Ain't Nothing Like Freedom

Take a down to earth person, a straight talker, fair-minded, with a sense of justice for all, and of shock at discovery of the contrary, and you're at the beginning of the Cynthia McKinney story. But from there it surges to remote corners of the globe and embraces a multitude of struggles. It ranges from her boat-rocking tenure as a six-time-elected African American Congresswoman from Georgia to her seizure on the high seas aboard the freedom flotilla bound for Gaza and her removal to an Israeli jail, from her 2008 Green Party campaign for President of the United States to her nights spent in a Tripoli hotel to serve as witness to NATO's terror bombing of Libya. It's a story of justice pursued, a McKinney hallmark - from speaking truth to lawmakers and demanding it in return, to forays in the world's danger zones beyond the reach of law - and so many places in between. McKinney was the lone non-Gulf state Democratic voice on the House Committee investigating the federal government's lack of response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. She held the only Congressional briefing critical of the 9/11 Commission's flawed conclusions and faulty recommendations, introducing the analysis of scholars, investigators, and former intelligence agents who joined the 9/11 victims' family members in questioning the premises and findings of that official inquiry. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, she questioned Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld on malfeasance by military contractors and missing billions in the Pentagon's budget, as well as the reasons for the failure of NORAD air defenses on 9/11--questions that further revelations have legitimized. And then she crossed the line that can't be crossed, calling into question the one vested interest in Congress that none dare counter. This is the story, in her own frank, inspiring and sometimes hilarious words, of how it all went down. And stay tuned: the Cynthia McKinney story is far from over yet.