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White House: We Are Not Soft on Terrorism

The Obama administration has started a public relations campaign to answer critics who claim it has been weak on terrorism. After the attempted bombing of a U.S. airline flight on December 25, 2009, Republicans have taken the opportunity to point out the failure of U.S. counter-terrorism teams. Additionally, they have lobbed criticism for the authorities’ treatment of the suspect—because he was advised of his rights and will be tried in criminal, rather than military, court.

The administration had not publicly responded to these attacks until recently. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has refuted each of the GOP attacks and counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan went on Meet The Press in defense of the administration.

“Quite frankly, I’m tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as a political football,” Brennan said.

President Obama answered critics directly in an interview on CBS on February 7. “We’re not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11.”

Dozens of terrorism suspects have already been prosecuted in civilian courts. This vocal shift appears to be a signal that the administration will be more assertive in answering critics.

See more at NPR.

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