In a related “Not Optimal” outcome, the guy who made the video that President Obama so spuriously blamed for the Benghazi attack is still in jail.
True, Mark Basseley Youssef (a k a Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) is sitting in the Crossbar Hotel on an unrelated probation-violation charge.
But only an idiot would believe that the police swooped down in the darkness and collected him for any reason other than that his video had incurred the disfavor of rabid Islamists — and of Team Obama, which needed a timely post-Benghazi scapegoat.
Certainly the president made his contempt for the First Amendment clear last month when he and his aides lashed out at Nakoula’s sophomoric video trailer, pushed Google to ban it and uttered not a peep of protest as its producer was hauled away.
Never mind Americans’ constitutional rights to say whatever the heck they want about Islam — or any religion.
Now, of course, Obama not only concedes the Benghazi assault was an act of terrorism; he claims, also spuriously, that he said so within hours of the murders — rather than more than two weeks after the event, as was the case.
Call it progress.
But what about Youssef?
We have no interest in defending Youssef on the merits. He’s a convicted bank fraudster who well may have broken his probation terms.
But if he was a probation violator, the offense occurred long before the video caught the president’s interest.
Why didn’t the authorities lift him then?
Bottom line: Nakoula deserves no worse treatment than anyone else in his situation would get.
But what are the chances Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department will move to restore Youssef’s pre-Benghazi status quo?
Right. Zero.
Otherwise, he’d be free now.
That Obama & Co. targeted him to appease Islamists was outrageous enough.
That he’s still locked up compounds the offense.