Gail Collins, "Mitt’s Major Meltdown": A Disinformation Exercise Swallowed Hook, Line and Sinker

Make no mistake about it: The movie “Innocence of Muslims” was a disinformation exercise, timed around 9/11, intended to exacerbate Arab rioting that had been scheduled in advance. Worse still, the global media, hungry for a story, quickly cooperated by publicizing all of the story's false threads.

In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Mitt’s Major Meltdown" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/opinion/collins-mitts-major-meltdown.html), a clueless Gail Collins writes:

"It isn’t clear how the movie, the protests in Egypt and the murders of four American diplomats in Libya fit together."

Collins, however, would eviscerate Romney for his criticism of the Cairo's embassy's response to this orchestrated tragedy. The embassy statement:

"The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

This statement was even disowned by the Obama administration (see: http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/09/white-house-disavows-cairo-apology-135247.html):

"The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government."

Moreover, the link (http://egypt.usembassy.gov/pr091112.html) to the original statement has been broken, i.e. the statement was removed by the embassy.

I believe that the Romney campaign has proven a substantive disaster, but regarding his condemnation of the apologetic US embassy statement, even Obama appears to be in agreement.

The message from the US government needs to be forceful, unwavering and clear: Violence against American citizens will not be tolerated no matter what the circumstances.