UPDATE: Rasmussen did basically apologize in his speech today, although it was not the “open apology” Turkish officials hoped for.

Read our entire report here. Here is what Rasmussen said:

“I respect Islam as one of the world’s major religions as well as its religious symbols,” Rasmussen said during a panel discussion at a conference in Istanbul.

“I was deeply distressed that the cartoons were seen by many Muslims as an attempt by Denmark to mark and insult or behave disrespectively towards Islam or the Prophet Mohammad. Nothing could be further from my mind,” he added.

You can bicker about whether or not this was an “outright apology” or a hidden one, but I think we can all agree that this was a step Rasmussen would not have taken if he was not so darn ambitious.| MORE ›