RE: "Hoekstra Moves Up with Humility" Sept. 21, 2004

Comment from U.S. Congressional Candidate Kimon Kotos, Michigan 2nd District 

Dear Editor,

Leadership means accepting responsibility. In her fluff piece on Representative Pete Hoekstra, Ruby Bailey glosses over the fact, that as Subcommittee Chair of the Tactical and Technical Intelligence and member of 2 of the 3 other subcommittees, that he has shown no intention of scrutinizing or being honest with the public about what has been going on in Iraq. 

Having made four visits to Baghdad and one to Guantanamo, Hoekstra has either turned a blind eye or a deaf ear to the reality of our failed and illegitimate policies As a mouthpiece for the Bush administration, he continues to use the threat of terror to justify this illegal war. How is Mr. Hoekstra qualified to reform intelligence oversight, when he has remained silent when it comes to questioning its faulty assessments?  

Unmentioned in Bailey's article are Hoekstra's financial ties to Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater U.S.A., whose mercenaries and others have become even larger allies than Britain. Hoekstra has allowed unregulated professional thugs the power to profit and disgrace the people and military of the U.S. Not only is he likely to continue business as usual, he will keep a lid on the Pentagon-driven, squandering of our money and dignity. Do you smell a fox guarding the henhouse? [Blackwater guarded Bremer; 4 Blackwater mercenaries were killed in Fallujah in March]

Hoekstra's neglect of the 2nd District is also evident in his failure to stop or alleviate the job loss in West Michigan. People here are losing out to cheap labor in Mexico, China and elsewhere, to the tune of more than 250,000 jobs lost here in the past 4 years. 

As the Democratic challenger for this US Congressional seat, I call on the people of the 2nd District and the press to take a closer look at what Pete has not done.  

Sincerely, 

Kimon Kotos