It’s not just a two horse race in the US. Six contenders for Greens’ candidacy will meet in San Francisco for a Green Presidential Debate this weekend.

One will be Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic Congress member. McKinney is a hero to many on the American left. She is also a 9/11 “truther” – one of the strange breed who believe George W Bush had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks.

US News commented on her surprise defeat in 2002:

How did McKinney get herself in such political trouble? By taking extravagant radical stands. Most notably, she charged that George W. Bush may have known about the September 11 attacks in advance and allowed them to happen in order to make profits for the Carlyle Group, an owner of defense contractors with which former President Bush has connections. “It is known that President Bush’s father, through the Carlyle Group, had – at the time of the attacks – joint business interests with the bin Laden construction company and many defense industry holdings, the stocks of which have soared since September 11,” she said last April. Georgia’s Democratic Senator Zell Miller called her comments “loony.”

McKinney’s father Billy McKinney, a Gerogia state representative, did little to help her cause. Asked in an Atlanta television interview why local hero and former Congressman and ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young who had endorsed her had declined to do so responded “That ain’t nothin’. Jews have bought everybody. Jews. J. E. W. S.”

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the conduct of McKinney supporters when she lost in 2006.

A member of the anti-Semetic New Black Panther Party in McKinney’s security entourage reportedly interjected when a journalist asked about her defeat: “Why do you think she lost? You wanna know what led to the loss? Israel. The Zionists. You. Put on your yarmulke and celebrate.”

“This incident is reminiscent of the 2002 campaign in which Rep. McKinney’s father blamed the J-E-W-S for her defeat,” the League said. “Rep. McKinney did not distance herself from the anti-Semitic comments then, and her service in Congress has been clouded by a perception that she also harbors such feelings.”