Expect so much from Super Eagles, at your own peril. Former Abia state governor Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu highlighted this Thursday as he cautioned compatriots against building castles in the air.
Kalu explained that the Golden Years of Nigerian soccer when a Segun Odegbami could be hero worshiped in Accra or a Petit Sory would salute Emma Okalla from Conakry were gone.
He said, “You cannot give what you do not have. The present Eagles are not in any way Super. I cannot find even the shadow of Nwankwo Kanu, or the cleats of Rashidi Yekini in the squad. It is so bad that an Austin Okocha will not make any difference. Green may have defined the Eagles of Christian Chukwu, Odegbami and Okalla. The present bunch cannot do better than greenhorns.”
The ex-governor refused to blame Coach Stephen Keshi for the drab results so far recorded by the senior national team in the South Africa 2013 Nations’ Cup qualifiers.
“Those who want to crucify Keshi are not followers of the team. Maybe, they are Liberians. Fact is, the players do not have what it takes to rule Africa. Clemens Westerhof did well here because we had boys willing to die. Jo Bonfrere’s success came through the quality of stars. When they left Nigeria, the Dutchmen never won anything,” Kalu added.
Kalu advised Nigerians to shift support to the women and Special sports instead of concentrating on the Eagles.
“Eagles are on Ground Zero today. Tomorrow may bring a change. We need not worry. I can go watch the Falconets or wine and dine with the paralympians. Afterall, they are Nigerians. Let us switch our support until the Eagles begin to fly again, “he summed up.
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) viewed with sadness thedamp and dismal reception given to our glorious Team Nigeria to the London 2012Paralympic Games by the Federal Government on Tuesday, which is unbefitting ofa team that brought glory to the nation against the backdrop of the recentdepressing outing by the able-bodied compatriots. Given that they won a basketof 13 medals, comprising 6 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze while making four worldrecords, the President’s unsavory body language in not sending even oneofficial of the National Sports Commission to receive the Team Nigeria at theairport on their arrival, smacks of insensitivity, which cannot be erased evenas the Presidency announced that the Paralympic Team would be received togetherwith the Falconets at the State House on Saturday. We believe that these wheelchairsports giants are heroes in their own right, and deserve special attention.
Furthermore, with a population that runs into tens ofmillions, people with disabilities are a neglected constituency in our greatnation, and this is not supposed to be so. In other advanced democracies,schools and other public buildings are made accessible to these citizens;walkways of roads have ramps, public conveniences have special features, andpublic vehicles have instrument of access. Sadly enough, even when the NationalAssembly, in 2010, sponsored and harmonized a bill to catalyze the culture ofcaring for these physically challenged citizens, President Goodluck Jonathanhas not deemed it important to sign it into law up till this moment.
We would love to put it on record that our great party witnessedwith joy, the exhilarating performance of The Nigerian Team at the justconcluded London Paralympic. This has further confirmed our belief in theindomitability of the human spirit, a driving philosophy which had urged usinto accommodating the physically challenged citizens of our great nation inour party’s internal political process. With a deep conviction that physicaldisabilities are not a handicap to one’s service to his or her country, we havea policy of encouraging the physically challenged by offering them freenomination forms and sponsoring them in elections.
The ANPP therefore calls on President Jonathan to sign thePeople With Disability [PWD] Bill into law as a matter of urgency, if not forany other reason, but as a reward to the Nigerians with disabilities who wentto London, saw and conquered the world, and by this singular outing, wiped awaythe shame of our nation, as Nigeria finally appeared with other victoriouscountries on the medal table at London.
Historian Tom Holland has received death threats after channel 4 screened his documentary on the history of Islam. The Television station was this week forced to cancel a second screening of the controversial documentary after the presenter was threatened with physical violence.
Once again the intolerance and hypersensitivity of a minority has been demonstrated when a perceived slight is suspected.
I watched the entire documentary online last night and I was like: ‘what’s all the fuss about?’
The programme was thoughtful and well researched and mirrored the views of many serious historians.
Despite their flaws, Christianity and Judaism have withstood the probing and scrutiny of historians. Until Islam is prepared to do so, questions will continue to be asked about its validity.
Islam is a proud faith with a solid history that has introduced many good things in the fields of science and medicine and has nothing to fear. But it must be prepared to be scrutinized.
The American Ambassador to Libya and three others was killed yesterday when gunmen attacked U.S. consulate in Libya.
Radical Islamists in Cairo tore apart Stars and Stripes flag in protests over film attacking Prophet Mohammed.
Someone published a cartoon or prophet Mohammed, in far-away Denmark. The author of that cartoon was a Dutch man, NOT a Nigerian and had never visited Nigeria. The cartoon was not published in Nigeria, but in far-away Denmark. Yet, some Muslims went on a rampage in Nigeria, burning over 20 Christian churches, looting and destroying businesses owned by Christians, and murdering over 200 Nigerian citizens!
Isioma Nkemdilim Nkiruka Daniel is a Nigerian journalist whose 2002 Thisday newspaper article comment involving the Islamic prophet Muhammad sparked major religious riots and caused a fatwa to be issued on her life. She ran away from fatherland and went into hiding!
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries, some violent. He went into hiding after death threats were made against him, including a fatwā issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989.
The publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad.
The publication of the book and the fatwā sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed. Many more people died in riots in some countries.
This morning Yemeni protesters, angry over a film mocking Islam, stormed the complex of the US embassy in Sanaa, defying efforts by riot police working as security guards to hold them at bay. Protesters torched a number of diplomatic vehicles as security forces used water cannons and warning shots in a bid to drive them out.
I implore all Muslim friends to hearken to the prayers of my friend Rasak Umoru over these developments:
“Oh Allah touch their hearts and restrain them from further damage and collateral damage on any human lives and properties….Summa Ameen.
“A peaceful protest is understandable but no, not a violent one like the unfortunate one that happened in Libya yesterday…We cannot afford the loss of lives of any innocent soul anymore certainly this is what Shaytan [Devil] wanted by using those lunatics to perpetrate such acts.
“The Yemenis should please with the love and fear of God stay out of trouble and leave judgment to Allah…..It’s not a threat but factual that the wrath of Allah will touch every single soul that has a part overtly or covertly in that blasphemous film…..Remember Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him forbids us in his hadith from taking the life of an innocent soul which is synonymous to killing of the whole mankind in weight of sin according to him in the sight of God….Allah also forbids us in the Quran from being aggressors as God loves not the aggressors.
“Caving in to violence will only help fuel the inordinate agitation of and joy of enemies of Islam….
“I enjoin my Muslim brothers and sisters in Islam to please join me in spreading the message of tolerance and peace in the face of provocation of this nature at this unfortunate time…..”
I pray others will follow Rasak’s footsteps, and Allah grant all more wisdom as they keep spreading this message for peace of humanity.
The Action Congress of Nigeria has called on Sule Lamido the governor of Jigawa State to immediately put a halt to the continued harassment and political persecution of the Jigawa State Chairman of its party Dr. Abubakar Hassan Fulata and members of his family.
In a statement issued at the end of its National Executive Committee meeting on Thursday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed the party said it can no longer standby and watch Sule Lamido continue to use the police and the courts in Jigawa state to haunt and intimidate Dr. Abubakar Hassan Fulata and members of his family whose only sin is that he testified at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal that Sule Lamido is a secondary school drop out who never completed his secondary school education and that although he attended the famous Barewa College in Zaria he never sat for the West African School Certificate.
Since then according to the party Sule Lamido has subjected Dr. Abubakar Fulata to unimaginable persecution and harassment a catalogue of which can only find parallel in the the Uganda of Idi Amin and Sadam Hussein’s Iraq.
“For instance on the 9th of June while this matter was still before the Election Petition Tribunal, Dr. Abubakar Fulata was physically attacked with machetes and sticks at the premises of the Election Petition Tribunal by the PDP thugs under the very nose of the police.
Again on the 26th of June 2011 two days after the Election Petition Tribunal had ruled in favour of Sule Lamido, Dr. Abubakar Fulata was arrested and detained for “defaming” the character of Lamido whereafter he was remanded in prison for 8 days.
On the 11th of May 2012 notwithstanding a restraining order of a high court, a team of over 50 policemen arrested Dr Abubakar Fulata and detained him at the Jigawa Police Command for 3 days after which he was charged to court for kidnapping. He spent another 3 days in prison custody before he temporarily regained his freedom on the 19th of May 2012.
On the 11 th of July 2012, the Dutse High Court inexplicably withdrew its earlier restraining order and Dr. Fulata was promptly declared wanted by the police for arraignment before a Sharia Court and has since then gone into hiding for fear of his life.
Meanwhile Dr. Abubakar Fulata’s wife who is a staff of Jigawa State Government had been evicted out of her official quarters for no reason and his entire family as a result of the constant harassment and persecution has been forced to leave their ancestral home in Dutse.
This political harassment and persecution of Dr. Abubakar Fulata and his family by Sule Lamido has been described by the Action Congress of Nigeria as unconstitutional, unlawful and a gross abuse of power and has exposed the governor as intolerant, vindictive, despotic, ruthless and unfit to lead a civilised society. The party has therefore vowed to use all legal and constitutional means to stop this political harassment and persecution of its state chairman.
An Egyptian protester waves a black flag inscribed with the Muslim profession of faith “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God” as he stands above the door of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo Sept. 11, 2012.
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, roiled by the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, has begun what appears to be a terrorist hunt in Libya, as evidence mounts that the deaths of four diplomatic workers there were perpetrated by well-armed thugs and not an out-of-control crowd.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports the FBI has opened an investigation into the deaths, and agents will be sent to sift through the wreckage for evidence. They will be accompanied by a second team sent just for their protection.
As part of the hunt for the attackers, officials say the U.S. will increase its surveillance over Libya, including the use of unmanned drones. In addition, the U.S. Navy is positioning two destroyers armed with cruise missiles off the coast of Libya.
One destroyer, the USS Laboon, moved to a position off the coast Wednesday, and the USS McFaul is en route and should be stationed off the coast within days. Officials said the ships, which carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, do not have a specific mission. But they give commanders flexibility to respond to any mission ordered by the president.
The investigation will focus on whether the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and not a spontaneous mob enraged over an anti-Islam YouTube video.
After the attack, an elite anti-terrorist unit of about 40 Marines was flown in to beef up security at the American embassy in the capital of Tripoli. Air Force transport planes flew the bodies of the dead Americans out, along with at least three who were injured and the rest of the approximately 25 diplomats assigned to the consulate. At the same time, the U.S. State Department urged all non-essential personnel to leave on commercial flights.
Three Americans injured in the assault on the consulate in Benghazi were being treated Thursday at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, near America’s Ramstein Air Base, CBS News has learned.
Wanis al-Sharef, a Libyan Interior Ministry official in Benghazi, said there had been threats that Islamic militants might try to take revenge for the death of al Qaeda’s No. 2 commander Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in June, and he said the U.S. consulate should have been better protected.
Confirming al-Libi’s death for the first time in a video posted online Monday, al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahri called on Muslims in al-Libi’s native Libya to take revenge for his death.
U.S. officials believe the militants were using the demonstration against the video as a cover to get into the consulate and then take as much revenge as they could on Americans, Martin reports.
While the White House has been hesitant to call the attack planned, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers was not so ambiguous.
“Absolutely it’s a terrorist attack,” Rogers told CBS News Capitol Hill producer Jill Jackson. “This was not done by the Libyan government. It was done by an external group we believe has at least extremist ties, maybe al Qaeda ties, and the style and the signature of the attack clearly would be something that we have seen before and would be in line with something al Qaeda would do.”
The White House says President Obama called the presidents of Libya and Egypt Tuesday and urged them to continue working with the United States to ensure the safety of diplomatic personnel.
Mr. Obama thanked Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf for his condolences over the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other State Department officers during the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Tuesday. The White House says the two leaders agreed to work together to bring the attackers to justice.
During a second call, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi promised Egypt “would honor its obligation to ensure the safety of American personnel,” the White House said.
Mr. Obama told Morsi that while “he rejects efforts to denigrate Islam … there is never any justification for violence against innocents.”
In a White House appearance Tuesday, Mr. Obama said the U.S. would “work with the Libyan government to bring to justice” those who Stevens and three other Americans.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said it was too early to judge whether the attack was planned.
“I know that this is being investigated, and we’re working with the Libyan government to investigate the incident. I would not want to speculate on that at this time,” he said. Several Libyan security guards also were killed.
Rogers, R-Mich., said U.S. intelligence had not yet determined who was responsible, but added, “Our list is narrowing.”
“When you see (such an attack), it wasn’t some folks who had some guns in their garage and said let’s shoot up the consulate,” Rogers said.
Analysts are working on several different scenarios based on intelligence that could lead to a motive for the attack. Some concern the possibility of targeting high-ranking officials, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. But none of the intelligence thus far has suggested terrorists would specifically target Stevens, said the official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
The attack in Libya, which came hours after a mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down the U.S. flag, was presumed to have been triggered by a movie, whose trailer has gone viral on YouTube, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in disrespectful ways. In an extraordinary move, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called anti-Islamic preacher Terry Jones and asked him to stop promoting the film. A spokeswoman said the church would not show the film Wednesday evening.
“Make no mistake. Justice will be done,” a somber Obama pledged at the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his side.
He ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, particularly in Libya, and said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking” attack. Clinton said she was particularly appalled that the attack took place in Benghazi, which the U.S. had helped liberate from dictator Muammar Qaddafi during the Arab Spring revolution in Libya last year.
Three Americans were wounded, U.S. officials said.
The aftermath of the two attacks also stirred the U.S. presidential campaign, where until Wednesday, foreign policy had taken a back seat to the struggling economy.
The Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, criticized the administration for statements issued before and after the Cairo attacks that expressed sympathy for those insulted by the video. But he in turn was criticized for turning a tragedy too quickly into political fodder, and getting key details wrong.
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, roiled by the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, has begun what appears to be a terrorist hunt in Libya, as evidence mounts that the deaths of four diplomatic workers there were perpetrated by well-armed thugs and not an out-of-control crowd.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports the FBI has opened an investigation into the deaths, and agents will be sent to sift through the wreckage for evidence. They will be accompanied by a second team sent just for their protection.
As part of the hunt for the attackers, officials say the U.S. will increase its surveillance over Libya, including the use of unmanned drones. In addition, the U.S. Navy is positioning two destroyers armed with cruise missiles off the coast of Libya.
One destroyer, the USS Laboon, moved to a position off the coast Wednesday, and the USS McFaul is en route and should be stationed off the coast within days. Officials said the ships, which carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, do not have a specific mission. But they give commanders flexibility to respond to any mission ordered by the president.
The investigation will focus on whether the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and not a spontaneous mob enraged over an anti-Islam YouTube video.
After the attack, an elite anti-terrorist unit of about 40 Marines was flown in to beef up security at the American embassy in the capital of Tripoli. Air Force transport planes flew the bodies of the dead Americans out, along with at least three who were injured and the rest of the approximately 25 diplomats assigned to the consulate. At the same time, the U.S. State Department urged all non-essential personnel to leave on commercial flights.
Three Americans injured in the assault on the consulate in Benghazi were being treated Thursday at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, near America’s Ramstein Air Base, CBS News has learned.
Wanis al-Sharef, a Libyan Interior Ministry official in Benghazi, said there had been threats that Islamic militants might try to take revenge for the death of al Qaeda’s No. 2 commander Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in June, and he said the U.S. consulate should have been better protected.
Confirming al-Libi’s death for the first time in a video posted online Monday, al Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahri called on Muslims in al-Libi’s native Libya to take revenge for his death.
U.S. officials believe the militants were using the demonstration against the video as a cover to get into the consulate and then take as much revenge as they could on Americans, Martin reports.
While the White House has been hesitant to call the attack planned, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers was not so ambiguous.
“Absolutely it’s a terrorist attack,” Rogers told CBS News Capitol Hill producer Jill Jackson. “This was not done by the Libyan government. It was done by an external group we believe has at least extremist ties, maybe al Qaeda ties, and the style and the signature of the attack clearly would be something that we have seen before and would be in line with something al Qaeda would do.”
The White House says President Obama called the presidents of Libya and Egypt Tuesday and urged them to continue working with the United States to ensure the safety of diplomatic personnel.
Mr. Obama thanked Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf for his condolences over the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other State Department officers during the assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi Tuesday. The White House says the two leaders agreed to work together to bring the attackers to justice.
During a second call, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi promised Egypt “would honor its obligation to ensure the safety of American personnel,” the White House said.
Mr. Obama told Morsi that while “he rejects efforts to denigrate Islam … there is never any justification for violence against innocents.”
In a White House appearance Tuesday, Mr. Obama said the U.S. would “work with the Libyan government to bring to justice” those who Stevens and three other Americans.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said it was too early to judge whether the attack was planned.
“I know that this is being investigated, and we’re working with the Libyan government to investigate the incident. I would not want to speculate on that at this time,” he said. Several Libyan security guards also were killed.
Rogers, R-Mich., said U.S. intelligence had not yet determined who was responsible, but added, “Our list is narrowing.”
“When you see (such an attack), it wasn’t some folks who had some guns in their garage and said let’s shoot up the consulate,” Rogers said.
Analysts are working on several different scenarios based on intelligence that could lead to a motive for the attack. Some concern the possibility of targeting high-ranking officials, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. But none of the intelligence thus far has suggested terrorists would specifically target Stevens, said the official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
The attack in Libya, which came hours after a mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down the U.S. flag, was presumed to have been triggered by a movie, whose trailer has gone viral on YouTube, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in disrespectful ways. In an extraordinary move, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called anti-Islamic preacher Terry Jones and asked him to stop promoting the film. A spokeswoman said the church would not show the film Wednesday evening.
“Make no mistake. Justice will be done,” a somber Obama pledged at the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his side.
He ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, particularly in Libya, and said he condemned “in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking” attack. Clinton said she was particularly appalled that the attack took place in Benghazi, which the U.S. had helped liberate from dictator Muammar Qaddafi during the Arab Spring revolution in Libya last year.
Three Americans were wounded, U.S. officials said.
The aftermath of the two attacks also stirred the U.S. presidential campaign, where until Wednesday, foreign policy had taken a back seat to the struggling economy.
The Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, criticized the administration for statements issued before and after the Cairo attacks that expressed sympathy for those insulted by the video. But he in turn was criticized for turning a tragedy too quickly into political fodder, and getting key details wrong.
(CBS News) CAIRO – The Internet film that ridicules the Muslim faith touched off a protest at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. Protesters got inside the embassy grounds, but no Americans were hurt.
The Egyptian riot police moved in and pushed protesters away from the U.S. Embassy. Some of them threw stones at police, and they responded by firing tear gas canisters into the crowd. But the Egyptian authorities seem to be saying that their tolerance for these demonstrations is limited.
For the second day in a row, protesters vented their anger in front of the U.S. Embassy.
The protests began Tuesday when thousands of conservative Muslims marched on the embassy, furious about an American-made film they believe mocks the prophet Muhammad, the worst insult in the Islamic religion.
A group of demonstrators scaled the embassy wall and succeeded in pulling down the American flag, tearing it to shreds, and then setting it on fire.
It was replaced briefly with a black flag favored by Islamic militants.
As Egyptian riot police stood by and watched, protests continued late into the night.
“Producing that film will do you no good,” they chanted. “We will chop off your hands” — anti-American outrage that sparked fresh demonstrations in Cairo and around the Muslim world.
The Egyptian government is in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, Egypt is an American ally and these protests don’t do that relationship any good, which could be one reason the riot police moved in Wednesday evening. On the other hand, the Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, draws support from conservative Muslims. That could be one reason he has been seen join them in condemning the film that sparked these protests.
The troubled region of north central Nigeria appears under siege over renewed fear of another round of terrorist activities. Information available to 247ureports.com through sources close to the activities in Jos North Local Government Area [LGA] indicate the security operatives in Plateau State have received credible but unconfirmed intelligence suggestive of an ongoing terrorist plot presently in the works.
Security reports available to the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, D. Ayemi, indicates that a group believed to be an Islamic group is reported to be smuggling dangerous weapons into the Jos North area – through the assistance of residents living along the Bauchi road area of Jos. The dangerous weapons are believed to be smuggled from the mountainous boundary of Mubi, Adamawa State with Cameroun.
The security source who confided with 247ureports.com disclosed that the security operatives remain uncertain of the trail followed by the smugglers or where the weapons are stored but the intelligence is near certain amassment of dangerous weapons are ongoing.
It was as a result of the security reports that caused the Police Commissioner, Ayemi, into taking action to address the community leaders of the troubled area in Plateau State. The meeting was convened on Monday September 10, 2012 – where the Commissioner impressed on the tribal leaders to lay down their arms and cooperate with the security agencies. In particular, the Commissioner pleaded with the leaders to consider turning over all weapon cache in their possession – and to inform the police of weapon’s smuggling – or illegal weapons being amassed by would-be terrorists.
Responding, the leaders of the various communities welcomed the pleas of the Police Commissioner while assuring full cooperation with the police. In particular, the leader of the Fulani community assured the police chief of the community’s complete cooperation in ensuring dangerous weapons are not amassed by terrorists within the community.
In talking with political activists in the Jos North environs, it was learnt that the prolonged peace currently enjoyed by the residents of the area has been termed “unusual” by the security operatives. They anticipate that the upcoming senatorial by-elections next month might serve a “golden opportunity” and an “excuse” to re-ignite violence in Jos. But other experts conversant with the Jos intra-politics discounted the threat associated with the upcoming elections as baseless – adding that agitators of violence in the area are tired of fighting.
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Wednesday to bring to justice the killers of the U.S. ambassador and three other diplomats in Libya as he sought to avoid election-year fallout from an attack that cast a spotlight on his administration’s handling of “Arab Spring” unrest.
Standing in the White House Rose Garden, Obama condemned the attack in Benghazi as “outrageous and shocking” but insisted it would not harm relations with Libya’s new elected government, which took power in July after rebel forces backed by NATO air power overthrew Muammar Gaddafi Last year.
The targeting of American diplomats – in militant violence sparked by a U.S.-made anti-Islamic film – quickly reverberated in the U.S. presidential campaign and could have implications for public attitudes toward revolutions across the Arab world.
Obama, apparently seeking to seize the initiative in the midst of a close-fought race for re-election in November, pledged to work with the Libyan government to “see that justice is done for this terrible act.”
“And make no mistake: justice will be done,” Obama said, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at his side.
He ordered increased security at U.S. embassies around the world, and a Marine anti-terrorist team was dispatched to boost security for U.S. personnel in Libya.
Ambassador Chris Stevens and three embassy staff were killed late on Tuesday in an attack on the U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in the eastern city of Benghazi, stormed by gunmen blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.
Another assault was mounted on the U.S. embassy in Cairo.
Stevens, 52, was one of the first American officials on the ground in Benghazi after the city became the cradle of the revolt last year against Gaddafi’s more than four-decade rule. The 21-year veteran of the foreign service was named ambassador in May.
Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer, was identified as one of the diplomats killed. The names of the two others were withheld while the government notified their families.
LIBYA POLICY, CAMPAIGN IMPACT
Obama had hailed Libya’s election in July as a milestone in its post-Gaddafi democratic transition and pledged that the United States would act as a partner even as he cautioned that there would still be difficult challenges ahead.
In the series of Arab Spring uprisings that shook the Middle East last year, Obama opted for a cautious strategy that steered clear of a dominant role for the U.S. military and drew criticism from Republican opponents at home for what was described as “leading from behind.”
Before the full death toll and details of the Libya attack were known, Obama’s Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney, criticized the Obama administration’s initial response and he stood by his position on Wednesday.
“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 told reporters in Florida. He has accused Obama of a failure of world leadership and of not upholding American values.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt criticized Romney for making a “political attack” at a time of national tragedy, and the president then reiterated condemnation of insults to the beliefs of others.
“We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” Obama said. “But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence.”
Immediately after his speech, Obama, who was due to leave later in the day on a campaign trip to Nevada, took the unusual step of visiting the State Department to express solidarity with the U.S. diplomatic corps.
He ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at U.S. installations worldwide in honor of those killed in Libya. The giant flag flying over the White House was lowered on Wednesday afternoon.
The Libya crisis has come at a time when the spotlight was already on the Middle East amid escalating tensions between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.
Clinton said the Benghazi attack was the work of a “small and savage group” and that U.S.-Libyan ties would not suffer.
But she seemed to take note that Americans might resent such an attack on U.S. personnel in a North African country they helped to bring out from under long authoritarian rule.
“I ask myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?” Clinton said. “This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.”
(Additional reporting by Margaret Chadbourn, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Arshad Mohammed; editing by Bill Trott and Mohammad Zargham)
A coalition of eighteen civil society and Non-Governmental groups has raised alarm that key officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have deviated from the clear mandate of the anti-graft War to resort to use of blackmail and intimidation of unsuspecting members of the business community.
In a statement jointly endorsed by the Coalition which spoke under the platform of the HHUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde (a Deputy Commissioner of police) was specifically urged to turn his searchlight on key officers of the Chairman’s Monitoring Unit (CMU) accused by different persons in the recent times of dabbling into the arena of civil cases for alleged pecuniary and selfish purposes rather than concentrate on the most strategic task of waging unrelenting war against all traces of economic crimes and corruption.
The Coalition of HUMAN Rights groups under HURIWA also announced that soon it would organize a follow up national policy dialogue on the anti-graft strategies of statutory government agencies with mandate to fight corruption so as to expose the rot and unethical methods being adopted by key operatives of the chairman’s monitoring unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
In the media statement endorsed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National media officer, Miss. Zainab Yusuf, the Rights group recalled that it held the first national policy dialogue on the ongoing anti-graft war in January 2012 and promised to convoke the follow up forum next month Abuja.
Specifically, at the first National Policy Dialogue organized in January 2012 by the coalition of eighteen registered civil society and Non-Governmental groups and spearheaded by the Human Rights Writers’ Association Of Nigeria, [HURIWA] and the Association of African Writers’ on Human and Peoples Rights, [AfriRights] the conveners showered encomiums on the newly confirmed Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, but quickly cautioned him and his management staff at the powerful anti-graft agency to steer clear of dabbling into partisan politics or allow itself to be stampeded into being used for purely political witch hunt for or against any political party or politically exposed persons of all political affiliations.
