IN DEFENSE OF MCKINNEY

byMumia Abu-Jamal

[Col. Writ. 4/22/02]

It is not often that this writer comes out in defense of members of Congress.

If the past is any indication, members of this body should be criticized, not so much for what they do, as for what they don't do, indeed, can't do, on behalf of those who barely survive at the very bottom of the American economic, political and class system.

Often, their very presence on capital hill obscures far more than it reveals, for it projects the illusion of power, by the election of black faces to high places, who, in fact, have very little power to impact the system. They reflect an illusion of democracy, for their presence hides their utter powerlessness, and the impotence of their impoverished constituencies. Their loyalty to their political parties is often in contrast to their loyalty to their constituencies, as can be seen in how a number of black congressmen and women voted for such reprehensible measures as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), known popularly as the Welfare Reform Act, or the so-called US PATRIOT Act, which allows secret trials, secret searches, and the evisceration of the Constitution.

And then there is Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat known for her outspokenness on issues of the day. McKinney, a young, brilliant, and Black House member, has been harshly criticized for daring to suggest (in a recent radio interview) that the Bush Administration knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand, and that others in the administration are profiting from that event, and the resultant military mobilization abroad. Some Black columnists have attacked the outspoken representative for daring to speak her mind.

Remember the Clinton-ordered bombing of the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Sudan? That rash U.S. decision had negative consequences for the U.S., as linguist and scholar Noam Chomsky argues in his provocative book 9-11 (Seven Stories, 2001):

Just before the 1998 missile strike, Sudan detained two men suspected
of bombing the American embassies in East Africa, notifying Washington,
U.S. officials confirmed. But the U.S. rejected Sudan's offer of cooperation,
and after the missile attack, Sudan "angrily released" the suspects
(James Risen, New York Times, July 30, 1999); they have since
been identified as bin Laden operatives. Recently leaked FBI
memos add another reason why Sudan "angrily released" the
suspects. The memos reveal that the FBI wanted them extradited,
but the State Department refused. One "senior CIA source" now
describes this and other rejections of Sudanese offers of cooperation
as "the worst single intelligence failure in the whole terrible business"
of September 11 [pp. 52-3].

Is there perhaps yet another reason for the State Dept.'s refusal? It may take years for Americans to know.

Just now, 30 years after Vietnam (a war started with a lie called Gulf of Tonkin) we learn from recently released tapes of former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson that he knew untold numbers of people, Vietnamese and American alike, would die in the hellish winds of war, a war that he inherited from his predecessor.

What was the president's concern? The needless suffering of millions of Vietnamese peasants? The losses of life and limb of American soldiers?

In discussing whether to pull out of Vietnam with a conservative Georgia Senator, Johnson asked, "[T]hey would impeach a president that would run out, wouldn't they?" [See Howard Zinn, Terrorism and War (Seven Stories, 2002).

The most important thing? His job.

Given the political and economic forces that are driving the so-called 'War on Terrorism,' and the American lust to control the vast resources of oil and natural gasses lying under the floor of the Caspian Sea, is it illogical that Senior members of the Bush Administration, many of whom worked for, owned, or were major investors in oil companies, wouldn't be willing to increase their profits?

Representative McKinney should be praised for speaking her mind. She should be lauded for asking important questions about American foreign and domestic policy.

In fact, more members should do so!

Copyright '02 MAJ

Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

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