U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power Facing Criticism Over This Tweet

Update: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power on Monday issued a “correction” tweet saying that she meant the Daniel Pearl Foundation, not Daniel Pearl’s killing, was a “reminder that individual accountability + reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence.”

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/AmbassadorPower/status/437965052709068800"]

Answering critics who accused her of suggesting Pearl may have had some responsibility for his kidnapping and murder, she also tweeted this message:

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/AmbassadorPower/status/437965326714560513"]

The Daniel Pearl Foundation is named after the slain reporter and defines its mission as promoting “mutual respect and understanding among diverse cultures through journalism, music and dialogue.”

Original story below:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power received a torrent of negative responses after posting a tweet Sunday evening that some interpreted as suggesting Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s killing could have been prevented by “individual accountability & reconciliation.”

Here’s what she wrote:

And here are some of the responses:

Five hours after she posted the message, not one direct response to her tweet was of a positive nature.

On Sunday evening, Power delivered the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, around which she posted messages on Twitter including the one above and another one urging dialogue:

The negative reactions to Power’s “cycles of violence” message were not limited to Twitter. Several bloggers shared their consternation with Power’s analysis.

The Jewish Press wrote: “OMG. She actually said that. She proposed an equation in which two sides, the jihadists and Daniel Pearl were each engaged in violence against each other, and look what happened.”

“What cycle of violence was he a part of? Being an innocent guy who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered?” Weasel Zippers asked.

The blog Israel Matzav wrote, “Remind me now... to which 'cycle of violence' did Daniel Pearl belong when he had his throat split by a Pakistani Muslim? When was the last time Israel attacked Pakistan?”

Pearl was on assignment for the Wall Street Journal in 2002 when he was kidnapped in Pakistan and then beheaded by Al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Right before his throat was slit, he was forced to make a confessional-style video in which he stated that he was Jewish and had made many visits to Israel.