White House Castigates Durbin for Remarks By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jun 16, 7:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The White House and Senate Republicans on Thursday assailed a Democrat for comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot.
It is "beyond belief" that Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin would compare the treatment of dangerous enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay to the death of millions of innocent people by oppressive governments, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"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," he said.
Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., criticized Durbin for spouting "loose comments" and comparisons that "have no basis of fact or history." Durbin's remarks in a speech Tuesday in the Senate were "a most egregious misjudgment," Warner said.
Defending himself, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat said Thursday it was "just plain wrong" to say he was diminishing past horrors.
He said he was comparing interrogation techniques that the FBI report said were used at Guantanamo with those in foreign detainee camps.
"This is the type of thing you would expect from a repressive regime. This is not the type of thing you would expect from the United States," Durbin said.
Durbin made the comparison 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 Tuesday.
Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pointing out that millions of people died in the camps that Durbin cited, while no one has died at Guantanamo.
Human-rights groups and other congressional Democrats have accused the Bush administration of unjustly detaining suspects at Guantanamo. Amnesty International recently called the prison "the gulag of our time." Some lawmakers — including at least one Republican — have questioned whether it should remain open.
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