Embassies Quotes

After this statement was issued by the embassy, a mob stormed the embassy as shown in the graphic. The reason that this statement is an important quotation is that that Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for President took the situation as an opportunity to attack the President. Specifically he claimed that this statement was an “apology” and it was terrible for America to apologize. The administration and most media fact checkers could not find anything in the statement that was an apology as opposed to as statement of United States policy and practice. Romney and his supporters insisted it was an apology. So the statement itself has become a major historical quotation where people can judge for themselves if indeed it was an apology. There are many who believed that under the circumstances an apology might not have been a bad idea. A few years earlier when a Danish magazine had published some insulting cartoons of The Prophet, riots broke out around the world and dozens of people were killed.

Many American diplomats have been killed or wounded over the years. But as Kryss explains the only way to have perfect security is to not have ambassadors and other staff stationed abroad.

Meiji the Great. This was a momentous event in Japanese history. This was the first time that the Japanese Emperor had appointed diplomats to conduct foreign affairs. Prior to that, Japan was so isolationist that at times Japanese who had any contact with Westerners would be executed. Then the Emperor had a reception for foreign diplomats. Never before in the history of the Empire had its divine head deigned to admit to his presence the despised foreigner. The Emperor was only in his second year of rule at the time.

At the time, the United States required that Poles and many others from many countries were required to first get a visa (permission to travel to the United States). To do this the prospective visitors had to stand in long lines at the U. S. Embassy and or Consulates where there was never enough staff. Congress wanted to check on all potential visitors to make sure they were not terrorist affiliated and they would return to Poland. At the same time Congress wanted to promote tourism to the United States. But they also didn’t want to spend money for staff (usually non Americans overseas to make the visa process reasonable or have a process where people could obtain visas via Internet or mail. This is a classic case of Congressional incompetence in copying with their own conflicting objectives.

An American ambassador and 3 staff had been killed in a terrorist attack on our Consulate in Bengasi, Libya. The CIA and the rest of the American intelligence had initially analyzed the event and gave a report to the Administration “explaining” the event. American officials who did not see the incorrect intelligence report, hypotheses that it was a planned terrorist attack which it appeared to be from the news reports read by amateurs, However, the United Nations Ambassador was given the incorrect report and was asked by the White House to appear on the News Shows, reveal the contents of the report and state that this was a preliminary analysis and subject to change upon further data and analysis. She did that, but many journalists and politicians thought that her version did not comport with the facts. Soon it was discovered that the initial Intelligence report was all wrong and not even close to the truth and the people who guessed from the press reports had gotten it right. Graham and other members of Congress were very angry. So Graham made a public announcement stating the U. N. Ambassador was unfit for a senior job as she either lied to the country of was too naïve to see the truth which so many others had seen. There were dozens of people who might have either made a mistake or were otherwise responsible for the erroneous report which in hindsight appeared very flawed. At the top of the list was the CIA Director who had been America’s best heroic and victorious general who had recently taken the post and was very popular. So Graham and some of his fellow members of Congress called for the head of the one person involved and at a high level who had NOTHING to do with preparing and approving the wrong and misleading intelligence report and did not cast blame on any of the people who made the error or approved it. The quotation is typical of members if Congress who, insist on having the public stage before they know most of the facts, have little idea of how to manage anything, pick the easiest target to attack without worrying top much about the real culprits if any, and the lack of courage enough to blame a very powerful figure who if he did not personally err, the problem occurred on his watch. See {625924} for a view of the courage of Congressmen. Graham was actually a much better than average Senator, at the time but Congress had a 90% disapproval rating with the citizens.