I’m just back from a press conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Seattle where Rudy Giuliani was hosting a fundraiser in the Metropolitan Room for the GOP’s U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick.

Giuliani and McGavick gave a group of 10 reporters or so about 10 minutes before the dinner.

Giuliani’s opening remarks at the Sheraton zoomed right in on the War on Terror.

As I reported last week, the GOP set a little trap for Democratic candidates before the Senate recess last week with the detainees bill. And they are now campaiging full steam ahead on the notion that Democrats who voted against that bill (it iced habeas corpus) are wimpy when it comes to the War on Terror.

Giuliani began: “We need leadership because we’re going to be at war for some time with Islamic terrorists who attacked us. We recognized the fact that they were at war with us right after September 11, 2001, and we need senators who understand that, and understand that we have to be on offense against terrorism…”

A KUOW reporter got off the first question, asking Giuliani if there were any specific votes that Cantwell has taken that he disagreed with.

Giuliani went right back to the War on Terrorism…and cited Cantwell’s vote last week against the detainess bill. “Her ambiguous support for the effort against terrorism probably concerns me more than anything else. Her recent vote on the detainee policy and interrogation policy that are really necessary to really carry on the war on terror that gives us the maximum amount of intelligence we need. If you consider how September 11 happened—it was a break down of intelligence. We didn’t have the right information. In order to give yourself the best chance of preventing terrorism you have to have interrogation. You have to gather information. You have to give the government some kind of scope to do that, and I think that vote probably indicated a lack of understanding of what’s needed to protect us against the terrorist threat.”

Given Giuliani’s rap about going on offense against terror, I got off the next question. I asked what he thought about the fact that McGavick doesn’t support the assault weapons ban (something Giuliani supports…and something the GOP Congress let expire in 2004.)

Giuliani told me: “The assault weapons ban is something I supported in the past. I don’t think that’s one of the most critical issues right now.”

Okay. But here’s Giuliani on the assault weapons ban in 1995:
“There should be very, very few litmus tests, but someone who now voted to roll back the
assault-weapons ban would really be demonstrating that special interest politics mean
more to them than life-or-death issues.”

And here’s a report from a group called Stop the NRA, that lays out exactly why the assault weapons ban is critical in the War on Terror.

And here’s a a quote from an Al Qaeda training manual called: “How Can I Train Myself for Jihad.”

In other countries, e.g. some states of USA … it is perfectly legal for members of the public to own certain types of firearms. If you live in such a country, obtain an assault rifle legally, preferably an AK-47 or variations, learn how to use it properly and go and practice in the areas allowed for such training.