Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has done some crazy things in her life, but what she did last month really takes the cake.
Appearing live on Syrian television, McKinney said that Syria’s Civil War was part of a plot created by the United States shortly after 9/11 (video follows with transcript and commentary):
UNIDENTIFIED HOST: Do you think that (Syrian Civil War) is really started by chance, or do you think that it has been a plot for this whole region and especially Syria right now?
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN (D-GEORGIA): Well, I think a lot of things happened in 2001. So the crisis that confronts Syria today is not created in 2011. This is something that happened well in advance, a decade earlier.
Remember what we were doing, what the world was doing in 2001. 2001 was the year of the Durban World Conference Against Racism. And at that conference, people from all over the world gathered, and they talked about their grievances, about the way the world is currently structured. And a part of that discussion was about Zionism, if you will recall. I was there. I was there as a member of Congress. I represented the United States.
So it’s not quite accurate to say the United States wasn’t there. The United States was there. Members of Congress chose to go. Certain members of Congress went. I was among then.
And the, literally days later, September 11, 2001, happened. The tragedies that struck the United States changed the politics, changed the international scenario that was unfolding. And the world has been in turmoil ever since.
UNIDENTIFIED HOST: Yes, so you think that all that is happening now is related to that?
MCKINNEY: Well, I think we need to step back and take a look at what we know now as opposed to what we knew back then. And what we know now is that at least from General Wesley Clark, who also ran for president, he unveiled what he called a “policy coup” that had taken place inside the United States, and the crux of the coup was that the United States was going to invade seven countries in five years.
So, it’s not just Syria. It’s Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Libya, seven countries in five years, and that I believe is what we see unfolding.
Given the media’s proclivity to paint conservatives as insane extremists, it would be nice of them to report this so that the American people can see what a real kook looks like.
For those that can stand it, McKinney next reiterated absurd claims she made in the past concerning being targeted by the "pro-Israel lobby":
MCKINNEY: I am the victim of one particular lobby in the United States. You mentioned specifically AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. And the pro-Israel lobby inside the United States deemed that my voice was too strong on behalf of peace and justice in this region of the world, and that it was time for me to go. And so in 2002, I was targeted along with a fellow colleague of mine from Alabama. Me, the first African-American woman to serve the state of Georgia in the United States Congress targeted by the pro-Israel lobby, not because of anything that I did that was offensive to people in my district, not because of anything that I did that was offensive to people in the United States, but because I dared to think that Palestinians deserved human rights.
And the same goes for my fellow colleague, the first African-American male to be elected to the Congress from the state of Alabama since Reconstruction, which is the Civil War.
And so we have not been able to contain the power of this particular interest group inside the United States Congress. That’s why the decision to take the matter of military strikes against Syria to the Congress was a very interesting moment because we had according to one report that I received from an investigative journalist General Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visiting the White House and asking the White House instead of unleashing the bombs over Syria unleash public opinion in Congress. And this Congress is the bastion of AIPAC. So it would have been very interesting to have had that debate. I’m glad we didn’t have the debate. I’m glad that tragedy has been averted for the moment. We must remain vigilant though however. We must remain vigilant because the situation could change at any moment.
UNIDENTIFIED HOST: So this is a fake democracy. The U.S. says that it is a democratic country, this is not democracy.
MCKINNEY: Well, all you have to do is go back to the Founding Fathers ask. There were so many black people in the United States who had been imported from Africa. They didn’t have the right to vote. Women didn’t have the right to vote. Poor whites didn’t have the right to vote. So what kind of a democracy is that?
(HT Weasel Zippers)
