Spencer: Free Speech Under Foreign Assault

In FrontPage this morning I wrote about the latest assaults to the freedom of speech:

Does the United States Constitution protect the freedom of speech of American citizens, or does it not? In this era of globalization, the answer is becoming increasingly muddled. Thursday, an American citizen, Paul Williams, went on trial in Canada. He is charged with violating Canadian libel laws in charges he made in his book The Dunces of Doomsday about a jihad terror cell at McMaster University in Ontario. Likewise in Brazil, an American business writer, Joseph Sharkey, is on trial for what he wrote about Brazilian air-traffic controllers after he survived an airplane crash in Brazil.

Williams and Sharkey both live in the United States, which guarantees that its citizens' freedom of speech not be infringed. Should Canadian and Brazilian libel laws apply to them? Williams has already had to pay enormous amounts of money for his defense, and Sharkey is likely to be found guilty and given a $500,000 fine. McMaster University wants a cool two million dollars from Williams.

Shouldn't the United States government protect American citizens from such bullying by foreign powers?

If nothing is done, the problem is certain to get worse -- for Williams and Sharkey are not the first American victims of the tactic that has come to be known as "libel tourism." The late Saudi billionaire Khalid Salim bin Mahfouz sued Rachel Ehrenfeld, founder and director of the American Center for Democracy, several years ago. Bin Mahfouz was upset about Ehrenfeld's book, Funding Evil, in which she wrote that he was involved in funding Hamas and al Qaeda - a charge for which there was abundant evidence from Western intelligence agencies. Nevertheless, taking advantage of British libel laws that place the burden of proof on the defendant, rather than the plaintiff, bin Mahfouz sued not in the United States, where Ehrenfeld lives and published her book, but in Britain, where neither he nor Ehrenfeld lived and where his entire case depended upon a handful of copies sold in that country mostly through special orders from Amazon.com, and the appearance of one chapter of the book on the Internet, where could have been read by British readers. A British court awarded bin Mahfouz $250,000, and Ehrenfeld had to devote the bulk of her time for years to fighting this judgment....

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Robert You are in the news

American Islam Scholar Defies German Ban on Israeli Flag

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133764#replies

In a country of over 300 million citizens, when it comes to Constitutional issues and the preservation of American Freedom, we hear only the the same dozen or so brave commentators. The Islamic world has declared the U.S.A. “A Nation of Cowards”. They may be correct.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are not very sexy subjects...which explains why we have lost them.

We can discuss these matters on Jihad Watch and a handful of other sites, but the MainStreamMedia® won’t waste their time.

Wow! Obama is a Nobel Prize Winner (Along with Arafat & Carter)....what’s next? Queen Michelle O’Bama wins American Idol??

In a country of over 300 million citizens, when it comes to Constitutional issues and the preservation of American Freedom, we hear only the the same dozen or so brave commentators. The Islamic world has declared the U.S.A. “A Nation of Cowards”. They may be correct.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are not very sexy subjects...which explains why we have lost them.

We can discuss these matters on Jihad Watch and a handful of other sites, but the MainStreamMedia® won’t waste their time.

Wow! Obama is a Nobel Prize Winner (Along with Arafat & Carter)....what’s next? Queen Michelle O’Bama wins American Idol??

The US SHOULD protect our citizens, but under this president, it will never happen--BO's legal eagles think that we should all be under International law, so US Citizens are paying the price. We will be lucky to survive the BO administration and still be the USA.







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