Six In The Morning

U.S. Is Preparing for a Long Siege of Arab Unrest

　

By PETER BAKER and MARK LANDLER

After days of anti-American violence across the Muslim world, the White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Middle East.

Although the tumult subsided Saturday, senior administration officials said they had concluded that the sometimes violent protests in Muslim countries may presage a period of sustained instability with unpredictable diplomatic and political consequences. While pressing Arab leaders to tamp down the unrest, Mr. Obama’s advisers say they may have to consider whether to scale back diplomatic activities in the region.

The upheaval over an anti-Islam video has suddenly become Mr. Obama’s most serious foreign policy crisis of the election season, and a range of analysts say it presents questions about central tenets of his Middle East policy: Did he do enough during the Arab Spring to help the transition to democracy from autocracy? Has he drawn a hard enough line against Islamic extremists? Did his administration fail to address security concerns?

Mayhem and death with just one click

 David Randall on the US film sparking riots around the world – and its YouTube genesis
 

DAVID RANDALL    SUNDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2012

Once upon a time it would have taken scores of dedicated people and an awful lot of hard work and travel to incite riots in two dozen countries half a world away. But, as events of the past six days have shown, a few extremists in California can now do it without even crossing the state line.

Fresh revelations yesterday enabled to be pieced together for the first time the inside story of the anti-Islamic film that has caused mayhem around the globe, and led to the deaths of around a dozen people, including Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya. The tale involves Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a shadowy convicted fraudster and user of multiple aliases; Steve Klein, an insurance salesman seemingly obsessed with the idea that West Coast America is full of jihadists poised to strike; and a mysterious charity called Media for Christ.

Iran’s children look on and families cry for pardons at daily hangings

Human rights watchers say regime in Tehran is executing many hundreds of people, often on the flimsiest of evidence and after trials held behind closed doors

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

The Observer, Sunday 16 September 2012

In Iran, the country I was born in and where I lived until three years ago, public hanging is a horrific but familiar scene for many, at least for those living close to city centres and public squares. Once as a child, on my way to school, I became an inadvertent spectator of an execution, my eyes shocked at seeing the guards draping a rope around the neck of a convict. The sight has haunted me ever since.

Hanging is the common method for execution in Iran. The judicial killings usually take place in the morning as the sun rises, often at the crime scene or in a city centre. The families of victims and convicts gather as the authorities prepare to hang the condemned from cranes.

 Tens of thousands in anti-Putin protests

Huge crowds in Moscow defy Kremlin and 7,000 police to demand fresh elections after parliament votes to expel opposition politician

LYNN BERRY , VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV  MOSCOW  SUNDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2012

Tens of thousands of people marched across downtown Moscow yesterday in the first big protest in three months against President Vladimir Putin, a sign of the opposition’s strength despite the Kremlin’s efforts to muzzle dissent. Leftists, liberals and nationalists combined with students, teachers, gay activists and others on the capital’s tree-lined boulevards, chanting “Russia without Putin!” and “We are the government!”

The protest remained peaceful as about 7,000 police officers stood guard along the route and a police helicopter hovered overhead. Last winter, the protest movement had fielded more than 100,000 people on the streets in massive protests against Mr Putin’s election for a third presidential term.

Japan PM Noda urges China to prevent anti-Japan violence

China must take steps to prevent violence against Japanese citizens, Japanese Prime Minster Yoshihiko Noda has said.

 

Anti-Japanese protests spread to cities across China on Saturday in an escalating row over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

On Sunday, hundreds of protesters faced off against riot police at the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

Japanese businesses have also been targeted by protesters.

“We want [China] to oversee the situation so that at least Japanese citizens and businesses in China will not be in danger,” Mr Noda told Japanese TV, according to the AFP news agency.

Venezuela blasts U.S. criticism over drugs

   By Hugh Bronstein | Reuters

 Venezuela on Saturday rejected as unsubstantiated a new U.S. report that accused President Hugo Chavez’s government of failing to fight the drugs trade.

Chavez, a socialist seeking re-election next month, is a ferocious critic of Washington, and his nearly 14-year rule has been characterized by frequent bilateral spats and incidents.

Narcotics has been a thorny issue in between the oil-producing country and the United States, its main client. In 2005 Chavez kicked U.S. drug enforcement agents out of the country, accusing them of spying on his “Bolivarian Revolution”.