Congresswoman Cynthia "Jihad" McKinney: An Enemy from Within

Fellow Georgia Democrat and Senator Zell Miller calls her Oliver Stone conspiracy theories "dangerous and irresponsible," as well as just plain "loony". Her hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, brands her "the most prominent nut" among conspiracy-peddling "nut cases." And fellow Black Democrat and New York Congressman Major Owen, upon hearing her most recent allegations, refused to comment on supporting her reelection. "African Americans have always known that a little bit of paranoia was healthy for us," she told The Progressive in 1996. But is Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney a few pickles short of an eighth grade sex-ed class, or crazy…like a fox?

Last month the left leaning Congresswoman set off a firestorm of controversy, implying that President Bush envisioned the 9-11 terrorist attacks before they occurred, yet did nothing so friends could profit from a military reaction. "Persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war," McKinney told a Berkeley radio station, "We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th. . . . What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th? Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered? . . . . What do they have to hide?"

But fifth term Congresswoman McKinney isn't new to controversy. In 1996 she called supporters of her Jewish Republican congressional opponent "holdovers from the Civil War days" and "a ragtag group of neo-Confederates." Even Democrats aren't safe. "Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high," she said during campaign 2000. "I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time."

"After the majority-black district that first elected her to Congress was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutionally gerrymandered, she lashed out at the court as racist," writes Slate's Chris Suellentrop. "[McKinney] compared the verdict to Dred Scott, the decision that declared slaves were nothing more than chattel, and Plessy v. Ferguson, which legitimized separate-but-equal American apartheid." After her new white majority district reelected her, "she declared that Georgia's kaolin industry engineered the case that eliminated her district, as payback for her fights against the industry in Congress." And last month McKinney was still going on record stating that the Republicans stole the 2000 election, something even Gore is over by now.

The War on Terrorism is where McKinney's mouth really stated to shine. McKinney penned a Washington Post op-ed, writing "I believe that when it comes to major foreign policy issues, many prefer to have black people seen and not heard." McKinney tongue-lashed New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for turning down a $10 million donation from a Saudi Arabian prince who declared that U.S. Middle East policies were partly to blame for 9-11. Unlike Democrat Senator Hillary Clinton and Republican Congressman John Sununu, McKinney even refused to return large campaign contributions from Abdurahman Alamoudi, who proudly voiced support for terrorists group Hamas and Hezbollah at an October 2000 White House demonstration. But what does it all mean?

Is McKinney just some harmless partisan loose cannon, or a wily fox? The Southeastern Legal Foundation discovered that between Sept. 11 and Dec. 31, 2001, 100 of the 108 McKinney contributors of more than $100 were identifiably Arab or Middle Eastern. "If we are to give any credence to her baseless [Bush] claims, the American people deserve to know that McKinney's financial 'relationships' - her campaign contributors - are heavily represented by Arab and Middle Eastern-connected individuals, as well as organizations which have expressed sympathy for terrorist organizations," adds Phil Kent, SLF President. "If McKinney's standard of review is 'relationships,' then her 'relationships' - and the influence those relationships have on her actions - must also be investigated."

Human Events finds that "unlike previous election cycles, when she got 20% to 40% of her campaign cash from outside Georgia, McKinney received more than 90% of her itemized individual contributions from outside her state in 2001." The question of whether or not there is method to McKinney's madness might not be as important as who's exactly pulling her strings. Throw in McKinney's seats on the House Armed Services and International Relations Committees, and you have yourself lots of interesting questions.

"During World War II, we had Tokyo Rose sending demoralizing messages to our troops. During Vietnam, we had Hanoi Jane Fonda sending her treasonous messages to our boys in Southeast Asia, while aiming the Communists' cannons at them. And in this War Against Terrorism, we have Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney…Jihad Cindy -- to demoralize us and give aid and comfort to the enemy," writes columnist Debbie Schlussel. "McKinney has a strong record of hating America. During the recent U.N. World Conference Against Racism, she attacked the U.S. with the rest of the Arab world (now our ‘moderate' partners in the ‘Coalition Against Terrorism') and Third World republics in her push for slavery reparations, saying the White House is ‘just full of latent racists.'"

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is many things to many people. To conservatives she is a dangerous leftwing voice and a terrorist sympathizer. To prominent Democrats she is a brilliant woman who simply needs to listen more and talk less. To Muslim fringe groups she is an empathetic ally on key Congressional committees. To late night talk show hosts she is a walking talking conspiracy theory joke machine. And to many Black Americans, she's someone the national media won't treat fairly simply because she's black. But like Barbara Lee, the infamous Berkeley Congresswoman who proudly voted against US retaliation to the 9-11 World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks, McKinney will always be one thing to the vigilant eye of the American eagle: an enemy from within.

Chris Lilik is founder of the award-winning Villanova Times newspaper, and has appeared on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor, C-SPAN's Book TV, given an Accuracy in Academia speech on C-SPAN and has been featured on the nationally broadcast Eagle Forum Radio pro