"Perhaps today in my remarks, we can begin a much more vigorous debate that will respond to the needs that we have been watching in real time on our television sets," she said, as her security guards were closing in on McGovern as he stood silently.
Of course, McGovern is only one of thousands of Americans who have been arrested for protesting the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, not to mention the untold number of Americans who have been subjected to high-tech spying by the U.S. government as part of the "war on terror."
Over prior decades -- indeed centuries -- the U.S. government routinely has trampled on the rights of people in America and around the world, often crushing popular uprisings with the most brutal force.
Just last week, the United States wallowed in maudlin celebrations of Ronald Reagan's presidency, which included sending weapons and money to help slaughter peasants, students and workers in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Ronald Reagan, Enabler of Atrocities."]
Yet, Clinton whitewashed this bloody history as if the U.S. government has always been the great defender of people power resisting injustice.
"It is our values that cause these actions [in places like Egypt and Iran] to inspire or outrage us, our sense of human dignity, the rights that flow from it, and the principles that ground it," Clinton said, without a word about America's mixed record on these "values."
Just minutes after McGovern had been dragged from the room and handcuffed, Clinton hailed the need for respecting different points of view and giving them space for their expression.
"The goal is not to tell people how to use the Internet any more than we ought to tell people how to use any public square, whether it's Tahrir Square or Times Square," Clinton said. "The value of these spaces derives from the variety of activities people can pursue in them, from holding a rally to selling their vegetables, to having a private conversation. "
"Together, the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association online comprise what I've called the freedom to connect. The United States supports this freedom for people everywhere, and we have called on other nations to do the same."
Secretary Clinton also tried to square the circle of her enthusiasm for Internet freedom and the extraordinary steps the Obama administration is taking to find legal grounds to prosecute WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, along with suspected leaker Pvt. Bradley Manning, for posting classified U.S. documents on the Internet.
"I know that government confidentiality has been a topic of debate during the past few months because of WikiLeaks, but it's been a false debate in many ways," she said. "Fundamentally, the WikiLeaks incident began with an act of theft. Government documents were stolen, just the same as if they had been smuggled out in a briefcase.
"Some have suggested that this theft was justified because governments have a responsibility to conduct all of our work out in the open in the full view of our citizens. I respectfully disagree. " The fact that WikiLeaks used the Internet is not the reason we criticized its actions. [The case of] WikiLeaks does not challenge our commitment to Internet freedom."
When I contacted Ray McGovern on Thursday, he said he was doing fine.
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