March 10, 2011--Congressman Peter King's First Stone
Talk about hypocrisy. In a town where it was likely invented, Washington, DC, Congressman Peter King, Republican of Long Island and chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, should try to copyright "hypocrisy" as he is revealed in a terrific piece of background reporting in yesterday's New York Times to be the embodiment of it.
(Article linked below.)
At a time when he is holding hearings about the Muslim terrorist threat to America, more than implying that there is something inherent in Islam itself that makes Islamic US citizens dangerous to our security, he has conveniently forgotten that back in the day--the 1970s and 80s--he was a fervent supporter of his own favorite terrorist organization--the Irish Republican Army.
The I.R.A., lest we forget, was responsible for decades of terrorist bombings in London and elsewhere throughout Ireland and the British Isles that resulted in the murder and maiming of thousands of innocent non-combatants.
No matter how justified the Irish freedom fighters' cause (if we consider them that) they used terror tactics to advance their agenda. And Peter King did all sorts of things to aid and abet them.
In 1982, when he was a Nassau County elected official, he told a pro-I.R.A. rally, “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry." Three years later he rationalized, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.”
And, if the then congressman who headed the equivalent of the Homeland Security Committee decided to hold hearings in which all Irish-American citizens were considered suspect until proven innocent, who else but King would have been screaming the loudest that such hearings are unfair to the vast majority of peace-loving, patriotic Irish-Americans.
The Times quotes him today as saying that there is no valid comparison between supporting the I.R.A. and Muslim terrorists-- “I understand why people who are misinformed might see a parallel. The fact is, the I.R.A. never attacked the United States. And my loyalty is to the United States.”
I get it-- killing of the innocents only counts if the victims are Americans. As I said, he gets the lifetime award for hypocrisy.
(Article linked below.)
At a time when he is holding hearings about the Muslim terrorist threat to America, more than implying that there is something inherent in Islam itself that makes Islamic US citizens dangerous to our security, he has conveniently forgotten that back in the day--the 1970s and 80s--he was a fervent supporter of his own favorite terrorist organization--the Irish Republican Army.
The I.R.A., lest we forget, was responsible for decades of terrorist bombings in London and elsewhere throughout Ireland and the British Isles that resulted in the murder and maiming of thousands of innocent non-combatants.
No matter how justified the Irish freedom fighters' cause (if we consider them that) they used terror tactics to advance their agenda. And Peter King did all sorts of things to aid and abet them.
In 1982, when he was a Nassau County elected official, he told a pro-I.R.A. rally, “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry." Three years later he rationalized, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.”
And, if the then congressman who headed the equivalent of the Homeland Security Committee decided to hold hearings in which all Irish-American citizens were considered suspect until proven innocent, who else but King would have been screaming the loudest that such hearings are unfair to the vast majority of peace-loving, patriotic Irish-Americans.
The Times quotes him today as saying that there is no valid comparison between supporting the I.R.A. and Muslim terrorists-- “I understand why people who are misinformed might see a parallel. The fact is, the I.R.A. never attacked the United States. And my loyalty is to the United States.”
I get it-- killing of the innocents only counts if the victims are Americans. As I said, he gets the lifetime award for hypocrisy.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:18 AM
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