Rep. Peter King, the Homeland Security committee chairman who will convene hearings Thursday on the threat of domestic terrorism and "radicalization" among American Muslims, is finding it difficult to shake his past. As is now well known thanks to a spurt of recent press, King was, as a Long Island politician on the make, an active supporter of the Irish Republican Army for many years.
To this day, even while he's taking a hard line against Muslim terrorism, King still describes the IRA as a "legitimate force." (At the same time, King wants to brand WikiLeaks' Julian Assange a terrorist.)
At least one victim of an IRA attack has called out King for his "hypocrisy." So, for the sake of the record, we thought it would be worth collecting a few of King's more striking quotes about the IRA when its campaign of terrorism was in full force. None of this is to say that terrorism is not a complex issue that deserves to be considered in a nuanced way. But now that King is chairman of the Homeland Security committee and taking the lead looking at terrorism, it's worth knowing his history.