Hussein Warns Against Making Bin Laden A Martyr
Barack Obama said today that he would try to avoid turning Osama bin Laden into a martyr who could provide a rallying point for a new generation of Islamist radicals.
Obama said is not certain that the terrorist leader would be captured alive. But if bin Laden were taken into custody, Obama said he would bring the terrorist to justice “in a way that allows the entire world to understand the murderous acts that he’s engaged in and not to make him into a martyr.”
The presumptive Democratic nominee added the the capture of bin Laden would offer a high-profile moment to demonstrate to the world “that the United States government is abiding by the basic conventions that would strengthen our hand in the broader battle against terrorism.”
Obama drew a comparison with the prosecution of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremburg trials, which he called “one of the high water marks” of U.S. foreign policy.
“The world had not seen before victors behave in ways that advanced a set of universal principles. And that set a tone for post-war reconstruction and creation of an international order that I think was extraordinarily important,” he continued.
Obama was asked about how he would handle bin Laden by a press pool after the senator met with a new team of national security advisers at a hotel in Washington D.C.
The meeting came as the McCain campaign has criticized Obama for a “Sept. 10″ mindset for promoting criminal trials of terrorist suspects.
Obama also told reporters that he had not spoken in recent days with former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
“She has been getting a well-deserved vacation and we will be speaking I think in the next few days or certainly the next week and will be having an ongoing conversation,” Obama said.
Clinton and Obama are to meet jointly with top Clinton fundraisers next Thursday.
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