Fox News continues it's long standing tradition of spin with an attack on congressman Ron Paul and his statements made during the May 15 GOP debate.
Fox News John Gibson with Michelle 'Hot Air' Malkin not only wrongly claim that Paul blames the U.S. for 9/11 and defend the unquestionably patriotic Rudy Giuliani. But they then take it a step further and claim he is part of the 9/11 Truth Movement! I guess we should expect this kind of absurd reporting by now from Fox.
But why spend time smearing a longshot like Ron Paul? One reason could be that many polls including Fox News'own poll show Paul had a better showing in the debate than their golden boy Giuliani. Paul could pose a serious threat by representing true conservative politics.
But let's look specifically at the exchange between the two candidates and see who is supported by the facts and who is blowing hot air. Follow below the fold:
From Ron Paul during the debate:
"They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East [for years]. I think (Ronald) Reagan was right. We don't understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. Right now, we're building an embassy in Iraq that is bigger than the Vatican. We're building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting."
And Giulani's reaction:
"That's really an extraordinary statement. That's really an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I have ever heard that before and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11. I would ask the congressman withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that."
Of course anyone remotely familiar with criticism of U.S. foreign policy would know that Ron Paul's statement in Tuesday's debate was nothing more than a rehash of what our own CIA and 9/11 Commission have already told us.
From John Nichols at The Nation:
"The 9-11 Commission report detailed how bin Laden had, in 1996, issued "his self-styled fatwa calling on Muslims to drive American soldiers out of Saudi Arabia" and identified that declaration and another in 1998 as part of "a long series" of statements objecting to U.S. military interventions in his native Saudi Arabia in particular and the Middle East in general. Statements from bin Laden and those associated with him prior to 9-11 consistently expressed anger with the U.S. military presence on the Arabian Peninsula, U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people and U.S. support of Israel,"
Also from Nichols' Article:
Michael Scheuer, the former Central Intelligence Agency specialist on bin Laden and al-Qaeda, has objected to simplistic suggestions by President Bush and others that terrorists are motivated by an ill-defined irrational hatred of the United States. "The politicians really are at great fault for not squaring with the American people," Scheuer said in a CNN interview. "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."
So we are left to wonder -- Did Giuliani even bother to read the 9/11 Commission report?