U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo clarifies 'nuke Mecca' comments

Friday, July 22, 2005

Representative Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has clarified his earlier statement that "you could take out their holy sites," in the event of a nuclear attack upon the U.S. by Islamic terrorists. Rep. Tancredo has refused to make any apologies, saying "When we bombed Hiroshima, when we bombed Dresden, we punished a lot of people who were not necessarily (guilty). Not every German was a member of the Nazi Party. You do things in war that are ugly." However, Tancredo emphasized that he was speaking hypothetically and not necessarily suggesting policy.

The remarks, made in a July 15th radio interview, hosted by Pat Campbell of WFLA in Orlando, Florida, have drawn support from conservatives groups such as Northeast Intelligence Network and Free Republic, and have offended the American Muslim community. In the interview, Tancredo discussed his request for information from the Justice Department regarding the claim of evangelical Christian journalist Joseph Farah that al-Qaida has smuggled multiple nuclear weapons into the U.S.

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Sources

Rocky Mountain News. "Transcript of Tancredo's comment" — Rocky Mountain News, July 18, 2005

M. Sprengelmeyer. "Tancredo: No apology" — Rocky Mountain News, July 19, 2005

Art Moore. "Tancredo clarifies 'ultimate response'" — World Net Daily, July 21, 2005

"Congressman suggests way to retaliate for nuclear terror" — CNN, July 18, 2005

Douglas J. Hagmann. "U.S. Nuke Threat: We Could Nuke Mecca" — Northeast Intelligence Network, July 19, 2005

underwiredsupport. "U.S. Nuke Threat: We Could Nuke Mecca" — Free Republic, July 15, 2005

Joseph Farah. "Al-Qaida nukes already in U.S." — World Net Daily, July 11, 2005

External links

Tom Tancredo. Interview by Pat Campbell <[ broken link]> [archived version] — WFLA, July 15, 2005

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