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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.

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?

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

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.