State Dept. warns U.S. citizens to leave Tunisia, Sudan
WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department on Saturday ordered the departure of all family members and non-essential U.S. government personnel from posts in Sudan and Tunisia and is issuing travel warnings to American citizens in the two countries due to security concerns over anti-American violence.
"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," said Victoria Nuland, a department spokeswoman.
The department's travel warning said while Sudan's government has taken steps to limit the activities of terrorist groups, some remain there and have threatened to attack Western interests. The terrorist threat level remains critical.
The State Department said the airport in Tunis was open and it encouraged all U.S. citizens to depart by commercial air. It said Americans in Tunisia should use extreme caution and avoid demonstrations.
The warnings follow a wave of protest and violence over an anti-Muslim film that has swept across the Middle East and elsewhere in recent days. An obscure, amateurish movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile sparked the outrage.
Friday's demonstrations spread to more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. While most were peaceful, marches in several places exploded into violence.
In Sudan, crowds torched part of the German Embassy and tried to storm the American Embassy. Protesters climbed the walls into the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, torching cars in the parking lot, trashing the entrance building and setting fire to a gym and a neighboring American school.
The State Department travel warning came as President Barack Obama paid tribute to the four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, who were killed in an armed attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city on Benghazi this week. He also denounced the anti-U.S. mob protests that followed.
"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," said Victoria Nuland, a department spokeswoman.
The department's travel warning said while Sudan's government has taken steps to limit the activities of terrorist groups, some remain there and have threatened to attack Western interests. The terrorist threat level remains critical.
The State Department said the airport in Tunis was open and it encouraged all U.S. citizens to depart by commercial air. It said Americans in Tunisia should use extreme caution and avoid demonstrations.
The warnings follow a wave of protest and violence over an anti-Muslim film that has swept across the Middle East and elsewhere in recent days. An obscure, amateurish movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile sparked the outrage.
Friday's demonstrations spread to more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. While most were peaceful, marches in several places exploded into violence.
In Sudan, crowds torched part of the German Embassy and tried to storm the American Embassy. Protesters climbed the walls into the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, torching cars in the parking lot, trashing the entrance building and setting fire to a gym and a neighboring American school.
The State Department travel warning came as President Barack Obama paid tribute to the four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, who were killed in an armed attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern Libyan city on Benghazi this week. He also denounced the anti-U.S. mob protests that followed.
Where are the marines at the embassies when we need them. Give them lots and lots of ammo, mini-guns, etc., and if anyone comes over the wall into US territory, blow them away. One and all. No questions, just bullets. It would get our point across, now wouldn't it?
Okay, my first question is "what American in his right mind is in Libya or the Sudan right now anyway?" It ain't as if either of those countries is a vacation hotspot or has loved us the last 50 years or so.
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About the only Americans I can conceive of that are there are in an organization that ordered them there and have an exit plan or are a clown-humping mercenary and deserve what they get.
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Now before all your John Birchers out there accuse me a being a 'bleeding heart liberal', I am a combat veteran who absolutely loathes men who would turn their back on their comrades, their oaths, and their training and go mercenary [or 'private military contractor' in mod-speak]. Such men don't 'serve their country'. They don't serve much of anything; they profit from war. Trading in your honor for a buck is the kind of thing my father would take my last name back for, and I can't say as I'd blame him.
@svensson well don't be too shocked if a doctrine on how to "trading your honor for a buck" publishes. Roll over in your grave, I highly doubt you could.
 @alildifferent  @svensson You don't think personally holding so much is insanely stupid for the truly rich? Financial ruination the op word for humans. Death is incidental, as is the world legal community. The limits are that of yours or their limitation personally to manage all account holdings on their deathbed. Retirement. My personal person viewpoint. Gives those folk a chance to retire too. Or keep payin em to kill this nation. After all, charity or philanthropy get paid back to the generous soul who has done so much harm, many times over now.
@alildifferent Well, I'm not sure what to make of your comment.
I'm aware of at least two special operations units that forbid their operators from contacting PMC's until after their Ready Reserve Requirement Period is up on their enlistment contracts. If it's anything like mine was, that's two years after their date of ETS.
Insofar as blueprints to go mercenary, why publish at all when a simple google search will put you to the link below and others like it. And there's always the back page contact info in Soldier of Fiction [my term for it] magazine.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/mercenary5.htm
LOL Why issue a warning? If your dumb enough to be in the middle east and your white I doubt they will be smart enough to know what the warning means.
Bring back the 'terrorism tickers' that come up at random times while watching television. I miss those alerts. Thank you, concerned citizen.
 @alildifferent terrorism tickers have no real terror effects on live, so they fizzled out. If they'da shown more people shot and exploded and stuff it would have lasted as long as their other responsible television advertisers.