Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:47:56 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=68641§ionid=3510302The following is Press TV's exclusive interview with Alexander Cockburn, the founder and editor of Counterpunch magazine, on the day of John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota:
Press TV: Tell us a little bit about the heroism of John McCain.
Cockburn: Anyone listening to the convention will have heard the story of his intrepid conduct as an aviator and his great bravery when he was captive of the North Vietnamese. We and others have published several challenges to this story saying in fact that the narrative of McCain facing down his torturers is a lot of nonsense.
Actually McCain was saved by Vietnamese civilians and well cared for after his quite serious accident, descending after bombing civilians from his airplane.
There are allegations by people who shared his captivity that he received extremely favorable treatment and even allegations that he confided information to his captors which enabled them to respond more skillfully to American attacks.
We recently published a piece by the wife of a veteran who was in prison camp at the same time as McCain, challenging the entire story. I do not think actually these stories have got much traction. People are very nervous of challenging McCain's war record. Even people on the liberal side who would have a motive to try and cut down the heroism stuff are very cautious because they think that there would be a backlash.