Libya
Islamist militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a lightly defended United States diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, late Tuesday, killing the American ambassador and three members of his staff and raising questions about the radicalization of countries swept up in the Arab Spring. – New York Times
Even as evidence was being assembled, the early indications were that the assault had been planned and the attackers had cannily taken advantage of the protest at the consulate. – Washington Post
The Security Council on Wednesday unanimously condemned the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four diplomats and killed or wounded 10 Libyans as “unjustifiable regardless of motivation” and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Libyan officials on Wednesday condemned Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador. – Washington Times
J. Christopher Stevens arrived in Benghazi, Libya, in April 2011 aboard a Greek cargo ship carrying a dozen American diplomats and guards and enough vehicles and equipment to set up a diplomatic beachhead in the middle of an armed rebellion. – New York Times
Upon learning of the violent death of the United States ambassador to Libya on Wednesday, many Russians responded with variations on “I told you so.” – New York Times
Experts are questioning the level security for the Benghazi consulate and slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. – Washington Times
Heightened security fears after the killing of the U.S. envoy to Libya will further slow the return of foreign oil workers to the country, potentially threatening Libya’s plans to boost oil output and grow its economy, according to oil company executives and consultants. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other American citizens when a group of armed men stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has cast a renewed focus on severe tensions roiling the North African nation since the fall of longtime leader Moammar Kadafi last year. – LA Times’ World Now
U.S. unmanned surveillance drones are expected to begin flying over Benghazi and other locations in eastern Libya to look for jihadi encampments and targets that may be tied to the attack on U.S. State Department personnel, a senior U.S. official told CNN Wednesday. – CNN’s Security Clearance
U.S. defense officials on Wednesday told the E-Ring that the rapid reaction teams of roughly 50 Marines sent to Libya within hours of a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi could be the beginning of a much longer-term presence. – The E-Ring
A group of bipartisan senators remembered U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and said if America stops aid to Libya, it would be a dishonor to his death. – Hill Tube
The United States and Libya agreed to cooperate closely in investigating the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador to the North African state and three other Americans died. – Reuters
Libya’s national congress picked Mustafa Abu Shagour as prime minister on Wednesday, the U.S.-trained optical engineer naming improved services and security as his priorities a day after Islamist gunmen killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: Tuesday’s attack by militants on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was complex, raged for more than four hours, and included multiple attempts to retake the main consulate building, according two senior administration officials who briefed reporters Wednesday afternoon. – Reuters
Rogin also reports: Libya’s Ambassador to Washington Ali Aujali said Wednesday that associates of disposed tyrant Muammar al-Qaddafi were behind the Tuesday attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of four American officials, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. – The Cable
Shadi Hamid writes: The White House must redouble its commitment to the Arab Spring. Across the region, Salafist extremists and other unsavory characters are trying to fill the power vacuum left by a weak and confused international community. Americans, now more than ever, need to hear a clear narrative of why Arab democrats need our support in their struggle against radicals. – Foreign Policy
Ann Marlowe writes: The vast majority of Libyans showed in the July 7th elections that they knew where their interests as citizens lie. Now is the time for them to step up to the plate again. Chris Stevens, a kind man who spoke good Arabic, supported the revolution in Benghazi last year. If his death leads to a turn in the right direction in Libya, it will have meaning for both countries he served. – World Affairs Journal
Fred Wehery writes: Many Libyans are implicating the government in these attacks, demanding that it provide basic security, disarm the militias and build accountable police forces. With the election of a new parliament, the General National Congress and the installation of a new cabinet, all of this can change. The country’s new government has an opportunity to consolidate its legitimacy and win back the confidence of the Libyan people. Western diplomacy can and should play a more active role, in providing advice and assistance to guide the country through its constitutional process, rebalancing local and central governance, and reconstituting the security forces. – Financial Times
Symposium: Can the United States stay engaged with modern democratic Middle Eastern countries that have sizable anti-Western populations? – NYT’s Room for Debate
Egypt
For all the harrowing images of the deadly attack on the American mission in Benghazi, the Obama administration is grappling with the possibility that its far bigger long-term problem lies in Egypt, not Libya. – New York Times
[T]he attacks, analysts say, might have less to do with any intrinsic Muslim intolerance than with the ideological chaos that reigns in the Arab world, where extremists routinely exploit popular anger and invoke Islam to draw attention to fundamentally political and even internecine goals. – New York Times
The attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt exposed how rising hard-line Islamist movements have cowed and frustrated security forces in the nascent democracies of the so-called Arab Spring. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The history of the film — who financed it; how it was made; and perhaps most important, how it was translated into Arabic and posted on YouTube to Muslim viewers — was shrouded Wednesday in tales of a secret Hollywood screening; a director who may or may not exist, and used a false name if he did; and actors who appeared, thanks to computer technology, to be traipsing through Middle Eastern cities. – New York Times
Egypt’s president said on Thursday he supported peaceful protest but not attacks on embassies, after Egyptians angry at a film deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad climbed into the U.S. embassy in Cairo and tore down the American flag. – Reuters
President Mohamed Mursi travels to Brussels on Thursday for his first visit to Europe since becoming Egypt’s first freely elected leader in June, hoping to reassure the European Union of his democratic credentials and win pledges of economic aid. – Reuters
A proposal by ultraconservative Salafis to give Egypt’s main Islamic institution the final say on whether the law of the land adheres to Islamic laws threatens to bring the already painfully slow process of drafting the new constitution to a grinding halt. – Reuters
Josh Rogin reports: One staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was responsible for the statement and tweets Tuesday that have become grist for the presidential campaign, and that staffer ignored explicit State Department instructions not to issue the statement, one U.S. official close to the issue told The Cable. – The Cable
If 44 doesn’t act decisively to change the equation, letting Morsi know that he has more to fear from the United States than from the men in long beards and waving black flags, this is likely to get much worse, and very quickly. – The Weekly Standard Blog
Yemen
Hundreds of protesters encircled the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in San’a on Thursday, including a few who climbed over the embassy’s main gate, as demonstrations against a film insulting the Muslim prophet Muhammad spread to a third day and another Arab country. – Wall Street Journal
Iran
A bipartisan group of ambassadors, retired generals and foreign policy experts is warning against a U.S. or Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities without a more thorough public discussion to weigh the costs and benefits. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The U.S. and several of its allies aim to step up pressure on Iran with a proposal that would empower the United Nations nuclear watchdog to order snap inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
The U.S. and its Western allies have persuaded Russia and China to support a resolution critical of Iran’s nuclear defiance in the intention of showing Israel that diplomacy is an alternative to military force in pressuring Tehran, diplomats said Wednesday. – Associated Press
Iran is using a little-known port off the East Malaysia coast to hide millions of barrels of oil from Western sanctions, according to shipping data, industry sources and officials. – Reuters
U.S. economic sanctions against Iran have slashed the country’s crude exports and oil revenue, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday as it vowed to keep up the pressure on Tehran to prevent the Iranian government from getting nuclear weapons. – Reuters
Syria
There are more than 200,000 Syrians in Jordan, about 30,000 of them taking refuge in the Zaatari camp, which was set up this summer to accommodate the growing number of refugees coming into the country daily. Those who entered illegally cannot leave the camp unless a Jordanian takes financial responsibility for them. In a country with limited water and energy resources, taking in the Syrians is creating strains and makes help from Jordanian citizens crucial. – New York Times
Some Syrian anti-government activists expressed frustration Wednesday that a controversial video belittling the prophet Muhammad is generating more outrage among Arabs than the rising death toll within Syria. – LA Times’ World Now
An explosion targeting Syrian regime forces killed at least three people in northern Syria on Wednesday — and possibly up to 18 — amid rising violence ahead of a visit by the new U.N.-Arab League envoy who is trying to end the country’s civil war. – Associated Press
Loath to foster a new generation of militant Islamists, Saudi Arabia is trying to stop its citizens from joining what some of them see as a holy war against the Syrian government. – Reuters
Tunisia
The head of a campaign group said dozens of prisoners had been tortured in Tunisia since a revolution toppled the country’s autocratic ruler last year. – Reuters
Israel
[O]n Wednesday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly lashed out at the Obama administration for what he called its refusal to set clear “red lines” that would prompt the United States to undertake a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program, Israelis were generally sympathetic to Mr. Netanyahu even as they mulled the possible damage to ties with the White House. – New York Times
The latest flare-up in the tempestuous Obama-Netanyahu relationship was overshadowed Wednesday by the carnage at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. But U.S. officials believe the intense debate over the allied response to Iran’s nuclear program — and the sharp personal, policy and political differences between the two leaders — rivals the perils posed by the excesses of the Arab Spring. – Politico
All through Israel, residents have been clearing shelters and stocking them with water and blankets to prepare for a war that could see hundreds of long-range missiles from Iran, and thousands of shorter-range rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon, fall on Israel’s cities. – Washington Free Beacon
Arab states are expected to refrain from targeting Israel over its assumed nuclear arsenal at the U.N. atomic agency’s annual conference next week so as not to undermine wider efforts for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, diplomats said. – Reuters
Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai condemned an anti-Islam film that has been backed by the American pastor Terry Jones, issuing a statement on Wednesday that said his office “strongly and resolutely denounces this desecrating act and declares its serious abhorrence in the face of such an insult.” – New York Times
Wealthy Afghans have sharply increased the pace of investment in property in the Gulf emirate, motivated by a mix of commercial calculations and security fears brought on by the withdrawal of international troops. – New York Times
Iran is hoping to increase its presence in Afghanistan after American and foreign troops “pull out” of the battle-weary country, according to Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi. – Washington Free Beacon
China
This week’s unexplained disappearance of Xi Jinping, China’s leader-in-waiting, who has not been seen in public for 11 days, shows that, despite the country’s economic transformation, when it comes to its leaders, Beijing is as secretive now as it was in 1971, when Lin Biao died and Mao Zedong was still in power. – Washington Post
China’s president-in-waiting has yet to resurface after cancelling appointments with foreign leaders and disappearing from public view. But late Wednesday he was mentioned in state-run media, which said he gave his condolences to the family of a long-time Communist Party official who died last week. – Washington Post
Bill Gertz reports: President Obama and other disarmament advocates continue to call for the total elimination of nuclear arms. This week, China’s government signaled its intention to move in the opposite direction and expand and speed up its large-scale nuclear buildup. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring
East Asia
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a Monday statement said he was worried about the progress North Korea has made in activities that could expand its access to nuclear weapon-usable material. – Global Security Newswire
South Korean and U.S. negotiators are “almost done” with formal talks on granting the South an extension on its permitted ballistic missile flight distance, an unidentified source told the Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday. – Global Security Newswire
China warned Japan on Thursday that trade could be hurt by the flare-up in tension over a group of disputed islands that is fraying ties between Asia’s two biggest economies. – Reuters
Southeast Asia
Investors in Myanmar Wednesday called on the government to hold off from finalizing a critical new foreign-investment law, instead urging President Thein Sein to pass it back to Parliament to clarify the new rules and make it easier for foreign businesses to invest in what is potentially one of Asia’s most promising new frontier markets. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Countries across Southeast Asia are already building up to the launch of the region’s free trade zone in 2015 with television specials and other events to publicize the approach of the trade pact, but it has never been exactly clear when it is supposed to take effect—until now. – WSJ’s Southeast Asia Real Time
A law intended to accelerate foreign investment in Myanmar will be signed soon by the president after pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi helped kill a clause that would have protected crony businessmen, a government minister said on Wednesday. – Reuters
One of the most senior figures in Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime is set to walk free this week after an international court ruled on Thursday she was mentally unfit to stand trial. – Reuters
The U.S. Navy is spending more than $20 million each year sending ships to poorer nations in the Asian-Pacific region to provide cataract surgery, dental fillings and other medical care. – Associated Press
Russia
Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said Wednesday that he believed that three female punk rockers jailed for a profane stunt in Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral should be released rather than serve out their two-year sentences, weighing in on a case that has drawn widespread condemnation in the West. – New York Times
Russia’s economy minister stuck to his official forecast that the economy will slow in the second half of the year, bringing growth for the year to 3.5%, a week after President Vladimir Putin said the rate could be 4% to 5%. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Latin America
In a major strike against one of the largest drug trafficking organizations, the Mexican Navy said late Wednesday it had detained a man believed to the top leader of the Gulf Cartel. – New York Times
Rival supporters in Venezuela’s presidential election fought and threw stones on Wednesday before a campaign stop by opposition leader Henrique Capriles less than a month before the October 7 vote. – Reuters
Jose Cardenas writes: [N]o one denies that Bolivia’s indigenous majority have legitimate grievances over the way they have been treated for centuries, but such political theatrics do little to help the Bolivian people beyond sating the blood lust of more radical elements. It’s a shame Morales doesn’t spend more time trying to build a better and more prosperous future for the people he claims to represent. – Shadow Government
West Africa
Nigerian authorities arrested 11 suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram overnight and seized automatic weapons, ammunition and several homemade bombs, the military said on Wednesday. – Reuters
East Africa
Three suicide bombers attacked the temporary residence of the new president of Somalia as he was giving a news conference on Wednesday, killing an African Union soldier but failing to assassinate any political leaders, witnesses and officials said. – New York Times
Somali pirate activity is expected to stay low despite the end of the monsoon season, as aggressive navy action, private armed security teams and defensive measures by ships keep the heat on gangs at sea, navy and security officials say. – Reuters
A government minister pleaded innocent in court on Wednesday to charges of inciting violence in which over 100 people have been shot, hacked and burnt to death in strife over land and water in Kenya’s coastal region. – Reuters
Southern Africa
The labor strife gripping South Africa’s mines spread Wednesday, with riots prompting the world’s largest platinum producer to halt production at a number of its mines in the country and guards firing tear gas on protesting workers at a major gold mine. – New York Times
A legal bid by a former lover of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to stop his wedding on Saturday has laid bare a messy private life and damaged the political reputation of the main rival to long-serving leader Robert Mugabe. – Reuters
