Posted on 08/09/2003 6:36:42 AM PDT by Lawgvr1955
Former Congressman Paul Findley (R-Jacksonville) told the Illinois Times that America is in the "darkest of times." JACKSONVILLE -- A former Republican congressman from central Illinois recently made Illinois news when he called President George W. Bush "the most dangerous guy in the world."
Patrick Arden wrote in Springfield-based Illinois Times, a free alternative newsweekly, that 82 year old retired Congressman Paul Findley (R-Jacksonville) is unhappy with many of President Bush's foreign policy decisions.
Findley is quoted as saying:
Bush has been a disaster. I view him as, in a sense, the most dangerous guy in the world because he commands enormous military power and he doesn't have to get the consent of anyone to use it. His assertion of special privileges as world policeman, reserving the right for preemptive attacks against any power that would threaten our security, that really troubles me.
Findley served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for the downstate 20th Congressional district from 1961-83. In 1982, Findley was defeated by (now) United States Senator Richard J. Durbin who became the district's congressman until he was elected in 1996 as a U.S. Senator.
Findley was also the founding chairman of the Washington-based Council for the National Interest. According to the council’s website their mission is to “encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values, protects our national interests and contributes to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as to restore a political environment in America in which voters and their elected officials are free from the undue influence and pressure of a foreign country, namely Israel.”
Surrounded in his office by momentos, Arden wrote in the July 31 issue of Illinois Times that Findley has " . . . photos of him with Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford. He shows off a woodcarving signed by his friend Yasser Arafat."
Findley prides himself on being one of the principal authors of the War Powers Resolution. The War Powers Act, 50 USC S.1541-1548, was passed in 1973 over the veto of President Nixon. The Act spells out the situations under which the President may deploy the Armed Forces with and without a Congressional declaration of war.
"I hope I live long enough to see some major justice in the Middle East," Findley said in the interview, "but the skies are blacker now than anytime I can remember. It's our darkest time, though there are two reasons to remain hopeful: Bush is the first U.S. president to clearly say that Palestinian statehood was a clear objective of our government policy . . . Once Bush grasps the enormity of the problem, and how it affects much of the world, he may do the right thing."
The complete interview is available online at the Illinois Times website in a story entitled "Our darkest time."
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What are your thoughts about Findley's comments? Is he right? Write your comments to us at letters@illinoisleader.com, and include your name and town.
Educating Americans About US Middle East Policy
What is CNIF?
AMBASSADOR (Ret.) EDWARD PECK, Chairman
SEN. JAMES ABOUREZK, Vice Chairman
EUGENE H. BIRD, President, U.S. Foreign Service 1952-1975, General Electric 1978-1982
RALPH HOOPER, Investor, Wayne, PA
STEPHEN JONES, Attorney, Enid, OK
ZAINAB EL-BERRY, Insurance Executive, Nashville, TN
MOHAMMAD HAKKI, Journalist, Washington, DC
ABDURAHMAN AL-AMOUDI, AMC Foundation, Washington, DC
RICHARD HOLMES, US-Arab Chamber of Commerce, Washington, DC
PROF. DANIEL MCGOWAN, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
PAUL FINDLEY, Chairman Emeritus, Author, United States Congressman (Illinois) 1961-1983
Gee, this makes Bush and every other President the "most dangerous guy in the world."
Thank you sir. Now please drink your prune juice and go back to sleep. You're standing in front of the TV and the other residents can't watch Jeopardy while you're giving another one of your "policy statements."
He is. And that's a good thing. I'm glad it's George W. Bush and not anybody else who's the most dangerous guy in the world.
Sounds like another moron who thinks The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was nonfiction. If he wants a "just solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict," he could start by giving his "friend" Yassir Arafat a high-caliber haircut.
This pinhead is just another member of the Testosterone-Impaired Society. (And probably a close pal of the Clintoons and Madeline Halfbright)
[Board member] Mohammad Hakki is former press attaché of the Egyptian embassy in Washington
The rest of the list is similarly unsavory.
It's clearly an Islamicist fifth column.
An anti-Israel Arabist, who thinks Congress is "Zionist occupied territory."
One of his "leaflets" is published by IHR, a vile Holocaust denial outfit. Example ----
Liberating America From Israel-by Paul Findley
In this forceful, eloquent essay, a former US Congressman and keen observer of the US-Israel relationship pleads for his nation's liberation from the pro-Israel lobby. "Thanks to the suffocating influence of Israel's US lobby," he writes, "open discussion of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been non-existent in our government all these years." The terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, he also says, "would not have occurred if the US government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society."
Yes, I did forget to place the barf and RINO alert tags. Makes me wonder. Do former Democrat office holders never utter critical remarks of current Democrats that are in office, or does the media never report them?
Can anybody tell me when the last terrorist attack on US assets (military base, embassy, Navy vessel, NY skyscraper) occurred?
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