Posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 by campaign2008
“I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. They and all our Armed Forces continue to serve this country with valor in th
e fight against terrorism. That the Hamdan trial – the first military commission trial with a guilty verdict since 9/11 – took several years of legal challenges to secure a conviction for material support for terrorism underscores the dangerous flaws in the Administration’s legal framework. It’s time to better protect the American people and our values by bringing swift and sure justice to terrorists through our courts and our Uniform Code of Military Justice. And while it is important to convict anyone who provides material support for terrorism, it is long past time to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and the terrorists who murdered nearly 3000 Americans.”
–Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), in a statement on Wednesday in response to the verdict in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 by campaign2008
“I welcome today’s guilty verdict in the first trial held under the Military Commissions Act (MCA). This proces
s of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I’m encouraged that it is finally moving forward. I supported that legislation, which was a good-faith effort by Congress to meet the Supreme Court’s direction to establish a process to bring terrorist detainees to trial. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a trusted confidante of Osama Bin Laden, was provided a full hearing of the charges against him and was represented by counsel who vigorously defended him. The jury found that the prosecution lawyers had proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hamdan had aided terrorists by supplying weapons to Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.”
–Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in a statement Wednesday on the verdict (AFP) in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 by campaign2008
Responding to McCain campaign adviser Charlie Black’s recent statement that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil would be “a big advantage” (Fortune) to Sen. John McCain’s candidacy, reader Tom Cheung writes:
Is Charlie Black really sure that another terrorist attack on the United States before November would help John McCain’s chances in the general election? Would another terrorist attack on the United States not affirm Barack Obama’s position that the Iraq war has not made America safer and that the Iraq war has caused the United States to take its eye off the ball in Afghanistan? Would another terrorist attack on the United States not contradict John McCain’s rationale that keeping American troops in Iraq for many more years would keep America safer?
Tom Cheung
Toronto, Canada
Posted in General Election, Inbox, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) faced boos in defending his record on immigration Thursday in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC):
“I respect your opposition, for I know that the vast majority of critics to the bill based their opposition in a principled defense of the rule of law,” said McCain.
He also promised to secure the U.S. borders before addressing “other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) responded to Mitt Romney’s CPAC speech withdrawing his candidacy Thursday. In his speech , Romney said he was leaving the race to help avoid a Democratic victory and “aiding a surrender to terror.” Obama said Romney’s comments represent “the kind of poorly thought-through statement that led him to have to drop out. It’s a classic attempt to appeal to people’s fears.”
Suicide terrorism expert Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago, joined Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign as a foreign policy adviser Thursday.
Posted in General Election, Immigration, Morning Update, Terrorism | 1 Comment »
Posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 by Joanna Klonsky
Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination
Thursday after a poor showing in the Super Tuesday primaries. As voters became preoccupied with economic concerns, the former Massachusetts governor ran on the idea that a successful venture capitalist like him could repair the economy. “I spent my entire life in the real economy. I know why jobs come; I know why they go,” he said in a speech after losing the Florida primary in January. “The economy is in my DNA.” A professed free trader, Romney also was quick to show his support for ailing U.S. industries he believed were allowed to lag competitively in the global economy. Such was the case in his native state of Michigan, where he promised to bring back manufacturing jobs that his rival, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), said were lost.
That message won in Michigan but Romney’s strategy of seizing on illegal immigration as a wedge issue with other Republicans did not win him enough support in the end. Romney took a hard line on illegal immigration throughout the campaign, often attacking his opponents for being soft on the issue. Like his Republican opponents, he called for a physical and technological fence to be built on the U.S.-Mexico border. He also proposed issuing a biometric identification card for immigrants, and spoke forcefully against amnesty or any “special pathway” to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
On the torture issue, Romney refused to say whether he would rule out the controversial use of waterboarding, saying in a November 2007 debate he did not think “it’s wise for us to describe specifically which measures we would and would not use.” Romney has also expressed firm support for maintaining the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and even expanding it.
Romney supported the Bush administration’s troop surge in Iraq, though at first not as vigorously as McCain. He generally pointed to “jihadism” as the most pressing threat (Foreign Affairs) to the United States, calling it the “defining challenge of our generation.” He highlighted this concern in his speech announcing suspension of his campaign, saying he did not want to fracture the Republican Party at a time of war and strengthen the hand of Democratic front-runners intent on drawing down the U.S. troop levels in Iraq.
Posted in General Election, Homeland Security, Immigration, Iraq, Terrorism, Trade | 0 Comments »
Posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 by campaign2008
The final Republican and Democratic debates before the January 3 Iowa caucuses were judged ho-hum affairs by the political media. Surging Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, however, continues to generate great interest and a scramble for information about his views. Some takeaways from his new essay in the winter edition of Foreign Affairs:
- Huckabee starts out in the second paragraph asserting he will change the tone of American foreign policy by reaching out more, adding: “The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad.” Huckabee then proceeds to declare his opposition to the Law of the Sea Treaty, which he sees as a threat to U.S. sovereignty;
- Like most other candidates from both parties, Huckabee says he will reach out to moderates in the Muslim world to counter the jihadi influence. His chief tool would be soft power – helping with health care, education, institution building, etc. Huckabee says: “If we do not do the right thing to improve life in the Muslim world, the terrorists will step in and do the wrong thing.”
- Also like most other candidates, particularly Republicans, Huckabee wants to bolster the size of the military. He seeks a surge of 92,000 troops in the Army and Marine Corps over the next five years and wants boost defense spending to Reagan-era levels of six percent of GDP, from the currently 3.9 percent. Unlike many other candidates, Huckabee wants to remove active-duty forces from nation building, leaving the infrastructure, financial and associated tasks to other government agencies.
- On Iraq, he would generally stay the course but faults the Bush administration for neglecting the problem with Turkey’s Kurdish separatists launching attacks on Turkey from Iraqi territory. He would give Turkey the go-ahead to launch limited strikes to go after PKK forces in northern Iraq.
- On Iran, he joins the ranks of candidates who retain the military option for dealing with Tehran. He calls for aggressive diplomacy to contain Iran’s ambitions but also signals he would move to reestablish diplomatic ties. Huckabee says the information gaps ahead of the Iraq war are lesson that, if nothing else, U.S. diplomats on the scene provide valuable intelligence about what’s going on: “Before we put boots on the ground elsewhere, we had better have wingtips there first.”
Posted in General Election, Iran, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 by campaign2008
“Closing and relocating the facility to the heartland of the United States, as some have suggested, would pose an undue risk to innocent Americans and, as today’s arguments demonstrate, could have profound legal implications. So long as it remains a vital tool to keep America safe, I will fight to keep Guantanamo Bay open.”
–Republican candidate Mitt Romney, in a statement today.
Posted in General Election, Quote of the Day, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 by campaign2008
Democrat John Edwards unveiled a plan to improve treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Edwards says he would increase breaks for soldiers between tours of duty.
Republican Mitt Romney says his proposal to expand the military by at least 100,000 troops would “alleviate some of the stress faced by our current Armed Forces and National Guard.”
Charles Hill, the top foreign policy adviser to Republican Rudy Giuliani, criticized what he called Bush administration “incompetencies” on issues including Iraq, Afghanistan, and “alienation with allies” (FOX).
A new campaign ad by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) shows a fictionalized terrorist attack on a shopping mall in what is meant to be a warning against open borders.
Posted in General Election, Military, Morning Update, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 by campaign2008
Continuing CFR.org’s partnership with Economist.com, CFR Fellow Steven Cook guest blogs on Democracy in America this week. In his latest entry, Cook looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
WHEN I lived in Jerusalem in the early 1990s and I would take the 45 minute bus ride to Tel Aviv, I always had the strange sensation that I could finally start to breathe again as the Egged #450 approached the city. Don’t get me wrong, Yerushalayim, al-Quds, the City of Gold, whatever you want to call it has a special place in the hearts of billions, but it is burdensome to actually live there.
Continue here.
Posted in Palestinian-Israeli, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
Posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 by campaign2008
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) predicted the next eight months will determine whether the United States will win in Iraq. “If things go south again and we have significant setbacks, then I think the American people are probably going to demand that we get out, no matter how I feel and no matter how I am convinced about what the consequences of failure are,” he told the Nashua Telegraph.
McCain also called a new message from Osama bin Laden proof that the U.S. strategy is working in Iraq. “Bin Laden’s return to the airwaves to beg for unity in al Qaeda’s terror campaign in Iraq is evidence of our success in Iraq, where we have effectively driven al Qaeda from Anbar province, and have them on the run elsewhere,” he said in a statement released yesterday.
In a blog post, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) denounces the new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies complicit in eavesdropping on American citizens.
Posted in General Election, Iraq, Morning Update, Terrorism | 0 Comments »
