Syria slams U.S. diplomat's trip to Hama

U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford visited Hama Thursday, stayed overnight, and left on Friday.NEW: State Department spokeswoman calls the incitement claims "rubbish"Ambassador Robert Ford visits a hospital and meets with residentsThe Syrian regime says Ford didn't get proper permission for the tripBut the U.S. Embassy says it got the OK for a delegation to go to Hama

(CNN) -- The embattled Syrian regime is accusing the U.S. ambassador of inciting protests in the restive city of Hama, but a State Department official called that claim "absolute rubbish" Friday.

The state-run Syrian media says U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford also met with "saboteurs" and undermined its national dialogue initiative during a visit to that city.

The government said Ford did not ask for proper permission to travel there, where thousands of people have taken to the streets for anti-government protests in recent days, including a huge turnout on Friday.

''This U.S. conduct is also aimed at obstructing dialogue and political solutions undertaken by the leadership in Syria,'' according to a media source quoted by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency on Friday.

But State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland issued a blunt rebuttal, calling the claims of incitement "absolute rubbish" and saying she was "dismayed" by the Syrian government reaction. Nuland stressed that the U.S. Embassy notified the Syrian Defense Ministry before the visit and that Ford's car was waved through a security checkpoint.

In a visit meant to show solidarity with the Syrian citizenry, Ford journeyed to the city on Thursday -- when he visited a hospital -- stayed overnight and left on Friday.

Nuland, who called the visit "bold," said Ford met with many "average folk" in the streets of Hama on Thursday, and Friday morning he drove through the city to do the same thing.

People were starting to gather in a city square at that time, and his car was immediately surrounded by friendly protesters who put flowers and olive branches on the car and cheered "down with regime."

"It was quite a scene," Nuland said, noting video of the incident is on YouTube.

Ford left Hama around 1:30 p.m., before Friday prayers and in advance of the demonstrations, in order to ensure his presence would not cause a distraction, according to a State Department official.

Nuland said Ford decided to leave because the United States would become the story If he got out of the car. He wanted to "make clear this was not about us; this was about the rights of the Syrian citizens," Nuland said.

Ford was escorted out of town by group of friendly young men on motorcycles.

Syrian-run media on Friday slammed Ford for his activities. A State TV banner accused Ford of inciting and participating in the protests in Hama.

Another TV report said he met with "saboteurs in Hama," urging them to protest and reject the government-backed national dialogue process.

The process is designed to generate society-wide participation on issues, the government has said. A "consultative meeting" of the National Dialogue Committee is scheduled this weekend.

But opposition to that process is the theme of today's nationwide turnouts, dubbed "No Dialogue."

SANA reported that a Foreign Ministry source accused Ford of going to Hama without obtaining permission from the government.

According to the report, the Foreign Ministry official said Ford's visit was "clear evidence of the U.S. involvement in the ongoing events in Syria and its bids to aggravate the situations which destabilize Syria.''

Nuland on Thursday said U.S. officials notified the Syrian government that an embassy team was traveling to Hama.

"The embassy informed Syrian officials that an embassy delegation, without specifying whom, would be heading to Hama. And they then proceeded to make their way there and were allowed to proceed," Nuland said.

Ford's delegation did not include any official Syrian "handlers," Nuland said, adding that Syrian authorities allowed him through check points to reach the town.

"For him to go personally at this time and stand with the people of Hama, I think, expresses in physical terms -- not to mention political terms -- our view that the people of Hama have the right to express themselves peacefully and that we are concerned about the posture that the security forces have taken," Nuland said.

Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad, called the visit "an escalation on the part of the U.S. ambassador. Never before an ambassador visited a city with a problem like the case of Hama without permission."

Speaking to BBC Arabic in an interview reported by SANA, Shaaban said Ford's visit was inauspicious, coming at the "moment when a meeting is prepared between the residents, mosque imams and the civil authorities in the city aimed at finding a solution to the problem."

She said his arrival undermines efforts to solve the problem.

"By whose help was he able to reach al-Sreijeh Mosque without being encountered by any of the gunmen in the streets who have blocked employees in Hama from reaching their jobs for the fourth day in a row." she asked.

"Syria doesn't want to cut the thinnest thread with the U.S. administration, but there is great protest and resentment among the Syrian people about the U.S. State Department's statement that the ambassador is in Hama and intends to stay till Friday on the eve of the national dialogue due to be held among all spectrums of the Syrian society. ... This gives us a message that the U.S. says 'No' to dialogue," Shaaban said.

She asked why the United States hasn't backed the regime's dialogue initiative despite its talk of the need for reform in Syria.

"There are enough national opposition members from all the spectrums who will attend this dialogue. But we haven't heard one word from the West that encourages dialogue among the Syrian people," she said.

The media source quoted by SANA said Ford's presence represented "flagrant interference in the internal affairs of an independent and sovereign state" and was reminiscent of the colonial era. Syria was once under a French mandate.

''This conduct is tied to meetings which took place, the latest of which was Saint Germain meeting in Paris, which was organized by Zionist circles against Syria, as it comes ahead of the consultative meeting due on July 10, with the participation of all the spectrums of the Syrian society and its political and intellectual movements in the run up to the national dialogue conference," the source said.

Eric Chevallier, the French ambassador to Syria, also visited Hama, arriving on Thursday and spending the night. He met with medical staff and the wounded and their families.

"France reiterates its concern about the fate of the inhabitants of the city of Hama and condemns the violence perpetrated by the authorities in Syria against the demonstrators and civilians," the French Foreign Ministry said.

Last month, Hama was the site of violent crackdowns by security forces that killed 60 protesters.

The city is a sensitive spot for Syrian authorities. In 1982, it was the scene of a brutal military crackdown targeting Sunni Muslims by the Alawite-dominated government of Hafez al-Assad, the current president's late father. Thousands were killed, with Human Rights Watch putting the toll at 10,000.

CNN's Elise Labott and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report

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New alleged al Qaeda tape slams NATO

Ayman al-Zawahiri as seen in a photo obtained March 3 when an earlier audio speech by him was posted on jidhadist forums.Audiotape reportedly is voice of Ayman al-ZawahiriHe was second in command to Osama bin LadenSpeaker blasts U.S., NATO, praises uprisings

(CNN) -- A jihadist website on Saturday posted an audio message purportedly from key al Qaeda figure Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The message, according to the website, was recorded "prior to the martyrdom of Sheikh Osama bin Laden."

The speaker talks about "winds of changes" that have occurred in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. He also mentions Yemen.

Al-Zawahiri, who was second in command under bin Laden, calls the United States leader of "crusader enemies."

"NATO is not a goodwill organization -- it is an aid to the hegemonic powers in this world," al-Zawahiri allegedly says in a portion of the tape on Libya. "They aim to end the corrupt (Moammar) Gadhafi regime but then install their own ideals. They want to steal Libya's resources and relics because of their greed and politics."

He advised Egyptians to help Libyans in their fight. "The fight in Libya today is the fight of the Muslim nation after the governments failed to protect the Libyan people from the crimes of Gadhafi."

The message also congratulated Egypt for ousting President Hosni Mubarak.

CNN could not confirm its authenticity.

Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, was considered to be bin Laden's presumed successor, but that may not be the case.

Saif al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer, has been chosen as interim leader, according to CNN contributor Peter Bergen.

Radical Islamic websites on Wednesday posted a similar Arab Spring audio message purportedly recorded by bin Laden shortly before he was killed by U.S. commandos in Pakistan May 2.

The recording, which is more than 12 minutes long and was released by al Qaeda's media arm, As-Sahab, lists the speaker as bin Laden and calls him "the martyr of Islam."

The audio begins with a prayer and remarks reportedly made by bin Laden about anti-government protests and uprisings earlier this year in several African and Middle East countries.

CNN, which translated the audio, could not confirm its authenticity, either.

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Castro slams bin Laden 'assassination'

"The assassination of an unarmed human being surrounded by his family constitutes an abhorrent act," writes Fidel Castro.Castro says "assassination" is an "abhorrent act"He criticizes bin Laden for "international terrorism"He says attack shows "fear and insecurity"

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Former Cuban President Fidel Castro slammed the method used to kill Osama bin Laden on Thursday, saying there is no excuse for "assassinating" an unarmed man in front of his family.

"Whatever the actions attributed to bin Laden, the assassination of an unarmed human being surrounded by his family constitutes an abhorrent act," Castro wrote in an essay published in state media.

Castro criticized bin Laden for "international terrorism" and said Cuba showed solidarity with the United States after the "brutal" September 11 attacks.

However, in the article Castro calls the killing of bin Laden an "execution" by U.S. Navy SEALs and says the attack and the subsequent burial at sea "show fear and insecurity, and turn him into a much more dangerous person."

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has told reporters bin Laden and his family lived on the second and third floors of his compound, and they were cleared last, with bin Laden killed toward the end of the siege.

Bin Laden was not armed but did put up resistance when U.S. forces entered the compound, he said.

One of bin Laden's daughters has told Pakistani interrogators that she saw her father shot, a senior Pakistani intelligence source said Wednesday. The daughter, believed to be 12 or 13 years old, was among those left behind at the compound after Monday's U.S. raid, the source said.

In the article, Castro also said Pakistan's laws had been violated and its "national dignity offended."

U.S. President Barack Obama has said the United States will not release the photos of bin Laden's corpse. While some U.S. politicians have said the photos should be released, others have said the photos would only serve to inflamme feelings among bin Laden supporters.

Castro concludes in his essay that American public opinion will turn in time.

"After the initial euphoria, public opinion in the United States will end up criticizing the methods, which," he wrote, "far from protecting its citizens, will end up multiplying the feelings of hate and venegence toward them."

-- From CNN's Shasta Darlington

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Pakistan slams 'unauthorized' U.S. raid on bin Laden

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan criticized the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthorized unilateral action," laying bare the strains the raid has put on an already rocky alliance.

A day after U.S. commandos killed the world's most wanted man after a 10-year manhunt, new details emerged Tuesday from Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency and neighbors of bin Laden that raised more questions about whether some elements within the security forces knew, and perhaps protected, the al-Qaida chief.

Neighbors in the city of Abbottabad, a two-hour drive from the Pakistani capital, sensed something was odd about the house where bin Laden and members of his family lived, even though the terror chief and his family rarely ventured outside and most residents were not aware that foreigners were living there.

One man, Sher Mohammed Khan, said his sister went to the house to administer a polio vaccination as part of a government-backed drive. When she remarked on all the expensive SUVs inside the compound, a man immediately asked her to leave, but not before taking the vaccine to apparently administer to the children inside.

"People were skeptical in this neighborhood about this place and these guys," said Mashood Khan, a 45-year-old farmer. "They used to gossip, say they were smugglers or drug dealers. People would complain that even with such a big house they didn't invite the poor or distribute charity.'

But not everyone was suspicious.

Khurshid Bibi, in her 70s, said one man living in the compound had given her a lift to the market in the rain. She said her grandchildren played with the kids in the house and the people in the compound gave them rabbits as a gift.

U.S. officials have suggested Pakistani officials may have known where bin Laden was living. Members of Congress have seized on those suspicions to call for the U.S. to consider cutting billions of aid to Pakistan if it turns out the government knew where bin Laden was hiding.

However, within Pakistan, the domestic criticism has been more focused on the U.S. breaching the country's sovereignty. The U.S. has said it did not inform the Pakistanis ahead of time about the raid, for fear they would tip off the targets.

A strongly worded Pakistani government statement warned the U.S. not to launch similar operations in the future. It rejected suggestions that officials knew where bin Laden was.

Still there were other revelations that pointed to prior knowledge that the compound was linked to al-Qaida.

Pakistani intelligence agencies hunting for a top al-Qaida operative staged a 2003 raid against the house where bin Laden was killed, said a senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the spy agency's policy.

U.S. officials have said bin Laden lived in the house for up to six years, begging the question of how he could have moved into the property without the Pakistani government knowing. The three-story house is located in a middle-class neighborhood of Abbottabad and is surrounded by 15-foot walls.

The house was just being built when Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency raided it in 2003 in a search of Abu Faraj al-Libi, regarded as al-Qaida's No. 3, said the agency officer. Al-Libi was not there, he said.

Since the operation against bin Laden, a U.S. official has said that al-Libi once lived in the house and that information from him played a role in tracking the al-Qaida chief down.

The Pakistani officer said he didn't know why al-Qaida would use a house that already had been compromised.

Al-Libi was arrested by Pakistani police in 2005 after a shootout in the northwestern town of Mardan. He was later handed over to U.S. authorities.

The officer said the ISI would have captured bin Laden if it had known where he was there, and pushed back at international criticism of the agency.

"Look at our track record given the issues we have faced, the lack of funds. We have killed or captured hundreds (of extremists)," said the officer. "All of a sudden one failure makes us incompetent and 10 years of effort is overlooked."

The Pakistani government said ISI had been sharing information since 2009 with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies about the compound where bin Laden lived. Islamabad said the intelligence flow indicating some foreigners were in the area of Abbottabad continued until id April 2011.

In an essay published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied suggestions his country's security forces may have sheltered bin Laden, and said their cooperation with the United States helped pinpoint him.

Washington said it did not inform Islamabad about commando attack on bin Laden early Monday morning for security reasons. The raid followed months of deteriorating relations between the CIA and Pakistan's main intelligence service.

In a statement, the government said "this event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule."

"The Government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the U.S.," adding such actions can sometimes constitute a "threat to international peace and security."

The statement may be partly motivated by domestic concerns. The government and army has come under criticism following the raid by those who have accused the government of allowing Washington to violate the country's sovereignty. Islamabad has also been angered at the suspicions it had been sheltering bin Laden.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday demanded Islamabad answer for how bin Laden had lived undetected the house. But in a nod to the complexities of dealing with a nuclear-armed, unstable country that is crucial to success in the war in neighboring Afghanistan, Cameron said having "a massive row" with Islamabad over the issue would not be in Britain's interest.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Coast Guard slams exploded Gulf rig's owner for 'poor safety culture'

By the CNN Wire Staff STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: Transocean this week blamed BP, saying it "set the stage for this disaster"The Coast Guard releases a report a year after an explosion started the Gulf oil spillThe probe criticizes the rig owner, Transocean, for equipment and personnel issuesA Coast Guard spokesman says "there were serious safety management system failures" (CNN) -- A Coast Guard report released Friday criticizes Transocean, the owner of the Gulf of Mexico rig that exploded a year ago, for serious flaws in its safety management system that contributed to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

"There were serious safety management system failures and a poor safety culture that Transocean had," said Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, a Coast Guard spokesman, summarizing the investigation's findings.

The April 20, 2010, explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig led to more than 200 million gallons of oil being released into the Gulf. Eleven people working on the rig died in the explosion, while another 16 were injured.

Besides the oil, hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical dispersant went into the water as well. At the peak of the crisis, in June 2010, 37% of Gulf waters -- a total of 88,522 square miles -- were closed to fishing due to contamination.

The Coast Guard probe, one of several that delved into the incident, began six days after the incident and included seven hearings to compile information. The new report focuses on specific issues under that federal agency's purview. O'Neil said further conclusions will be released in the future.

"We didn't want to withhold what we had learned," he said, explaining that authorities thought it important to publicize "important recommendations that could be used to improve maritime safety" as soon as possible.

While noting that the events leading to the rig's sinking "were set into motion by the failure to prevent a well blowout," the report adds, "The investigation revealed numerous systems deficiencies, and acts and omissions by Transocean and its Deepwater Horizon crew that had an adverse impact on the ability to prevent or limit the magnitude of the disaster."

Specifically, the report claims that electrical equipment that might have ignited the explosion was poorly maintained and that gas alarms and automatic shutdown systems that might have prevented the blast were bypassed. In addition, on-hand personnel had insufficient training as to how and when to shut down engines and do other things that might have mitigated the disaster.

Besides Transocean, the probe also calls out the government of the Marshall Islands -- under whose flag the rig flew -- saying its "oversight and regulation of the Deepwater Horizon ... was ineffective." The republic delegated its inspections to "recognized organizations," the report says, without taking on the responsibilities itself.

In the 288-page report, investigators list 61 conclusions and offer 54 specific safety recommendations.

"We recognize that this report is important to a lot of people, particularly the families and friends of the 11 people who perished in the disaster," O'Neil said. "Nothing can bring those people back to us, but the investigation seeks to prevent a similar tragedy in the future."

Transocean did not respond immediately to requests for comment on this report. But on Thursday, Transocean issued a statement in which it blamed the oil company BP, which operated the oil well, for the disaster. This week, the two companies filed lawsuits against one another.

"The Deepwater Horizon was a world-class drilling rig manned by a top-flight crew that was put in jeopardy by BP ... through a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk -- in some cases, severely," the Geneva, Switzerland, based company said in the statement. "BP set the stage for this disaster."

CNN's Melissa Gray contributed to this report.

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