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Spokewoman Maria Comella sends on this transcript of Rudy"s comments in Largo, FL on the tape released today:

MAYOR GIULIANI: I haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know what he said. I think that it’s, look it’s inevitable if he makes and sends it out it’s going to be released, that’s what a free press is all about. We can all get angry about that, but in a way, better that we hear what he has to say and evaluate it. I think that it indicates somethings, as all these do, some good things and bad things that emerge from it. The good part that emerges from it is he’s obviously in hiding and obviously restricts what he can do. That’s a good thing. The bad thing is we haven’t captured him yet and we haven’t brought him to justice. And, I for one think that’s a very important thing to do. I think it’s very important, and I have to separate myself here from my own personal feelings about it, which are very strong because of firsthand seeing what he did and losing so many friends. But the second part of it is-- I think even if I were removed from it I’d realize that the way Islamic terrorism works, individual figures are enormously important. There’s a charismatic impact they have, a perverse one, but a charismatic impact they have, so that if you could take them out, prosecute them or remove them or get them out of circulation, I’d think you’d have an impact on their ability to function.  Particularly if you could take out some of his lieutenants with him. So we shouldn’t push this aside as a secondary objective. It’s a very, very important objective to capture him and take him out. And finally, the other thing that emerges from it is, I think there are people who want to minimize the threat of Islamic terrorism. There’s a Time Magazine article about me that I’m encouraging people to read, because although it’s critical of me, I’m actually proud of it. It says that I exaggerate Islamic terrorism. I don’t. I don’t. I think, in fact I don’t think I or anyone else has the ability to explain it to you in quite the way that it should be explained. It is a threat. It isn’t the threat that the Russians or the Soviets were during the Cold War. It’s a different kind of threat--that was a more pervasive threat. This is a more aggressive threat and you’ve got to react to it at the level at which it sits. You can’t brush it under the rug and when I listen to the Democratic debates, I’ve said this for some time now, they don’t mention the word Islamic terrorism. There’s a whole tendency going on in some of the academic world and in some of the political world, of a certain kind of ideology to want to minimize this. Let’s go back to when it considered only a criminal act like we did during the Clinton years. Well, Bill Clinton didn’t have the benefit of September 11^th, that’s why I don’t criticize him for it. I do criticize the people after September 11th who want to minimize Islamic terrorism, who think it’s too politically incorrect to say the word. We have to face it. We have to realize the threat that exists. I don’t think it’s just this tape. I wouldn’t make so much of this tape, I think what happened in Germany is even more of a reminder.  You know, people being caught with plans to attack the American military, American interests overseas. People being caught in New Jersey for that a few months ago. People being caught in New York for that a few months ago. This is an ongoing war that we’re in. I’ve renamed it the Terrorists’ War on Us to remind us that we’re not totally in control of this. We’re in control of our reaction to it which we need to be on offense. But I think it could remind us of that if we used it for the right purpose.

topics:
Bill Clinton, Islam, Military, Russia