The Boston Herald September 16, 2012

Protests seen as becoming a ‘Jihadi Occupy’

By Erin Smith

A security expert predicted violent protests at U.S. embassies around the world would begin to taper off but urged Americans to stay out of the Middle East until tensions die down after al-Qaeda yesterday called for more “fires blazing” at embassies and praised the deadly attack on an American consulate in Libya.

“I think that it will run its natural course and people get tired of it,” said John Pike, director of military information website GlobalSecurity.org. “There could still continue to be a small amount of protesters outside embassies. That could just become a permanent thing — the jihadi version of Occupy Wall Street.”

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, including Winchester native Glen Doherty, were killed Tuesday in the Libya consulate attack.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen arm of the terrorist network, released a Web statement yesterday saying, “What has happened is a great event, and these efforts should come together in one goal, which is to expel the embassies of America from the lands of the Muslims.”

Protests incited by an anti-Islamic film by a California man broke out in 20 nations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia on Friday, with reports of some demonstrations turning deadly.

“I think a lot of this stuff is being stirred up by al-Qaeda or ... sympathizers,” Pike said.

“It remains to be seen whether this is al-Qaeda showing renewed strength or whether it is their dying gasp out of desperation.”