ADL to Senator Durbin: Inappropriate Comparison to Nazi Tactics Unacceptable

ADL ^ | 6/16/05

[ambrose]

---

ADL to Senator Durbin: Inappropriate Comparison to Nazi Tactics Unacceptable

New York, NY, June 16, 2005 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) to repudiate his remarks and apologize to the American people for distorting an important issue, with an inappropriate comparison to Nazi tactics. 

In a speech on the Senate floor on June 14th on the situation at Guantanamo Bay he likened American treatment of prisoners to what "must have been done by Nazis... that had no concern for human beings."

Following is the text of the letter:

Dear Senator Durbin: 
 
We write to object to your reference to Nazis in the context of the debate on detainees at Guantanamo Bay on the Senate floor earlier this week.
 
Whatever your views on the treatment of detainees and alleged excesses at the Guantanamo Bay facility, it is inappropriate and insensitive to suggest that actions by American troops in any way resemble actions taken by Nazis in their treatment of prisoners.  Suggesting some kind of equivalence between their interrogation tactics demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his regime actually perpetrated.
 
We urge you to repudiate your remarks and apologize to the American people for distorting an important issue with an inappropriate comparison to Nazi tactics.  However heated the debate over issues of the day, we would urge you to refrain from using Holocaust imagery in the future.

Read more online on our web site at http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/4734_52

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

[hang 'em]

Has the RAT party collectively gone insane?

Do they have a death wish?

Are they all drinking the KoolAid?

I've never seen anything so self destructive since the McGovern campaign.

[Reagan79]

No way, it will be dropped in a day or two.

[Soul Seeker]

Ouch! When the ADL weighs in against a Liberal there is no amount of side stepping that can save you.

[jveritas]

You may be right but we will see.

[jveritas]

Their intense hate to President Bush has blinded their heats, souls, and minds. They will do anything, even treason and siding with the terrorists to hurt our President. They will be crushed again.

[jveritas]

NO.

[anniegetyourgun]

Yep, the ADL brooks absolutely NO comparisons to the Nazi death camps.

[jec41]

Impeach Him.

[TheDon]

There's one, I'm expecting a few more Jewish organization to join the choir.

[ambrose]

What about Japanese groups. He also compared Gitmo to the internment camps. Uhhh.. detaining US citizens based on race is not the same as detaining foreign terror suspects.

[mainepatsfan]

They had to if they wanted to keep their credibility.

[mainepatsfan]

They will now. Let this a$$hole feel the heat.

[theDentist]

Dear ADL, now you know what he really thinks about the Holocaust. It's just a moment of history to be used for rhetoric. Otherwise, he could not care any less.

[GLDNGUN]

WOW. This is HUGH and very SERIES. The ADL is a pretty lib organization. They have really put Dirty Durbin on the spot. Is he going to bad mouth the ADL now?

PREDICTION: Durbin's office (he won't give it himself) will release a short statement that will try to walk the fine line of agreeing with everything the ADL said in their statement and standing by his previous remarks.

[mbraynard]

Durbin was on the record as telling a Jewish joke at a fundraiser. To paraphrase:

"Did you know that President Lincoln was a Jew? He was! His name was Abraham and he was shot *hyuck hyuck* in the Temple!"

[mainepatsfan]

Yup.

[USAfearsnobody]

We urge you to repudiate your remarks and apologize to the American people

That's right. Not ONLY to the Holocaust survivors, not ONLY to the war vets, but to ALL AMERICANS.

[mware]

Tell me you are kidding???

[pankot]

Anybody who has heard Durtbin talk knows he is the shame of Illinois.