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The words of those government officials who falsely blamed the Benghazi terrorist attack on an obscure YouTube trailer, and were then willing to abandon the First amendment to defend their lies.

The words of those who falsely blamed the Benghazi terrorist attack on an obscure YouTube trailer, and were then willing to abandon the First Amendment to defend their lies.

Yesterday’s dramatic congressional testimony about the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on U.S. interests in Benghazi, Libya convincingly corroborated what was widely reported within days of the attack: that senior American officials on the ground knew immediately, despite the Obama administration’s storyline to the contrary, that the assault did not arise out of a “spontaneous” demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in protest of an obscure YouTube trailer of a homemade anti-Islam movie called Innocence of Muslims.

Falsely assessing partial blame for the violence on a piece of artistic expression inflicted damage not just on the California resident who made it—Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is currently serving out a one-year sentence for parole violations committed in the process of producing Innocence—but also on the entire American culture of free speech. In the days and weeks after the attacks, academics and foreign policy thinkers fell over themselves dreaming up new ways to either disproportionately punish Nakoula or scale back the very notion of constitutionally protected expression.

The article then shows us who in American politics was willing to abandon freedom of speech for political reasons. If we have any courage, we should throw these words back in their face again and again and again and again.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • JGL

    I was able to watch the majority of the Benghazi testimoney the other day, all three of the guys that testified were extremely credible and there testimoney was A-political. Just the facts.

    I initially was under the reasonable impression that the whole thing was really a CIA operation and the president and Mrs. Clinton wanted no part of it so they left it to play out at a distance. And that is still a reasonable assumtion but I think what also has to be recognized is that the president and his people, probably the likes of Axelrod, did not like the negative political implications that would have resulted during the election cycle.

    Both the president and Mrs. Clinton IMO have abandoned their feduciary responsibity in this instance and their inaction has resulted in the unneccessary deaths of the four Americans who reasonably expected to be protected no matter where they were or what they were doing. Crimes and misdemeanors? These are despicable inactions for political gain, we can only hope that it cost Mrs. Clinton her shot at the White House. As for Obama I have resigned myself that he gets a pass on everything, is probably ham strung for the rest of his administration, we just have to wait it out.

  • jwing

    They wanted the video to “wag the dog” during the election cycle and it worked. Obama was re-elected by about a 4% margin and Hillary has since left the State Dept. and is tending her questionablely timed mini-stroke.

    Who ordered the stand down command (only Obama could), and where was Obama during the hours this incident occurred before leaving for a Las Vegas campaign event?

  • D. K. Williams

    It was Obama who politicized this tragedy from the get-go. He will escape relatively unscathed unless Hillary turns on him, which she can’t do without implicating herself. I’m afraid the only justice the dead will receive is whatever the House Republicans can unearth. And our stupid electorate will have forgotten about it by 2016.

  • JGL

    Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a radio interview Thursday that “of all the great cover-ups in history” — including the Pentagon papers, Iran-Contra and Watergate — Benghazi “is going to go down as most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history.”

    “We may be starting to use the I-word before too long,” Inhofe said on the Las Vegas-based “Rusty Humphries Show.”

    “The I-word meaning impeachment?” Humphries asked.

    “Yeah,” Inhofe confirmed.

    At the minimum both Obama and Hilliary are very badly tarnished and at the maximum it costs them both the presidency. These are the wages of putting political self interest and ideaology over sacred duty.

  • Pzatchok

    All i can say is if a republican was at the helm for this it more than likely never would have happened in the first place and IF it id for some reason then the MSM would never have let it go especially with the election coming up.

    They would have hung onto it like a starving dog on a steak.

    Every reporter should ask themselves ‘what if the other guy was in charge of this?’
    If you would report on it differently then you need to find the middle road and make your report on those lines. With all the facts presented in an unbiased way.

    I am tired of the MSM’s hypocrisy.
    The old saying ‘kill all the lawyers’ Well I’m getting around to changing it to “kill all the reporters”.

  • JGL

    Your tired of the MSM’s hypocrisy?

    Why would a person watch such a network other than to see what the admistration wanted to transmit and to see how the particular media vehicle chose to deliver it. The media (MSNBC specifically among many others) have such a sympatico, idealological investment in Obama that they are no longer jounalists, they are self professed operatives. They long ago left behind being reporters. I expect that as they are dragged to the reality of the situation that many of them will have some kind of nervous breakdown on air.

    And don’t get me wrong, the Republicans are no bargain, they also sicken me, but I am confident that if they were in command something would have been done over an eight hour battle event.

  • Pzatchok

    I only turn them on to contrast FOX news about once a week.

    All I can take of the MSM networks are about an hour total in any given week, no matter what the subject of the report is.

    I never liked Bill Clinton in his time but I NEVER even considered that he would work at harming this nation. And I never thought he would just leave Americans hanging out in a combat situation to die.

    I don’t even think Hillary would do that on her own.

    But the big O. I do believe he would let them die just for a hoped for little good will in the Islamic world.
    Or even just in hopes of stopping a little pre election bad press.

  • JGL

    Obama and his co conspiartos will go down in history as the most anti Constitutional, decietfull and just plain ideaologicaly anti American administration EVER!

    Let this be the test that strengthens our country and not the test that destroys it. This right here right now is exactly what the Constitution was written to counter balance, the subjective abuse of power.

    As far as MSNBC goes, all you have to know is that they have hired Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod, what more has to be discussed? Its right in your face, the media is no longer objective they are now the tools of the administration in power. This IMO is the idealogical and generational push back to G. Bush jr. and his abuses. I see the Constitution as being stronger than any one philosophy and expect to come out of this stronger.

  • JGL

    “In the White House’s latest efforts at transparency, the administration announced to reporters that it would brief reporters on the latest shocking developments about the Benghazi situation … behind closed doors. Politico reports that the meeting started at approximately 12:45 PM ET, and that it moved the normal press briefing to 1:45 PM ET. Jay Carney, White House press secretary, did not comment on whether the meeting took place.” POLITICO

    You see, this administration believes that “we” need to be managed because we are unable to properly understand and interpret any information that may come “our” way. The height of arrogance, hubris will get you every time.

  • JGL

    Four of these should have been dispatched and sitting over Benghazi during the “video demonstration” where four Americans lost their lives for politics.

    http://youtu.be/QBGRhI4WtiA

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