Article...McKinney apologizes to Saudi for snub in N.Y...
Melanie Eversley - Cox Washington Bureau
Sunday, October 14, 2001
accessatlanta.com
Washington --- A Georgia congresswoman has stepped into the fray over New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's refusal of a $10 million gift for the families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat, wrote a letter of apology to spurned donor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia. McKinney wrote that she regretted Giuliani had turned down the offer over the prince's suggestion that U.S. policy in the Middle East was partly to blame for the attacks.
McKinney's letter, dated Friday and addressed to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said Giuliani should recognize bin Talal's right to offer observations on developments in the Middle East.
"Whether he agreed with you or not," McKinney said, "I think he should have recognized your right to speak and make observations about a part of the world which you know so well."
McKinney added that "many of us here in the United States have long been concerned about reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that reveal a pattern of excessive, and often indiscriminate, use of lethal force by Israeli security forces in situations where Palestinian demonstrators were unarmed and posed no threat of death or serious injury to the security forces or to others."
A representative for one national Jewish advocacy organization said Saturday that McKinney may have been misguided in writing the letter.
"I think that she just misses the point entirely that Giuliani was seeking to address," said Jess Hordes, Washington director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"I think the donation became an issue because he [bin Talal\] tied the money to a suggestion that somehow we might be to blame for the terrorist action that took the lives of 5,000 Americans," Hordes continued. "That is an irresponsible and wrongheaded statement."
An Arab-American leader who knows bin Talal, however, says he is a very generous man who cares about New York City, having attended school and made major investments there.
"What happened in New York, I think, is almost a metaphor for what's wrong with our relationship with Arabs," James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute, said Saturday. "This is a very good person who is probably more personally invested in the city of New York than almost any American investor."
In her letter, McKinney went on to say that many disparities exist between the quality of life in mainstream America and that experienced by the poor and people of color. She offered to guide bin Talal to charities that could use the $10 million.
"Although your offer was not accepted by Mayor Giuliani, I would like to ask you to consider assisting Americans who are in dire need right now," she wrote |
