During tonight's State of the Union address, President Barack Obama needs to show strength to the American people and the world when it comes to a strategy to combat Islamic terrorism, former CIA Director James Woolsey said Tuesday on
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
"I'd like to hear him in some fashion begin to understand that you're not going to succeed dealing with terrorists if you treat them like trout – catch and release, which is what we've been doing," Woolsey said.
Story continues below video.
Note: Watch Newsmax TV now on DIRECTV Ch. 349 and DISH Ch. 223
Get Newsmax TV on your cable system — Click Here Now
Political correctness has crept into both the media and the White House, he added, citing the characterization of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting by Maj. Nidal Hasan by the Defense Department as "workplace violence" rather than an act of terror.
"When Maj. Hasan killed those 13 fellow soldiers they never would say anything about jihad or Islamists," he said. "It's kind of amazing how scared of telling the truth so much of our media and the White House seems to have come to adopt. It's just stupid, really stupid."
Obama has been sending the "wrong message and not a message of firmness," according to Woolsey.
"When you say you're going to draw a red line if the Syrians use chemical weapons against their own people and then they do it and he says maybe the Russians will deal with this, that makes the United States a laughing stock," according to Woolsey. "He's been doing that in a number of different ways and circumstances."
As terror groups have become increasingly savvy in using social media to carry out their mission, it's more critical than ever that world remain united in refusing to cave to their demands, Woolsey said.
"We should not, under any circumstances, pay ransom to get hostages freed," he said, referencing ISIS' recent demand for $200 million to release two Japanese hostages.
"Once you start doing that, there's no end. It will keep getting worse and worse and it's terrible for the Japanese correspondents and for their families, but one simply has to draw a line at this and say no ransom, no dealing with terrorists on anything on any circumstances and no bargaining.
"If they don't pay ransom, the journalists will probably get killed. It's terrible, a real shame, but that is a better path than going down the path of paying ransom and repaying and repaying it."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.