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April 7, 2004

Kerry: Terrorist Shiite Al-Sadr 'A Legitimate Voice'

link.john.kerry.ap.jpeg
Move over, Zapatero

NewsMax is reporting on what may be John Kerry's worst gaffe ever.

In an interview broadcast Wednesday morning, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr as a "legitimate voice" in Iraq, despite that fact that he's led an uprising that has killed nearly 20 American GIs in the last two days.

Speaking of al-Sadr's newspaper, which was shut down by coalition forces last week after it urged violence against U.S. troops, Kerry complained to National Public Radio, "They shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq."

In the next breath, however, the White House hopeful caught himself and quickly changed direction, adding, "Well, let me . . . change the term legitimate. It belongs to a voice — because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment."

But Kerry again seemed to voice sympathy for the Shiite terrorist when asked whether he supported al Sadr's arrest. "Not if it’s an isolated act without the other kinds of steps necessary to change the dynamics on the ground in Iraq," Kerry told NPR, in quotes first reported by the New York Sun.

"If all we do is make war against the Iraqi people and continue an American occupation, fundamentally, without a clarity as to who and how sovereignty is being turned over, we have a very serious problem for the long run here," Kerry added. "And I think this administration is just walking dead center down into that trap."

On March 28, the U.S.-led coalition authorities closed al-Sadr's newspaper, al-Hawza, for 60 days, the Sun reported. L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, charged that said the newspaper had published false stories blaming the coalition forces for local acts of terrorism.

Posted by Robert at April 7, 2004 1:41 PM
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Danger, danger, danger. And this man is running for President of the United States?

I am not surprised. He would serve us up on a silver platter. Who knows the surprises that are lurking in the shadows if this man is elected. Enough said.

Posted by: epg at April 7, 2004 2:06 PM

Kerry must love the taste of his own foot.

Posted by: TerryStellato at April 7, 2004 2:26 PM

My jaw hurts from grinding my teeth! I just got an email back from my danish ex-girl friend, with her respoding to my comments and VAST amount of evidence that Islam is not the religion of peace, 5% of their population is from islamic countries yet recieve 40% of the social welfare pot, the routinly engage in violence with 80% of the conflicts in the world for the past 10 to 20 years have involved muslims, ect ect ect....and what does she repond with? "your a racist." Ohhhhh touche' darlining. This shit is getting alarming. Im getting a black hood and making a flag saying "No to Bush...Yes to Jihad" and walk up and down the street. Hopeful people will put down the big mac and the new cosmo magizine and WAKE UP!!!! Hell, hopefully they'll beat me up, that would make me feel better. Everyone at the poker table is folding to a pair of two's these evil, and dont kid yourself...anyone who lies are the norm and killing is dictated by their relgious text is EVIL, bastards. We got a royal flush and its time to cash in,,,,,screw the ACLU and Amnesty International. Find the bad guys and hang them. Thats it....HANG THEM. No foo foo talk, and no carpet bombing civilians like the russians do a 'la chechnya. Let us be the light of the world and not let these jokers dictate medevil politics to the USA.

DAMN IT I AM SO MAD!!!!

Posted by: TheUglyAmericanV1.5 at April 7, 2004 2:44 PM

Word for word, I'm with epg.

"Well, let me . . . change the term legitimate. It belongs to a voice ..."

Yep, it belongs to a voice. How profound. How nuanced. How...Presidential???

Posted by: Earl at April 7, 2004 2:44 PM

Mr. Sadr, however, demanded today that the United States transfer authority to Iraqis with no connection to the occupation authority.

"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army, to help them in the transfer of power to honest Iraqis," the 31-year-old cleric said in a statement issued from his office in Najaf, where he was reported to have taken refuge. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."

-----

FROM TED KENNEDY'S LIPS to ALLAH'S EARS.

Posted by: Matt at April 7, 2004 3:04 PM

Senator Kerry continues to alarm us with his never ending equivicating . Time, and time again he appears to be operating without a sound base, or a foundation of judgement and reasoning on what is going on around him. To define Al-Sadr`s newspaper: Al-Hawza as a legitimate voice for the Iraqis` is an outrageous and irresponsible statement. But what takes the cake from this never ending appeasers comments is that Al-Sadr s coming togehter possibly with Hamas and Hezbollah is a "SORT OF TERRORIST ALIGNMENT" ???

Posted by: SORT OF TERRORIST ALLIGNMENT at April 7, 2004 3:14 PM

"If all we do is make war .. we have a very serious problem for the long run here,"

uh, JFK2 , we all know that we have a 'serious problem' in bot short- and long-terms

we would have it if Saddam were still in power (it would just be a different problem)..

the questions is : does 'making war' tend to alleviate the problem, or make it worse ..

I say kill Sadr and his thugs and we'll see..

Posted by: JonofAtlanta at April 7, 2004 3:36 PM

Dear TheUglyAmericanV1.5: Did you ask her which race she is referring to, since Islam is a religious belief and not a sect of humanity? I mena there are Black Muslims, oriental Muslims, Caucasian Muslims, Arab Muslims, etc. Which of these are you being racist against? Did you show her the verses in their Korqan that preach kiling or enslaving the infidels? Did you point out that in their eyes she is an infidel? Did you show her the facts about how women are treated in Muslim countries, particularly those under Sharia law? Anytime anyone starts making these ad hominem attacks it's a sure sign they've run out of logic and have nothing but name calling to back up their feelings. It looks like Danish girlfriends, like Danish furniture, are highly overrated. For people like her it's all about their feelings and being politically correct. Be glad she's an ex. Upgrade yourself to 2.0

Posted by: Hal at April 7, 2004 4:29 PM

1. NewsMax.com is not the most reliable news source.

2. He retracted the "legitimate" statement (then he put his foot in his mouth again), so the headline is misleading.

Posted by: ElCapitanAmerica at April 7, 2004 6:06 PM

The unfortunate part of this whole thing is that we that know kerry and his rediculos politics, are the only ones that will read this. The left liberals will never read this and if thay do, thay will say its lies made up by the right. It will be a sad day if this man is elected president. I guess this was one of his foreign diplomats that is in favor of kerry winning; terrorists islam at its best.

Posted by: christian at April 7, 2004 6:11 PM

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1815395

Well, I haven't heard it yet but apparently here are the recordings (not sure which version it is).
People should hear and make up their minds.

Mind you if someone wants to take the recording and transcript it before NPR decides to 'whitewash' the fence- it would be a good idea.

Posted by: Researcher at April 7, 2004 6:15 PM

You can find the streaming audio on the NPR website at
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1815395.html

NPR charges for transcripts, but it's free to listen to the audio, which plays in RealPlayer format.

Kerry did say "a legitimate voice" and then immediately retracted that -- although in a very lame and ambiguous way. He also did say "sort of terrorist alignment".

Kerry also harped a lot over and over on the notion that the Coalition is not real, not legitimate, etc. He says our allies have miniscule numbers of men on the ground in Iraq. As a percentage of our own, I suppose that is roughly true, but as a percentage of their own capability or their own populations, I think their committments are quite serious. I'm speaking of the Britons, the Australians, the Poles, the Danes, the Czechs, the Lithuanians, the Japanese. What is interesting is that Kerry insists that everything would be better if only Bush would "show some humility" and ask a "true" "broad" "international" coalition to help us. Well, so who would that be, and how would it be any different from now? Suppose we convinced France and Canada to send troops? How many could they send? Canada has one tenth our population. And what difference, militarily, would those troops make on the ground? And would the enemy be less inclined to resist Canadian troops than American? On the have seen that the enemy specially targets our allies in Iraq. Kerry is all hot air. Listen to the streaming audio from NPR. There is one passage where he implies that it would be helpful if it were somebody else's boys instead of American boys who were taking the bullets in the head for a change. I'd have to listen to the audio again for the exact quote, but it was NOT diplomatic -- yet he keeps chastising Bush over and over for his "poor diplomacy".

Posted by: Mark at April 7, 2004 7:24 PM

I just heard the interview in npr site. I think kerry sounds extremly like khatami - the iranians' defective president - : ambiguous words, vauge analyses, fictious theories which are 'cool' (becuase it's fantasy) and at the end you have a big feeling of hallucination. We were cheated 7 years before to vote to someone who was different than other mullahs. Khatami's political agenda was more or less like kerry. We heard big words about respecting human rights, international laws, secularism and being a different country than what we are now. but the reality was something else. the reality is that the islamic maffia rule daily iran. They will repress and arrest and torture and kill and execute any kind of secularism they may face and a democratic president with nice words and far far from reality can't do anything to change the situation.
Now is time for The Americans to choose the reality of George Bush to confront the world terror or John Kerry's Lullaby.

Posted by: kianb at April 8, 2004 7:31 AM

This may sound extreme, but it really isn't. It's really a luke warm response to Kerry's anti-American statement.
"...Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry defended terrorist Shiite imam Moqtada al-Sadr as a "legitimate voice" in Iraq, despite that fact that he's led an uprising that has killed nearly 20 American GIs in the last two days.
Speaking of al-Sadr's newspaper, which was shut down by coalition forces last week after it urged violence against U.S. troops, Kerry complained to National Public Radio, "They shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq."
With this statement he showed his true colors.
After the election, (and Bush wins),laws should be passed to criminalze the overt threat these Marxist members of the Democratic party are for America.
Quite frankly, they should be arrested tonight.

Posted by: Bill at April 8, 2004 7:51 AM

To my dear American friends

Back in ..I think...February, I wrote a post where-in I said;
"If there was a movement to make England the 51st state of America, I'd be the first to sign up"
Listen guys,...If Kerry gets in in November, none of you would mind, would you, if say, I retracted that statement???

Great British regards,
kc.

Posted by: kc (england) at April 8, 2004 3:05 PM

KC, if that rat gets elected may I use you as a reference when I petition for citizenship in England?

Posted by: Hal at April 8, 2004 3:50 PM

EVERYBODY: Send your thoughts to the man himself: info@johnkerry.com

Posted by: Chaya Eitan at April 8, 2004 4:00 PM

I'd be only too happy to oblige my dear Hal.

Regards, kc

Posted by: kc (england) at April 8, 2004 4:48 PM

I have a koran in my house, so when i bring up the subject that Islam is not peaceful, that JFK is activly *blowing* people who support and participate (a la IRAN, WTF) and people get into a tizy, I can begin to quote. This isnt hearsay guys, this is strait from da A to the izzle Allah. I routinely give left wing friends web site and information, so THEY can check for themselves. Dig a bit, learn, stop taking peoples word for things. Anyway, they obvously don't, and therefore cheer when Kerry starts talking about having a bake sale to end terrorism, and how he will give hand jobs to ol' Kim and Iran to bridge the gap that george bush has created. A gap you say, about time, get away from these fools, and deal with em, diplomatic realtions with all these countries has become another word for fund raiser. What a joke. George has pulled out the stick, and the UN gasps because we finally stoped pulling punches. God help us if JFK gets elected.

"One can make this generalization about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you, risk their property, their lives, their children, so long, as I said above, as danger is remote; but when you are in danger they turn against you." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

Posted by: TheUglyAmericanV1.5 at April 9, 2004 2:37 PM

By the way i gave the dane a report by their own gov't that states that while the muslim population is 5% they receive 40% of the total state welfare in the country (which includes housing + food + money + daycare). Thats socialism for ya.

By the way, I really like danish furniture.

"One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage." -- Niccolo Machiavelli

Posted by: TheUglyAmericanV1.5 at April 9, 2004 2:41 PM

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