The dissident president?

He has made speeches on liberty. But Bush must move beyond words in the 18 months he has left

Prodded by Natan Sharansky and Vaclav Havel, President Bush last week reprised his second inaugural address, calling himself a 8220;dissident president 8230; standing for liberty in the world.8221; For the most part, he bashed enemies of the US that also happen to be dictatorships 8212; like Belarus and Cuba, Burma and Zimbabwe. He also brought up Russia, China and Venezuela, countries the US does business with but that are not allies.

Unfortunately, it8217;s not hard for those countries to talk back these days. Guantanamo, said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolaacute;s Maduro, is 8220;a disastrous thing comparable only to the time of Hitler, when there were clandestine jails with prisoners who did not have names. It8217;s monstrous.8221; Russia8217;s Vladimir Putin smugly told reporters that 8220;Amnesty International believes that the United States is the greatest violator of rights and freedoms on a global scale. I have an exact quote, if you want.8221;

If Bush wishes to preserve any legacy as a president who stood up for liberty, he8217;ll have to act like a real dissident in the 18 months he has left.

How so? Of course, Bush could defy Vice President Cheney, close Guantanamo, and abandon the CIA8217;s harsh interrogation methods and secret detentions. But he8217;s not likely to do that unless forced to by Congress or the courts. What he just might do is flout his state department by taking on a few dictators who happen to be allies or clients of the United States. Those governments can respond to criticism with more than words 8212; they can close military bases to US planes, turn off oil and gas pipelines carrying energy to the West, or stop cooperating with the CIA in operations against al-Qaida. But unlike Burma or Belarus, they are also subject to serious US leverage 8212; they depend on American aid and investment and a US security umbrella. Taking them on is principled, risky and contrary to conventional wisdom and just might produce a breakthrough.

That8217;s why the most important point in Bush8217;s Prague speech came at the end of a sentence in which he named 8220;dissidents who could not join us, because they are being unjustly imprisoned.8221; The first three were from Belarus, Burma and Cuba. But the last was Ayman Nour of Egypt 8212; a liberal democrat who has been in jail since early last year, largely because he took Bush8217;s second inaugural speech seriously. Nour had the temerity to challenge Hosni Mubarak8217;s 8220;reelection8221; as Egypt8217;s president beginning early in 2005. Shortly after the campaign ended, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

The Bush administration defended him at first 8212; free-trade talks with Egypt were postponed, and the White House called for his release. But as the state department bureaucracy reasserted itself in Bush8217;s second term, the support faded. The US ambassador to Egypt, Francis Ricciardone, resumed the old practice of catering to the regime and ignoring its opposition.

Days before Bush spoke, Nour8217;s latest appeal was dismissed by the judge Mubarak uses for political cases. Nour has been seeking release on medical grounds. The dissident8217;s brave wife, Gamila Ismael, released photographs last week showing the injuries he received during his latest beating by security guards.

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The rejection of Nour8217;s appeal represented a direct rebuff of Bush by Mubarak. So was Bush8217;s public call for Nour8217;s 8220;immediate and unconditional release8221; in Prague the beginning of tougher action on his case? The record shows that such pressure works: the Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim, who was in the audience in Prague and later spoke with Bush, was released from imprisonment in 2002 after the US threatened to withhold aid.

A similar linkage of American aid to Nour8217;s release might not get the same results. It would certainly upset Ambassador Ricciardone and other advocates of appeasement as usual for Mubarak and other friendly dictators. But it would show that President Bush8217;s words about 8220;standing for liberty8221; mean something. A real 8220;dissident president8221; wouldn8217;t hesitate.