::: Not Covered In The U.S. Media ~~ Why? :::

The Screwing of Cynthia McKinney

[...]
Cynthia McKinney, (former U.S. Congresswoman) is dangerous/
loony/disgusting? According to NPR, "McKinney implied that the
[Bush] Administration knew in advance about September 11 and
deliberately held back the information."

The New York Times' Lynette Clemetson revealed her comments
went even further over the edge: "Ms. McKinney suggest[ed]
that President Bush might have known about the September 11
attacks but did nothing so his supporters could make money in
a war."

That's loony, all right. As an editor of the highly respected Atlanta
Journal Constitution told NPR, McKinney's "practically accused the
President of murder!"

Problem is, McKinney never said it.
[...]

In an interview with Lynette Clemetson, Greg Palast questions
Clemetson on her sources for the "loony" statement made by
former Congresswoman McKinney.

Clemetson said the statement was from the Atlanta Journal
Constitution, but no such direct quote can be found there.
Clemetson then said the statement was from the floor of
the House, but no such McKinney statement can be found
in the transcripts or records of the House of Representatives

[...] (from interview: Palast)
Nor was it in the Congressional Record, nor in any recorded
talk, nor on her Website, nor in any of her radio talks. Here's
the Congresswoman's statement from the record:

"George Bush had no prior knowledge of the plan to attack
the World Trade Center on September 11."

Oh.

And I should say former Congresswoman McKinney.

She was beaten in the August 2002 Democratic primary.
More precisely, she was beaten to death, politically, by
the fabricated quote
[...]

So ... how did the pack come to turn on McKinney?
Trackback to 2000 Election, Jeb Bush, Katherine
Harris and their attempt to remove 90,000 voters
from the rolls in Florida.

[...]
Months before the 2000 presidential elections, the offices
of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Secretary of State
Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 90,000 citizens
from the voter rolls because they were convicted felons
. . . and felons can't vote in Florida. There was one problem:
97 percent of those on the list were, in fact, innocent.

They weren't felons, but they were guilty . . . of not being
white. Over half the list contained names of non-whites. I'm
not guessing: I have the list from out of the computers of
Katherine Harris' office -- and the "scrubbed" voter's race is
listed with each name.

And that's how our President was elected: by illegally removing
tens of thousands of legal African American voters before the
race.

But you knew that . . . at least you did if you read the British
papers -- I reported this discovery for the Guardian of London.
And I reported again on the nightly news. You saw that . . . if
you live in Europe or Canada or South America.

In the USA, the story ran on page zero

Well, let me correct that a bit. The Washington Post did run the
story on the fake felon list that selected our President -- even
with a comment under my byline. I wrote the story within weeks
of the election, while Al Gore was still in the race. The Post
courageously ran it . . . seven months after the election.

The New York Times ran it . . . well, never, even after Katherine
Harris confessed the scam to a Florida court after she and the
state were successfully sued by the NAACP.
[...]

Now ... for the connection to Clemetson and McKinney.

[...]
At BBC Television, we had Florida's computer files and
documents, marked "confidential" -- stone-cold evidence
showing how the vote fix was deliberately crafted by
Republican officials. Not a single major U.S. paper asked
for the documents -- not from the state of Florida nor
from the BBC. Only one U.S. Congressperson asked
for the evidence and made it public: Cynthia McKinney
of Atlanta.

That was her mistake.

The company that came up with the faux felon list that
determined the presidency: a Republican-tied database
company named "ChoicePoint," one of the richest, most
powerful companies in Atlanta.
[...]

And ... another of McKinney's mistakes was ...

[...]
Did I mention to you that (ex-)Congresswoman McKinney
is black? And not just any kind of black. She’s the
uppity kind of black.


What I mean by uppity is this:


After George Bush Senior left the White House, he
became an advisor and lobbyist for a Canadian gold-
mining company, Barrick Gold. Hey, a guy’s got to work.
But there were a couple of questions about Barrick, to
say the least. For example, was Barrick’s Congo gold mine
funding both sides of a civil war and perpetuating that
bloody conflict? Only one Congressperson demanded
hearings on the matter.

You’ve guessed: Cynthia McKinney.

That was covered in the . . . well, it wasn’t covered at all in the
U.S. press.

McKinney contacted me at the BBC. She asked if I’d heard of
Barrick. Indeed, I had. Top human rights investigators had
evidence that a mine that Barrick bought in 1999 had, in clearing
their Tanzanian properties three years earlier, bulldozed mine
shafts . . . burying about 50 miners alive.

I certainly knew Barrick: They’d sued the Guardian for daring
to run a story I’d written about the allegations of the killings.
Barrick never sued an American paper for daring to run the
story, because no American paper dared.

The primary source for my story, an internationally famous lawyer
named Tundu Lissu, was charged by the Tanzanian police with
sedition, and arrested, for calling for an investigation. McKinney
has been trying to save his life with an international campaign
aimed at Barrick.

That was another of her mistakes.

The New York Times wrote about McKinney that Atlanta’s “prominent
Black leaders – including Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP and
former Mayor Maynard Jackson – who had supported Ms. McKinney in
the past – distanced themselves from her this time.”

Really? Atlanta has four internationally recognized black leaders. Martin
Luther King III did not abandon McKinney. I checked with him. Nor did
Julian Bond (the Times ran a rare retraction on their website at Bond’s
request). But that left Atlanta’s two other notables: Vernon Jordan and
Andrew Young. Here, the Times had it right; no question that these two
black faces of the Atlanta Establishment let McKinney twist slowly in the
wind – because, the Times implied, of her alleged looniness.

But maybe there was another reason Young and Jordan let
McKinney swing. Remember Barrick? George Bush’s former gold-mining
company, the target of McKinney’s investigations? Did I mention to you
that Andy Young and Vernon Jordan are both on Barrick’s payroll? Well,
I just did.

Did the Times mention it? I guess that wasn’t fit to print.
[...]

So ... say what you will about Greg Palast ... he always digs out the
cockroaches, forcing them into the bright sunlight.

Bravo Greg!

Ok sorry ... just cannot stop here. Greg reveals much more in this article.
Details, including his admission that "McKinney's electronic lynching"
is probably his fault. As well as BBC Newsnight/Guardian reports:

[...]
Wednesday, November 7, 2001

Probes Before 11 September

Officials Told to 'Back Off' on Saudis Before September 11.
[...]

Then .... there is Ted Koppel's Nightline follow-up on the BBC
elections story. When the BBC team reported an amazing
180,000 votes never counted ... marked as spoiled, involved
an unusually high number of votes from black voters (one in
eight), Koppel's team flew to Florida. After speaking with
experts and many "important white people," Koppel reported
this:

[...]
Many blacks are new to voting and, with limited education, have
a difficult time with marking the sophisticated ballots. In other
words, ABC concluded, African Americans are too fucking dumb
to figure out how to vote.
[...]
Here’s the real scoop: All races of voters make errors on paper
ballots. But in white counties like Leon (Tallahassee), if you
make a stray mark or other error, the vote machine rejects your
ballot, and you get another ballot to vote again. But in black
counties like Gadsden, you make a mistake and the machine
quietly accepts and voids your ballot.

In other words, it wasn’t that African Americans are too dumb to
vote but that European American reporters are too dumb to ask,
too lazy to bother, too gutless to tell officialdom to stop lying into
the cameras.
[...]

Ok ... done (again). Lots to think over, especially in view of the
next voting scandal just waiting to happen. States must make
sure electronic voting machine tallies can be verified by paper
trails. Otherwise, we will be drowned in the river once more.
- posted by JT @ 12:25 PM |