{"id":12253,"date":"2012-02-14T09:14:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T14:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=12253"},"modified":"2012-02-14T09:14:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-14T14:14:40","slug":"a-serious-problem-for-the-future-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=12253","title":{"rendered":"A Serious Problem For The Future Of Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday Frank Gaffney, Jr., at the Center For Security Policy<\/a>\u00a0posted an article about the arrest of\u00a0a Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

A Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari was detained in Malaysia, reportedly on the basis of an alert by the International Criminal Police Organization, better known as Interpol.\u00a0 Reuters quotes a Malaysian police spokesman as saying that, \u201cThis arrest was part of an Interpol operation which the Malaysian police were a part of.\u201d It was apparently mounted in response to a \u201cred notice\u201d (or request for help apprehending an individual) issued by Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 Kashgari was then sent back to Saudi Arabia where he faces almost certain death.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Kashgari\u2019s crime?\u00a0 He criticized the founder of Islam, Mohammed, on his Twitter account.\u00a0 According to press he reports, he addressed the man Muslims call theProphet directly, writing: \u201c I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you. There is a lot I don\u2019t understand about you\u2026.I will not pray for you.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The troubling part of this is that Interpol played a part in the arrest. Interpol is supposed to protect human rights and free speech.<\/p>\n

The article further reports:<\/p>\n

An Interpol spokesman insists that his organization had nothing to do with Hamza Kashgari\u2019s apprehension in Malaysia and involuntary return to Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 What is clear at this point is that the Saudis sought help apprehending the man who fled their not-so-tender mercies.\u00a0 It seems likely that the Saudi red notice to Interpol provided the Malays a pretext for intercepting and extraditing a columnist who dared to exercise free speech.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what–I live in America, what has this got to do with me? Well:<\/p>\n

After all, in a December 2009 executive order unveiled on a Friday afternoon in the run-up to the Christmas holidays, President Obama issued Executive Order 13524.\u00a0 It amended an earlier order by President Reagan that conferred on Interpol some \u2013 but not all \u2013 of the privileges of a foreign diplomatic mission. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor and one of the finest legal minds and essayists of our time, wrote on the occasion that Obama\u2019s amendments would have the effect of establishing here \u201can international police force immune from the restraints of American law.\u201d\u00a0 He added that, thanks to the Obama executive order:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you worried yet?<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday Frank Gaffney, Jr., at the Center For Security Policy\u00a0posted an article about the arrest of\u00a0a Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari in Malaysia. The article reports: A Saudi newspaper columnist named Hamza Kashgari was detained in Malaysia, reportedly on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1614,2169,1998,2168,2165,2170,2166,2167,342],"class_list":["post-12253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-center-for-security-policy","tag-frank-gaffney","tag-free-speech","tag-hamza-kashgari","tag-interpol","tag-interpol-in-america","tag-malaysia","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12255,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12253\/revisions\/12255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}