Monday, June 23, 2008

Fred Thompson on Obama’s Latest National Security Gaffe.

Obama’s latest national security gaffe? Maybe we should start numbering them for easy reference?

Our Democratic friends are once again scrambling to defend Senator Obama’s latest national security gaffe.

Obama supports the recent Supreme Court majority opinion in the Boumediene decision, which extended for the first time habeas corpus rights to foreign enemy combatants held abroad. The Senator went even further than the Court and said that accused terrorists should be tried in American courts as was Omar Abdel Rahman, “the blind sheik”, who masterminded the first World Trade Center bombing.

Last week, in a call with reporters and bloggers, I pointed out Obama’s folly. The Rahman case demonstrates some of the main reasons why we should not treat enemy combatants as ordinary criminal defendants. Such proceedings potentially compromise results, sources and methods of intelligence gathering.


Treating terrorism as a law enforcement problem is doomed from the start. Treating the first World Trade Center bombing as a criminal act did nothing to prevent the second. To the extent that Obama believes what he says, it is a guarantee of ineffective and counter productive measures against the global war on terror.

Former Senator Thompson also called a press conference and posted a column on the subject for those of you who wish more detail.

Hat tip Hot Air


Cross Posted at Say Anything

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