Just minutes after Secretary Clinton began
a speech lauding freedom of the internet, two security personnel
forcefully removed an audience member wearing a Veterans For Peace
t-shirt who had silently stood and turned his back to her. Ray
McGovern, a 71-year old veteran, and former CIA analyst was violently
grabbed and forcibly removed from the auditorium in direct view of
Mrs. Clinton. According to Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney with the
Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, “For this peaceful expression of
dissent, he ended up bruised, bloodied, arrested, and jailed.
Secretary Clinton never paused, continuing her speech lecturing other
countries about the need to allow freedom of expression and dissent,
while Mr. McGovern was hauled out in front of her.”
Mr. McGovern is covered with bruises, and the metal handcuffs were
fastened so tightly that his wrists were cut and bloody. After being
held by local police, he was told that he was being charged with
“disorderly conduct.”
We asked Ray for a quick statement after his release. He wrote:
“I find myself wondering if this show of brutality may be a signpost
on a path to even wider and more brutal repression. I have been
comparing what happened during Clinton’s speech Tuesday with my
four-minute mini-debate with Donald Rumsfeld on May 4, 2006 in Atlanta
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MInHphR4zBg). Halfway through,
Rumsfeld gives the nod to a black-hatted security fellow to elbow me
away from the microphone.
I shout, ‘So this is America.’ Rumsfeld takes one look at the TV
cameras streaming live, makes a snap decision, and tells the security
fellow to let me stay. During that same speech in Atlanta, one
fearless witness stands dead-center in the audience with his back to
Rumsfeld for the entire speech and is not bothered, much less beaten
and jailed.
The contrast between the experience of May 2006 and February 2011 can
be viewed through the prism of the proverbial ‘boiling frog.’ There
does seem to be a subtle but successful campaign to get people
gradually accustomed to increasingly repressive measures; and many,
perhaps most, Americans seem oblivious.
After 9/11 Norman Mailer saw a ‘pre-fascist climate’ reigning in
America. If we don’t stand up for our rights, it may not be long
before we shall have to drop the ‘pre.’”
Veterans For Peace is proud of our member Ray McGovern, whose simple,
dignified action speaks volumes about the power of non-violence. We
abhor the actions of the security personnel who reacted violently and
in flagrant violation of Mr. McGovern’s First Amendment rights. We
also deplore the indifference of Secretary Clinton who didn’t bat an
eye and we demand that she apologize for her silence and hypocrisy.
Most importantly, we call on the American public to wake up to the
dark reality of what this country has become…a place where civil
liberties and freedom of expression are becoming increasingly
endangered, and the government’s response to every situation is
intimidation and force.
Call 202-647-4000 and write Sec. Clinton to protest:
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