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
"Might as well take the "treason" laws off the books. It's not like anyone will be tried for it ever again. If DOJ went after Durbin, the ACLU, the MSM, the Dem party, and half of our "allies" would be howling about free speech restrictions, and tyranny by the majority."
I think it is officially off the books now. And the DOJ NEEDS to go after the dick and make an example of him. And let the rats, aclu, and msm howl about it. It will wake up and p*ss off a lot more people who haven't heard about this yet. And as far as our "allies" go, I really don't give a crap what they think.
Yep, I don't know anybody who voted for Babara Boxer either. I know 1 person who voted for Feinstein.
Makes you wonder how all these leftists get into the Senate.
Everyone needs to call, fax & email this traiter!
This is what I mean about the pubbies in CONgress. They really have no intense agenda. Just suck the teat of the American taxpayers. I hope next election that the word COMPASSIONATE never comes up because that is the last thing we need as a president. Also change the word CONSERVATIVE to mean cutting government spending.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my miscellaneous ping list.
Time to track down those jpg's of the democrats dressed up in nazi uniforms.
This POS came to welcome home my hubby and his unit when they returned from Iraq...he's not worthy to shine my hubby's boots!.....Im calling, but getting hung up on..the rats in Chicago run this state...look at the county map from the 2004 election..
ping
Good analogy.
It will take the Right of all stripes to put pressure on Frist and the GOP to chastise Durbin. Then we must blast him with calls and emails or faxes. Then, letters to the editors of the MSM. This is necessary since the MSM will NOT cover Durbin's treachery. He reminds me of Lord Hee Haw and Tokyo Rose during WWII. Call Talk Radio. Keep the buzz going since most people will never hear of his anti-military remarks . The media , we all know will circle the wagons to protect one of their own. Demand that he resign. I did.
It's not blame it's what i think he needs to do. You disagree?
He will get his punches in when the time is right. We are a military family and are very happy with the Pres.
Well apparently a few have slithered into the U.S Senate.
Lovely. US Senator enabling terrorists. What a disgrace.
Im in central Illinois...we went for Bush in 04...I do believe Daley has a son in the military, but have not heard where he stands on this....
I'm very happy with the prez too but he needs to get out front and take some of these idiots on, I'm not sure it's his style though.
Well It can de done. Look at Texas, we have almost completely wiped out this plague. Took over a 100 years, but.
I just faxed the "dick", told him that the "Daschleing" of him come next election will be all the more sweet! Told him to start packing, he's history.
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