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Senator issues apology for U.S.-Nazi comparison
Los Angeles Daily News ^ | June 18, 2005 | Rebecca Carroll

Posted on 06/18/2005 12:54:10 AM PDT by ambrose

Article Published: Saturday, June 18, 2005 - 12:00:00 AM PST

Senator issues apology for U.S.-Nazi comparison

By Rebecca Carroll, Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Friday that he regretted any misunderstandings caused by his comments earlier this week comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis.

The White House, Senate Republicans and others had called for an apology after Durbin's comments Tuesday.

Durbin made the comparison after reading an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 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 Tuesday.

On Friday, Durbin tried to clarify the issue. "My statement in the Senate was critical of the policies of this administration, which add to the risk our soldiers face," he said in a statement released Friday afternoon. "I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support."

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday had joined lawmakers and other groups in calling for an apology.

"Suggesting some kind of equivalence between (U.S. military) interrogation tactics demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his regime actually perpetrated," the league said in a letter to Durbin that was posted to its Web site.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday: "I feel apologies are in order to the men and women of the armed forces. I do not ask it for myself."

All seven freshmen Republican senators also made a joint call Friday for an apology.

Durbin had said Thursday that he had never brought U.S. soldiers into the comparison in the first place, and that he was criticizing the approved interrogation methods described in an FBI memo obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.


TOPICS: Front Page News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 109th; apology; dirtbin; durbin
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To: ambrose

What I'd like to see is the documents he refers to as his sourse of information. Please produce it you Dick.


61 posted on 06/18/2005 5:37:07 AM PDT by chainsaw
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To: ambrose
So it's OUR fault, Senator Durbin? We misunderstood your plain and simple statement, Senator Durbin?

No, we understood you loud and clear. Your "apology" changes nothing. We are going to keep the pressure on until you do two things:

1) Unequivocally renounce those floor statements comparing the U. S. to Nazi Germany, Soviet gulags, and Pol Pot

2) Renounce your Senate leadership position

Until you do those two things, this isn't over.

62 posted on 06/18/2005 5:42:17 AM PDT by savedbygrace ("No Monday morning quarterback has ever led a team to victory" GW Bush)
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To: Ros42
Thank you for your kind words ;) I understand Hugh Hewitt read it on his show yesterday.

Just my own small part to battle the scum we fight against every day.

63 posted on 06/18/2005 5:43:20 AM PDT by America's Resolve (Liberal Democrats are liars, cheats and thieves with no morals, scruples, ethics or honor!)
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To: America's Resolve

Scum is right!!! While your letter is being read by Hugh Hewitt, HIS is being read by Al Jazeera the mouthpiece of the terrorists. Absolutely despicable! I can't even post what I wrote to him..it wasn't very lady like! :)


64 posted on 06/18/2005 6:04:59 AM PDT by Ros42
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To: djf
***So what part of "No person shall be compelled to testify against himself" or "No person will be subject to cruel and inhumane treatment" do you disagree with?***

Well I disagree with everything you posted for one because you misquoted both parts of the U.S. Constitution, to wit;

  1. U.S. Constitution: Fifth Amendment
    No person shall (yada, yada) be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, (more yada, yada)....

    Note the words criminal case in the actual 5th amendment, makes a big difference as those at GITMO aren't criminals, they are terrorists.

  2. U.S. Constitution: Eighth Amendment
    Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

    Note the words "unusual punishments". Very distinct from "cruel and inhumane." Unless of course you're French or a Democrat, then everything the USA does to protect itself is "inhumane".

And secondly I disagree as there's the quaint idea that some of us hold in that the protections granted by the U.S. Constitution only pertain to U.S. Citizens and legal residents of the USA and only where the US has Legal Jurisdiction, like say Guam or Puerto Rico. And said protections certainly DO NOT extend to nationless terrorists (aka 'armed combatants') formally of Syria, Pakistan, etc. via some cave in Afghanistan.

Then there's the tiny fact that we are at WAR with these toads all of whom would slit your throat in a NY minute and chop off the heads of all your family members - while they make you watch. And in fact some of those at GITMO who have been released were subsequently RECAPTURED after a fire fight.

Also, in a 'War' the U.S. Constitution doesn't apply anyway, and neither does the Geneva Convention to these maggots as they are not "soldiers" they're terrorists. But I don't want to confuse you with more facts.

65 posted on 06/18/2005 7:25:31 AM PDT by Condor51 (Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
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To: ProudVet77
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Friday that he regretted any misunderstandings caused by his comments earlier this week comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis.

He was afraid of offending the Nazis.

66 posted on 06/18/2005 7:53:45 AM PDT by moog
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To: aculeus

Hillory's SILENCE and NO COMMENT on Durbin speaks voloums by the way
She wants to be our NEXT president ..Think abou tthat !


67 posted on 06/18/2005 8:00:39 AM PDT by hineybona
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To: ambrose
My post on another thread on this subject:

No apology here, and no "misunderstanding" either!

What Durbin and all the other Democratic Partisans are doing during this critical time of war against extremist terrorists is consistent with President George Washington's Farewell admonition regarding what he identified as the danger of the "spirit of Party."

Hear this small excerpt from that dire warning:

". . .the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

"It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions."

Historically knowledgeable "wise people" have complained about Durbin's partisan-motivated public statements, which are either uninformed or deliberately intended to damage his country's President's effort to contain and wage a dangerous war against tyranny.

And, he claims they "misunderstood" him????

If the accusatory and inflammatory remarks of Dean, Durbin, Kennedy, Biden, and other partisans are allowed to stand, unchallenged by a "wise people," then we must conclude that the decades-long failure to teach and learn the Founders' principles, and the means by which they can be subverted, has succeeded!

68 posted on 06/18/2005 8:30:30 AM PDT by loveliberty2
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To: ambrose
He's just now, "feeling the heat"..issues his statement on Friday, so it'll go unnoticed by the MSM.
69 posted on 06/18/2005 9:06:42 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you :^)
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To: All

You guys are so cruel..On the floor, AC cranked up all the way , blasting rap music all day and night ..How can they do this to prisoners in Gitmo.? Hey , wait ! That wasen't Gitmo that was my girlfriend's kid's room ...Oppps sorry, wrong gulag


70 posted on 06/18/2005 9:12:16 AM PDT by hineybona
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To: Patriot from Philly

I don't understand this either. The pics serve no purpose at all by being released....except ACLU's purpose.


71 posted on 06/18/2005 10:19:00 AM PDT by Mr. Keys
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To: ambrose
That's no apology.
72 posted on 06/18/2005 11:40:01 AM PDT by b4its2late (FOOTBALL REFEREES: Best seat in the house, and we're paid to be there.)
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To: ambrose

A "regret" is not an apology. The headline is in error.


73 posted on 06/18/2005 12:12:25 PM PDT by beckett
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To: FoxRun
The enemy "has broadcast Durbin's propaganda already. What does it take for treason to be treason and sedition to be sedition?"

This guy isn't a civilian expressing free speech, he is a freaking Senator representing our government. As you say, what more would someone have to do to be charged with treason? Do we have to be nuked first before we start holding these anti American saboteurs accountable?
74 posted on 06/18/2005 9:08:11 PM PDT by garjog
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To: barkeep
Aren't the terrorist trained to falsely claim that they are tortured if captured? The al Qaeda training manuals say that is all it takes for our system to go easy on them. They know they have friends in the media and in places of power who will immediately believe that America is evil at the smallest bit of evidence.

Do we even know if this FBI memo is even true? I wonder if is made up like the CBS documents?
75 posted on 06/18/2005 9:14:13 PM PDT by garjog
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To: ambrose

That is not an apology and...it was not a MISUNDERSTANDING. The Senator compared our military men and women to Nazis. That is what he said. That is what he meant. When he takes to the microphone and looks America and the mothers and fathers and our military in the eye and says: "I am deeply sorry from the bottom of my heart for what I said. I did not mean it and I take it all back." Then maybe we can forgive him. I doubt it though cause he won't do that cause he said what he said and he meant what he said. He is a Traitor.


76 posted on 06/18/2005 9:30:31 PM PDT by cubreporter (I trust Rush. He has done more for this country than any of us will ever know! :))
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