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Conservative Fear Mongering

Led by former Vice President Dick Cheney, conservatives launched a public campaign this spring in an attempt to discredit the President's security strategy for political gain and pressure politicians to turn back the clock to the failed Bush/Cheney policies of the past. As Dick Cheney said in a speech this May before the ultra-conservative American Enterprise Institute, "I think the President will find, upon reflection, that to bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come.”

Never mind the fact that the detainees at Guantanamo include the 75 detainees just cleared for release by an administration task force. Or the fact that the detainees who are found guilty of a crime, if they come to the US, would be housed in supermax prisons. No one has ever escaped from a supermax prison. No, Dick Cheney would rather have us all be very, very afraid.

But Dick Cheney isn't even the most outrageous fearmonger out there. Here are some other elected officials and public figures trying to scare the public:

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Press Release, May 20, 2009
“Americans don’t want terrorists plotting attacks against us anywhere. They certainly don’t want them doing so in our backyards, or down the road in the local prison.”

 

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH)

USA Today, June 9, 2009
"This is the first step in the Democrats’ plan to import terrorists into America."

 

Rush Limbaugh

Radio Show, November 12, 2008
"These are genuine human debris that are at Club Gitmo."

 

Glenn Beck

FOX News, April 9, 2009
President Obama is "closing Gitmo, and letting terrorists onto the streets."

 

Senator John Thune (R-SD)

Associated Press, May 20, 2009
"The American people don't want these men walking the streets of America's neighborhoods."

 

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)

Town Hall Meeting, September 2, 2009
“There has never been a case of torture there. The people there are treated better than in the federal prisons. I don’t know why President Obama is obsessed with turning terrorists loose in America.”

 

Congressman Harold Rogers (R-KY)

Speech on the Floor of the House of Representatives, October 1, 2009
The American people "don’t want these terrorists in their hometowns, inciting fellow prisoners, abusing our legal system, and terrorizing their communities."

 

Congressman John Culberson (R-TX)

Washington Post, October 8, 2009
"The liberal leadership has cleared the way for terrorists to be tried in U.S. courts and housed in U.S. detention facilities all at U.S. taxpayers' expense."

 

Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)

Human Events, August 5, 2009
“They are among the most dangerous people in the world who pose a major threat to U.S. national security.”