http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00396.htm
Friday, 26 May 2006
Senator John McCain P***** The Buck On Polygamy
By Suzan Mazur
To be fair, while the FLDS, America's largest polygamy cult, is
incor****ated in Utah -- members live and vote on either side of the
Utah-Arizona border.
That means media darling John McCain's (R--AZ) stance on polygamy is
also an issue [ Scoop: Re****ts Reconfirm Hatch Said He Condones
Polygamy], http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00364.htm
particularly because of McCain's 2008 US presidential aspirations.
McCain twice ducked my requests for comment for articles on polygamy,
first in 2000 for the front page of the Weekend Financial Times Seven
brides for one brother:
http://www.childbrides.org/abuses_FT_seven_brides_for_one_brother.html
Plural marriage is rife in the western United States, and then for a
piece that ran March 2005 both in Scoop
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00014.htm
and CounterPunch,
http://www.counterpunch.org/mazur03022005.html
where I noted:
"Arizona is even less responsive on the Babyland issue [unmarked
children's graves in the FLDS canyonlands].
John McCain (R - AZ), who is incensed about Iraq POW humiliation,
takes campaign contributions in part from Mohave County where the FLDS
is headquartered on the Arizona side of the border.
McCain failed to comment for my Financial Times October 2000 cover
story on polygamy and his assistant press secretary, Crystal Benton,
told me last year regarding the Babyland matter that his schedule was
"too hectic" for him to make a statement, although she wouldn't want
it to be re****ted that the Senator had "no comment".
Funny the night before Benton told me McCain's schedule was too
hectic, he appeared on MSNBC's Hardball promoting his new book (he's a
frequent guest).
He's also found time to host "Saturday Night Live."
Finding any other comment on polygamy from either of the two US
senators from Arizona - both Republicans: John McCain and John Kyl -
is an exhausting exercise.
It appears to be a game of "don't ask, don't tell" and "pass the
buck".
McCain did just that in a response to Jay Beswick, a tireless child
advocate and former resident of Utah, with more files on US polygamy
than the FBI it seems.
Beswick wrote a letter to McCain about polygamy on his graffiti action
organization's stationery when he was living with his family in
Hurricane, Utah on the outskirts of the FLDS twin towns of
Hildale-Colorado City.
Here's the letter McCain sent back, mysteriously addressed to "Liz
Best" (Beswick has no idea who Liz Best is).
In the letter McCain redirects "Liz" to Senator Bob Bennett (R--UT)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Foster_Bennett
for answers (see
Most Wanted In Polygamy Coverup for Bennett profile):
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0605/S00244.htm
http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0605/f06b66b31546c2efe8ac.jpeg
Beswick claims the hands-off policy is a continuation of what was
going on during Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt's time and cites a 1986
Associated Press article in which Babbitt said FLDS residents are
"hardworking, God-fearing" people.
Hildale attorney Ron Thompson and Babbitt were personal friends at the
time, according to Beswick.
Beswick also comments that neither McCain nor Kyl has helped Arizona
anti-polygamy activists rescue women in their jurisdictions from the
polygamy cult.
He cites Flora Jessop pressing the Arizona Attorney General's office
and Arizona's US Congressmen J.D. Hayworth and John Shadegg, as well
as Senator McCain, to help free Jessop's 13-year old sister from the
FLDS after the girl had been raped.
Jessop said she got no assistance.
Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson suggests that if federal and
state officials are really serious about dismantling FLDS polygamy,
they could request Colorado City residents to provide birth
certificates for their children and DNA samples to determine who the
parents actually are.
But there is no defense for the inaction of McCain, Kyl, J.D. Hayworth
and other Arizona leaders regarding the polygamy issue, since there is
only one side to the story:
Polygamy is a human rights issue -- it violates the UN Convention on
the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
-- which 182 countries of the world have signed -- including the
United States of America.
_____________________________________________________
Suzan Mazur has traveled through the western US covering the polygamy
story, contributing a series on the subject to the Financial Times,
writing for the editorial pages of Newsday and the Philadelphia
Inquirer, as well as Maclean's, CounterPunch and Scoop.
Harry
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