Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), as the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, is poised to begin a series of hearings geared toward stoking an Islamophobic frenzy over jihadists in our midst, all because King does not personally feel that Muslim-Americans are sufficiently helpful to law enforcement when it comes to foiling terror plots. As you might imagine, King's paranoid fantasia neatly overlooks the actual facts that are available in actual reality. In the hearings, it will apparently fall to Leroy Baca of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to make these facts clear.
One of the more ironic twists to the story is King's effusive support for the terrorists he likes: the Irish Republican Army. This was a matter that Jon Stewart highlighted on last night's edition of The Daily Show:
Naturally, King has all kinds of ornate rationalizations that justify his support for the I.R.A., spanning from his I.R.A.-touting days of old to his more recent yen for Islamophobia. The New York Times covers the whole spectrum in an article today:
"We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry," Mr. King told a pro-I.R.A. rally on Long Island, where he was serving as Nassau County comptroller, in 1982. Three years later he declared, "If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it."
Read on.
Of course, King isn't the only lawmaker that support a terrorist group. Propublica has more. Click here.
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