Battle-wounded veteran campaigns for energy independence

May 19, 2016

OCALA — James McCormick, a retired U.S. Army captain who lost comrades, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a roadside bomb blast and was shot three times in the Iraq War, and who now suffers from PTSD, told local civic leaders and residents Thursday that importing Middle Eastern oil is like funding terrorism.
 

“I saw terrorist groups like Al Qaeda on satellite imaging running trucks into oil fields in northern Iraq hijacking oil. This oil can be relabeled and sold and may even end up in the American market. The funds support terrorism and actions like the beheadings we see. Someone pays for those operations,” McCormick said.

McCormick called the income groups like al-Qaida get from oil “backdoor funding for terrorism.”

McCormick, a recipient of the Silver Star, three Purple Hearts and three Bronze Stars with Valor, is program director of the volunteer energy independence advocacy group, Vets4Energy.

McCormick is on a speaking tour with stops in Florida, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. His appearance in Ocala was at Citizens' Circle at City Hall.

Read entire article on Ocala StarBanner.