Posted on 07/11/2006 12:10:45 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday made his first trip to a prison camp at Guantanamo Naval Base since his remarks last year criticizing U.S. soldiers there for allegedly bad treatment of prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Durbin, the Senate's second-highest-ranking Democrat, had said in recent weeks that he was eager to visit the U.S.-controlled base in Cuba but wanted assurances from the Pentagon that he would receive a complete tour of the facility.
Virginia Sen. George Allen, who is running for re-election this year and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, accompanied Durbin on the trip.
Criticism of Durbin's remarks about Guantanamo last year was widespread, with even Mayor Daley questioning how Durbin could compare U.S. interrogation methods at the camp to the methods of Nazis.
Teary-eyed, Durbin apologized a week later on the Senate floor, saying he never meant disrespect for U.S. soldiers around the world.
The controversy stemmed from Durbin having quoted from an FBI agent's memo describing detainees 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 then.
A statement released by Durbin's office Monday said Durbin and Allen were scheduled to visit a variety of the detention facilities at Guantanamo, be briefed by commanders and eat lunch with Illinois and Virginia soldiers. Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said the trip was expected to keep the senators busy all day.
Due to security concerns, more details were not to be released until after the senators returned to Washington.
Durbin, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is expected to participate in a hearing today focusing on military commissions such as those used to send detainees from Iraq and Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay.
The Supreme Court last month ruled that President Bush's plan to try detainees captured in the war on terror through secret military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
Ewwwww. Let's go again, dude!
I don't think wideawake is kidding at all.
Too bad spitting on your Senator is NOW 'assault', right?
LOL! Hope he was directing that to Dan Rather!!
Nah, He heard the Lamb and Cous Cous was being served. Thought he'd try it out. Hoep they let him eat with the inmates.
You think that Durbin's constituents are something besides illiterate, unwashed America-hating punks? I'm with wideawake. Its a rare politician who travels far to meet with his constituents to verify their well-being.
I have no intention of getting close enough to this dickhead to spit on him or do anything else. He's a vile anti-American sleaze-bag to me and not worth my time or effort to be around.
Life's too short to spend it associating with such scum.
Prayers for your son, and a big thank you for his service.
I call him traitor..
Sorry, I didn't get it the first time.
Now that I do, that's pretty darn funny... and correct.
Perhaps Senator Turban will stay and become a mullah..
...as an inmate with a Koran, prayer rug and goats milk.
Senator Durbin is a meathead AND a pussy.
Hey, be careful what you say about pussies! They have a useful function in society.
LMAO!!!!!!
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