Naomi Wolf attacks McCain for giving enemies info

THE SWAMP

Naomi Wolf, the woman who once advised Vice President Al Gore to act more like an alpha male and wear earth-toned clothing, is going after Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Wolf, who is backing Sen. Barack Obama for president, went on MSNBC today and complained that the media is not asking McCain the tough questions.

“They are not even saying to McCain, you were tortured, you were held prisoner, you gave information under duress in enemy hands,” said Wolf, a well-known feminist writer. “And you allowed them to create loopholes in the Military Commissions Act that you passed in 2006. What happened with that?”

McCain was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, held by the North Vietnamese for five and a half years. During that time, he was badly beaten and repeatedly tortured. Saturday marks the 35th anniversary of McCain’s release from prison. He was later awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Although Wolf alleged that McCain “gave information” to his Communist captors, she did not specify what that was.

When asked for a list of members of his squadron, for example, McCain provided his interrogators with the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line.

In another instance, after four days of constant beatings, McCain tried to kill himself rather than give in. A guard stopped him, and McCain finally agreed to sign a confession, something for which he has said that he never forgave himself for doing.

“I am a black criminal and I have performed the deeds of an air pirate,” he wrote. “I almost died and the Vietnamese people saved my life, thanks to the doctors.”

Sen. Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican nominee for president and a veteran of World War II, called Wolf’s comments “a shameful attack on an American hero.”

“For Ms. Wolf to challenge John McCain's integrity and commitment to his country is disgraceful. Ms. Wolf's comments illustrate the growing disconnect between anti-war extremists like MoveOn.org and the very real challenges of waging a war against radical Islamic extremism,” Dole said. “John McCain understands these challenges. He has proven himself to his fellow POWs and he has proven himself to the American people."

And Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama, noted that: “Ms. Wolf’s only role in our campaign is apparently being one of the 13 million people who has voted for Senator Obama, but obviously Senator Obama disagrees with her statements.”

The Military Commissions Act, which Wolf is angry about, allows the military to imprison enemy combatants indefinitely. The ACLU says that with this legislation, Congress “cast aside the Constitution and the principle of habeas corpus, which protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. They also gave the president absolute power to designate enemy combatants, and to set his own definitions for torture.”