(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has attacked the Obama administration for sympathizing with radical Islamists after the U.S. embassy in Cairo was breached by protesters, but his account of the events in Egypt is flawed.
At the center of his criticism is a statement by the embassy condemning a film about the Prophet Mohammad that angered Islamists who stormed the building on Tuesday and burned the U.S. flag. The American ambassador to Libya and three embassy staff were killed in an attack in Benghazi to protest the same movie.
Romney said the embassy in Cairo issued the statement denouncing the film - called "Innocence of Muslims" - after the mission in Egypt was stormed, arguing that this shows President Barack Obama is weak in the face of opposition abroad.
But the embassy statement was issued several hours before the protests in Egypt began, according to Reuters journalists in Cairo. In an apparent attempt to head off any demonstrations, the embassy posted the statement on its Facebook page on Tuesday morning local time.
Romney has made the timing of the statement the key part of his attack on Obama as they compete in a tight race for the November 6 presidential election.
"The embassy in Cairo put out a statement after their grounds had been breached. Protesters were inside the grounds. They reiterated that statement after the breach. I think it is a terrible course for America to stand in apology for our values," he said in Florida on Wednesday.
Romney originally made the accusation that the statement was issued in response to the protests, and not before them, in a statement on Tuesday night.
"It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks," Romney said.
His comments angered Democrats who say the former Massachusetts governor was too quick to use the Libya and Egypt incidents as fodder for the campaign, particularly as his statement on Tuesday broke a self-imposed truce on criticizing the president on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
(Reporting by Tamim Elyan in Cairo and Alistair Bell in Washington; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-account-egypt-embassy-attack-flawed-193614502.html
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