GOP contenders: Extend anti-terror Patriot Act

PHILIP ELLIOTT

Asso­ci­ated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial hope­fuls spoke up strongly for the anti-terror Patriot Act in cam­paign debate Tues­day night, say­ing it should be extended or per­haps strength­ened to help iden­tify and cap­ture those who would attack the United States.

Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas among eight pres­i­den­tial hope­fuls dis­sented, argu­ing that the law is “unpa­tri­otic because it under­mines our liberties.”

In a debate on national secu­rity, Min­nesota Rep. Michele Bach­mann said Pres­i­dent Barack Obama has “essen­tially handed over our inves­ti­ga­tion of ter­ror­ists to the” Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union. “Our CIA has no abil­ity to inves­ti­gate,” she said. Bach­mann did not cite any exam­ples to but­tress either of her claims.

The debate unfolded six weeks to the day before the Iowa cau­cuses inau­gu­rate the com­pe­ti­tion for del­e­gates to the Repub­li­can National Con­ven­tion. The ven­er­a­ble DAR Con­sti­tu­tion Hall was the site — a few blocks from the White House and as close as most if not all of the GOP hope­fuls are likely to get.

The Patriot Act is one of the nation’s prin­ci­pal tools in fer­ret­ing out ter­ror­ist threats but has often pro­voked dis­sents from both lib­er­als and con­ser­v­a­tives who argue that in the name of national secu­rity it erodes con­sti­tu­tional protections.

Paul made that point, and said other inves­tiga­tive tech­niques cap­tured Okla­homa City bomber Tim­o­thy McVeigh.

Gin­grich jumped at that. “That’s the whole point. Tim­o­thy McVeigh killed a lot of Amer­i­cans,” the for­mer House speaker said. “I don’t want a law that says after we lose a major Amer­i­can city, we’re sure going to come and find you. I want a law that says, you try to take out an Amer­i­can city, we’re going to stop you.”

Nei­ther Gin­grich nor any other Repub­li­can men­tioned that Obama, like Pres­i­dent George W. Bush before him, signed leg­is­la­tion extend­ing the Patriot Act. He did so while trav­el­ing in Europe last May, putting him name on a four-year exten­sion of the law that gives the gov­ern­ment sweep­ing pow­ers to search records and con­duct wire­taps in pur­suit of terrorists.

In a race that is con­stantly in flux, Gin­grich has emerged as Romney’s prin­ci­pal rival atop the pub­lic opin­ion polls. As he looked around him, he saw other rivals who once held that posi­tion — Bach­mann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and busi­ness­man Her­man Cain among them.

The debate ranged widely over for­eign pol­icy issues, but nei­ther the for­mat nor the mod­er­a­tor per­mit­ted all eight can­di­dates to answer any one ques­tion. That pro­duced a some­what dis­joined event in which there was rel­a­tively lit­tle back-and-forth among the rivals.

Asked if he would sup­port an Israel attack on Iran to pre­vent the Islamic regime from acquir­ing a nuclear weapon, Cain said he would want to know what the plan was and have an under­stand­ing of its chance of success.

Gin­grich said he would bomb Iran only as a last resort and with a goal of bring­ing about the down­fall of the government.

There was more dis­agree­ment when it came to the war in Afghanistan.

For­mer Utah Gov. Jon Hunts­man said it was time for the United States to with­draw nearly all its troops.

For­mer Mass­a­chu­setts Gov. Mitt Rom­ney said top gen­er­als dis­agreed with that and asked Hunts­man if he was talk­ing about a with­drawal begin­ning immediately.

“Did you hear what I said?” Hunts­man asked across the debate stage, not­ing that under the Con­sti­tu­tion the pres­i­dent is com­man­der in chief. A few moments later, refer­ring to Viet­nam, he said a pres­i­dent had lis­tened to the gen­er­als in 1967, and the out­come was not in the inter­ests of the United States.

Also on the debate stage were busi­ness­man Her­man Cain and for­mer Penn­syl­va­nia Sen. Rick Santorum.

Posted by AP News on Nov 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.