Cynthia McKinney Answers Questions

I received answers to my questions from Cynthia McKinney:

1. Will you will absolutely rule out the use force unless it is legal according to our Constitution and abide by the international treaties the US has signed which prohibit wars of aggression? And will you declare that all threats of force are off the table and that you will instead abide by the UN Charter which the US has signed and the supreme Law of the Land as spelled out in our Constitution?

Yes, absolutely. My voting record in Congress and my bill to impeach President Bush for his violations of these principles show where I stand. My first act in office would be to immediately withdraw US troops, not only from Iraq and Afghanistan but from over 700 bases in over 100 countries around the globe and to put an end to wars and military interventions abroad.

2. Former CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Michael Scheuer said in a CNN interview that "the politicians really are at great fault for not squaring with the American people. We're being attacked for what we do in the Islamic world, not for who we are or what we believe in or how we live. And there's a huge burden of guilt to be laid at Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton, both parties for simply lying to the American people." Will you go on record stating that President Bush lied to the American people about why we were attacked on 9/11? ( Our intelligence agencies say it is specific foreign policies yet Bush says it is "our freedoms" they hate)

If the motive of the attacks was merely being free, pluralistic or wealthy, why isn't Canada being attacked? Of course it has been our policies around the world, mostly covert operations, that have garnered us enemies since the end of World War II. That does not justify the mass murder of 9/11, but it puts it into proper context. It was a crime against humanity not an act of war, and should have been dealt with in an international tribunal, not by a pre-emptive invasion of two other countries with scant evidence of their involvement, if any. I was the first member of Congress to question the veracity of the Bush administration's account of the attacks on 9/11, the reasons for them, what was known in advance of them and the flawed response to them. I introduced legislation to impeach President Bush and other key figures in his administration based in part on their response to 9/11. I supported a full investigation from the start and the victim families efforts to have one, but it was seriously flawed in its assumptions, investigation, conclusions and recommendations, which I examined in a full-day briefing on Capitol Hill in my last term in Congress. I still call for a thorough and open investigation into the remaining questions surrounding the attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath.

3. Would you make a statement telling all of mainstream media that it is deceitful to keep referring to "both" candidates because it deceives people into thinking there are only two in the race. Please ask them to stop deceiving the public about who is running in the presidential race.

The mainstream media and those who manage the campaigns for the major parties want to limit Americans' choices to their two candidates and ignore the other parties and independent candidates who have a chance of winning enough electoral votes from the states where they fought hard to obtain the ballot. My campaign has been even less visible than most of the other parties and independent candidates, despite the fact that it is a historical first to have two women of color running for the executive office. Rosa Clemente, my vice-presidential running mate calls this a "white out" and I agree. The flawed polls taken from the beginning of public campaigns do a disservice by telling people ahead of time to vote for who allegedly can win, or for the lesser of two evils, instead of voting for their values. If American were not voting against someone but could vote for what they believe in, uninfluenced by what pollsters are telling them about candidates' chances, and if independents got the same federal funding, fair news coverage and inclusion into televised debates with the corporate-backed candidates then I am sure Green Party values would win the election. Many people who have told me they would like to vote for me but are voting for Obama instead solely to be sure McCain will not win. The media are part of the same corporate system that tries to manipulate the candidates and issues of these elections and the outcome of the vote. "Both candidates" of the Green party stand for peace, social justice, ecological wisdom and grassroots democracy, the real values of the real majority of the American people.