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the Benghazi crimes, asking quote, How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? Unquote. The attacks in both Libya and Egypt are linked to a film called "Innocence of Muslims," made by a California-based director. The movie depicts the prophet Mohammed as a quote-unquote fraud and a philanderer. A 14-minute trailer of the film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic and posted on YouTube, thus shared on the Internet, including the Muslim world. By Thursday, national protests had spread to Yemen, Iran and elsewhere. Secretary of State Clinton bluntly separated the U.S. from the inflammatory film, quote, The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video. We absolutely reject its content and message. But as I said yesterday, there is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence. Unquote.