Pete King The Terror Expert

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Congressman Pete King (R) is a ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and is a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence he is also known as a quotable expert on terrorism he also used to support the killing of British servicemen and NORAID. How on this earth can a former supporter terrorism become of member of the SCI. :|

[LineDoggie]

Simple answer?
He didnt break any US laws by supporting NORAID.

Complicated version?
He was one of several Congressmembers/Senators who from the 70's to 90's supported the British leaving NI by any means. He and Ted U-Boat Kapitain Kennedy being the most famous. Among a certain slice of the American Electorate who have Irish heritage it was a popular position.

Bloody Sunday sure as **** didnt help that perception. Slotting Bernard McGuigan in the back while he tried to staunch the blood of another protestor wasnt exactly brave. Nor the Hero who deliberately launched a Baton round through the eyes of 51 year old housewife Emma Groves. Pictures of children shot with baton rounds and killed, such Excess got press here raising some sympathy.

My Grandmother (Boston Irish, or as in the UK a Plastic Paddy) would spit on the ground when Britain was mentioned as her uncle was Hanged in 1914 by the crown. My Grandfather couldnt care less, He said it wasnt our fight ( he was a WWI Vet-AEF and had lost a brother in A co. 165th on the Ourque).Grandpa thought they were thugs and murderers, period. The fights over that when I was little were something to hear(I distinctly remember him calling her mrs. Hitler). When I was a teen, I used to explain the vast difference between the post office 1916 boys and the PIRA to her. Only in the last years of her life did she realize what PIRA was.

What eventually changed her was the British born mother of an Australian Kid I was classmates with. They both attended the same church regularly, and it changed her way of thinking finally. As I used to tell her, the 1916 boys didnt blow up babies and Milkmen/Mailmen, etc because they were protestant, PIRA did that and worse.

On a side note, I do know Peter King personally, He is very active member of the 69th Regiment veterans corps and did a great deal for our Iraq/Aghanistan tours wounded, killed, and their families (he was in A.co. 69th for 6 years- 1968-74 Company Clerk/ Machinegunner under 1SG. Fitzsimmons). Personally IMO it was a badly misguided sense of support for a mythical version of what Ireland was and was supposed to be. Many who've never set foot in Ireland get their mental image of it through Movies, and the press.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

On a side note, I do know Peter King personally, He is very active member of the 69th Regiment veterans corps and did a great deal for our Iraq/Aghanistan tours wounded, killed, and their families (he was in A.co. 69th for 6 years- 1968-74 Company Clerk/ Machinegunner under 1SG. Fitzsimmons). Personally IMO it was a badly misguided sense of support for a mythical version of what Ireland was and was supposed to be. Many who've never set foot in Ireland get their mental image of it through Movies, and the press.The trouble I have with Mr King is that he was a frequent visitor to the North and the Republic and was still pro IRA until Sinn Fein publicly decried the UK and US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. I thought his involvement with a terror group which had attacked NATO troops in Germany would have precluded him from any Military or Intel position in Govt.

[timetraveller]

The trouble I have with Mr King is that he was a frequent visitor to the North and the Republic and was still pro IRA until Sinn Fein publicly decried the UK and US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. I thought his involvement with a terror group which had attacked NATO troops in Germany would have precluded him from any Military or Intel position in Govt.


Good Call .....

Any man that showed support to that bunch doesn't deserve respect period ...

[CouchCommando]

Remember kids, another man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I admit its easier to say it as an outsider, but no matter how old and tired this saying might be, there's still some truth in it.

[LineDoggie]

Good Call .....

Any man that showed support to that bunch doesn't deserve respect period ...
And yet he gets relected time after time. I dont think most of his constituency (and for the record I'm not in his district) even remember his NORAID work. His district covers the north shore from Glen Cove to the south shore Long Beach. He regularly pulls from 55% to 74% of the vote. And the district is far from a hotbed of Fenianism. Most people arent 1 issue voters.

[wotsnext]

"Hanged by the British" You hear this one a lot, normally "with his own belt"
how many people did the British hang?

[Lov3ll]

"Hanged by the British" You hear this one a lot, normally "with his own belt"
how many people did the British hang?

Shouldn't have been to many hanged, most would have been executed by firing squad.

Edit: Seems to be around 14 - 24(6 hanged) executed during the War of independence and 16 executed by firing squad during the easter rising, Irish free state on the other hand executed around 77.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Some more info on Pete King



In 1980, Mr. D'Amato, then the senator-elect, fulfilled a campaign pledge and went to Belfast on a fact-finding trip, taking Messrs. King and Dillon with him. It was the start of Mr. King's long entanglement with the IRA, and he took to it with the zeal of a convert.

He forged links with leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein in Ireland, and in America he hooked up with Irish Northern Aid, known as Noraid, a New York based group that the American, British, and Irish governments often accused of funneling guns and money to the IRA. At a time when the IRA's murder of Lord Mountbatten and its fierce bombing campaign in Britain and Ireland persuaded most American politicians to shun IRA-support groups, Mr. King displayed no such inhibitions. He spoke regularly at Noraid protests and became close to the group's publicity director, the Bronx lawyer Martin Galvin, a figure reviled by the British.

Mr. King's support for the IRA was unequivocal. In 1982, for instance, he told a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County: "We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry."http://www.nysun.com/national/rep-king-and-the-ira-the-end-of-an-extraordinary/15853/

http://peteking.house.gov/index.shtml


And his comments on the subject of Pol Brennan an illegal immigrant, terrorist and escapee from a friendly countries penal system.

"My experience dealing with (Irish) republicans is that they don't jump bail in this country. They honor their commitments," U.S Rep. Peter King, R-NY, the top-ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, told the Belfast Telegraph on June 19. "Based on my experience, and also the republican movement's commitment to the peace process, I think he should get bail."http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/member-87856-attention-politicians.html

[I can't think of a name]

Congressman Pete King (R) is a ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee and is a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence he is also known as a quotable expert on terrorism he also used to support the killing of British servicemen and NORAID. How on this earth can a former supporter terrorism become of member of the SCI. :|

Yeah he is a bit of a Hypocrite. The "Irish-Americans" :roll: of the time would chant stupid stuff like "get out of Dublin" thinking Brit troops were there. Peter King like Ted Kennedy played off that ignorance for votes.

His constituency can keep voting him in, but I hope Republican leadership keeps him sidelined on our foreign policy.

Here is a good piece in the NY Sun about the extent of his support for the IRA
http://www.nysun.com/national/rep-king-and-the-ira-the-end-of-an-extraordinary/15853/

[Gunge]

key word
"politician"

i dont love him either but hes better than alot of them
im irish heritage and i dont agree w/his support if ira(terrorists), but i do vote for him based on other positions
he sux on 2nd amendment issues as well, which ive bitched to him about