CNN: McKinney blasts U.S. on Libya TV

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By Joel Provano

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney went on Libyan state TV over the weekend to condemn U.S. policy in the region, CNN reported.

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Rick McKay, Cox Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney at an anti-war march in Washington, DC., in March 2007.

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The station on which McKinney appeared Saturday night is loyal to Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and her interview was spliced with video of pro-Gadhafi rallies, CNN said.

"I think that it's very important that people understand what is happening here. And it's important that people all over the world see the truth. And that is why I am here ... to understand the truth," McKinney was quoted as saying during the live interview.

At one point during the interview, state TV showed what it described as airstrikes on Gadhafi's compound.

"Is that a bomb?" McKinney asked.

"I want to say categorically and very clearly that these policies of war ... are not what the people of the United States stand for, and it's not what African-Americans stand for," she said.

She also blasted President Barack Obama's economic policies.

"Under the economic policies of the Obama administration, those who have the least are losing the most. And those who have the most are getting even more," CNN quoted her as saying. "The situation in the United States is becoming more dire for average ordinary Americans, and the last thing we need to do is to spend money on death, destruction and war."

McKinney appeared on state-run TV in Iran earlier in the week.

McKinney is well acquainted with controversy. She has suggested that former President George W. Bush knew about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in advance but allowed them to occur so his friends in the defense industry could profit.

In 2009 she spent several days in an Israeli prison with others who attempted to run a blockade to deliver supplies to Gaza.

During her 2008 presidential campaign on the Green Party ticket, she summed up her energy policy with a rhyme: "Leave the oil in the soil." She described U.S. energy policy as two-pronged: "War and drilling."

McKinney, 56, served six terms in the U.S. House, from 1993 to 2002, when she was defeated by Denise Majette, and from 2004 to 2006, when she was defeated by Hank Johnson.