U.S. Marines Arrive in Middle East as Riots Increase
Protests and riots across the Middle East and North Africa are our Hot Topics this week.
Marines arrived in Yemen Friday morning after the U.S. Embassy in the capital was breached.
The Pentagon told FoxNews.com that the troops are there as a "precautionary measure."
Protestors jumped over the walls of Embassies in Sudan and Tunisia this morning. In Sudan, the German Embassy was targeted. Riots took place in Egypt, Lebanon, and of course Libya as well.
The State Department believes the unrest will spread.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI also issued a joint intelligence bulletin, according to FoxNews.com, warning that "the violent outrage aimed at U.S. embassies could be spread to America by extremist groups," although there is no specific, credible threat.
Bomb threats were called in to two universities this morning, however, and one claimed to be from Al Quaeda. The University of Texas and North Dakota State University received calls around 10 a.m. Friday.
The schools were evacuated within minutes.
CNN reports that YouTube videos of riots in places like Afghanistan are getting blocked. Protestors there burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to America" and "We condemn the film." The Afghan government has ordered on indefinite block on YouTube.
The first of two U.S. warships carrying guided missiles arrived in Libya this morning, according to CNN, and "unmanned drones have been sent to help search for the killers" of the four Americans killed during the riots.
Around 50 Marines, called the Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team arrived in Libya on Wednesday.
What does all this mean for you? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section.
Edward
9:44 am on Saturday, September 15, 2012
First my sincere condolences and sympathy go out to the families and friends of the fallen diplomats and Americans. With that said I simply can't understand the sentiment here. While I have the utmost respect for other races and religions I have this to say in two parts:
1) If Moslems are dismayed by the production of this movie that portrays the prophet Muhammad in a negative light, why then go and commit acts of violence that to a certain extent justify the portrayal?
2) Its hard for me not to believe the larger populous in the middle east and Africa have extremist tendencies when they appear to have a natural hate for Americans. We however, have managed to remain mostly diplomatic and collected which I applaud about the USA.
The Un-American thing to do would have been to deploy troops at all our embassies with kill orders for anyone that breaches the embassy walls. Instead we work with those nations security forces to not only quell the riots but also aide in tracking down the killers. The hunt is on for the killers but to what end?
And then there's the YouTube preview of the movie. Do we prosecute the production company? Do we hold them liable for inciting this violence that led to the deaths of 4 of our own? Obviously the freedoms we enjoy here capped with the laws to protect those freedoms don't apply beyond our boarders.