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Al Jazeera: US senator stands by Nazi remark (Dachau Durbin)
Al Jazeera ^ | 6/16/05

Posted on 06/16/2005 9:33:46 AM PDT by ambrose

US senator stands by Nazi remark

Thursday 16 June 2005 7:20 AM GMT

A US senator has refused to apologise for comparing the actions of US soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis, while others have decried or defended the mandate and method used to hold prisoners there.

US Senator Dick Durbin on Wednesday refused to apologise for comments he made on the Senate floor referring to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Illinois Republican Party chairman Andy McKenna had demanded he apologise.

"Senator Durbin's comments come as a great disservice to our military personnel in Guantanamo," he said. "They are also a great disservice to all US soldiers and veterans who have fought, and continue to fight, to overcome evil regimes and spread democracy around the world."

Durbin did not plan to apologise for the comments, spokesman Joe Shoemaker said.

"This administration should apologise to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorising torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure," Durbin had said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

Attack

During a speech on Tuesday, Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the naval base in Cuba as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.

"You would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings"

US Senator Dick Durbin "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others - that had no concern for human beings."

Durbin is not alone in his criticism.

Human-rights groups have long accused the administration of unjustly detaining suspects at the prison camp. Amnesty International last month called the detention centre the "gulag of our times".

Rebuttal

President George Bush and other administration officials, however, have strongly resisted such comparisons and questioned Amnesty's objectivity.

"It's difficult to explain to a mom and dad who's lost their son or daughter how you can have someone in Guantanamo Bay, release them and then they kill your son and daughter"

"I take strong exception to any characterisations that try to diminish what our military is doing and the standards and values that they adhere to," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The Bush administration calls the Guantanamo prisoners "enemy combatants" who are entitled to fewer legal protections than those afforded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

Defence

According to US Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, the US government often considers whether it would be better to stop detaining prisoners at Guantanamo.

"That's a question that is evaluated, I would say, quite often," he said in Sheffield, England, where he will attend a meeting of G8 interior ministers on Thursday and Friday.

On Wednesday, he had said "there will of course be an end", but did not specify when.

He also pointed out that about a dozen of those who had been released had returned to fight against the US.

"It's difficult to explain to a mom and dad who's lost their son or daughter how you can have someone in Guantanamo Bay, release them and then they kill your son and daughter," he said.

Since the camp was set up after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US, 167 detainees have been freed and 67 others released to the custody of their home governments.

About 520 detainees from about 40 countries remain at Guantanamo. Only 12 have been handed over to military commissions for investigation of possible war crimes and four have been charged.

Debate

In a three-hour hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, legal experts from the US military and the Justice Department said the US had a right under the Geneva Conventions to hold enemy combatants.

But committee chairman Senator Arlen Specter suggested lawmakers would have to clarify what he called a "crazy quilt" of laws and regulations governing the detentions.

Some lawmakers want the facility closed, saying it has become a liability that inflames Muslims against the United States.

"Guantanamo is an international embarrassment to our nation, to our ideals and it remains a festering threat to our security," Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said.

Survey

A Pew Research Centre poll, taken over the weekend, indicated most Americans agree that reports of abuse at Guantanamo are isolated incidents, and 39% think the news media is paying too much attention to the issue.

The poll found a sharp partisan divide on the issue - Democrats believing the abuses to be systemic and Republicans saying they were isolated incidents.

You can find this article at: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/796AA4AC-531C-4E6F-B855-7FBC52506824.htm


TOPICS: Extended News; US: Illinois; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: durbin; durbintheturban
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To: KSCITYBOY

Unfortunately at that time the Democrats were around, however the democrats of that day are the Republicans of today. Time changes everything.


41 posted on 06/16/2005 9:49:08 AM PDT by ANGGAPO (LayteGulfBeachClub.)
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To: Shaka

should be phoqUing


42 posted on 06/16/2005 9:49:25 AM PDT by marty60
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To: hattend

I vote for deportation of the Gitmo 520....by air to ground missle to Iran.


43 posted on 06/16/2005 9:49:27 AM PDT by WoodstockCat (Gitmo? Let them eat Pork!)
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To: ambrose
Dick Turban Durbin is a traitor to his country!
44 posted on 06/16/2005 9:49:40 AM PDT by TheForceOfOne (My tagline is currently being blocked by Congressional filibuster for being to harsh.)
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To: ambrose
The U.S. Sedition Act first outlawed conspiracies "to oppose any measure or measures of the government." Going further, the act made it illegal for anyone to express "any false, scandalous and malicious writing" against Congress or the president. Significantly, the act did not specifically protect the vice-president who, of course, was Jefferson. Additional language punished any spoken or published words that had "bad intent" to "defame" the government or to cause the "hatred" of the people toward it. http://www.crf-usa.org/terror/alien_sedition_acts.htm Sedition
45 posted on 06/16/2005 9:50:39 AM PDT by Foolsgold (dumped daschel he he he he)
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To: MizSterious

His speech on the floor is Constitutionally protected, so he can make all the aid-and-comfort statements he wants to on the floor, and nothing can legally happen to him. Not to count being voted out of office the next time he runs, that is.


46 posted on 06/16/2005 9:50:47 AM PDT by savedbygrace ("No Monday morning quarterback has ever led a team to victory" GW Bush)
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To: thoolou

LOL! Nice.


47 posted on 06/16/2005 9:50:59 AM PDT by TheDon (The Democratic Party is the party of TREASON!)
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To: btwg156

I'd rather have Dachau Durbin arrested for treason/sedition under the Patriot Act. He knows full well what he was saying, the anti-American/anti-US soldier propaganda firestorm it would cause, his public position and where he made those comments, yet he made them anyway and refuses to apologize. It's not freedom of speech, it's purposely trying to cause physical harm to our soldiers, citizens, and country as a whole.


48 posted on 06/16/2005 9:51:17 AM PDT by DTogo (U.S. out of the U.N. & U.N out of the U.S.)
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To: mdittmar

I went to Townhall and blasted out an email voicing my displeasure as well.


49 posted on 06/16/2005 9:51:21 AM PDT by America's Resolve (Liberal Democrats are liars, cheats and thieves with no morals, scruples, ethics or honor!)
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To: ambrose
This guy is the Poster Boy for the Democrat party. I am furious over these statements. The problem with Illinois they elected a Socialist because the majority in the state are corrupt or are Socialist or are both. These Modern Liberals aren't Democrats any more and their new name should be Sociocrats.
50 posted on 06/16/2005 9:51:25 AM PDT by Paige ("Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." --George Washington)
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To: mystery-ak

I would like very much to HEAR a little out cry from the citizens of his state. DO THEY agree with this BS. If not, WHEN will the RECALL election be held?


51 posted on 06/16/2005 9:52:05 AM PDT by marty60
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To: hattend
Need to thank the Dumocrat Machine in Illinois. Just like no one in New York voted for Hillary, no one voted in Illinois for Dick Dirtbag.

Somehow they wind up in Washington, and on Intelligence Committees.
52 posted on 06/16/2005 9:52:05 AM PDT by southlake_hoosier (.... One Nation, Under God.......)
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To: ambrose
Where is the Republican response?? What about his democratic constituents. Is that what they stand for? What about the good people of Illinois throwing this bastard out by a recall? What about us FReepers making him out target & never relenting on it until he is gone? How about independents in Illinois standing up to him? HELLO! Is there anyone going to stop this man. How about the Justice Dept going after things he said months ago about classified information? To the administration where are you? Oh I forgot. This is the "Two-Party Cartel".
53 posted on 06/16/2005 9:52:31 AM PDT by Digger
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To: johnny7
I swear to God... If I was a Republican Senator, I'd be jumping over tables to get at this pri_k

I know what you mean.  I haven't been this seeing-red mad since ... well, since the last time our elected traitors opened their mouths.

The military should be at his office door right now and escort him to prison.  No trials, no courts, no lwayers ... just a short prison trip and then the noose.

54 posted on 06/16/2005 9:52:34 AM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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Durbin fits in with the long tradition of Copperhead Democrats:

http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/C/Copperheads-(politics).htm

Copperheads (politics)
Copperheads (politics) in the news

Warning: there is some racist (the " N-word") language in this article. It is simply the language that was used during the American Civil War.

The Copperheads were a group of Northern Democrats who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. They were also called Peace Democrats.

The most famous Copperhead was Clement L. Vallandigham, who was a serious thorn in President Lincoln's side.
More on the Copperhead agenda

They opposed emancipation of American slaves, forming groups to persuade Union soldiers to desert, and helped Confederate prisoners of war escape. The name Copperheads was given to them by Republicans and may have derived from the venomous snake (the Copperhead) that strikes without warning or may have been a reference to the copper liberty-head coins which many wore as badges.

Copperheads opposed turning the Civil war into a total war to destroy the South and restore the Union. They sometimes met with Confederates, aiming at restoring peace.
How they were treated in the Union

As war opponents, they were suspected of disloyalty, Lincoln often having them arrested. In summer 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was bogged down in the Siege of Petersburg and William Tecumseh Sherman getting nowhere in Georgia. At this sad moment for the Union, during midterm election in Lincoln's home state of Kentucky, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and arresting every Democrat he could round up. The Democrats still swept the July 1864 election in Kentucky.

The Confederates loved the Copperheads and encouraged their activities whenever possible.
Areas of strength

The Copperheads were strongest in Irish Catholic groups (poor Catholics were often anti-war, expecting to lose jobs to newly-freed slaves) in the eastern Pennsylvania coal country, and German Catholic areas of Wisconsin. They were also strong in border areas. They sometimes carried signs reading things such as "The Constitution As It Is, The Union As It Was," or, more offensively, "We won't fight to free the nigger."

Every Union defeat such as the Battle of Chancellorsville led to louder calls from the Copperheads — and given the inept Union leadership through much of the war, they had ample ammunition.
The decline of the Copperheads

After the spectacular victory at the Battle of Atlanta in Fall, 1864, and the end in sight of Grant's dug-in siege of Petersburg, the Copperheads declined in influence.


55 posted on 06/16/2005 9:53:03 AM PDT by ambrose (.)
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To: savedbygrace
His speech on the floor is Constitutionally protected, so he can make all the aid-and-comfort statements he wants to on the floor, and nothing can legally happen to him.

He can be reprimanded by his fellow senators for those remarks.

56 posted on 06/16/2005 9:53:59 AM PDT by ambrose (.)
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To: ambrose
Something in the water in Illinois?

Obama and Durbin.

A black-skinned white and a dickhead.

57 posted on 06/16/2005 9:55:44 AM PDT by CROSSHIGHWAYMAN
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To: ambrose

never happen unless they arrange a tit-for-tat with Santorum's remarks.
I'm with Rush, Durbin has told the truth about what he and better than 70% of the current Democrats in Congress really think about our U.S. military and the soveirgnty of our country.
No apology is needed from him, what is needed is resignation.


58 posted on 06/16/2005 9:56:11 AM PDT by WoodstockCat (Gitmo? Let them eat Pork!)
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To: Williams

THAT'S RIGHT PUT ALL OF THE BLAME ON G.BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


59 posted on 06/16/2005 9:56:17 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: ambrose
'US Senator Dick Durbin on Wednesday refused to apologise for comments he made on the Senate floor referring to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.'

This is not only treasonous slander against our own troops, but Senator Dickweed is spitting on the mass graves of those who went to real gulags.

Here is a proposal: any Senator who doesn't like Gitmo can participate in an 'adopt-a-terrorist' program, whereby a group of the Gitmo detainees can be be housed in said Senator's home state.

In WWII, if a 'combatent' was caught out of uniform they were summarily executed. A good example was during the battle of the bulge where Nazis wore GI uniforms to misdirect traffic. When captured they were just lined up and shot. Wonder if Senator Dickweed will pass a resolution calling for an apology to Nazi victims of GI atrocities (I mean, a bullet in the head? No free copies of Mien Kampf, no bratwurst, no ACLU lawyers?)
60 posted on 06/16/2005 9:56:21 AM PDT by WmDonovan (http://www.geocities.com/thelawndaletimes)
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