Shame on Abdullah and Bush

President George W. Bush inaugurated his second term with a stirring promise. "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you." In his State of the Union last week, Bush pledged that "we will act boldly in freedom's cause." So why has the president been publicly silent about the plight of one of the Muslim world's bravest journalists, Jihad Momani?

Momani is the hero of the cartoon controversy. He was the editor of the Jordanian tabloid al-Shihan that published three of the Mohammed caricatures on the grounds that people should know what they were protesting about. The cartoons were accompanied by an editorial that pleaded, "Muslims of the world be reasonable," and asked, "What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

For his troubles, Momani was fired, arrested twice, denied bail, and charged with blasphemy by the government of King Abdullah II of Jordan. As of Wednesday he was under arrest in a hospital, where he was suffering from "stress and exhaustion." Abdullah has played an important role in the case. Last week he explained that insulting Mohammed is "a crime that cannot be justified under the pretext of freedom of expression." Agence France Presse subsequently reported that "His words were seen by security forces as a signal to take action against the newspapers."

An Oval Office photo opportunity with Abdullah on Wednesday morning offered a perfect opportunity for Bush to say something in praise of the Jordanian journalist. But despite devoting more than half his comments to the cartoon controversy, Bush offered not even a veiled hint that the United States was concerned about the plight of Momani and another Jordanian editor who is also being detained. It was a glaring omission considering that Momani is precisely the kind of moderate the United States should be supporting in the region. Bush doesn't even have the excuse that the United States lacks influence with Jordan: According to the International Monetary Fund, U.S. aid accounts for more than a fifth of Jordan's annual budget. And the president's silence was particularly galling given that his chief wordsmith Michael Gerson recently told The New Yorker that when weighing whether to encourage the president to speak out against tyranny, "it always occurs to me, How would people who are living in that evil experience it?" Referring to those oppressed by autocratic regimes, Gerson asked, "Are you going to take their side or not?"