November 5, 2002
Awakened Woman's Circle is working for peace
Cynthia McKinney: America's Patriot of the Year
by Susan Wadia-Ells
On March 25, 2002, Cynthia McKinney, a five- term Congresswoman from Georgia's 4th District, a Democrat, and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, let the cat out of the bag when she questioned if the Bush Administration had been complicit in letting 9-11 happen.
"Why aren't the hard questions being asked? We know there were numerous warnings of the event to come on Sept 11. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, delivered one such warning. Those engaged in unusual stock trades immediately before Sept 11 knew enough to make millions of dollars from United and American Airlines, [and from] certain insurance and brokerage firm stock. What did this administration know and when did it know it about the event of Sept 11? Who else knew and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?" McKinney asked in a national radio interview.
McKinney also dared mention that associates of the White House, including George Bush Sr., a consultant to the Carlyle Group, the 11th largest defense contractor in the U.S., stood to gain from the response to the attacks. "The Los Angeles Times reports that on a single day last month, Carlyle earned $237 billion selling shares in United Defense Industries. Carlyle officials say they decided to take the company public only after the Sept 11 attacks."
McKinney's Congressional critics demanded why she would question the president and called her unpatriotic. Fellow Democrat, Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, called her remarks, "…dangerous, loony and irresponsible."
And then a month later, news broke that Bush had received an intelligence briefing in August, warning that the al Quaeda network might hijack an airplane; a report the Administration had been mum about for nine months. Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashle also reported that the White House had been pushing hard to block any congressional or independent investigations into U.S. intelligence failures. McKinney's concerns suddenly made a lot of sense.
Last summer the Republican Party, angry at her outspokenness, and a conservative Jewish lobby, angry at her long-term support for a Palestinian homeland, targeted McKinney for defeat. The groups placed a conservative Democratic candidate on the ballot and organized a massive Republican crossover voting campaign, technically allowed under Georgia law.
McKinney's opponent out spent her by an unprecedented $500,000 and took 58% of the vote.
In the end, a whopping 116,544 Democratic ballots were cast in District Four's 2002 primary election, compared to only 54,861 Democratic ballots cast in the same primary in 2000.
McKinney supporters are clear that McKinney won the Democratic vote on August 20, 2002.
Voters from McKinney's District, a predominantly African American area, have now filed a lawsuit to overturn the primary election. They are arguing that Republicans do not have the right to determine the outcome of a Democratic Primary. White Republicans violated the civil rights of District 4's Black voters, they say, when they loaded the ballot boxes against McKinney. .
Seven weeks ago, The Senate Judiciary Committee's draft report, "Intelligence Failures Before Sept 11," was leaked to the New York Times. "The report has concluded that ignorance and ineptitude of FBI supervisors and lawyers in Washington blocked field agents around the country from pursuing evidence that could have provided the bureau with what one of the authors of the report called a "veritable blueprint for 9/11."
In a speech last month, summarizing testimony that had been made before the joint congressional committee on intelligence," McKinney shot off a list of seven bombshells that included the following:
"…in the weeks prior to Sept 11, 24-hour fighter cover was placed over the Bush ranch in Crawford Texas."
"… in the weeks prior to Sept 11, Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying commercial aircraft and instead flew Government aircraft."
"… the FBI had an informant living with two of the actual hijackers. "
Losing her sixth congressional election to a new comer and now trying to legally overturn these primary results are difficult and frustrating situations. But McKinney has spent decades preparing herself to play hardball with the establishment.
Back in 1980, McKinney and I were classmates at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University near Boston. I was a mid-career scholar with a car, and she was fresh out of undergraduate school. One day she caught a ride with me over to Harvard's Business School, where she was taking a full semester course on How to Read A Corporate Annual Report.
That's the name of the entire course?" I asked, dumbfounded, as she got out of the car to run to class.
"Susan," she said. "There's a lot more to these corporate operations than meets the eye."
So in true McKinney style, let me echo the Congresswoman and say, "There's a lot more to this 9-11 operation than meets the eye."
The U.S. Congress clearly needs McKinney's honesty, intellect, courage and leadership back among them next year. If Georgia's courts order McKinney's name placed on the ballot next month, I will pray that this time the U.S. Supreme Court does not step in as they did in Florida after the 2000 presidential elections. This time I will hope that the Court keeps its bloodied fingers out of Georgia's sweet election pie.
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Originally published in the Gloucester Daily Times, Oct 28, 2001 Gloucester, MA
Dr Susan Wadia-Ells is director of the The Wise Ones, a wellness institute in Manchester, Massachusetts. She is also an adjunct faculty member in writing at Lesley University. Her most recent book is The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers and Adopted Daughters Tell Their Stories, Seal Press.