Fred Thompson Defends Prison Camps

Fred Thompson defends prison camps

Posted on Fri, Jan. 18, 2008

MARY ANN CHASTAIN / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jeri Thompson holds her son Sammy, 1, as her husband Republican presidential hopeful former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn. makes a campaign stop to take part in a talk radio show Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008, in West Columbia, S.C.

SENECA, S.C. --

(AP) -- Republican U.S. presidential candidate Fred Thompson on Friday defended the detention of foreign nationals at the U.S. Navy base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

''The last thing in the world we need is a bunch of enemy combatants over here in our court system,'' the former Tennessee senator said during a radio interview in front of a couple hundred people at a restaurant.

He said closing the detention facility would allow prisoners to demand rights given to U.S. citizens and would not help ``buy off world opinion.''

The Guantánamo remarks were a slap at Arizona Sen. John McCain, the winner of the New Hampshire primary and former Vietnam-held prisoner-of-war, who has called for the facility to be shuttered in part because it is harming the United States' global reputation.

Thompson is in a tough struggle in South Carolina. He is looking to wedge himself among candidates who are leading in the polls and have won earlier contests. [source]