Nigeria, yesterday, beefed up security around diplomatic
installations, buildings and embassy personnel in response to the
killing of United States’ Ambassador to Libya, Mr. Christopher Stevens
and three embassy officials in the US consulate in Benghazi.
The consulate was looted and damaged.
The bodies of the four Americans were at the Benghazi Airport at
press time. Reports said Libyan gunmen had attacked the U.S consulate in
the Eastern city of Benghazi and set it on fire.
The move
coincided with that of President Barak Obama, who has ordered increased
security measures around all US diplomatic installations world wide just
as a 50- member Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST), has been
sent to Libya.
The Marines’ FAST detachment is specially trained to protect
government workers overseas. Reports, yesterday, said Ambassador Stevens
and three other US embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack at the
US consulate and a building where some of the dead staff were taking
refuge.
Before the attack in Benghazi, there had been violent protests in
Egypt where protesters scaled the wall to destroy the embassy buildings,
pulled down the American flag. The anti-American protest quickly spread
to Libya and other Arab states like Tunisia.
The protests have been ignited by an amateur video which Muslims
described as offensive, thereby provoking Muslim faithful. The
California-born ambassador Christopher Stevens played an active role in
securing US support for rebels during their uprising against Muammar
Gaddafi’s 42-year rule.
 |
| Isreali Film maker, Sam Bacile |
Israeli filmmaker,Sam Bacile went into hiding Tuesday after his movie
attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by
ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, where
one American was killed.
Speaking
by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Bacile
remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the
56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement
condemning the religion.
Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down
the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an
American diplomat on Tuesday. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of
the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic
banner.
Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as
an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by
exposing Islam's flaws to the world.
The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make
and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said
Bacile, who wrote and directed it.
The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. An English-language 13-minute
trailer on YouTube shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of
insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient
followers are presented as a cadre of goons.
It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child
sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused
outrage.
Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone
insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12
caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.
Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a
result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and
the perpetrators of the violence.
"I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it."
The film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone Bacile doesn't
know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is
accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59
actors and about 45 people behind the camera.
The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.
coined from http://www.nigeriadailynews.com
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