Candidates react to terrorism verdict

The major presidential candidates issued differing reactions today to the verdict in the first military tribunal since the end of World War II.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden, was convicted of providing material support for terrorism, but acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy.

"This process of bringing terrorists to justice has been too long delayed, but I’m encouraged that it is finally moving forward,” Republican John McCain said in a statement.

Democrat Barack Obama's statement said, "I commend the military officers who presided over this trial and served on the hearing panel under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. They and all our Armed Forces continue to serve this country with valor in the fight against terrorism. That the Hamdan trial – the first military commission trial with a guilty verdict since 9/11 – took several years of legal challenges to secure a conviction for material support for terrorism underscores the dangerous flaws in the Administration's legal framework. It's time to better protect the American people and our values by bringing swift and sure justice to terrorists through our courts and our Uniform Code of Military Justice. And while it is important to convict anyone who provides material support for terrorism, it is long past time to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and the terrorists who murdered nearly 3000 Americans."