McCain v. Obama: clashing on terrorism
Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 9:48 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Security
"Seeing an opening on the terrorism issue, John McCain's campaign is bashing Barack Obama for suggesting, after last week's US Supreme Court ruling giving Guantánamo Bay detainees the right to challenge their detentions in federal court, that terrorism suspects should be prosecuted in civilian courts as criminals."
VIDEO: Responding to charges by the McCain campaign that he is in a "September 10th mindset," Sen. Barack Obama says that Republicans' "failed strategies" account for bin Laden's avoiding capture.
"A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism," the
AP writes. "'These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11,' the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. 'This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse.'"
The
Washington Post: “The exchange marked the general election's first real engagement over the campaign against terrorism and demonstrated that both sides are confident that they have a winning message on the issue… The debate over whether to treat terrorism primarily as a law enforcement issue or as a military issue goes back years. Some experts argue that it is inadequate to pursue and prosecute suicidal Islamic extremists as if they were typical criminals; other experts say that doing so is precisely what is needed to puncture the aura of ‘holy warriors’ that the terrorists feed on and to deglamorize them in the eyes of other Muslims.”
The New York Times: “It was the most heated back-and-forth yet in a debate that began last week when the Supreme Court ruled that the detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in federal court. Mr. Obama praised the court’s decision as a return to the rule of law, while Mr. McCain excoriated it, saying that it could make the nation less safe, although the Republican candidate’s comments were a reminder of the complexities of his own past positioning on Guantánamo detainees.”
