American Embassy in Berlin Misuses September 11th Ceremony

The American embassy in Berlin and ambassador William R. Timken, Jr. are at it again. During Barack Obama's visit to Berlin, Timken refused to allow any embassy officials to attend Obama's speech -- a blatantly political act. Now, as one of Germany's leading journalists, Malte Lehming of the Berlin Tagesspiegel reports, has arranged for the embassy to hold a memorial ceremony for September 11th together with the Jewish Community of Berlin.

This is a horrendous mistake, a fiasco that is sure to fan the conspiracy flames around the world about a link between America, Zionism, and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. There is nothing specifically Jewish about September 11th. The terrorists murdered indiscriminately. The American embassy has issued a vaguely threatening and ugly letter claiming that journalists need to exercise more careful judgment when it comes to press freedoms. This is nonsense. Instead of compounding its original error and attacking Lehming, the embassy should cancel the joint event and apologize. Even better, Timken, a crony of President Bush's who knows nothing about Germany, let alone international relations, should resign. But since when has mere incompetence ever stopped Bush? America continues to pay the price abroad for his ignorance.