Posted on 06/21/2005 3:07:40 PM PDT by ambrose
Daley: Durbin should apologize for Gitmo remarks
June 21, 2005
BY TARA BURGHART ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mayor Richard Daley said Tuesday that even though U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is a good friend, the fellow Democrat should apologize for comments comparing the actions of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
"I think it's a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military act like that," Daley said.
Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday. After the White House, Senate Republicans and others had called for an apology last week, Durbin on Friday said he regretted any misunderstandings caused by his statement and that it was intended as a criticism of the Bush administration's policies.
Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, made the remarks on the Senate floor June 14 after reading an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.
"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 said.
In an interview to run Wednesday on Fox News Radio's "The Tony Snow Show," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to equate Durbin's comments with actress Jane Fonda calling U.S. soldiers war criminals during a visit to North Vietnam in 1972.
"Some people always in their lives say something they wish they hadn't said," Rumsfeld said. "We just watched Jane Fonda run around trying to recover from the things she did and said during the Vietnam War.
"... He said some things and he's going to have to live with them, and I think that that's not a happy prospect."
Daley made his remarks in response to questions at a news conference after a graduation ceremony for new police officers. Last year, his son Patrick enlisted in the Army.
The mayor said he is a history buff and that Durbin was wrong to evoke comparisons to the horrors of the Holocaust or the millions of people killed in Russia under Stalin and in Cambodia under Pol Pot. He became angry when a reporter said he thought Durbin's remarks were being mischaracterized.
"If you really believe that those men and women in Guantanamo Bay are Nazis, you better rethink what America is all about," Daley said. "... You go and talk to some victims of the Holocaust and they will tell you horror stories. And there are not horror stories like that at Guantanamo Bay."
On Friday, Durbin said he had learned "that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support."
Memo to DeLay:
Durbin just offered an apology on the floor of the Senate. He was choked up and nearly crying. Now he's a hero so you really need to be nice to him.
He appologised on the floor of the Seanate like the wuss he is. Once he realized that comparing troops who are questioning terrorists to Nazis that was WAY OVER THE LINE.
I think he should still be impeached for giving compfort to the enemy.
Imporatnt lesson here: When Liberals complain about torture, make them appologise.
Reading his last paragraph...I have to wonder...if he feels this way...then why, origanally, compare the activities at GITMO to those that committed the worst atrocities in human history.
It could be he's not seditious...just STUPID, which was a given anyway.
An apology is acceptable IF you make a mistake ... you made no mistake, you knew what you were doing and why you were doing it.
Sorry, just my opinion, I will now climb off my soapbox.
Daley shows once more who is the real clout in Illinois.
Oh yeah, you know he's just sitting there in Iran, laughing it up about us and watching us implode. Then he'll just swing on thru & take over.
He apologized for offending anyone, not for saying anything WRONG.
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