WASHINGTON'Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., is calling for an investigation into whether President Bush and other government officials had advance notice of terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 but did nothing to prevent them. She added that \persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war.""
In a recent interview with a Berkeley, Calif., radio station, McKinney said: ""We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on Sept. 11. ... What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of Sept. 11? 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?""
McKinney declined to be interviewed Thursday, but she issued a statement saying: ""I am not aware of any evidence showing that President Bush or members of his administration have personally profited from the attacks of 9/11. A complete investigation might reveal that to be the case.""
Bush spokesperson Scott McLellan dismissed McKinney's comments.
""The American people know the facts, and they dismiss such ludicrous, baseless views,"" he said. ""The fact that she questions the president's legitimacy shows a partisan mind-set beyond all reason.""
In the radio conversation, McKinney delivered a stinging attack on the administration. In 2000, she charged, Bush forces ""stole from America our most precious right of all, the right to free and fair elections."" With the September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, McKinney said, ""an administration of questionable legitimacy has been given unprecedented power.""
She suggested that the administration was serving the interests of a Washington-based investment firm, the Carlyle Group, which employs a number of high-ranking former government officials from both parties. Former president George Bush'the current president's father'is an adviser to the firm. McKinney said the war on terrorism has enriched Carlyle Group investors by enhancing the value of a military contractor partly owned by the firm.
Carlyle Group spokesperson Chris Ullman asked, ""Did she say these things while standing on a grassy knoll in Roswell, New Mexico?""
During her five terms in office, McKinney has often given voice to radical critiques of U.S. policy, especially in the Middle East.
