Hypocritical Hillary…Practice What You Preach

Nour Rida

Her words have been rumbling on how to defend freedom of speech. She makes-believe she is the voice of the voiceless and the defender of rights when it comes to democracy and freedom of speech.
She has been the speaking trumpet when it comes to the US insistence on democracy and the support to freedom of speech, particularly in cyber world.

But also, with no further words said, and with actions being a million times louder than words; Hillary proves hypocrisy...autocracy and sophistry on her and her administrations behalf.
On Tuesday, February 15th Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech on the importance of Freedom of Speech in the Internet age. She focused her attention on foreign countries and rebuked them for repressing their people from self expression.
 
Be it Egypt, Tunisia, or any other country, Clinton said that the cyber-activists should not be repressed and prevented from speaking up. Now in this case, one might think that Clinton and the administration she works for have already fulfilled the mission of providing freedom of speech for human activists taking part in the real world and not cyber world... well at least in America.

Here comes the proof to that: during that speech Ray McGovern, a veteran who also served for 27 years as a CIA analyst, exercised his freedom of speech by standing and silently turning his back on Secretary Clinton. According to sources, he was protesting the ongoing wars, the treatment of Bradley Manning and the militarism of U.S. foreign policy.
McGovern's did not shout at the Secretary of State or interrupt her speech. All he did was stand in silence, and silence was a powerful move that threatened the Secretary of State. Two police officers roughed him up, pulled him from the audience and arrested him. The 71 year old McGovern, was battered and bruised, indeed his attorney reports he was left in jail bleeding. McGovern is not just a former CIA analyst. He did the daily intelligence briefing for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also briefed the National Security Advisor, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Cabinet on security matters. He has come to see that the current U.S. wars are about controlling natural resources, especially oil, positioning U.S. military bases in key areas and protecting the unusual alliance between the U.S. and "Israel". So, when he stood silently his speech was being heard.

And, when Secretary of Clinton kept speaking about the importance of freedom of speech, as if nothing was occurring before her eyes, Ray McGovern's voice became even louder. The hypocrisy of the United States only rumbled more.

Not only McGovern was severely violated, independent journalist Brandon Jourdan returned from Haiti after being on assignment documenting the rebuilding of schools. When he returned to the United States, he was immediately detained, questioned about his travels and had all of his documents, computer, phone and camera flash drives searched and copied. This is the seventh time Jourdan says he has been subjected to lengthy searches in five years, and has been told by officials that he is "on a list and that these are orders from Washington." He said in an interview on Democracy Now.

There has been an "always and forever" distance between the US administration rhetoric and its actions...not to our surprise.

So this is America? Yes this is America; this is America and its administration which makes me right away recall one adjective of a few syllables describing it, much fewer than the number of its dreadful many faces: Hy-po-cri-ti-cal.