Bin Laden tape stirs reaction from candidates
McCain said his presidency would be Al Qaeda's 'worst nightmare'
(CNN) – Republican presidential contenders had different takes Friday on the significance of Osama bin Laden, as his first videotape in nearly 3 years was released.
Aboard his campaign bus in Iowa, former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee told CNN’s John King , “I think bin Laden is more of a symbolism than he is anything else.”
En route to an appearance in Mason City, Thompson said, “I think he shows and demonstrates to people, once again, that we're in a global war. Bin Laden being in the mountains of Afghanistan or Pakistan is not as important as the fact that there's probably al Qaeda operatives inside the United States of America.”
Asked if the United States should have waited to go to war in Iraq until bin Laden was caught or al Qaeda was further weakened, Thompson said, “It's not an either/or situation; sometimes you don't have a choice. Saddam Hussein was on the cusp as having defeated the United Nations and the free world and the United States. He had certainly had weapons of mass destruction and had the capability of reviving his nuclear program. In light of what Iran is doing today with their nuclear program, he certainly would have gotten back on the stick and gotten there again...you're not served up these issues one at a time. They come when they come and you have to deal with them. Some might say, ‘Stop efforts in other parts of the world and concentrate on Iraq.’ We don't have that luxury.”
In Florida, Rudy Giuliani said capturing or killing bin Laden should not be a “secondary” goal. He told reporters outside a police station in Largo, “The way Islamic terrorism works, individual figures are enormously important. There is a charismatic impact that they have. A perverse one, but a charismatic impact they have. So that if you could take them out, prosecute them, remove them, or take them out of circulation I think you'd have an impact on their ability to function particularly if you could take him out and take some of his lieutenants with him.”
Giuliani, New York City's mayor when the 9/11 attackers struck, said of bin Laden messages, “I have to separate myself from my own personal feelings about it, which are very strong.” He said he had not yet seen the videotape but “the good part that emerges from it is he is obviously in hiding. It obviously restricts what he can do. That's a good thing. The bad thing is we haven't caught him yet. We haven't brought him to justice....that is a very important thing to do.”
Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, campaigned Friday in the Los Angeles area. In a statement, McCain said, “Osama bin Laden and his henchmen must be hunted down - and as president, I will. Al Qaeda terrorists and the violent, aggressive ideology they propagandize must be defeated across the globe, in Afghanistan and in Iraq, which bin Laden's top lieutenant calls al Qaeda's central battlefront against the United States. My presidency will be al Qaeda's worst nightmare.”
In northern New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney told an audience in Berlin: “We’re under attack by people who want to cause the collapse of civilization and draw us back to the eighth or ninth century.” He called the terrorist plots “a threat unlike what we’ve faced before” that will take a “different nature of effort on our part” to defeat.
- CNN Political Desk Managing Editor Steve Brusk
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I should have stated, above, my reasons for the pick.
Historical note: 3 periods of history are relevant.
– During the 12th and 13th centuries there were 3 Crusades by the West to take back Palestine. The last Crusade under pope Innocent II never really happened and no further attempts were done;
– Coloneazation by England during the 19th century. The Near East experienced it only as England superimposed its own administration to local ones. No attempt was made to fully take over.
– After independence in the 1940s a period of rapid exploration for oil and infrastructure-building, all done by western firms, at the expense of the host countries, paid through oil revenues followed. Some resentment begun to buildup.
– The advent of telecommunications accompanied by a physical presence of Westerners, transformed the resentment into sheer hatred for Western culture and Smithsonian economics. Opposition and hatred became more pervasive, organized, sophisticated and funded; hence resistance cells such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas and others.
That is the state of affairs now. I can see only one candidate who has the capacity to harmonize relations. And that is the one I named in my earlier posting.
Once again, when the chips are down for the Republicans, the great PR master Bin Laden comes out of the mysterious caves with his media company and gives them something to talk about and scare us with, but ya know what? More and more of us are waking up to the fact that this is exactly that...a PR move to help out the chicken hawks when times are tough.
Bin Laden is the best friend the Neo Cons pretending to be republicans have during election year.
Oh and isnt it wierd how bin laden hasnt aged a day in 6 years? Meanwhile Mr Bush and Mr Blair are lookin quite old and worn out....
I think Mitt Romney's comments could equally apply to the GW Bush regime over the last 8 years. Good riddance.
Pretty good post by Bill.
Democrat Obama has been the only candidate to step up to the plate and actually state the obvious...which is going into Pakistan with or without their permission to hunt Bin Laden down.
I agree that Bush is grossly irresponsible for all but ignoring him and launching a completely unrelated war in Iraq to depose Saddam.
McCain may talk tough, but his criticism of Obama makes me believe that he would do no better than Bush and would not be aggressive enough with Pakistan.
We must capture Bin Laden, yes. But we are not God, and not capturing doesn't equal incompetence. It is not an easy task.
Whether we capture or kill him or out will be no excuse to neglect other problems.
ThirstyJon
freedomthirst.com
well, first of all that video is still under the eyes of specialist that it is authentic or not .
then the video clearly shows an attempt to threaten the country ,perhaps the whole world before the 9-11 massacre is remembered again..
If the video is indeed authenticated ..there would be a big question on the iraq war as the main motive f it was to wipe out osama bin laden..
the billions of dollars could have been possibly used for a better purpose..
"Saddam Hussein was on the cusp as having defeated the United Nations and the free world and the United States. He had certainly had weapons of mass destruction and had the capability of reviving his nuclear program"
Holy crap, did Thompson miss a memo or something? Even Dumbya has stop saying that.
"Saddam Hussein was on the cusp as having defeated the United Nations and the free world and the United States. He had certainly had weapons of mass destruction and had the capability of reviving his nuclear program." – Is this actually serious? I wonder why they never ask for Ron Paul's opinion.
The West just does not understand Islamic principles that are at the foundation of Muslim choices and organized social structures.
– pl. at the UN for a while. :
Your right pl, we just don't understand the principles that make you strap bombs to yourselves to kill women and children. But we do understand your support for Hillary. Her near sighted cut and run ME stradegy would be best for your oppressive social structures huh..
Am I missing something? Why only report republican reactions to the Bin Laden tape in this posting? Do they own the terrorism issue? I think not. Then again, it's their president who dropped the ball with Bin Laden, so maybe we should expect them to have an opinion on this.
It's really great how CNN chose to publish only Republican reactions to the Bin Laden tape, as though they have a monopoly on national security. These are the same guys that have allowed the Taliban to get back together, caused terrorist recruitment to jump, hurt the US military's ability to respond to threats elsewhere, sacrificed countless American and Iraqi lives, and wasted billions of dollars in taxpayers' money.
But don't worry, everybody. Daddy Bush is here to help. Forget that he slashed national security and anti-terrorism budgets before 9/11. Forget that he suddenly abandoned the hunt for bin Laden to "liberate Iraq," forget that even today we have created a culture where we jump at the mere whisper of bin Laden. The Republicans are still going to protect you.
The level of debate in this country is just sickening. Politicians are partly to blame; the media has even more of an impact. CNN, you can do better.
Why haven't you included the Democratic response? They have views that are equally, if not more important than the Republicans', especially because Democrats don't parrot or simply parse faulty
Administration thinking. I'd love to hear something other than bellicose Republican message points. PLEASE be balanced in your reporting, as I believe you usually are. Thank you.
The fear season, a typical Republican tactic to win elections, has begun and will continue throughout early November 2008!
As someone who will cast his Presidential vote with gusto against any of the Republican candidates, please bring Fred Thompson on!
I've got no idea where Fred Thompson is coming from at all.
"He certainly had WMDs."
"He was on the cusp of defeating the UN, the free world, and the United States."
WHAT?
Fred Thompson is stupid, a liar, or both.
wecouldbefamous.blogspot.com
Could some Thompson supporter please hook me up with some sort of explanation. Was he drunk? Maybe he didn't understand the question? There has got to be something.
FAKE,FAKE,FAKE...DOES BUSH THINK WE ARE STUPID? NO MORE CRY WOLF.
Shawnie – Grants Pass, OR writes:
"...Americans are too informed and educated to buy into you consistently bizarre claims."
Nice try. How about some facts instead of self-aggrandizing slogans. "...too..."? You should have continued the list of the "...too..."s ad infinatum since you manifest them. Then perhaps you might have been balanced.
But thanks for the "consistently". I appreciate it.
Shawnie: Nice try to get Mitt some points. He should get credit for addressing the terrorist issue and not just the Iraq fiasco like the others.
Romney, however, has not gone into any detail, of which I have seen or read, about specifically getting bin Laden himself. Of all the candidates, Senator Obama was the only one to address the Bin Laden issue, until yesterday when everyone tried to jump on the bandwagon.
That won't get Obama my vote, but it seems odd that the Republicans are playing serious catch up on this issue.
JOHN – you ARE America's worst nightmare; you should have retired years ago. MITT – spend your money on a worthwhile pursuit; if you really believe in your campaign, why don't you give rather than loan money to it? FRED – stick to acting rather than strategy, you'll do a far better job. I thought you were great in "Hunt for Red October." RUDY – you have nothing going for you other than having been mayor on 9/11.
Democrats... you are no different; every one of you are just more of the same. I vote every in every election and am still waiting to see a candidate who places the needs of Americans FIRST?
Remember the great quote "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? Todays GOP version "fear everything, vote Republican!"
If you want to beat Al Qaeda, then you have to COMPLETELY withdraw American troops from the Middle East. Then you make them obsolete. That's the only reason they hate us. Because we go into their countries and do what we want without caring.
Pl from the UN can you please tell us why you think Clinton is the best candidate to "harmonize" with the rest of the world?
I wish that CNN would post an article about the Democrats stand on this issue. They didn't elaborate on how McCain plans to take down Al Quaeda or Bin Laden for that matter. This issue isn't just a Republican issue, CNN should address the problem from the Democrats side as well.
I wish that CNN would post an article about the Democrats stand on this issue. – frappaolo107
They do... See Richardson's run away article 3 above. This IS the dems security stradgey.
The only reaction that should be stirring is about how fake this new video is. clearly not him and yet our government will certainly "confirm" that it is. the neo-cons continue to break out these videos at the right times. and, yes, they have faked it before with old footage.