In an interview with Nightline last night, Barack Obama cited the way the U.S. dealt with the suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and noted that because the U.S didn’t do the same with current detainees at Guantanamo Bay, it “has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.’ So that, I think, is an example of something that was unnecessary.”

The McCain campaign responded with a conference call, on which surrogates chastised Obama for being “extremely naïve,” an advocate for a “policy of delusion,” and having a “perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset.”

“These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could’ve pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11,” Obama responded today to reporters on board his campaign jet. “In part because of their failed strategies, we’ve got bin Laden still sending out audio tapes and so I don’t think they have much standing to suggest that they’ve learned a lot of lessons from 9/11,” he continued.

Using 9/11 on the campaign trail is “fear mongering” on the part of Republicans, Obama insisted – the same tactic that got us into Iraq and has distracted us from the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. After all, he said, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that detainees at Guantanamo Bay should get habeas corpus.

“The question is whether or not, as the Supreme Court said, people who are being held have a chance to at least suggest, that, ‘Hey, you’ve got the wrong guy,’ or,  ‘I shouldn’t be here.’ It’s not a question about whether or not they’re free. And the simple point that I was making, which I will continue to make throughout this campaign, is that we can abide by due process and abide by basic concepts of rule of law and still crack down on terrorists. None of the folks that were speaking for McCain today have given us one bit of information that would suggest that as a consequence of the court’s ruling, terrorists will be able to attack America more effectively,” he said forcefully.

Obama described the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay a “black hole” devoid of accountability set up that way intentionally by the Bush administration. Obama would prefer to lock suspected terrorists up in military facilities on U.S. soil and while he does not advocate putting them on trail in a district court, he said, “What we need to be doing, is locking these folks up and where there are dangerous individuals, we have to create a system of due process where we can show that in fact they were dangerous.”

That system he maintains, will not give detainees “full blown rights,” but will involve due process. “We don’t have to treat them in the same way that we would treat a criminal suspect in the U.S., but we should abide by the Geneva Conventions. We should at least follow through on the same principles we followed through when dealing with Nazis during Nuremburg. That is not only the right thing to do, but it also actually will strengthen our ability over the long term to fight terrorism,” he explained.

The candidate then assured he would not be weak on terrorism. “I want to do everything we can to capture terrorists, incapacitate terrorists, kill them where that is the best approach that we can take, but I see no need for us to create a situation in which we’ve undermined our own ideals and our own institutions in a way which actually strengthens the ability of terrorists to recruit and engage in propaganda against the U.S.”