Dutch lawmakers offended by US lawmaker ( Tom Lantos )

Associated Press ^ | Oct 27 | DESMOND BUTLER

[george76]

Dutch lawmakers who recently visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat.

The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay."

Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, was responding to arguments that the United States should shut down the prison, located on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, the lawmakers said. Mariko Peters, a member of the Dutch Green Party, who began the exchange with Lantos, said she took notes of the remarks.

A Lantos aide said the lawmaker realizes the Guantanamo facility does harm to the reputation of the United States and has praised judges who ruled in favor of extending legal rights to prisoners. Lantos has not suggested that the prison be closed.

Before the Guantanamo exchange, the lawmakers had discussed a debate in the Netherlands about whether the country should maintain its 1,600 troops serving in NATO's Afghanistan operations.

"You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.

"The comments killed the debate," said Harry van Bommel, a member of the Socialist Party. "It was insulting and counterproductive."

It was not the first time that Lantos had offended European political circles. In May, he lashed out at the former leaders of France and Germany.

His comments, which included calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a "political prostitute," ...

[Brilliant]

His comments, which included calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a “political prostitute...”

If I remember correctly, the Dems told us they were going to mend fences with the Europeans.

Besides which, it seems like the pot calling the kettle black.

[SatinDoll]

WOW!

It’s with horror and surprise I find myself in agreement with Rep. Lantos for possibly the first time.

[Jim Noble]

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay."

The truth hurts.

[DoughtyOne]

Dutch lawmakers offended by US lawmaker ( Tom Lantos )

I doubt they are offended as much as we are.

[JerseyHighlander]

Schroeder IS a political prostitute! Schroeder has admitted so himself in the german media when answered the righteous indignationof the German people after Schroeder sold his soul to the Russian petro empire for a pittance!

[vbmoneyspender]

"You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.

Nothing gets you in trouble like telling The truth

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve seen who Tom Lantos supports. Despite his history, I have grave doubts as to his loyalties, so pardon me if I dismiss his postering here.

When you get your house in order Lantos, move on to fixing everyone else.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“
I doubt they are offended as much as we are”

LOL!

[Jim Noble]

I have grave doubts as to his loyalties

Me, too. He's a traitor.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the hypocrisy of the European elites is a stench in the nostrils of honest men, and nowhere more so than in their criticism of our human rights performance.

[DoughtyOne]

True enough, but wasn’t Lantos front and center regarding Abu Grad (sp?) and Guantanamo? Where’s his grounds to damn anyone else on that point?

[Past Your Eyes]

The Dutch and Tom Lantos deserve each other. Lantos is a creep. The Dutch are amoral hedonistic irrelevants.

[DoughtyOne]

I made some comments earlier that turn out not to be as accurate as I had thought they were.

This article covers the views of Congressman Lantos regarding Abu Ghirad and Guantanamo Bay.  His views on this topic are a welcome surprise to me.

While he is anti-American often enough, I cannot let my comments stand on this issue.


http://tigernet.princeton.edu/~pcw/news/story1042.asp


SHARP HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE AT 75TH ANNIVERSARY WWS PANEL

By Bob Abernethy '49

A standing room only crowd in the House International Relations Committee hearing room, November 3rd, witnessed a provocative, often impassioned debate over human rights between Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter '80 and veteran Congressman Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee and a co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The issue was not being for or against human rights. It was a matter of priorities.

Despite revelations of U.S. prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, alongside more recent reports about CIA detention centers in Eastern Europe, Lantos argued that the U.S. remains the leading global voice for human rights, and that Americans should not "self-flagellate" over its own "blemishes."

Dean Slaughter responded, "What you call self-flagellation I call democratic oversight," and went on to insist that when the U.S. abuses human rights it loses credibility as a worldwide advocate of such rights and gives regimes violating human rights an excuse to continue to do so.

"The ends do not justify the means," said Dean Slaughter, "even for reasons of national defense."

Congressman Lantos argued that "the number one human rights issue is the outrageous violation of human rights" by such countries as China, Burma, Cuba and North Korea.

"We live in the real world," said Lantos, "and I choose to put the emphasis on trying to improve human rights abroad."

Dean Slaughter insisted that American effectiveness in the world depends on its image as a democratic society grounded in the rule of law. Speaking with great fervor, she appealed, "We must do what we know is right."

The other panelist was Jennifer Windsor, MPA *91, the Executive Director of the human rights advocacy group, Freedom House. She blended the arguments of the Congressman and the Dean, saying, "We need to face up to what the U.S. is doing, but we can not forget what the worst dictators are doing."

The panel was part of the Woodrow Wilson School's ongoing Washington Seminar Series, and was one of many events this year celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the School's founding.

The moderator of the panel was William Dobson, Managing Editor of Foreign Policy magazine, with which the School has developed a collaboration. He asked whether U.S. "self-flagellation" encourages an American pullout from Iraq, which could permit more human rights violations.

Dean Slaughter said the U.S. had hurt itself around the world by not repudiating the Abu Ghraib excesses more vigorously, and by not holding commanders responsible for it "right away." She also said the decision on whether to pull out must rest on what will serve the Iraqi people, to whom, she said, the U.S. has a "great obligation."

As the evening ended, panel members condemned what they saw as Russia's slide away from democracy. Jennifer Windsor said Freedom House had downgraded Russia last year to the status of Not Free. Congressman Lantos said Russia has become so undemocratic it should be expelled from the G-8, the group of the world's largest industrial and, supposedly, democratic powers.

[Liberty Wins]

Holland has sunk lower and lower in recent years, no pun intended.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Harry van Bommel, a member of the Socialist Party. "It was insulting and counterproductive."

I've often found my congressman, George Soros' favorite member of congress, insulting and counterproductive.

That said, the Euro Socialist's attitudes are a revealing commentary on the state of European thinking. One wonders what they would have said about Lantos' statements if he had been gentile?

[garyhope]

“”Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.”

Absolutely true.

The Euros’s are such pathetic, wussy Quislings as to be totally worthless and spineless.

[Atchafalaya]

I’m like totally stuned beyond there also. Lantos, he da man.p>

[MindBender26]

>>>>”You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany,” Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers. “The comments killed the debate,” said Harry van Bommel, a member of the Socialist Party.

Dear Harry, Would you prefer a dead debate of dead Dutch people? Remember the “South Molluccans”?

From Wiki: On December 2 in 1975 seven (Islamic) South Moluccans seized a train with about 50 passengers on board in open countryside near the village of Wijster, halfway between Hoogeveen and Beilen in the northern part of the Netherlands. The hijacking lasted for 12 days and three (Christian Dutch) hostages were killed.

>>>>>”It was insulting and counterproductive.”

... and true.

[elhombrelibre]

Good for Lantos; it’s insufferable when a sanctimonious Euro-socialist gets on his or her high horse. Tell them to stuff it.

[Nick Thimmesch]

Bada Ping