Tougher Than the Rest

This afternoon on FOX, Neil Cavuto sat down with President Bush and discussed a wide spectrum of issues, from Kerry's less than stellar college career to the possibility of Laura running for president. His comments on Al Qaeda and Guatanamo seem to have caught the most attention.

Transcript

(Excerpt)

CAVUTO: On a more serious note, Mr. President, this morning we got word of an Al Qaeda-linked cell potentially broken up in California. One of the participants in that cell supposedly was taking target practice off a picture of you. What did you think when you heard it?

BUSH: I think that our FBI and Homeland Security people are working hand-in-glove to protect America on a daily basis. I was briefed on some of the particulars about the matter you just described. I can assure the America people that we're following every lead, that we're doing everything we can to keep us protected.

The best way to protect America is to keep on the offense and bust up these terrorist networks overseas by doing two things: one, committing our troops and intelligence services to the task, and also spreading freedom.

The way to defeat hatred and hopelessness in the long term is to lay foundations for peace by spreading freedom. So we've got a dual strategy that requires a lot of effort, a lot of sacrifice, but it's working.

CAVUTO: Do you suspect there are other such cells still operating in this country?

BUSH: You know, I don't know. I really don't know. The one thing I do know is that a lot of people are looking for them and that we're running down every possible lead, that we're doing a better job of sharing intelligence now between the CIA and the FBI as a result of the Patriot Act. That within the FBI, there is better intelligence-sharing. That there's a lot of really good people who are spending a lot of time on potential terror cells.

Today Mike Chertoff, who's the secretary for Homeland Security, and Director Mueller were in the Oval Office, briefing me about this group of folks in California.

I was very impressed by the use of intelligence and the follow-up. And that's what the American need to know, that when we find any hint about any possible wrongdoing or a possible cell, that we'll follow up — by the way, honoring the civil liberties of those to whom we follow up. In other words, we're just not going to pick up the telephone and listen to somebody without a proper court order. That's protecting the civil liberties of Americans.

CAVUTO: Speaking of civil liberties, one of your predecessors, Jimmy Carter, was very critical of our operations at Guantanamo Bay, saying they should be shut down, that abuses there, if proven true, are dragging our name through the mud globally. What do you make of that?

BUSH: Well, I first of all want to assure the American people that these prisoners are being treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I say in accordance with because these weren't normal, you know, military-type fighters. They had no uniforms. They had no, you know, government structure. These were terrorists, swept up off the battlefield in a place like Afghanistan, for example.

And it's in our nation's interest that we learn a lot about those people that are still in detention, because we're still trying to find out how to better protect our country.

Secondly, that anytime there's an allegation of abuse, we investigate. That's what transparent societies do. We've got a press corps that's constantly asking tough questions about prisoner treatment, for example. You just asked one. And that's what open societies do, they answer the questions by saying...

CAVUTO: But now President Carter has said, sir, shut it down. Joe Biden said shut it down. Do you think it should be shut down?

BUSH: Well, you know, we're exploring all alternatives as to how best to do the main objective, which is to protect America. What we don't want to do is let somebody out that comes back and harms us.

And so we're looking at all alternatives and have been. And when there have been questions of abuse and allegations like the Koran, the Pentagon went through a full investigation and then released the data for everybody to see.

And I will tell you that we treat these prisoners in accordance with international standards. And that's what the American people expect. When somebody put out that Amnesty International report, they asked me about it. I said it's just absurd to equate Gitmo and Guantanamo with a Soviet gulag. It's just not even close.

Regarding shuttingt down Gitmo, Bush was very noncommital; yet the Washington Post spins it another way.

Its headline is "Bush Open to Possibly Closing Gitmo Camp."

While technically true, since he said that "we're looking at all alternatives," the Post assigns far too much weight to that possibility. Bush did not indicate he was interested in shutting the camp down. If anything, he made a point to stress that the U.S. does not have gulags, suggesting there would not be any reason to close the facility.

Watching Bush speak about terrorism and security and then seeing the clips of Jimmy Carter calling for detainees to be sent home was chilling.

Thank God the Bush adminstration is in charge.

Thank God Jimmy Carter no longer serves in the executive branch.