Good day citizens and welcome to What 
Would Jefferson Do?,
our weekly opportunity to discuss 
current American events with President 
Thomas Jefferson,
who is seated across from me now.
Good day to you,
Mr.
President.
Good Day to you,
citizen.
Mr Jefferson,
recently a reporter was killed.
He's not an American citizen,
and he wasn't murdered on US soil,
but he does have legal residence here.
He writes for an American newspaper.
I'm wondering sir,
how you would react to a situation like 
this,
in a diplomatic sense.
Voltaire,
who was not a reporter but a philosopher
in France,
was beaten up by a rich noble,
his lackeys,
for writing things that the nobleman 
found offensive to him.
So beatings,
and tar and feathers,
and intimidation of journalists is as 
old as the world.
I'm certain.
You know,
we in the United States have a fortunate
that tradition.
The Declaration of Independence says 
that we are entitled to life,
liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
And so clearly this journalist's life 
and his liberty were taken from him,
but not by the United States,
thank goodness,
by a foreign power.
And we have the First Amendment,
which is maybe the most powerful 
doctrine and protection of free speech 
that exists anywhere on earth,
and that is one of Mr Madison's gifts to
the American republic.
So in our country we don't do that sort 
of thing and when it happens somewhere 
else,
particularly if there's a tie to the 
United States as there was in this case,
we need to protest firmly without any 
ambiguity whatsoever.
And to say that it simply is the case 
that the United States does not want to 
have significant interests with any 
regime anywhere that would treat a 
foreign journalist or any journalist in 
this manner.
So in the history of the world,
most of these things have never come to 
the attention of the people.
In your age of universal media access 
and diffusion,
events like this suddenly become 
international crises.
So now the question is not what will 
happen to the country that did this,
but what will the reaction be of 
countries in the world that are 
dedicated to due process,
bills of,
rights and the protection of life.
Seems to me,
this is a test of America's principles.
It's one thing to to think about 
economic dislocations that might occur 
from a crisis between two nations,
but we always have to remember that the 
primary business of America is to stand 
for certain ideals,
and that if we don't stand firmly for 
those ideals,
it's not clear that other countries will
be able to do so either - that the 
United States,
having invented a republic of our sort 
with the kind of due process that we 
take for granted,
has a special role in the world.
Not militarily,
but in terms of its principles and its 
willingness to stand forthright for 
those principles.
I guess the question that remains 
unanswered for me is:
because the gentleman was not an 
American citizen,
what responsibilities do we have 
diplomatically to stand up for these 
things?
Well,
it's often said that George Washington 
coined the phrase 'no entangling 
alliances.'
It's not so;
that certainly was one of his principles
in his farewell address,
but I actually gave us the phrase,
and I mean it - that if the United 
States engages in alliances with other 
countries,
whether it's France or Portugal or in 
this case Saudi Arabia,
that will have a compromising effect 
because there's no way the United States
can control the activities of those 
nations.
But this is also a case of freedom of 
the press,
sir.
Yes,
and we should speak boldly on behalf of 
this journalist and on behalf of freedom
of the press anywhere on earth.
But whether that leads to war,
or economic sanctions or embargo or any 
other coercive measure,
is a question that can only be answered 
by the people that you've elected into 
roles of responsibility in your country.
My only point is that the United States 
is a fortress.
We have all the natural resources that 
we could ever need and I hope that we 
would never be dependent upon any other 
nation anywhere on earth for anything we
needed so that if something like this 
happened,
we could simply turn inward and say,
we choose not to have relations with 
such a nation.
Until such time as you investigate,
prosecute,
and apologize to the world.
Thank you very much,
Mr Jefferson.
You are most welcome,
sir.
