McCain Campaign Conference Call With Former Senator Fred Thompson

"I think that Senator Obama would do well to stop apologizing to the rest of the world for America's attempts to protect itself during a time of war." -- Fred Thompson

Today, former Senator Fred Thompson and McCain 2008 Director of Foreign Policy and National Security Randy Scheunemann held a conference call on Barack Obama's remarks concerning terrorism:

Senator Fred Thompson On Barack Obama And Habeas Corpus Rights

Fred Thompson: "I think that Senator Obama would do well to stop apologizing to the rest of the world for America's attempts to protect itself during a time of war. I think that it's a basic lack of recognition of the fact that we are at war and a lack of appreciation of that fact. He now, apparently from what I read, is saying that instead of approaching this from a military standpoint, we should be approaching from a law enforcement standpoint -- the very policies that were tried during the Clinton administration and by all accounts was a failure. I couldn't believe he was using the Rahman case of '93 bombing, the first bombing of the World Trade Center, and the 'Blind Sheik' case, supposedly as an example. That was the best example of why we can't treat these terrorist cases as ordinary criminal cases and bring them all to the United States of America and go through our court system." ...

"[Barak Obama] would appoint Supreme Court justices who would be activists, who would be determined to make social policy, who would feel that it would be proper to make military policy in matters of national security and foreign policy and so forth. And of course its pointed out by the other four justices that that's exactly what the majority is doing in this case. These are the kind of judges he would appoint, McCain would appoint different kinds of judges." ...

"Shutting down our process is putting everybody in our regular court system, giving them access to classified information, treating them as ordinary criminals, that works to our detriment. That is nothing we would ever have considered or that about doing in any other times of war in the history of this country. So I can only conclude that they do not think this is a real war that qualifies for that, despite the fact that they give lip service to the notion. Therefore they look upon these detainees, who are not abiding by the rules of war, as people who deserve at least the rights of you know, the hardware store owner down on the neighborhood square."

Randy Scheunemann On The Obama Campaign's Contradictory Foreign Policy Statements

Randy Scheunemann: "We saw in the course of the day yesterday the continuing confusion, indecision and weakness on the part of Senator Obama and his spokespersons as to how they would deal with the dangerous threat posed by terrorists.

"For example, Governor Richardson said he disagrees with treating detainees as enemy combatants and treating them differently than defendants in typical criminal cases saying that he wants all of the protections of the criminal systems, not just habeas to be extended to terrorists. The implications of this are breathtaking. Governor Richardson also went on to say 'we have to protect our country from terrorists, but we don't have to be like them', which is a really shocking statement if you think about it because we are not being like them by giving the detainees the right to adjudication that they had prior to the Supreme Court decision. I mean the terrorists behead captives on television. They fly planes into buildings. They recruit teenagers for suicide bombs. They use car bombs to blow up men, women and children, most of who are Muslims. And it is really shocking that a representative of Senator Obama would say somehow we are being like the terro rists.

"Finally, I would like to comment briefly on Obama's point yesterday when he, yet again reaffirmed his support for Osama Bin Laden to have Habeas Corpus rights and he said we should not 'make Osama Bin Laden into a martyr'. Now, the last time I checked the definition of martyr its someone who dies for a cause or is killed for a cause and it seems to be that Senator Obama is ruling out capital punishment for Osama Bin Laden were he to be captured alive under U.S. jurisdiction. And I think that's another reversal of a position he previously stated. Years ago he opposed capital punishment, then he said he supported it. At one point, he indicated he supported capital punishment for Osama Bin Laden, now he expresses concern about making Osama Bin Laden into a martyr. So I think we've seen another series of confused and indecisive and troubling statements from Senator Obama and his spokespersons on how to prosecute this struggle agains t violent, radical Islamic extremists that wish to attack America and American interests again and with that let me turn it over to questions."

Listen To The Full Conference Call.