Saturday, December 27, 2003
Dean downplays statement about bin Laden's legal fate
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CONCORD, N.H. - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said in a newspaper interview that it's premature to recommend what penalty Osama bin Laden should face before he's been legally determined to be guilty of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
However, in a later interview with The Associated Press, he said he wants bin Laden to get the death penalty, seeking to minimize fallout from a New Hampshire newspaper story published Friday.
Asked whether bin Laden should be tried in the United States and put to death, Dean told The Concord Monitor, "I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials."
Dean added: "I'm sure that is the correct sentiment of most Americans, but I do think if you're running for president, or if you are president, it's best to say that the full range of penalties should be available. But it's not so great to prejudge the judicial system."
Later in a phone interview with the AP, Dean said: "As a president, I would have to defend the process of the rule of law. But as an American, I want to make sure he gets the death penalty he deserves."
The former Vermont governor, who solidly leads the field of Democratic presidential candidates in both polls and money, said he was simply trying to state in The Concord Monitor interview that the process of trying bin Laden needs to be fair and credible.
Calling Iraq "probably the best place" for Saddam Hussein to be tried, Dean said he is willing "to be flexible about that because I don't think it's essential to the security interests of the United States."
Dean said he plans to keep reminding Democrats that he, unlike his major rivals for the nomination, opposed the Iraq war.
That is in contrast to polls showing the vast majority of the American public supporting the invasion at the time.
Asked how he would persuade people who were not opposed to the war to vote for him instead of President Bush, Dean responded, "By going after him on terrorism, where he's really weak."
