Obama says the right words in a portion of his United Nations address but those words are empty when his own words and actions and those of his officials, since the brutal terrorist attack against America in Libya on 9/11/12, contradict the very assertion he makes in front of the United Nations General Assembly.
Obama speaks of free speech and the American constitution:
I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video. The answer is enshrined in our laws: our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech. Here in the United States, countless publications provoke offense. Like me, the majority of Americans are Christian, and yet we do not ban blasphemy against our most sacred beliefs. Moreover, as President of our country, and Commander-in-Chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so. Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views – even views that we disagree with.
We do so not because we support hateful speech, but because our Founders understood that without such protections, the capacity of each individual to express their own views, and practice their own faith, may be threatened. We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities. We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech – the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.
I know that not all countries in this body share this understanding of the protection of free speech. Yet in 2012, at a time when anyone with a cell phone can spread offensive views around the world with the click of a button, the notion that we can control the flow of information is obsolete. The question, then, is how we respond. And on this we must agree: there is no speech that justifies mindless violence.
There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on an Embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon, or destroy a school in Tunis, or cause death and destruction in Pakistan.
Strong words and they would be more meaningful if Obama and his administration official's previous statements and actions, since 9/11/12, actually matched those words.
Examples from WuA pieces and other accounts since the attack against the American Consulate in Libya which killed the U.S. Ambassador and three others, followed up by an attack against the safe house to which the terrorists should not have known the location to, all show Obama condemning a video made by an American under his constitutionally protected free speech rights.
• The U.S. Embassy to Cairo, Egypt, which is part of the Obama administration, dated on 9/11, posted a statement condemning the "efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims," and calling the filmmakers free speech rights in making the film an "abuse the universal right of free speech."
(Note- The Obama administration later disavowed that statement and subsequently the whole page disappeared down the memory hole. I saved a screen shot before they scrubbed it, found here)
• Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, part of the Muslim Brotherhood, demanded immediately that the filmmaker of the offensive video be targeted by Obama..... Obama did so by publicly having the Feds question him.
• Obama has spent $70,000 of U.S. taxpayer's money in Pakistan on ads to be shown on their televisions, condemning the video.
• The Obama administration attempted to have the video in question removed from YouTube by asking them to review it, thereby attempting to limit the filmmakers constitutionally protected right of free speech. YouTube found the video was within their guidelines and determined to leave it up
• Barack Obama told Univision that the "protests" which have consisted of attacks against our U.S. embassies in countries around the world were "natural protests."
• Obama's Secretary of State, an Obama administration official, condemns the video, calling it disgusting and reprehensible, with her statement prominently on the U.S. embassy in Pakistan's website.
Those are just a sample of the numerous examples of Obama's empty words to the UN not matching his actions or statements or his administration actions and statements since 9/11/12.
