How Did State Department Miss These Other Tweets From Samira Ibrahim?

Three days ago, in White House To Honor Woman Who Exulted In Murder Of Israelis In Bulgaria, I wrote about Samira Ibrahim, who was scheduled to be one of the 10 women to be honored by the State Department with the International Women of Courage Award. Samuel Tadros got the ball rolling by revealing some of the viciously antisemitic and ant-American tweets that Ibrahim tweeted on Tweeter. In the end, she returned home without the award.

Now, on Buzz Feed we read that Other Anti-American Samira Ibrahim Tweets Emerge:

• August 5, Ibrahim calls for "1-review Camp-David 2- put the defense minister on a trial 3-change the army's leadership 4- expel any person who holds Israeli citizenship from Egypt immediately")
  
  
• She also tweeted on August 5, "Egyptian media is inciting against Palestine instead of Israel. #whoring."
  
  
• January 5, "MB [Muslim Brotherhood] failed in the Emirates and it is going to fail in any country as long as there isn't signal from the US to them... the green light to the MB is only in North Africa."
  
  
• After that she writes: "US is controlling the Gulf (Gulf countries) and play for the benefit of Israel .. MB play in North Africa for the benefit of Israel."
  
  
• January 11, in a discussion about Egypt and Iran forming an alliance against Israel: "the current regime doesn't consider Israel an enemy but rather considers Iran an enemy. You are right, I wish there is a military alliance between Iran and Egypt."
  
  
• Ibrahim later tweets that an alliance with Iran would be a "million times better" than the alliance with the U.S.

When asked how it is that the US Embassy in Cairo overlooked the tweets while vetting Ibrahim for the award, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland referred BuzzFeed to press briefings from the last two days.

On Thursday, March 7, the State Department was only deferring the award to Ibrahim:

We as a Department became aware very late in the process about Samira Ibrahim’s alleged public comments. After careful consideration, we’ve decided that we should defer presenting this award to Ms. Ibrahim this year so that we have a chance to look further into these statements. I would say that in conversations with us in the last 24 hours, Ms. Ibrahim has categorically denied authorship. She asserts that she was hacked. But we need some time and – in order to be prudent to conduct our own review.

But by the next day, March 8, the State Department had apparently given up on Ibrahim:

Let me just go back to where we were yesterday and advise that upon further review, the Department has decided not to present her with the award. Our understanding is that she plans to return home. I think you know that all of these candidates did come initially on U.S. – with U.S. support, and we intend to help her to get home. [emphasis added]

While the issue must be considered closed, it is obvious that the US Embassy in Cairo blew it, badly.

This is the same embassy that issued a statement last year on September 11:

U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

September 11, 2012

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 originally disavowed by the White House, which claimed that it was issued without clearance -- though that did not stop the Obama administration from pressing this theme itself.

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Technorati Tag: Antisemitism and Samira Ibrahim.