Donald Rumsfeld Fundraising For Candidate Accused Of War Crimes
Ilario Pantano became a conservative cause celebre after he survived war crimes charges in Iraq stemming from his shooting of unarmed Iraqi prisoners. He parlayed his story into a book and then a highly competitive, but unsuccessful, run for Congress in 2010 in North Carolina against Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC). Pantano is running again in 2012 and has a powerful ally fundraising for him this month in Washington: former Defense Secretry Donald Rumsfeld.
“There is no greater honor than to have received the encouragement of the former Secretary of Defense. We are humbled that Secretary Rumsfeld would make the time and the effort to single out our race for support,” Pantano said in a statement, per Politico.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/donald-rumsfeld-fundraising-for-candidate-accused-of-war
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An additional link:
The New Jack Bauer Republicans
Call them the Jack Bauer Republicans.
Two Iraq veterans who left the military after surviving charges of crimes against detainees are running credible campaigns for Congress. And far from minimizing the incidents, both candidates have put the accusations front and center in their campaigns, attracting rock-star adulation from conservatives nationwide in the process. But critics, including human-rights activists, veterans, and now even defeated primary opponents, warn that their records should disqualify them from office.
Last week, Ilario Pantano won the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 7th District, setting up a challenge to incumbent Democrat Rep. Mike McIntyre in November. In 2001, immediately following the 9/11 terror attacks, Pantano, a veteran who had previously fought in the Gulf War, left his career as a successful producer and media consultant in his native Manhattan to rejoin the Marines and was eventually deployed to Iraq. In April 2004, Pantano killed two unarmed Iraqi detainees, twice unloading his gun into their bodies and firing between 50 and 60 shots in total. Afterward, he placed a sign over the corpses featuring the Marines' slogan “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy” as a message to the local population.
Read more:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/05/13/renegade-soldiers-for-congress.html
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