State Dept. offers tough talk to White House candidates

WASHINGTON - The State Department has a message for White House candidates wanting to expound on sensitive diplomatic issues: Shut up.

Traditionally silent during presidential campaigns filled with divisive foreign-policy debates, the department yesterday delivered a rebuke to would-be nominees of both parties, saying their recent comments have complicated U.S. efforts to overcome deep suspicion about the war on terrorism in the Muslim world.

"Those who wish to hold office can speak for themselves, and whoever is elected in 2008 and comes into office in 2009 will then be in a position to talk about what they intend or plan to do," said deputy spokesman Tom Casey, a career foreign-service officer.

First it was Barack Obama's talk of dialogue with dictators and invading Pakistan to kill Islamist extremists, then it was Hillary Rodham Clinton's refusing to rule out the use of nuclear weapons to that end. Now, the Democratic front-runners have been joined by Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who threatened to bomb Muslim holy sites to stop terror attacks.

Casey had unusually harsh words for Tancredo, who said this week that if elected he would threaten to bomb the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina, Islam's two holiest sites, to deter attacks on the United States.

"It is absolutely outrageous and reprehensible for anyone to suggest attacks on holy sites, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or those of any other religion," Casey told reporters. "To somehow suggest that an appropriate response to terrorism would be to attack sites that are holy and sacred to more than a billion people throughout the world is just absolutely crazy."

Tancredo told a group in Iowa on Tuesday that he believed that a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States could be imminent and that officials need to think of a way to stop it. "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," he said.

Despite Tancredo's fringe status in the presidential race, his words prompted angry reactions among Muslims in countries critical to the fight against Islamic extremism, notably Pakistan, where U.S. intelligence believes al-Qaeda has regrouped.

Pakistan's minister for parliamentary affairs, Sher Afgan, said yesterday that he would open debate next week on recent criticism of Pakistan from several quarters in the United States, including remarks by Obama, Clinton and Tancredo. It is a matter of "grave concern that U.S. presidential candidates are using unethical and immoral tactics against Islam and Pakistan to win their election," he said.

Obama (D., Ill.) said last week that he would be willing to sit down with pariah leaders like North Korea's Kim Jong-il and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and on Wednesday said he would send U.S. troops into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden and other extremists if Pakistan was not doing the job.

On Thursday, he ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but was quickly derided by Clinton (D., N.Y.), who signaled she would keep all options on the table.

State Department diplomats said they feared that Tancredo's remarks, coupled with those of Obama and Clinton, would be seen as a broader trend of animosity by U.S. politicians to Muslims.