Michele Bachmann calls Obama ‘dangerous,’ accuses him of enforcing ‘Islamic speech codes’

By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 6 hrs ago

WASHINGTON—Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, accused President Barack Obama of enforcing "Islamic speech codes" in the United States during an address here Friday.

Speaking to the Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of social conservatives, Bachmann was responding to a string of protests and violent attacks on U.S. embassies and consulates across northern Africa, the Mideast and Asia that were in part sparked by an Internet video mocking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

"Last October, many prominent Islamic organizations wrote a letter to the White House," Bachmann said, "where they urged our White House to do a complete purge from any federal training materials from references to the ideology of Islam to ensure that all trainers in our U.S. military, our FBI and other U.S. security agencies be retrained so they would be brainwashed in political correctness toward Islam. That's enforced Islamic speech codes here in the United States. And all done with the help of our president and secretary of state."

Bachmann, who also called Obama "the most dangerous American president we have ever had on foreign policy," was referring to an FBI probe first reported by Wired Magazine in February that eliminated, wrote Wired, "over 700 pages of documentation from approximately 300 presentations given to agents since 9/11 ... describing 'mainstream' Muslims as 'violent.'"

Obama notifies Congress of troops sent to Libya, Yemen

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 2 hrs 58 mins ago

President Barack Obama walks toward the Marine One helicopter on Friday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)President Barack Obama formally informed Congress on Friday that he had sent Marine units to Libya and Yemen on an open-ended mission in the aftermath of attacks on American diplomatic missions there. He cited the bloody assault that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three aides at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

"Although these security forces are equipped for combat, these movements have been undertaken solely for the purpose of protecting American citizens and property," Obama said in a letter to Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

"These security forces will remain in Libya and in Yemen until the security situation becomes such that they are no longer needed," the president wrote.

"These actions have been directed consistent with my responsibility to protect U.S. citizens both at home and abroad, and in furtherance of U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive," he continued. "I appreciate the support of the Congress in these actions."Obama wrote the letter in compliance with the 1973 War Powers Act that sought to curtail a president's ability to make war overseas without congressional consent. But he earlier had ignored congressional calls to get formal congressional authorization under that law for U.S. military involvement in the NATO-led campaign to oust Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, saying it was not required because Americans were not in danger, nor were they leading the mission.

Israel leader says US may not act against Iran

JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuinsinuated in an interview published Friday that Israel cannot entirely rely on the U.S. to act against Iran's suspect nuclear program, a sign that the Israeli leader is not backing down from the sharp rhetoric that strained relations this week with the Obama administration.

Netanyahu has been arguing in recent weeks that Iran is getting close to acquiring nuclear weapons capability, a claim Iran denies. He has been pushing the U.S. to commit to the circumstances under which the U.S. would lead a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have repeatedly hinted that if the United States does not attack, Israel will.

"I hear those who say we should wait until the last minute. But what if the U.S. doesn't act? It's a question that must be asked," Netanyahu told Israel Hayom, in an interview marking the Jewish New Year.

The paper, a free mass-circulation daily, is funded by Netanyahu's billionaire Jewish-American supporter Sheldon Adelson.

The Obama administration also suspects Tehran is seeks to become a nuclear power and says it is committed to preventing a nuclear Iran, but insists more efforts must be made before resorting to military action. Washington is refusing to be specific about what exactly would necessitate a strike on Iran and has rejected an Israeli demand for "red lines" that cannot be crossed.

Earlier this week Netanyahu issued a rebuke of the U.S. cautious stance, perceived as an indirect swipe at the Obama administration. He said that "those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel."

Netanyahu's harsh rhetoric has drawn criticism in Israel and abroad. It even prompted a leading Jewish-American senator to take the extraordinary step of publicly rebuking him. Some have charged that Netanyahu's comments were aimed at helping his longtime friend and Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, in his November election showdown with President Barack Obama.

In the interview, Netanyahu strongly rejected the claims.

"I am guided not by the elections in United States but by the centrifuges in Iran," he said. "If the Iranians were to say 'stop' and cease enriching uranium and preparing a bomb until the end of the elections in the United States then I could wait."

Adding to tensions, Romney criticized Obama at a New York fundraiser on Friday for allegedly not planning to meet in person with Netanyahu on the sidelines of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meetings later this months.

Earlier this week Obama called Netanyahu and the White House followed up the phone call with a rare late-night statement denying reports of a rift. Netanyahu's office said the two men had a "good conversation."

White House spokesman Jay Carney downplayed any signs of discord with Israel.

Three dead as protesters attack U.S. embassy in Tunisia

A Shi'ite Muslim supporter of the Imamia Students Organization (ISO) shouts slogans as he scuffles with police while running towards the U.S embassy with others during an anti-American protest rally in Islamabad September 14, 2012. Some 200 protesters gathered to take part in the protest to condemn a film being produced in the U.S. that insults Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed (PAKISTAN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS RELIGION)

Deadly anti-American protest in Tunisia At least three people are killed after demonstrators clash with police at the U.S. embassy. Nearby school burned

TUNIS (Reuters) - At least three people died and 28 others were wounded on Friday after police fought hundreds of protesters who ransacked the U.S. embassy in Tunisia in their fury over a film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, state television said.

A Reuters reporter saw police open fire to try to quell the assault, in which protesters forced their way past riot police into the embassy.

The protesters smashed windows, hurled petrol bombs and stones at police from inside the embassy, or started fires in the embassy and the compound. A black plume of smoke rose from the facility.

One protester was seen throwing a computer out of a window, while others walked away with telephones and computers.

A Tunisian security officer near the compound said the embassy had not been staffed on Friday, and calls to the embassy went unanswered. A Reuters reporter saw two armed U.S. soldiers on the rooftop.

The protesters, many of whom were Islamic Salafists, also set fire to the nearby American School, which was closed at the time, and took away laptops and tablet computers.

The protests began after Friday prayers and followed a rallying call on Facebook by Islamist activists that was quickly endorsed by the local faction of the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Sharia.

Libyan officials suspect the Libyan branch of Ansar al-Sharia of being behind an attack in Benghazi in which four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed on Tuesday.

The moderate Islamist Ennahda movement, which heads the Tunis government, had advised Tunisians against participating in the protest against the crude, low-budget film, made in California and trailed online, which portrayed the Muslim prophet engaged in vulgar and offensive behavior.

"The (Tunisian) government does not accept these acts of aggression against foreign diplomatic missions," said a statement read on state television. It said Tunisian authorities were "committed to ensuring the safety of foreign diplomatic missions".

Hundreds of protesters wielding petrol bombs, stones and sticks had charged at the security forces protecting the embassy before jumping a wall to invade the compound.

"Obama, Obama, we are all Osamas," they chanted, in reference to the slain al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.

The protesters pulled down the U.S. flag flying over the embassy, burned it, and replaced it with a black flag emblazoned with the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith.

Riot police finally drove the protesters from the embassy and the compound, and a Reuters reporter saw them arresting around 60.

The compound was cordoned off by police, soldiers and members of the elite presidential guard, but clashes continued in the el-Aouina district across a highway from the smart Auberge du Lac neighborhood where the embassy is located.

(Reporting By Tarek Amara; Writing by Souhail Karam; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Muslim demonstrators destroy Virgin Mary in Niger in anger over anti-Islam film

ZINDER, Niger - Muslims angry over a U.S.-made film that portrays Islam's Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer have attacked a Christian school in eastern Niger, destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.

An Associated Press reporter present in Zinder, located 550 miles (900 kilometres east) of the capital, Niamey, saw the mob also burn the school's door and bunks used by the pupils before security forces intervened.

Protester Mamane Sani said, "Our religion has been attacked, and it's why we are in the streets to express our anger."