Posted on 06/18/2005 8:23:36 AM PDT by doug from upland
(NOTE: for full disclosure, why aren't they saying that the DemocRATic Party contributed to this article?)
US senator stands by Nazi remark
Thursday 16 June 2005, 21:38 Makka Time, 18:38 GMT
The US holds about 520 detainees at Guantanamo Bay
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US rejects calls to shut Guantanamo
US senator: Shut down Guantanamo
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 number two 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.
(insert in article... US Senator Dick Durbin -- "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")
"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.
(insert in article... Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General -- "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.
(insert in article with Gonzales photo...Gonzales (L) has defended the right to hold enemy combatants)
"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.
No apology here, and no "misunderstanding" either!
What Durbin and all the other Democratic Partisans are doing during this critical time of war against extremist terrorists is consistent with President George Washington's Farewell admonition regarding what he identified as the danger of the "spirit of Party."
Hear this small excerpt from that dire warning:
". . .the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."
"It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions."
Historically knowledgeable "wise people" have complained about Durbin's partisan-motivated public statements, which are either uninformed or deliberately intended to damage his country's President's effort to contain and wage a dangerous war against tyranny.
And, he claims they "misunderstood" him????
If the accusatory and inflammatory remarks of Dean, Durbin, Kennedy, Biden, and other partisans are allowed to stand, unchallenged by a "wise people," then we must conclude that the decades-long failure to teach and learn the Founders' principles, and the means by which they can be subverted, has succeeded!
Complete with competing hyperbole...
How about that! Two international embarrassments / festering threats in one sentence.
Durbin doesnt know any more about the Geneva Convention than he does about being a Senator or a Decent American for that matter
The most disgusting thing about Durbin's comments is that these Democrat politicians only say what their constituents want to hear. Does this mean that the good people of Illinois agree with him, or is he committing political suicide with this?
Let those two idiots (Dumb & Dumber) keep it up -- more red states for us in 2008.
Senator Byrd wrote this article?
The Democrats' so-called "common ground" is naught but a quicksand-filled swamp.
The problem with their statements is not that it gives political advantage to them or to us. The problem is that they endanger our soldiers and undermine the war on terror.
Leahy is right, GITMO is an embarrassment to our country-too d*mn many empty cells-or maybe because we have too many occupied cells.
GITMO is an embarrassment because we should be using a take no prisoners approach to this war on cowardly terrorists.
Durbin and all the other Democratic Partisans liberals always manage to take the position that most undermines American security.
Let's stop beating around the bush. The Democrats are a party of traitors, and no patriotic, honest, God-fearing American can proudly stand up and say, "I am a Democrat".
I have a question for that Dick, Durbin.
Sir, are you a registered agent for a foreign power?
Please answer yes or no.
He does not speak for me!!!!! I consider Durbine a big embarassment to Illinois and the nation. I DID NOT vote for this Daley machine cog when he ran in '04. I also harbor very ill feelings for the illinois republican party for the idiotic things they have done (Ex-Gov Ryan) and the stupid candidates they dredge up who are just weak imitations of their democritter opponents (except the last one). May Judy Topinka be deposed and rot in hell!
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