Gingrich: Administration Puts Terrorist Rights First

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Newt Gingrich

(AP /FOX News Sunday, Freddie Lee)

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been discussed as a potential 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Monday night that members of the Obama administration place the rights of terrorists before the rights of Americans.

"I believe what you have is a group of people centered in the Justice Department and the Attorney General, whose law firms all gave pro bono support to terrorism," Gingrich said, as CNN reports. "They start every day with a presumption that the rights of terrorists are more important than the lives of Americans."

O'Reilly reportedly responded that the claim was "impossible to believe" and asked why "any rational person" would put the rights of terrorists before those of their own family.

Responded Gingrich: "You interjected the word 'rational.'"

Last week, in response to the Christmas Day bombing attempt, Gingrich complained that "instead of targeting the source of the threats, our politically correct government decides to make life more miserable for the travelling public by imposing hopelessly meaningless rules such as not allowing passengers to leave their seats in the last hour of the flight."

"It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information," he added.

As Politico notes, Gingrich said during the Fox interview that Americans are "not safe" and "in much greater danger" than they were one year ago.

Attorney General Eric Holder, Gingrich said, "lives in a world where somehow the United States is dangerous and the United States government is dangerous."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by Leaderless January 5, 2010 2:17 PM EST

I served my country in 2 tours and thought I might have seen it all but......
On one of our patrol, we caught this guy red handed trying to place an IED and he ran. During the pursuit thru the village, he shot 2 women and 3 kids thinking we would stopped to help them so he can get away. This got my blood really boiling and we lit him up on him once he ran into a dead end street. Hate to see what would happened to our squad if some slick lawyer wants to know why he died from over one hundred bullet wounds and why he wasn't mirandized.
These scumbags terrorist forfeited their rights a long time ago. To used our tax money to defend them is beyond ludicrous.

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by DavefromColorado January 5, 2010 3:37 PM EST: Amen

by ramos1129 January 5, 2010 2:11 PM EST

Why does rational human being pay attention to what this fool (Gingrich) says about anything. This is the guy who went to his sick wife's ICU hospital bed to tell her he was divourcing her for another woman. This sad sick puppy did not have the decency to just stay away from the hospital.

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by DavefromColorado January 5, 2010 3:29 PM EST: Oh, so it's rational then to defend a man who strapped explosives to himself and tried to blow up a civilian airplane?

Wow.. liberal double standards coming out of the woodwork again...

so sick...


by sjc_1 January 5, 2010 3:50 PM EST: No one is defending suicide bombers, I don't see how you can come off with that stuff. You are trying to throw gasoline on a small flame just to see it get bigger. That is what Newt is trying to do. It will not work, but he will keep trying because no one holds him accountable for his words.


by watervliet January 5, 2010 1:36 PM EST: GO AWAY.... CAN'T STAND YOU; Reply to this comment

by TooComplex January 5, 2010 1:20 PM EST

What a stupid and irresponsible statement this sad excuse of a man makes. His grand revolution failed miserably by ushering in what is possibly the most damaging period of leadership this nation has ever had. He's a nobody now. Why do news legitimate organizations give this man a forum. Leave him to that ridiculously un-credible Fox...

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by DavefromColorado January 5, 2010 3:34 PM EST: irresponsible statement? Ok...

So it's responsible to let someone try to blow up hundreds of civilians in an airplane and then defend them from the justice they deserve?

No wonder there have been more attempted terrorist attacks on US soil in the first year of Obama's presidency than there had been in the past 20 years combined...

And alas we are still ignoring Iran, North Korea, Yemen, and on and on...

I'm sure you hate war so much, wonder how you will feel if you get drafted because the jihadist states launch nukes around and passivists like yourself are actually FORCED to defend yourselves, let alone the people you are SUPPOSED to be protecting anyways...

You make me sick. If you love the terrorists so much, go join them, so that our true warriors, the brave men and women of our armed forces, can put an end to your pitiful jihad sentiment.

by consh8theusa January 5, 2010 1:05 PM EST

That's Gingrich's way of saying that Obama follows US law.

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by DavefromColorado January 5, 2010 3:36 PM EST: Or maybe its not law?

Do you know the law?

There is no law saying anyone that is not a US citizen gets our rights, particularly in warfare.

There are "codes" to follow under the geneva conventions, but guess what? That would require him to be a prisoner taken in a uniform in a war theater..

He's on a civilian airliner with explosives strapped to him and obviously not wearing a uniform...

Guess what? We have every right to put a bullet in his head.

How's that for law?


by riptide213 January 5, 2010 12:24 PM EST: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."

Groucho Marx; Reply to this comment