Last week, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the former ruler of Haiti, unexpectedly returned to the country after a 25-year exile in France. Duvalier’s return has many concerned that his presence will once again stir up the animosity and violence that existed during his 15-year dictatorship. Duvalier’s rein saw the disappearance and torture of hundreds of Haitians and brutal crackdowns on democracy and human rights advocates (it should be noted that much of this was possible thanks to the international assistance of France and the United States).

Now, with Duvalier once again seeking to become a public figure in Haiti, he is working to rebuild his public image in the eyes of both Haitians and the international community. In order to do this, he has enlisted the help of numerous U.S. attorneys, including none other than former Libertarian Party presidential candidate and Clinton impeachment champion former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA). Barr will serve as the former dictator’s “voice to the world,” and he told CNN that he plans to bring Duvalier’s “message of hope to the world“:

A former U.S. congressman was among a group of American attorneys accompanying former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier as he spoke in the country’s capital Friday. Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr said he is not serving as Duvalier’s attorney, but is in Port-au-Prince to consult, assist and be Duvalier’s voice to the international community. [...]

Barr “will be representing” Duvalier “in bringing his message of hope to the world,” the former Republican congressman’s website says. “I also am reminded of others who have risen from the ashes,” Barr told reporters Friday. “The city of Atlanta is the Phoenix city. The people of Haiti, likewise, will rise from the problems created by last year’s earthquake and emerge stronger and better than before. That I know is Mr. Duvalier’s deep wish and something that he knows in his heart.”

Accompanying Barr will be fellow Georgia attorneys Ed Marger and Mike Puglise, who practice law in the small rural towns of Jasper and Snelleville, GA respectively.

One has to wonder how Barr — who ran for president in 2008 to “deliver a refreshing message of liberty” — can reconcile his supposed right-libertarian beliefs with being on the payroll of a notorious autocrat who shut down elections and the free press and tortured nonviolent dissidents. (h/t Mike Elk)

Recently, a Seattle-based grassroots group called the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign purchased ads on the side of a dozen public buses in the King County, Seattle bus system. The ads featured the image of a destroyed Palestinian home along with the words “Israeli war crimes — Your tax dollars at work.”

The plans to place these ads were considered provocative by many that opposed the group’s campaign, and three other organizations quickly began to make plans to run ads “portraying Israel as the victim of Palestinian terrorism.” Yet despite the controversy, “Metro and County Executive Dow Constantine initially said the ad was consistent with county ad standards and that it would violate the sponsor’s free-speech rights” to cancel the ads.

Yet at the last minute, Constantine chose to reject the placement of the ads on the county’s buses. Constantine claimed that federal and local law-enforcement agencies warned that the bus system “could be vulnerable to disruption” if the ads were placed. The official went on to say that inserting ads that took part in a “vitriolic debate” would insert “new and significant security concerns [that caused the] reassessment,” essentially saying that placing the ads would’ve risked violence against the bus system.

Now, the ACLU of Washington is suing the bus system, claiming that the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s free speech rights were violated. Local news station King 5 covered the controversy in a special report. Watch it:

Interestingly, the King County Metro bus system has carried provocative messages several times before in the past. In 2005, buses carried ads proclaiming, “”War kills the innocent — Join together to end the Iraq War.” And in 2009 the buses had ads saying “Yes, Virginia … there is no God.” Given that county officials approved these and other provocative ads, which indeed were part of a “vitriolic debate” over the Iraq war and religion, it is curious to see them reject ads protesting US aid to Israel out of the supposed fear that it would incite violence.

ACLU Washington Executive Director Kathleen Taylor made clear at a press conference that the remote threat of terrorism is not sufficient reason to silent the activist group’s dissent. “The purpose of the First Amendment,” Taylor said, “is to protect speech that is difficult to hear and that makes people uncomfortable…Part of being a free society and a democratic society is we as citizens engage in the hurly-burly of free speech. We can’t say, ‘Oh, it’s inconvenient to have free speech.’”