Obama walks towards the podium during the transfer of remains ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland/WHITE HOUSE PHOTO
In a heart-rending homecoming, four transfer caskets draped in American flags were slowly borne Friday from the belly of a giant C-17 transport plane by Marines in dress uniform, and set down in a hangar.
US ambassador Chris Stevens and the three other Americans died Tuesday when a mob furious over an anti-Muslim Internet video made on US soil torched the American consulate in Benghazi, part of a region-wide eruption of violence.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” Obama said, quoting the Bible as he honored four “American patriots” for embodying national qualities of courage, hope and idealism.
“Their sacrifice will never be forgotten, we will bring to justice those who took them from us. We will stand fast against the violence on our diplomatic missions,” Obama said at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.
As he spoke, a furious wave of anti-American violence ripped across the Middle East and North Africa, with a crowd invading the US embassy compound in Tunis, and guards at the US embassy in Khartoum firing warning shots at protesters.
Fresh violence erupted in Yemen and Cairo and demonstrations took place in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel and the Gaza Strip, Morocco, Syria, Kuwait, Nigeria and Kenya.
Six people were killed and dozens injured in Friday’s violence alone.
“The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob” – Clinton.
Obama said that the “awful” loss and terrible images may cause some to question the dangerous work of US diplomats abroad, but argued that America must not abandon its global mission to spread dignity and freedom.
“Even as voices of suspicion and mistrust seek to divide countries and cultures from one another, the United States of America will never retreat from the world,” he vowed.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told grieving relatives of Stevens, information officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty that the killings dishonored the spirit of the Arab Spring.
“The people of Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia did not trade the tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob,” she said.
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