News Alert from The Wall Street Journal
"Libyan officials said the U.S. ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, the Associated Press reported.
Demonstrators on Tuesday attacked the consulate and breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, amid angry protests over a film by a U.S. producer that mocks and insults the Prophet Muhammad."
Breaking News AlertThe New York TimesWednesday, September 12, 2012 -- 7:24 AM EDT-----
U.S. Ambassador to Libya Is Reported Killed by Protesters in Benghazi
The Libyan government said Wednesday that United States ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed along with three of his staff in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi Tuesday night in the first death of an American envoy abroad in more than two decades.
The U.S. State Department declined to confirm or deny the reports and said the previous night that only a single unnamed embassy employee had been killed. But if confirmed, the killing, during at attack by an armed mob angry over a short American-made video mocking Islam’s founding prophet, threatens to upset Washington’s relations with the new Libyan government that took over after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi and sour American public opinion about the prospects of the democratic opening of the Arab spring.
Mr. Stevens, a veteran of U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya, served in Benghazi during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi, and he was widely admired by the Libyan rebels for his support of their struggle to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi.
So much for the Arab Spring widely hailed as a positive development when it first started. Deposing dictators is a good thing. Islamic mobs that we have seen in Libya and Egypt in the last day or two threaten the rule of law and basic security that democratic experiments must have in order to succeed.
What will be the American response?
'via Blog this'
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