McCain leaves Canadians fuming with defence of diehard American falsehood

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John McCain is the latest high-profile politician to repeat the diehard American falsehood that the 9-11 terrorists entered the United States through Canada.

Just days after Janet Napolitano, the U.S. homeland security secretary, sparked a diplomatic kerfuffle by suggesting the terrorists took a Canadian route to the U.S. eight years ago, McCain defended her by saying that, in fact, the former Arizona governor was correct.

"Well, some of the 9-11 hijackers did come through Canada, as you know," McCain, last year's Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News on Friday.

The Arizona senator's remarks prompted the Canadian embassy to immediately reissue remarks made earlier this week by Ambassador Michael Wilson, who reminded Americans once again that no 9-11 perpetrators came to the U.S. via Canada.

"Unfortunately, misconceptions arise on something as fundamental as where the 9-11 terrorists came from," Wilson said.

"As the 9-11 Commission reported in July 2004, all of the 9-11 terrorists arrived in the U.S. from outside North America. They flew to major U.S. airports. They entered the U.S. with documents issued to them by the U.S. government. No 9-11 terrorists came from Canada."

Crestfallen embassy officials contacted McCain's office soon after his Fox News remarks to set the record straight. McCain, an avid supporter of NAFTA and a powerful friend to Canada on Capitol Hill, recently visited the Canadian Embassy and had lunch with Wilson.

The normally reserved Wilson made his 9-11 remarks on Tuesday following a CBC interview in which Napolitano appeared to believe that the hijackers entered the U.S. from Canada.

She later said she had misunderstood a question asked during the interview and was well aware there had been no Canadian 9-11 connection, but added that the Canada-U.S. border had, in the past, posed a security risk to Americans.

The next day, Napolitano appeared at a border conference and suggested Canada was more lax in its immigration policies than the U.S., alleging Canadian authorities allow people into the country that would not pass muster south of the border.

Napolitano has also ruffled diplomatic feathers with her insistence that the Canadian border must not be treated any differently than the U.S.-Mexican boundary, where a drug war rages and countless illegal immigrants flood into America every year.

McCain expressed some sympathy for Canada on that front on Friday.

"The difference, obviously, is, with all due respect to the Mexicans, there's not corruption on our northern border," he told Fox News. "And, unfortunately, there is significant corruption, great corruption and drug cartels on our southern border."

In Washington for G7 and G20 meetings on Friday, Canada's finance minister expressed frustration that the Canada 9-11 myth lives on.

"It's unfortunate that what is a statement that is not true is being repeated from time to time," Jim Flaherty said. "It's just factually wrong ... I would hope that people wouldn't want to make statements that are inaccurate so that we won't hear much of that anymore."
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090424/national/us_cda_mccain_gaffe
 
Yeah when America has Canada and Mexico attacking them I will laugh. Oh a misunderstanding eh aha I get you. No the northern borders are fine so yeah uh....BLAME THE SPICKS! Yep what a fine man this person is to be president.
 
Yeah, come to Maine and ask people about the border restrictions post-Sept. 11. Just don't expect them to be polite about it. Even die-hard Republicans wax poetic about the stupidity of the way they made it harder for people to visit their families on either side of the border. There are a lot of twin town set-ups on the border- one town in Maine, the other in Canada, and some are only separated by somebody's decision of where the line is. By closing off the border and requiring passports, they have basically told people they can't cross the street to visit Grandma without government supervision.

I have heard that these new idiocies are not as well-enforced in places as the Department of Paranoid Delusions- I mean, Homeland Insecurity- would wish. But seriously, are you going to be the one to tell a guy you've known for years that he can no longer visit his family on Sundays because some Suit in DC said he needs a passport to go five miles away, and besides, the checkpoint is closed on Sundays anyway? (Yes, this did happen.)
 
Yes, it is clearly Canada's fault that 9/11 happened.

It is also very clearly Mexico's fault.

And let us not forget, it is also Yemen's fault.

Let us not blame the actual terrorists themselves. That would just be scapegoating.
 
Stuff like this is the reason why I'm proud to be a Democrat.
 
AJW12777 said:
Stuff like this is the reason why I'm proud to be a Democrat.
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Janet Napolitano started it.

And Hillary Clinton did it a few years ago (after it had been proven false).

This isn't Democrats or Republicans. It's pan-partisan idiocy.
 
Evil Figment said:
Janet Napolitano started it.

And Hillary Clinton did it a few years ago (after it had been proven false).

This isn't Democrats or Republicans. It's pan-partisan idiocy.
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Isn't this based on the guy who tried to come through the Canadian border (unconnected to Al-Qaeda or anyone else), but was stopped AT the border? Or is THAT the falsehood itself?
 
GrnMarvl13 said:
Isn't this based on the guy who tried to come through the Canadian border (unconnected to Al-Qaeda or anyone else), but was stopped AT the border? Or is THAT the falsehood itself?
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Nah, that one did happen.

Once.

Two years before September 11.

And got caught at the *old* border system, before all those complications.
 
Right, right, right. Now I remember. It was the big millennium scare (knew I remembered it...but this article had me doubting where I'd heard it).
 
Evil Figment said:
Janet Napolitano started it.

And Hillary Clinton did it a few years ago (after it had been proven false).

This isn't Democrats or Republicans. It's pan-partisan idiocy.
Click to expand...

Good point there, actually.
 
True. I could say both parties are beholden to the "Defense of the Homeland" thing.

Makes it easier for companies to control them. But we need too pool in the votes to pass laws in Congress. (Unless you want gridlock all the time with the coalition building in a multiparty system. This isn't a One-house Parliamentary system you know. So many legal routes to pass laws. D: )

As for the myth...hay. Shows how Government could be better. We just can't elect good leaders. We need to make sure our representatives are informed. =/

I like Canada. :)
 
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