Ray McGovern v. Hillary Clinton -- violation of the freedom of speech.
No, I'm not making a prediction. She hasn't lost the nomination battle for 2016, not yet anyway. However what she did do today, or what I should more accurately say, is she lost my respect. Back in 2011, at a speech she, in her capacity as Secretary of State, was giving for international internet freedom, a worthy cause. During the speech, Ray McGovern, a retired CIA agent who became a political activist against the wars fought in our name in the Middle east, stood up and tuned his back on her, a silent form of protest. For that he was arrested for disorderly conduct. From the transcript of the Democracy NOW broadcast about the incident:
RAY McGOVERN: [...]
[T]hey put two sets of handcuffs on me very roughly. They were the iron or the steel handcuffs. They dug into my wrists. Well, you could see some of the stuff right here. And they put it behind my back, of course, and I started bleeding profusely over my pants. We have the pants; they’re full of blood. When somebody said, "Is that his blood?" one of the cops said, "No, no, I pricked my finger." Right.
. . . .
As the complaint states: "The Department of State issued a Be On The Lookout Alert ('BOLO Alert') for the then- 71-year-old McGOVERN which described his 'considerable amount of political activism, primarily anti-war,' displayed his picture and directed law enforcement that if Mr. McGOVERN was encountered, 'USE CAUTION, stop' and question him and contact the Department of State Diplomatic Security Command Center."
That is the type of thing one would expect of a person who was suspected of committing violent acts of terrorism, or of making threats against the US government or its officials, not an antiwar activist who served in the military - the Army - and then the CIA. All he did was turn his back on Hillary Clinton and he was arrested in a brutal fashion, and then a political vendetta was carried out against him. A BOLO Alert is no small matter. Any trigger happy police officer or law enforcement official who saw him was required to stop, treat him as a dangerous individual, and immediately contact the Security apparatus at the State Department. That would scare the hell out of me if my name ever got put on such a list.
More . . . .
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332553/-Hilary-Clinton-Loses
Comments? What do you think?
