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WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama rejected any lectures from his
White House rival John McCain on fighting terrorism Tuesday in a
scornful riposte to a day-long onslaught from the Republican’s
camp.
“Let’s think about this: 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,” Obama told reporters on his plane.
“In part because of their failed strategies,
we’ve got [al-Qaeda chief Osama] bin Laden still sending out audio
tapes. So I don’t think they have much standing to suggest that
they’ve learned a lot of lessons from 9/11,” he said.
McCain supporters had lashed out at a call by
Obama for suspected extremists to be prosecuted, in light of a
Supreme Court ruling last week allowing Guantànamo Bay detainees to
challenge their detention in US courts.
McCain’s foreign policy aide Randy Scheunemann
said militants had to be fought on the battlefield and not in the
courts, and accused Obama of “a perfect manifestation of a
September 10 mindset” from a day prior to the 2001 attacks.
“If Obama did receive that 3 a.m. phone call,
I guess his response would be to call lawyers at the Justice
Department,” Scheunemann added, referring to a campaign ad on
national security by Obama’s primary opponent Hillary Clinton.
In an interview with ABC News late Monday, Obama
noted that the Islamist extremists behind the first bomb attack on
the World Trade Center in 1993 were brought to civilian justice and
are now behind bars.
Under the Bush administration’s policies since
9/11, “not only have we never actually put many of these folks on
trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule
of law all around the world,” Obama said.
The policies had “given a huge boost to
terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how
the United States treats Muslims,’” he said.
Obama backers said McCain was recycling the
ominous rhetoric of President George W. Bush’s “war on terror”
which had left the United States bereft of allies, embroiled in Iraq
and facing new threats in Afghanistan.
Richard Clarke, Bush’s former top
counter-terrorism aide who is now advising Obama, said he was a
“little disgusted” by the McCain campaign’s use of “the same
old tired tactics to frankly frighten Americans.”
“What John McCain has done is tie himself to
the Bush record on terror, which has been a complete failure,”
said Senator John Kerry.
In any case, polls suggest that this year’s
election will not be fought on the 2004 theme of who can best keep
America safe, but who can best revive its economy and help
hard-pressed voters at risk of losing their homes and jobs.
-- AFP
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