Created: 8/3/2007 3:36:52 PM 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo says that to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States he would threaten to retaliate by bombing Islamic holy sites.
The Colorado congressman says he doesn't want to attack Mecca and Medina, but believes the threat to do so -- with conventional rather than nuclear bombs -- is the only effective deterrent against Muslim radicals willing to die for their faith.
A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced Tancredo's statements as "unworthy of anyone seeking public office in the United States." Ibrahim Hooper suggested that Tancredo could be trying to win the support of "anti-Muslim bigots." The Colorado congressman proposed a similar retaliatory threat on a radio talk show in 2005.
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