Contributed by: filbert Monday, June 20 2005 @ 06:40 AM CST
On Tuesday, from the floor of the Senate, Durbin, citing a declassified FBI report, compared the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings.”
Columnist Mark Steyn in the New York Sun observes[*2] :
As things stand, they’re not covered by the Geneva Conventions — they’re unlawful combatants, captured fighting in civilian clothes rather than uniform, and, when it comes to name, rank and serial number, they lack at least two thereof, and even the first is often highly variable. As a point of “international law”, their fate is a matter entirely between Washington and the state of which they’re citizens (Saudi Arabia, mostly). I don’t think it’s a good idea to upgrade terrorists into lawful combatants. But if, like my namesake the British jurist Lord Steyn, you feel differently, fine, go ahead and make your case.
I may be a bit dense but I also fail to see any credible connection between some (admittedly) rather aggressive interrigation techniques and the horrific Killing Fields of Cambodia, the death camps of Nazi Germany, and the slave labor camps of Stalin.
Durbin owes the Senate, the U.S. Military, and the citizens of the United States an unqualified apology. There’s talk of his being censured by the Senate. This should be the mildest punishment for his breathtakingly intemperate words. Expulsion should also be on the table.