I talked to one of Cynthia's staffers the day her statement about 9/11 came out. They were in full damage-control mode because the statement Cynthia issued (without consulting her staff) first suggested Bush knew about 9/11, and in the very next paragraph said that he stood to financially benefit from it.
Her staff was appalled, realizing that the implication was either that Bush was behind the attacks, or allowed the attacks to happen to make some money. With deliberate understatement, one staffer told me, "um, that was a bad move."
HOWEVER. This is totally separate from the fact that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other powerful interests in Georgia and the country, were undeniably out to get McKinney due to her staunchly progressive and pro-Palestinian positions.
This was most clearly in evidence in their race-baiting of her contributions from supposedly (see below) Arab-American donors, and attempts to link McKinney to "Muslim terrorists."
This blatant racism and fear-mongering played a far larger role in the Georgia elections than her 9/11 comments. It was also ignored by most liberals.
Here's our coverage of the matter in the Winter 2002/2003 issue of Southern Exposure:
GEORGIA'S NEW McCARTHYISM
By Gary Ashwill Southern Exposure, Winter 2002/2003
When U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), one of the most outspoken progressive voices in Congress, lost in the Democratic primary in August to a little-known challenger, pundits saw it as punishment for her support of Palestinian and Arab-American causes.
Major newspapers, especially the Washington Post and McKinney’s hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, played a central role in fostering this perception, linking her support from the Arab-American community to terrorism. In the weeks leading to the primary, the Journal-Constitution resurrected and bestowed mainstream credibility on charges made by an Atlanta-based right-wing group, the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), several months earlier.
On April 16, a press release from the SLF accused McKinney of accepting campaign contributions from "terrorist-sympathetic organizations," including the American Muslim Council and the Council on American/Islamic Relations. According to the SLF, 21 percent of McKinney’s individual contributors who gave more than $101 in 2001 were "identifiably Arab or Middle Eastern-connected."
The conservative foundation's report attracted little attention at the time. But on June 22, 2002, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution returned to the issue, carrying a story headlined "Arab-American dollars shore up McKinney." Like the SLF, the Journal-Constitution combed McKinney’s contributors for "names that appear to be Arab-American or Muslim." While the article mentioned the SLF’s criticism of McKinney’s "terrorist-sympathetic" support, it did not cite the SLF as a source of the campaign finance data, nor point out that the right-wing organization had already done a similar study of McKinney’s campaign contributions.
Then, with the date of the 2002 primaries (August 20) approaching, the Journal-Constitution ran another article on McKinney’s campaign contributors, this time focusing on the supposed terror links already "exposed" by the SLF. Again like the SLF, the August 3 article by Bill Torpy listed several prominent Arab-American figures and institutions, such as Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder of the American Muslim Council.
The article did not mention political connections between some of these donors and other politicians, notably President George W. Bush. The American Muslim Council endorsed Bush for president, for example, and Alamoudi contributed to Bush's campaign in 2000 (though the contributions were later returned). He was also asked by the White House to appear at the National Cathedral memorial for 9/11 victims on September 14, 2001.
In addition, the Journal-Constitution failed to clarify what was meant by "Arabic-sounding names." A brief inspection of FEC records by Southern Exposure revealed, for example, that among such names on McKinney’s contributors' list is Atlanta Hawks' basketball star Sharif Abdur-Rahim, an African-American and Georgia native.
Torpy also repeated an observation that had been making the rounds of right-wing websites: that some of McKinney’s supposedly "terrorist"-related contributions were recorded on September 11, 2001. The article did contain an explanation from McKinney's campaign: that the contributions were from a fundraiser held days earlier, and were only coincidentally logged on Sept. 11.
But her opponent, Denise Majette, embellished the charge in an August 9 television debate, saying (as paraphrased by the Journal-Constitution) that "McKinney had taken campaign contributions from Arab terrorists on Sept. 11."
Such criticism of McKinney’s contributors amounted to "blatant Arab-baiting," according to Ziad Asali, president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Those who would seek to smear Arab Americans and candidates to whose campaigns they contribute as 'supporters of terrorism' are peddling simple, unadulterated racism."
As the Congressional Quarterly and other publications have noted, the coverage of McKinney’s Arab-American support coincided with an upsurge in donations to her opponent. On August 13, the Journal-Constitution reported that Majette, who had by the end of June been way behind in the fundraising race, had since then "outdrawn McKinney nearly 7-1 in contributions," mostly from out-of-state donors.
"McKinney's the radical Muslims' representative in Congress," Michael Moskowitz, a New York financier who contributed to Majette's campaign, told the Journal-Constitution. "She had all this Arab/Muslim money that wasn't allowing Majette a say. All this money does is give Denise Majette her say."
Gary Ashwill is managing editor of Southern Exposure. Subscribe today for just $21! www.southernstudies.org