Forwarded message
Keyes likens abortion to terrorism
By Natasha Korecki and Scott Fornek
Staff Reporters
The Chicago Sun-Times
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes said Monday
that women who choose to undergo abortions and the
physicians who perform the procedure are essentially
terrorists because "the evil is the same."
The remarks came as Keyes was explaining why three months
ago he said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a
"warning" from God to "wake up" and stop "the evil" of
abortion.
"Now, you think it's a coincidence that on September
11th, 2001, we were struck by terrorists an evil that has
at its heart the disregard of innocent human life?" Keyes
said in a May 7 speech in Provo, Utah. "We who have for
several decades killed not thousands but scores of
millions of our own children, in disregard of the
principle of innocent human life -- I don't think that's
a coincidence, I think that's a warning.
[Sidebar begins]
REMARKS ON ABORTION
WHAT KEYES SAID IN A MAY 7, 2004, ADDRESS:
"Now, you think it's a coincidence that on Sept. 11th,
2001, we were struck by terrorists an evil that has at
its heart the disregard of innocent human life? We who
have for several decades killed not thousands but scores
of millions of our own children, in disregard of the
principle of innocent human life -- I don't think that's
a coincidence, I think that's a warning. I don't think
that's a coincidence, I think that's a shot across the
bow.
"I think that's a way of Providence telling us, "I love
you all; I'd like to give you a chance. Wake up! Would
you please wake up?"
WHAT HE SAYS NOW "What distinguishes the terrorist from
the ordinary warrior, is that the terrorist will
consciously target innocent human life. What is done in
the course of an abortion? . . . Someone consciously
targets innocent human life.
"As I often point out to folks, the evil is the same. And
that means, quite frankly, in fighting the war against
terror, as I have often put it to audiences, the evil
that we fight is but the shadow of the evil that we do."
[Sidebar ends]
"I don't think that's a coincidence, I think that's a
shot across the bow. I think that's a way of Providence
telling us, 'I love you all; I'd like to give you a
chance. Wake up! Would you please wake up?' "
The speech and transcript of that talk appears on the Web
site of a Keyes supporter.
Since he entered the U.S. Senate contest just over a week
ago, Keyes has attacked Democratic rival Barack Obama for
his support for abortion rights, saying the Democrat
holds "the slaveowners' position."
Obama called it "deeply troubling" that Keyes is now
evoking the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in
his anti-abortion arguments. But the Republican stood by
his earlier remarks.
"What is done in the course of an abortion is as a result
of some decision made on the basis of somebody else's
sense of their interests, convenience, emotional
situation, whatever it may be," Keyes told the Chicago
Sun-Times. "Someone consciously targets innocent human
life. As I often point out to folks, the evil is the
same."
Placing such blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist plot that
killed more than 3,000 people has drawn an uproar in the
past.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell, days after Sept. 11, said "the
abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the
lesbians . . . 'You helped this happen.' " His remarks
drew sharp criticism from the White House, and Falwell
later publicly apologized.
Obama, a Hyde Park Democrat, said he had read the speech
and criticized Keyes for drawing a "causal link" between
Sept. 11 and abortion supporters.
"I think it's a deeply troubling statement," Obama said.
"To suggest that somehow the slaughter of innocent people
in New York and in Washington was somehow brought about
as a consequence of women exercising their reproductive
freedom is not the way most people here in Illinois
think."
On another issue, Keyes on Monday said he supported
reparations for descendants of slaves -- an apparent
switch in his position.
Keyes suggested descendants of slaves should be exempt
from paying federal income taxes. But in a March 27,
2002, transcript of his show "Making Sense," Keyes -- who
wants to abolish the federal income tax for everyone --
suggested that reparations were an insult.
"You want to tell me that what they suffered can actually
be repaired with money?" Keyes asked at the time.
Keyes, through a spokesman, said late Monday he does not
support reparations if other people's money is used. "If
you couldn't get the income tax abolished totally, that
[exemption for slave descendants] is incremental
progress," spokesman Bill Pascoe said.
Obama said Monday he did not support reparations.
Instead, he said he favored "investments" that would
benefit all Americans who are struggling. "Things like
early childhood education, job training, college
scholarships, provide opportunity to all people," Obama
said. "I'm just in favor of investments of people in need
and struggling."
Opposing abortion is Keyes' chief issue. He has said
protecting the unborn was one of the main reasons he
accepted Illinois Republicans' offer to replace GOP
nominee Jack Ryan in the U.S. Senate race.
He has unleashed a steady stream of strident invective
against Obama, who supports abortion rights. Keyes argues
that women who claim they have rights over the fetuses in
their bodies are akin to plantation owners claiming
control over slaves because they are "property."
More at:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-sen17.html
End of forwarded message
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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not so send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.
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