It's okay to be confused about Peter King's fluid definition of "terrorist." Basically, it's any violent group to which he doesn't relate on a personal level: Now that Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has assumed the chairmanship of the House
January 8, 2011

It's okay to be confused about Peter King's fluid definition of "terrorist." Basically, it's any violent group to which he doesn't relate on a personal level:

Now that Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., has assumed the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security committee and is promoting hearings on Muslim "radicalization," there's been a burst of media coverage surrounding his decades-long support for the IRA, the Irish terrorist group, which he broke with only recently, in 2005.

But for Tom Parker, an official at Amnesty International in Washington who hails from Britain, the distaste for King is personal. As Parker notes in a new Op-Ed, and explained further in an interview with Salon Thursday, he survived an IRA terrorist bombing in 1990 when he was 21.

"I have no problem with his support for a unified Ireland. What really bothers me is the hypocrisy of the man," says Parker, who is now policy director for terrorism, counterterrorism and human rights at Amnesty International USA.
It was King's designation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as a terrorist that prompted Parker to go public. Parker himself is critical of Assange, "but to call him a terrorist when you have supported people who actually blow stuff up, it seemed to me that that was really beyond the pale," he says. "This is a guy who is happy to bully other people when he has a whole crowd of skeletons in his closet on this issue."

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon