WASHINGTON, January 13 (Sputnik) – The current US administration does not have the moral right to take part in rallies for freedom of expression like the one that was held in Paris on Sunday, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity has told Sputnik.
"The Obama Administration has invoked the Espionage Act more times than all its predecessors combined to silence or imprison whistleblowers," McAdams said in an interview with Sputnik Monday. "Why would a representative of one of the worst violators of the US First Amendment have any moral authority to march in a rally for free speech?" he went on.
A unity rally was held in Paris to express solidarity with the victims of last week's terror attacks on the office of the French Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and the hostages killed during a subsequent attack on a kosher supermarket outside Paris.
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Over a million people attended the unity march, including 40 top world officials. British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov showed up at the rally, however, the United States did not send a top representative to the event, having been represented by US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.
According to McAdams, some foreign leaders present at the march for "freedom of speech", including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, are responsible for "innumerable violations of free speech in their own countries".
The expert also stressed that France, Germany, and the United Kingdom routinely jail their own citizens for expressing opinions that the government objects to.
"France has gone so far as to ban a comedian from performing in the country, because his controversial speech was not of the approved variety," McAdams claimed, adding that in addition to disrespecting the freedom of speech, Western governments, including the United States, are also "arming and supporting terrorists".
"France, the UK, Germany, and the US have been actively supporting terrorists in Syria and Libya for years in their efforts to overthrow governments they do not like," McAdams emphasized.
According to the expert, brothers Kouachi, the suspects in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo office, who were later killed by French police, "were essentially promoting French foreign policy when they were in Syria last summer fighting against the Assad government".
"They may have even used French weapons in Syria, as France has shipped plenty of weapons to terrorists fighting there," McAdams claimed in the Monday interview with Sputnik.
White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said during a press briefing on Monday that the United States should have sent a higher profile official to the Paris unity march.
According to Earnest, US President Barack Obama did not attend the event because of security precautions.
