Riots Continue as Does Assault on Free Speech

Now former President Bill Clinton wades into the mess and may have* urged the prosecution of those who are publishing the cartoons in the EU.

Former US president Bill Clinton on Friday condemned the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) caricatures by European newspapers and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers.

That's right folks. Our former President and someone whose oath of office included protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States may have made this statement, which would be antithetical to the US view of free speech.

There is more than a bit of confusion over what Clinton actually said as the reports and video don't seem to corroborate each other. We aren't getting a complete story here. The Jawa Report also slams Clinton, if that's indeed what he had said. The video of the appearance doesn't appear to include the section dealing with prosecuting those who ran the cartoons. Professor Bainbridge and Mark in Mexico both wonder what was really said. Mark actually investigated the matter further and finds that the Pakistani Times didn't do a good job translating.

Now, there's something to be said for where Clinton spoke and made this declaration. He did so in Pakistan. The rioting in Pakistan has been pretty bad over the last week and those comments were designed as much to try and shut down the rioting as it was a "legitimate criticism." Is it conceivable that the Pakistan Times translated Clinton's comments on purpose to quell the rioting domestically? Just a thought.

Astute Blogger has no qualms about how he feels about Clinton's statements.

Meanwhile, demonstrations come to New York to protest the cartoons. No violence, but lots of posters that suggest violence could come if the protestors aren't heeded.

And violence in Libya ostensibly from the cartoons has resulted in more deaths and the Italian consulate in Benghazi was torched.

Libyans protesting the Prophet Muhammad cartoons set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi today and clashed with police in turmoil that left at least nine people dead, an Italian diplomat said.

Libyan state television showed a part of the consulate building on fire, and firefighters trying to extinguish it and showed ambulances taking casualties away,

Italian consular official Antonio Simoes-Concalves said nine protesters had been killed and several more wounded as armed police clashed with a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators.

Libyan officials said there were 11 dead or wounded.

Security officials said the demonstrators hurled stones and bottles at the consulate, entered the grounds and set fire to the building and a consular car.

UPDATE:
Vandals have taken to the streets in tiny Gallup, New Mexico, where they attacked the offices of a local paper that published the cartoons.

At about 10 p.m., an unknown individual threw a pair of fist-sized rocks at the doors, which caused the glass to shatter but not break. The rocks were covered in black marker with the phrases “public apology or else?” “think twice” and “repent, condemn or else?”

The vandalism occurred the same day of the newspaper’s publication of two cartoons that portray the prophet Mohammed. The cartoons’ initial publication in a midsize Danish newspaper fueled protests that have spread worldwide. The cartoons have since been published in at least a dozen newspapers.

There's no evidence of who actually conducted the attacks, or whether they're simply copycats. However, it further indicates that there are people trying to chill free speech rights here in the US and they aren't afraid of using violence to achieve that goal.

UPDATE:
Photos from the Libyian riots.

UPDATE:
Via LGF, two new stories - one of the Harvard Salient publishing the cartoons, only to be met with demonstrations on the college campus. The other is yet another example of the New York Times' appeasing ways.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon" embassy torchings "muhammad image archive"