GOP congressman: Dems put terrorists' rights before Americans' safety

Democrats in Congress care more about protecting terrorists' rights than protecting the American public, a Republican lawmaker charged Wednesday.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) made the incendiary claim during an interview on a conservative news radio program that the decision to close the terrorist detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would "strengthen the hands of terrorists."

"I've been on the Judiciary Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee, and it has bewildered me as to why this Democratic majority has worked to seemingly protect the rights of terrorists more than to protect the American people," Franks said in an interview on the "Dateline Washington" program.

"I think it will even catalyze the recruitment of terrorists within America," he added.

To that end, Franks was one of a group of Republican lawmakers who last week accused Muslim-American interns in Congress of spying on behalf of terrorist groups.

The Arizona conservative described President Barack Obama's decision to shutter the Naval prison in Cuba as one to try to appear "morally superior," but also as an effort likely to play into the hands of U.S. enemies.

"I am really pretty troubled because in this effort to try and appear morally superior, they have ultimately perpetrated the worst upon America, and ultimately it hurts the whole world when we strengthen the hands of terrorists the way this administration is -- unwittingly, maybe -- but inevitably bringing about," he said.