Posted on 06/16/2005 11:38:05 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The White House said a senator's comparison of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was reprehensible and a disservice to those serving in the military.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said it is "beyond belief" that Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin would compare treatment of dangerous enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay to the death of millions of innocent people by oppressive regimes.
"Our men and women in uniform go out of their way to treat detainees humanely, and they go out of their way to uphold the values and the laws that we hold so dear in this country," McClellan said.
Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, made the comparison during a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday after reading an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay 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.
Said McClellan: "I think the senator's remarks are reprehensible. It's a real disservice to our men and women in uniform who adhere to high standards and uphold our values and our laws."
A Durbin spokesman said Wednesday that the senator did not plan to apologize for the comments. The senator issued a statement saying it's the administration that should apologize "for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorizing torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure."
Human-rights groups and other congressional Democrats have accused the administration of unjustly detaining suspects at Guantanamo. Amnesty International recently called the prison "the gulag of our time" and some Republicans have questioned whether it should remain open.
You are right about the Constitution. I'm just thinking that without our military, we'd be sipping tea this afternoon and saluting Queen Elizabeth (or speaking Japanese).
You'd think our side would have this kind of moxy, not being hamstrung by being quite as morally corrupt as are their opponents.
Yeah, right now those terrorists just cut off American's heads and blow them up. We wouldn't want to do anything that might actually "put our troops at risk".
I posted this on a different thread, but I have this suggestion: honey and fire ants. Just the nether regions for a start, with arms tied to a tree.
Yes, and I want to hear directly from Bush and Cheney! And, again!, where are our "Republican" senators?? They should be blasting this chowder-head for his truly reprehensible and obscene comments!
That's very true. We can thank the U.S. military for safeguarding our rights, that's for sure. Sometimes I can't help myself for parsing sentences (English major).
The silence of Jewish organizations is interesting. Durbin just belittled those who died and suffered in the Holocaust by comparing what they went through with what the terrorists in Gitmo are going through. Usually, such comparisons draw loud condemnation from Jewish organizations.
lol, I think Bush should invite him over to the ranch, then take him out behind the wood shed and give him an attitude adjustment. This guy needs an old fashion Texas ass whoopin.
They'll probably put up hard-hitting Orrin Hatch to the task...so he can use stern terms like "horsefeathers", etc.
Not only he is a traitor but he is also politically dumb. Accusing the US military of behaving like Nazis will greatly alienate this traitor idiot with 70% of the country.
Dick Durbin, Castro's sidekick for Cuba.
have you heard anything about a Bolton vote..I really haven't been able to pay much attention today..
there are FACTS there to refute about the Geneva convention. Cornyn from Texas has been over this ground before but it needs to be hammered in that a U.S. Senator from Illinois doesn't know what he is talking about in regards to WHO is being held at Gitmo as it relates to the Geneva Convention.
Durbin is performing to his party's specs: He's being seditious. Bush's people are performing to their party specs: They're being limp. In time of war for a senator to be blatantly adhering to the enemy, indeed for a whole party to be doing so, says to me that the members of that party are traitors and should be treated as such.
Yes, Senator Sessions was out there on TV this morning calling them on it. Let's hope he is not the lone voice.
oh, castigates
Don't hold your breath - outside a few weak "I beg to differ with my good colleague on the other side of the aisle"s there's almost as much chance of that happening as Durbin being called the traitorous b*stard that he is on the floor of the Senate.
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