Isn’t this the picture they use in the text books when they try to give an example of a “triangular head”?
Posted on 10/27/2007 4:46:03 AM PDT by decimon
WASHINGTON - Dutch lawmakers who visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison this week 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 Peter, a member of the Dutch Green Party, who began the exchange with Lantos, said she took notes of the remarks.
A Lantos aide said he realizes that 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. He has not, however, 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."
A Lantos spokeswoman said Lantos was not available and had no comment.
The Dutch government soon will announce whether its troops will stay in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, where they recently have begun an anti-Taliban offensive backed by British and Afghan forces. Lantos has praised the Netherlands' contribution to the Afghan mission.
"It was a diplomatically strange situation," Peters said. "The mere suggestion that the United States could be compared with Nazi Germany is so flawed."
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," provoked a rebuke from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The lawmakers, from the Dutch House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, were invited to visit Guantanamo and Washington by the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Roland Arnall. The lawmakers also met senior Bush administration officials, including Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.
Members of the delegation said they were given an extensive tour of the Guantanamo Bay prison, which has been heavily criticized by human rights groups.
Some of the lawmakers said that while they found the physical conditions of the prison acceptable, they remain concerned that prisoners were not being given proper legal treatment.
Most of the delegation called for the closing of Guantanamo.
"We have to close Guantanamo because it symbolizes for me everything that is wrong with this war on terror," Peters said.
But at least one member disagreed.
"Let's not forget we are in a state of war — not only the United States but also my country — with Islamic terrorists," said the far right Freedom Party leader, Geert Wilders. "I think we could only learn from Guantanamo."
A number of the members said that the United States should consult international institutions and other countries to answer some of the difficult quandaries about closing the facility.
"We need to work out an international deal on the future of Guantanamo Bay," said Hans van Baalen, of the Liberals, who led the delegation.
Can’t these moonbats just shut up for one day?
Exactly. Likewise, we should tell the #$%^ing politicians to stay out of running the war and let the professional military do their job. Personally, I'd find it acceptable if Iraq, Syria, and Iran were turned into a glass parking lot. There are too many people who think peace is either free or all you have to do is hug your enemy. Wake up, you idiots! The enemy would like nothing better than to stab you in the back in the middle of that embrace. These are the dangerous people among us.
Hey, Democrat moonbats (I know, it's redundant). This statement is from a member of the European Greens. They're lefties just like you fools, and they get it.
I love it when lefties get in a pissing match. Everybody gets wet, and nobody's happy.
Isn’t this the picture they use in the text books when they try to give an example of a “triangular head”?
The STREET!!! The ARAB STREET!!! They will rise up en mass and we will all be DOOMED!!!
“From this picture, I don’t know that he’s long for this world.”
Don’t worry, on Halloween night he will get a good drink of blood and his youth will return........
The strong horse uses prisoners to gain advantage. If killing them in the field is more advantageous that’s what it does. If interrogating them is more advantageous that is what it does. If releasing them after captivity to follow where they go and see who they meet is advantageous that is what it does.
The strong country does what is in its best long term advantage, not what some stinking pedophile jihadi wants. Personally I think torture (at least to the extent that delivering such torture doesn’t harm the American delivering it) and public humiliation is what they deserve. For instance, I’d pay money to watch them be publicly executed. Now the method of execution would have to be fun to watch though, like hanging, shooting or electrocuting. None of this quiet and painless stuff.
That’s a view I might hold privately; publicly, I’d make it clear that I am willing waste all of ‘em...
‘willing to waste’, I meant to write...
PWN3D!!!
Lantos is an immigrant and I respect his personal past. But I don't think he'd appreciate a colleague on the House floor that had differences with him, reminding him that he should "help us out" with this bill or that, because "if it weren't for us he be a lampshade".
“We need to work out an international deal on the future of Guantanamo Bay,” said Hans van Baalen, of the Liberals, who led the delegation.”
SCREW YOU HANSY!
Lantos in Romanian means...
Dracul
Our Socialists are better than their Socialists!
Lantos is a liberal through and through. He wears his Holocaust survivor status on his sleeve. He is a nasty, dispicable twerp. I get a kick out of his use of the word “us,” in terms of stopping the Nazis from taking over Holland. I guess there are times when even a liberal can identify with America.
More likely he has been reading the reports that the Surge is working and is trying to remold himself into a war supporter.
Heard his opening remarks to General Petraeus when he testified before the House.... that this man would remind the Dutch of their salvation by the US military is the height of irony. I for one am sick and tired of Dems and RINOs who are more concerned about the rights of murdering terrorists and what the Euro-elites think of us than fighting this war and protecting the American people.
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