Senate Candidate: al-Qaida 'Ragtag Pirates,' 9/11 a 'Stunt'

By Prescott Carlson in News on Dec 11, 2009 9:20PM

Robert Marshall, who is running for U.S. Senate as a "conservative Democrat," told suburban paper Daily Herald's editorial board today that he thinks the government is making a bigger deal out of al-Qaida than it actually is and that their threat and influence is "grossly exaggerated." Marshall says that al-Qaida is nothing more than a "small ragtag band of pirates" that can be controlled by police action instead of the military. As for al-Qaida's murder of over 3,000 U.S. citizens, Marshall says:

"[9/11] was a spectacular stunt, but maybe next time we will be more prepared. This woke us up. We were sleeping."

Marshall, a radiologist from west suburban Burr Ridge, is opposed to both the Afghanistan and Iraq war, stating on his campaign website that he supports a "[responsible withdrawal] from Iraq and Afghanistan while supporting government-building efforts in those countries through a scaled drawdown of our servicemen and women."

However, Marshall has some problems to overcome convincing voters of his anti-war stance -- namely the fact that he's previously run in four elections as a Republican, and voted for George W. Bush in 2004. When asked about the contradiction, Marshall said that he "slowly became more anti-war over the last few years," and that he's always been more of a "libertarian."