Obama: Americans laid down lives 'in service to us all'
President Barack Obama speaks Friday at a ceremony in for the four Americans killed Tuesday in Benghazi.
September 14th, 2012
01:23 PM ET

Obama: Americans laid down lives 'in service to us all'

Editor's note: Several protests stemming at least in part from an anti-Islam film produced in the United States are unfolding outside U.S. embassies around the world. Friday's protests follow ones Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where attacks killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

In Tunisia, protesters have scaled a U.S. Embassy gate and set fire to cars on the property, a journalist there says. In Egypt, the influential Muslim Brotherhood canceled nationwide protests planned for Friday, but a running battle between police and protesters in Cairo continued into its fourth day.

Follow the live blog below for all of the developments around the world.

[Updated at 3:04 p.m. ET] A ceremony at Maryland's Joint Base Andrews for the returned bodies of the four Americans killed at the Benghazi consulate has ended, and the caskets are being carried to hearses. See the 2:59 and 2:51 p.m. entries for remarks by President Barack Obama, who said the four laid down their lives "in service to us all."

[Updated at 2:59 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama, at a ceremony at Maryland's Joint Base Andrews for the returned bodies of the four Americans killed at the Benghazi consulate, added:

"The United States of America will never retreat from the world. We will never stop working for the dignity and freedom that every (person) deserves. ... That’s the essence of American leadership. ... That was their work in Benghazi, and that is the work we will carry on."

At the beginning and toward the end of his remarks, Obama cited the Bible's John 15:13: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Obama said the four killed Americans laid down their lives "in service to us all."

"Their sacrifice will never be forgotten," Obama said.

[Updated at 2:51 p.m. ET] President Barack Obama, at a ceremony for the returned bodies of the four Americans killed at the Benghazi consulate, is now eulogizing the four at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Ambassador Chris Stevens, Obama said, "was everything America could want in an ambassador."

"Four Americans, four patriots. They loved this country. They chose to serve it, and served it well," Obama said. "They had a mission they believed in. They knew the danger, and they accepted it. They didn't simply embrace the American ideal, they lived it; they embodied it. The courage, the hope, and yes, the idealism - that fundamental American belief that we could leave this world a little better than before."

Ex-SEALs, online gaming maven among Benghazi dead

[Updated at 2:45 p.m. ET] At a ceremony for the returned bodies of the four Americans killed at the Benghazi consulate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:

"Today we bring home four Americans who gave their lives for our country and our values. To the families of our fallen colleagues, I offer our most heartfelt condolences and deepest gratitude."

She saluted Sean Smith, a computer expert, as someone known as "an expert on technology by colleagues in Pretoria, Baghdad, Montreal and The Hague."

She hailed ex-Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods as someone who protected diplomatic personnel since 2010 "in dangerous posts" around the world.

"He had the hands of a healer as well as the arms of a warrior, earning distinction as a registered nurse and certified paramedic," Clinton said of Woods.

Clinton also hailed the other ex-Navy SEAL, Glen Doherty. "He, too, died as he lived, serving his country and protecting his colleagues."

Clinton said Stevens, as a diplomat, "won friends for the United States in far-flung places.” She thanked his parents, who were at the ceremony, for the "gift" that Stevens was.

The ceremony was at a hangar at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

[Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET] The ceremony for the returned bodies of the four Americans killed at the Benghazi consulate has begun. A prayer is being offered. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak soon, followed by Obama.

[Updated at 2:31 p.m. ET] Marines at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland are removing from a plane the flag-draped caskets of four Americans killed in the consulate attack in Libya, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The caskets will be placed at a hangar nearby, and President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give remarks.

[Updated at 2:28 p.m. ET] We're awaiting a ceremony at which U.S. President Barack Obama will honor the arrival of the bodies of of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans killed in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Penetta have entered the hangar where the ceremony will take place at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

[Updated at 2:22 p.m. ET] Marines will take the caskets off a plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give remarks. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will also be present, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

People are seated at a facility on the base. The caskets will flank the podium from which Obama and Clinton will speak.

[Updated at 1:41 p.m. ET] Three people were killed and 28 wounded during protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Tunis on Friday, Tunisia state television reported.

[Updated at 1:23 p.m. ET] U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will join Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at this afternoon's "transfer of remains ceremony" marking the return of the remains of the four Americans killed this week in Benghazi, Libya.

Obama and Clinton will deliver brief remarks at the 2:15 p.m. ET ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

[Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET] Here is video from today's protests in Khartoum, Sudan:

[Updated at 12:23 p.m. ET] Nigerian military and police fired shots to disperse a crowd of protesters in the city of Jos, an eyewitness said.

About 2,000 people protesting the anti-Islamic film gathered at a central mosque, and security forces intervened when the crowd started moving toward the city center.

[Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET] Some protesters who scaled the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, reached a garden outside the building but have not breached the building itself, journalist Zeid Mhirsi reports.

Also, the thick, black smoke that we previously reported was near the Embassy is coming from burning vehicles on the Embassy grounds, Mhirsi reported.

Earlier, he reported that protesters took down a U.S. flag from a pole at the Embassy and replaced it with a black flag. Police were firing tear gas in an attempt to disperse them. (See 10:20 and 10:42 a.m. entries.) Hard-line Muslims known as Salafists were among the demonstrators, Mhirsi reported.

[Updated at 12:06 p.m. ET] Some Friday protests that hadn't yet been mentioned in this blog post:

- In Afghanistan, hundreds of demonstrators in the eastern Nangarhar province burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to America" and "We condemn the film." The demonstration lasted about an hour and ended peacefully, a local official said. The Afghan government has ordered an indefinite block of YouTube to prevent people there from watching the clips and staging violent protests.

- In Baghdad, Iraq, hundreds of followers of the radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chanted "No to America, no to Israel."

- In Jerusalem, Palestinians marched from the al-Aqsa mosque toward the U.S. Consulate, but were prevented from reaching the mission by Israeli riot forces.

- In Syria, hundreds gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. Protesters waved placards that condemned the film and blamed the U.S. administration for allowing the production and broadcast of it, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

- In Iran, the Islamic Propagation Coordination Council called for nationwide rallies Friday to protest the film and what it is calling a U.S.-backed plot against Muslims, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

[Updated at 11:57 a.m. ET] An update on Friday's protest outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan: Journalist Isma'il Kushkush says no protesters have been able to get inside the compound, and that police and security forces appear to have the situation under control.

Small fires are burning nearby. Kushkush said he believes protesters set tires ablaze. For more on the Khartoum protests, including one at the German Embassy there, see the 9:54 and 8:42 a.m. entries.

[Updated at 11:52 a.m. ET] Ninety-three protesters have been arrested in Egypt since Thursday night, Egyptian Interior Ministry spokesman Alaa Mahmoud said. Forty-eight officers have been injured, he added.

[Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET] Protesters in southern India have been arrested on suspicion of throwing rocks at the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, the city police commissioner said. As many as 200 protesters were demonstrating in front of the building, but the number arrested was not reported. There were no reported injuries.

[Updated at 10:57 a.m. ET] Video from Tunisia's capital shows thick, black smoke rising from an area near the U.S. Embassy. It's not clear what was on fire.

Protesters there had taken down a U.S. flag from the embassy property and replaced it with a black flag, journalist Zeid Mhirsi reported. Police fired tear gas at protesters as some of them climbed the property's walls.

[Updated at 10:42 a.m. ET] Protesters have taken down a U.S. flag from a pole at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, and replaced it with a black flag, journalist Zeid Mhirsi reports.

Earlier, Mhirsi reported protesters were climbing the building's gates, and police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them. (See 10:20 a.m. entry.) Hard-line Muslims known as Salafists were among the demonstrators, Mhirsi reported.

[Updated at 10:25 a.m. ET] A U.S. Marine Corps security team is being sent to help protect U.S. diplomatic installations in Yemen, including the Embassy in Saana, a senior U.S. official said, according to CNN's Barbara Starr.

Earlier today, Yemeni police opened fire to stop protesters from reaching the U.S. Embassy in Saana, witnesses said (see 7:31 a.m. entry).

The protection team is similar to the team of 50 Marines that was sent earlier this this week to Tripoli, Libya, in the wake of the attack in Benghazi.

[Updated at 10:20 a.m. ET] Protesters are climbing the gates of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia, and police have fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them, journalist Zeid Mhirsi reports.

Some protesters, who are about 20 meters outside the U.S. Embassy gates, are throwing rocks at the police, Mhirsi says. He says
that some protesters are waving black flags as they attempt to vandalize the gates.

[Updated at 10:15 a.m. ET] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to receive the remains of the U.S. diplomats killed in Libya at Andrews Air Force Base at 2 p.m. ET Friday.

[Updated at 10:13 a.m. ET] Add Tunisia to the list of Friday's protests. Hundreds of protesters have left Friday prayers and are heading to the U.S. Embassy in a neighborhood in Tunis, journalist Zeid Mhirsi reported. There is a strong Tunisian police presence in the area.

Hard-line Muslims known as Salafists were among the demonstrators, who were in pickup trucks and on foot.

[Updated at 9:54 a.m. ET] Ron Hawkins, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, said that because Friday is a non-work day, most of the staff and Embassy personnel are not there as protesters gather outside the building. As far as security goes, Marines are assigned there, and local police officers were sent there earlier Friday as a precautionary measure, Hawkins said.

Earlier Friday, a fire was set at the vacated German Embassy as protesters gathered there. The protest at the U.S. building so has been peaceful, journalist Isma'il Kamal Kushkush said (see 8:42 a.m. entry).

[Updated at 9:31 a.m. ET] More information from Khartoum, Sudan: Protesters have gathered outside the U.S. Embassy there, a journalist at the scene said. The demonstration is peaceful so far.

Earlier today, protesters in Khartoum set the German Embassy on fire and also rallied outside the nearby UK Embassy (see 8:42 a.m. entry). The German Embassy was vacated before the protests.

[Updated at 9:24 a.m. ET] Lebanon has joined the list of Friday protests. One person was killed by police in Tripoli, Lebanon, after a group of armed men stormed a KFC restaurant amid protests in the city, Lebanese security forces told CNN.

About 40 armed men were spotted among 3,000 protesters, officials said.

Gen. Bassam Ayoubi, of the Lebanese internal security forces, said a group of armed men stormed the KFC and asked people to leave. Ayoubi said that the armed men then set the KFC on fire, at which time police arrived and began to fire at the armed men, killing at least one of them. Twenty-five were injured, he said, but it wasn't clear which of the injured were on which side.

[Updated at 9:09 a.m. ET] The German Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, was vacated before the protest that reportedly has set the building on fire, the German Foreign Ministry said.

The German Foreign Ministry also said that the Sudanese ambassador to Germany has been called in to the German
Foreign Ministry in Berlin to discuss the situation in Khartoum.

Journalist Isma'il Kamal Kushkush told CNN about 30 minutes ago that the German Embassy in Khartoum was on fire after protests against the online anti-Islam video.

[Updated at 9 a.m. ET] An update on protests in Egypt, while we await more information about the burning German Embassy in Sudan:

Fifteen protesters have been injured in Egypt on Friday, according to Dr. Mohamed Sultan, a health ministry spokesman. Most of the injuries were related to inhaling tear gas or getting it into their eyes.

Two hundred twenty-four people have been injured this week in protests in Cairo, 11 of whom have been hospitalized, Sultan said.

On Friday, officers armed with shields and batons, backed by an armored personnel carrier, rushed a group of several hundred protesters shortly after dawn to quell a violent demonstration that had raged through the night in Cairo. After the rush, a smaller number of demonstrators regrouped near the U.S. Embassy across from police lines, and stones and tear-gas canisters once again crossed in the air. Police fired rubber bullets at protesters. The army began constructing a wall of concrete blocks about 10 feet high across the road leading to the embassy.

Hours later, in the afternoon, youths climbed the newly built wall and threw rocks at police, according to eyewitnesses. Security forces fired tear gas and used water cannons to hold off the rioters. But 100 to 200 hundred meters away in Tahrir Square, a few thousand protesters congregated peacefully.

[Updated at 8:42 a.m. ET] The German Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan was on fire Friday after protests against the online anti-Islam video, a journalist on the scene, Isma'il Kamal Kushkush, said. No embassy personnel were believed to be inside.

The UK Foreign Office also says protesters were demonstrating Friday outside its embassy, next to the German Embassy, in Khartoum.

[Updated at 8:35 a.m. ET] U.S. embassies aren't the only Western diplomatic posts facing protests on Friday. Protests have been reported outside the UK and German embassies in Khartoum, Sudan.

UK Foreign Office Spokesperson Mandy Heffield confirmed there is an ongoing demonstration outside the British Embassy in Khartoum. Sudanese police are on the scene, Heffield said.

Earlier, a journalist on the scene said thousands of protesters had marched on the German Embassy in Khartoum, and that a few protesters jumped onto the embassy grounds and pulled down the German flag. Riot police fired tear gas, causing the protesters to pull back, the journalist said.

[Updated at 8:30 a.m. ET] Thousands of protesters marched on the German Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, on Friday, as protests against a short online film mocking the Prophet Mohammed swept across the Muslim world, a journalist on the scene said.

A few demonstrators were able to jump into the embassy grounds and pull down the German flag, Isma'il Kamal Kushkush said. Riot police fired tear gas, causing the protesters to pull back. The German Embassy is next to the British Embassy, which did not seem to be the focus of the demonstration.

[Updated at 7:40 a.m. ET] Afghanistan saw its first anti-American protest over the film Friday, as hundreds of demonstrators burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to America" and "We condemn the film."

The demonstration in Nangarhar province lasted about an hour and ended peacefully, said Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of the eastern province.

[Posted 7:31 a.m. ET] Yemeni police opened fire Friday to stop protesters from reaching the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, witnesses told CNN.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood canceled nationwide demonstrations Friday, except for one in Cairo's Tahrir Square against the controversial film about the Prophet Mohammed, the group said in a Twitter message.

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Filed under: Egypt • Lebanon • Libya • Sudan • Tunisia
soundoff (3,687 Responses)
  1. BriSoFla

    Here is my drawing of the pro-ph-et mo-ha-mm-ad. :-O Now deal with it.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:58 am | Report abuse |
  2. Jim

    Please clone Obama so he can be at all the embassies at once. This should stop all the violence.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:58 am | Report abuse |
  3. Beavis

    You're allowed to attack organizations you disagree with in a democratic society? Interesting.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:58 am | Report abuse |
  4. Paul R.

    The L.A. Times is reporting today that not a single ticket to the movie has ever been sold and that a copy of the full movie cannot be found. In other words, these ignorant puppets are rioting against something which doesn't exist and has never been seen. Fools!

    September 14, 2012 at 10:58 am | Report abuse |
  5. IRA4ever

    Notice how none of the israeli embassies have been attacked yet.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
  6. sonnyofthemeek

    Majority of Muslim’s Pray as Extremists Prey

    Why is it acceptable to their majority to also being the victims of attack by extremists killing in the name of their God? The bombs meant to harm the west have taken countless innocent lives of their own believers of Islam, the same God they worship together many times a day.
    In America they reside in both peace and safety, protected by the same people being targeted and killed by extremists across the globe. If America, and it’s people had not acted in the past to end the horror of Hitler and others, what language would any of the few survivors speak, where would they hide from eradication, who would insure their survival from genocide?
    America has given hope and proof that people can coexist safely within our shores, and as many must admit, across the globe. Freedom has seldom been given in any land to all the people of this planet other than in America, proved by the numbers we are composed of. All lands represented by the makeup of our society, our people, your fellow citizen’s now here in the land of the free. The dream becomes reality upon reaching our shores, as our deaths become nightmares on your own soil, and our own as evident on 9-11.
    We mourn our lose and never turn you away for the sins of a few. This new attack killing an ambassador and others their helping your brethren, fellow Islamist’s to live without a leader as horrific as you had for lifetimes, cut short.
    Under the pretext of some unseen internet film in lands without access to basic necessities, never the less internet access. I ask of the majority, why?
    Does the same God you worship and love forgive those that take the lives of his people, his followers, his children? Are your deaths acceptable in the killing of others by these extremists? Is the harboring of killers allowed? Is it his will that you die also? Is it his will that any must die for the sins of a few misguided, soulless denizens? Why is hatred of another’s skin color, language or beliefs acceptable? Why is the calling for the eradication of any human being, race or nation permitted, and praised?
    I am but one citizen of this most wonderful planet, and proud to call myself an American. No other land exists this day or in the past that accepts you and your beliefs. In your land those differences are death sentences, or worse for fellow human beings, and possibly you. Why do you hate the freedom to exist peacefully, side by side helping each other to live?
    Please explain before our world is destroyed, while you have the time, before the death count rises and you still exist.
    Please translate for all to read, carefully, unedited as our Views not Fact Checked news and yours does, thank you.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
  7. joe jones

    time to up the anti-islam rhetoric. Every chance you get ridicule it and remind them it's nothing but a fairy tale same as Christianity and has evolved into a violent religion. It's time that 1.5 billion muslims joined the 21st century.

    And as soon as one of them starts to climb a fence of one of our embassies to attack u, shoot him between the eyes and watch the other ignorant wild dogs scatter.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
  8. SdS

    Because maybe the Lord knew that television could be very free and he needed someone being the way they asked, to defend respect

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
  9. Jihadistsrstupid

    Seeing the outcome, they should have made this movie a long time ago. Love the fact they are just killing/hurting themselves...

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
    • Solitaire

      They killed four Americans. That's not just killing themselves.

      September 14, 2012 at 11:04 am | Report abuse |
  10. DOUG

    Did someone move the countries around while I was asleep? Should I buy a new globe? The last time I checked Libya, Tunisia & Egypt were in and have always been in Africa. That's the continent of Africa CNN; apparently the CNN editorial and journalism staff, never took 8th grade geography or they have new maps that the rest of the world doesn't have. Then again maybe it is just pure ignorance.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
    • Solitairedog

      Yes, that is strange

      September 14, 2012 at 11:05 am | Report abuse |
  11. jonat

    Our foreign policy of appeasement and pumping billions into the middle east to buy friendship has been a total failure. The attack in Libya was a coordinated military action by terrorists not an angry civilian crowd. Islam hates the west a tradition that goes back a 1000 years. Blaming a stupid movie is a joke and it seems to be on the liberal media since they don't seem to get it. That or they are trying to do damage control for Obama

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
    • Solitairedog

      So a good journalist should not pay any attention to why the protestors say they are protesting. A good journalist should just blame the president. Umm hmmm. Partisan much? You are blaming America for what the Muslims are doing.

      September 14, 2012 at 11:07 am | Report abuse |
  12. Sherri

    See, that's what these people do. Riot, burn, kill. It will continue to spread to more Islamic countries. What some of you don't realize is that most parts of Africa are Islamic. It is not just what you think of as Middle East. So you have Yeman, Somalia, Darfur, Bali etc. And parts of Russia are Islamic. So when the go on their killing sprees (which they really like to do) it encompasses a lot of the world. I'm still waiting to hear from the moderate Muslims. Come on, speak up. Start condemning all this violence. Where's your voice now? You sure have a lot to say any other time.

    September 14, 2012 at 10:59 am | Report abuse |
  13. Maria

    Who cares what these people do. I'm tired of hearing about them. It is their countries. Just ignore them.

    September 14, 2012 at 11:00 am | Report abuse |
  14. jamdfh

    Coordinated protests! Hmmm, probably not a movie thing!

    September 14, 2012 at 11:00 am | Report abuse |
    • flambeauxfire

      What's so hard to understand? You don't make movies (which are like the nazi anti-Jew movies) which specifically ridicule in the worst way, the muslim culture and NOT get co-ordinated demos from them. If Obama was to do something extreme that others didnt like, the next day or two, there would be co-ordinated demos from Americans. Its just a response to a movie.
      The Muslim cultures are way less fractured than the United States. In the US, there's barely any togetherness. Over there, I know from experiance, they are all together on things and its really cool. So....yeah ...... it's just because of the movie actually and it's what happens when culture isn't so apathetic as US culture and actually has enough self-respect to stand up for what it believes.
      Americans don't know what they believe anymore so they cant imagne others doing it

      September 14, 2012 at 11:27 am | Report abuse |
  15. Huh?

    It may be time to let the Arab world just be the Arab world — Nomads scraping off the land, waring tribes eliminating each
    other — and let's get the Western world back in business, fully develop alternative fuels (wind, solar, our own petroleum resources) and be self-sufficient. The hooligans don't want any Western influence so I say let's let them shift back to the
    pre-industrial era. And if we need to take care of somethings along the way – we should.

    September 14, 2012 at 11:00 am | Report abuse |
    • DC

      Agreed. Form a new "nafta" of countries that have similar beliefs and just refuse to do ANY business with the Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, UAE's of the world.

      September 14, 2012 at 11:05 am | Report abuse |
    • flambeauxfire

      You are a fool who doesnt know what he's talking about. Go back to your sofa nad your cheetos and your cushioned life in some doped up small town with provincial adies

      September 14, 2012 at 11:22 am | Report abuse |
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