First amendment behind bars

The man behind an anti-Islamic YouTube video that inflamed Islamist radicals (and the State Department) was hit with a 12-month federal prison sentence last Wednesday, ostensibly for a "probation violation."

And the First Amendment weeps.

For there's no doubt why Mark Basseley Youssef will be spending four seasons behind the wire: Team Obama was taking a beating over the Sept. 11 murder of the US ambassador to Libya — and a goat needed to be scaped.

So to hell with free speech.

Administration figures from the president on down have blamed the terrorist assault in Benghazi on Youssef's low-budget video about the Prophet Mohammed.

Reuters

Mark Basseley Youssef

So on Wednesday, Youssef pleaded guilty to four minor charges, including using a false name and procuring false ID.

Not exactly Al Capone-level stuff — so why did the Justice Department dispatch federal agents to Youssef's home in the dark of night in September, and why has it been after him with such a vengeance?

In court, the assistant US attorney leading the persecution said Youssef was "not here because of the content of the movie."

But that's transparently false.

The same lawyer told the judge at the sentencing hearing that Youssef "betrayed" the actors in his movie by not telling them about his past, and by dubbing over some of their lines.

That is, a federal prosecutor (and his bosses at DOJ, and the judge in this case) have decided that the feds can dictate what a moviemaker can say with his work.

Which is the most egregious violation of free-speech rights in recent memory.

We thought it was tough enough being on the Enemies List of radical Mideast clerics — but apparently, ruffling the president's feathers is another matter entirely.

And on this one topic, the Justice Department and Islamists seem to agree: Youssef needed to be shut up, no matter what the law requires or conscience demands.

Anyone seeking a preview of Barack Obama's second term can find one here: The president appears to care more about the quivering Islamist masses in the Mideast than he does about protecting the First Amendment back home.

It's shameful, but not a bit surprising.

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