In the immediate aftermath of  the post 9/11 protest movement which erupted simultaneously across the Middle East in reaction to the anti-Muslim film, The Innocence of Muslims,  US embassies around the World were instructed by the US State Department to “destroy classified material as a security precaution”. 

These instructions to destroy secret documents are said to be routine.

What does Washington have to hide?

What is the  nature of these secret documents? Are they in any way related to the simultaneous eruption of anti-US demonstrations in Muslim countries?

Press reports confirm that the US embassy in Lebanon has followed the State Department guidelines. There is no confirmation, however, that classified documents have been destroyed in other US embassies:

Diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut have started to destroy classified material as a security precaution amid anti-American protests in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.   A State Department status report said the Beirut embassy had ‘reviewed its emergency procedures and is beginning to destroy classified holdings.’

The official said the decision to ‘reduce classified holdings’ was routine and made by embassy staff. (Daily Mail September 17, 2012) 

Michel Chossudovsky contributed to this report