Calling in the Chips on McCain

This is the same CNN that has recently placed the former director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed behind a CNN news desk as a news analyst.

Such realizations were simultaneously odd and seemingly unrelated, until I looked closer at "Honest" John McCain, Candidate for President of the United States of America.

As chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, John McCain directed the Congressional investigation of the Indian gaming scandal which stole over $80 million from American Indian Tribes. The scandal led to the imprisonment of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH), and a number of other lobbyists and federal officials, yet some people who knew the real players of the scam criticized McCain for failing to call people like Ralph Reed before the committee to testify. Ralph Reed was paid $4 million by Reed's friend and convicted felon Jack Abramoff for shutting down an Indian casino.

The irony is that as a result of this investigation, McCain refers to himself as an "agent of change," yet he also inexplicably limited the scope of the gaming investigation to lobbyists' improper gifts. Now if the lobbyists were guilty of giving improper gifts, trips and money, a natural follow-up question for McCain could have been, "who received those gifts?" Why were members of Congress (usually the recipients of such favors) not investigated?

As I tried to answer my own questions, I found that McCains' reluctance to get to the very bottom of the scandal is predictable, especially in light of how McCain has financed his political career.

I'm sure we can expect some tough questions out of Ralph Reed to McCain on this subject since he is now a news analyst for "the most trusted name in news," CNN. 

All in the family

Senator John Sydney McCain III's father is Adm. John McCain Jr.,. Senator McCain's father was not only an Admiral, but so was his grandfather! In fact, John Sydney McCain Sr. and John Sydney McCain Jr. are the only father and son in the history of the United States to have have such a distinction.

Also, Senator McCain's father, Admiral John McCain Jr. was a four-star Commander-in-Chief of the US Naval Forces in Europe who convened a court of inquiry with a wide mandate to investigate all pertinent facts and circumstances leading to and connected with the June 8, 1967 attack on the USS Liberty.

Adm. John McCain Jr. led the investigation, and gave subordinates one week to conduct an investigation that normally would have been allotted a minimum of six months, and found the attack to be a case of "mistaken identity." The report, which focused on the performance of the crew and the adequacy of communications, and which excluded critical testimony from crew members, is the keystone in Israel partisans' claims that the attack was accidental. All other U.S. reviews of the attack that state it was accidental cite this investigation as their source.

In Alison Weir's article, American Media Misses the Boat, she reports on a little known event that may make sense of the McCain family's role in history.

"In October 2003, an independent, blue-ribbon commission released its findings from an investigation into an internationally significant attack on a U.S. Navy ship that left more than 200 American sailors killed or wounded...

"The results of its investigation can be read in the Congressional Record:

"'Findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty, the Recall of Military Rescue Support Aircraft while the Ship was Under Attack, and the Subsequent Cover-up by the United States Government.'

"Yet only an infinitesimal fraction of the American citizenry has any idea that a commission made up of some of the nation's most respected military leaders stated publicly and forcefully --on Capitol Hill --that a U.S. president chose to sacrifice U.S. interests and U.S. servicemen (specifically, the 25 of the 34 dead who were killed after U.S. rescue missions were recalled) to Israeli interests, and then ordered a cover-up of his actions.

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