Obama: GOP tactics the reason bin Laden is still free RAW STORY

Published: Tuesday June 17, 2008



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Print This Email This WASHINGTON  Democrat Barack Obama says he'll take no lectures from Republicans on who will keep America safer. GOP rival John McCain's campaign criticized Obama Tuesday for speaking approvingly of the successful prosecution of terrorists. A McCain aide said, "Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mind-set" and does not understand the dangers posed by U.S. adversaries. Obama told reporters that the Republicans have no "standing to suggest that they've learned a lot of lessons from 9-11." He said they "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." He said Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because of their failed strategies. Additionally, Obama told reporters that "Republicans are not trying to debate issues but instead scare the American people," according to Jake Tapper of ABC News. "What they are trying to do is what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid  to win elections," Tapper quoted Obama. "They are not serious about this," continued Obama. "Because if they wanted to have a serious conversation about it then they would know for example that the issue of habeas corpus is not designed to free prisoners; what it's designed to do is make sure that prisoners who are being held have at least one shot to say, 'I'm being held wrongly.'" With wire services