View Full Version : Sen Dick Durbin
rubberneck
06-16-2005, 07:38
At least his first name is appropriate. I hope the Senate penalizes him for his comments yesterday in which he likened american troops to Nazi's. Real classy....
From the WSJ:
Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, took the Senate floor yesterday and likened American servicemen to Nazis (link in PDF):
When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here [at Guantanamo Bay]--I almost hesitate to put them in the [Congressional] Record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.
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. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.
We are fighting an enemy that murdered 3,000 innocent people on American soil 3 1/2 years ago and would murder millions more if given the chance--and according to Dick Durbin, our soldiers are the Nazis.
The Washington Times had an interesting block of info on how Gitmo stacks up against his claims.
Hitler's Concentration camps: 9 million killed (6 million being Jewish)
Stalin's Gulags: 2.7 million killed
Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge: 1.7 million
Gitmo: 0 deaths
5 admitted Koran abuses by US persons
15 Koran abuses by detainees.
3 hots and a cot. When the detainees where picked up very few had a Koran in their possesion, where typically in dire medical condition, etc.... We give them a Koran to read as a religious right, and medical/ dental benefits most Americans don't even get.
What an injustice :rolleyes:
Look,... anyone who follows this man's lead on this is a political sheep, nothing more. Hopefully he will be admonished by his peers from the same party.
Bottom line, Gitmo sucks,.....it's supposed too. This is not the Taliban summercamp. This is meant to help the US and it's allies counter the threat of terrorism. At what point do you cross the line in extraction of info from these detainees? That is not for weak stomached policy makers. I only believe a few on this forum know what it's like to be in the booth with these fella's and know how it really works.
Rant over, sorry.... this....Senator got me a little pissed.
He's referred to as the number 2 man in the Democratic Party, I think with that being said I'll now go take a Dick and wipe my Durbin!!!!
Somehow I think I'll pay for posting that comment. :D
Team Sergeant
06-16-2005, 08:37
Sounds like "dick" has stepped on it.
"dick" does not realize, yet, the ramifications of what he has said.
I’m betting "dick" will issue an apology before the day ends, or within 24 hours.
See "dick" run.
What a dick.
rubberneck
06-16-2005, 09:03
I’m betting "dick" will issue an apology before the day ends, or within 24 hours.
I wish you are right but sadly Durbin refuses to apologize for his idiotic comments.
from the AP:
CHICAGO Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says he won't apologize for comments comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Nazis and Soviet gulags.
News of the Democrat's comparison created a buzz around the Internet today, fueled by sound bites of yesterday's Senate floor speech on radio talk shows. By this afternoon, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna asked Durbin to apologize.
Durbin says the Bush administration should apologize for abandoning the Geneva Conventions.
Human-rights activist groups and some lawmakers -- mostly Democrats -- want Bush to close the prison.
But administration officials say some of the people who have been detained at Guantanamo later return to fight against the United States.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The only good that is coming out of stuff like this is that the modern Democratic party is speeding along blindly towards irrelevance. Most American's have no issues with officials who don't like Gitmo but they rightfully draw the line when they attack the troops there.
Bravo1-3
06-16-2005, 10:05
Awesome, Durban has found a new career... lead recruiter for Al Queda, inc.
Bill Harsey
06-16-2005, 10:20
Uncle Rush is on this pretty hard today.
Bill Harsey
06-16-2005, 10:27
Rush just reported that Dick Durbin has been featured as a hero in that fine middle eastern news service called Aljazeera.
edited to add: Bravo 1-3, I think you are on to something.
Team Sergeant
06-16-2005, 12:46
I wish you are right but sadly Durbin refuses to apologize for his idiotic comments.
Patience, it will come. I'd place money on it. ;) This guy doesn't have the balls of the common nat. Give him a day,he'll soon cave in.
Roguish Lawyer
06-16-2005, 13:44
OpinionJournal
Best of the Web Today - June 16, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO
Durbin Digs In http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/58552.asp
Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, is refusing to apologize for likening U.S. servicemen to Nazis, comments we noted yesterday http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006823 . Instead, as the State Journal-Register of Springfield reports, Durbin issued a statement that said, "This administration should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions."
In truth, it isn't the Bush administration that is abandoning the Geneva Conventions. It is the critics, such as Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engAMR511842002?open&of=eng-2am , who insist that terrorists should be protected under the conventions as if they were legitimate soldiers or civilians. The purpose of the Geneva Conventions is not to protect combatants' "human rights" but to spell out the rules of war, rules that impose reciprocal obligations on both sides of a conflict.
A central reason for those rules is to protect civilians by declaring that they are not legitimate targets of military action. Combatants who pose as civilians (i.e., do not wear uniforms) or who target civilians are spies and terrorists respectively and are not entitled to protection as prisoners of war. Indeed, Durbin acknowledged in his Senate speech http://www.sj-r.com/extras/release/Gitmofloorstatement061405.htm that "the Geneva Conventions do not give POW status to terrorists."
But he went on to insist that the conventions "protect everyone captured during wartime." He bases this on the "official commentary on the convention," which states that "nobody in enemy hands can fall outside the law." Durbin is unclear as to just what protection he thinks al Qaeda terrorists should get. And little wonder, because the implication of his comments is that terrorists are entitled to protection as civilians.
As the Amnesty International report linked above notes, the source of the commentary Durbin quoted is the International Committee on the Red Cross, and it refers to Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm , which protects civilians captured during wartime. Yet the actual text of Article 4 says something quite different:
*** QUOTE ***
Nationals of a neutral State who find themselves in the territory of a belligerent State, and nationals of a co-belligerent State, shall not be regarded as protected persons while the State of which they are nationals has normal diplomatic representation in the State in whose hands they are.
*** END QUOTE ***
This would exclude someone like Mohammed al-Qahtani, the Saudi national whose "torture" at the lungs of Christina Aguilera made the cover of Time this week. As a matter of international law, his fate has nothing to do with the Geneva Conventions but is a matter between Washington and Riyadh.
In any case, if Dick Durbin thinks terrorists are the moral or legal equivalent of civilians, let him say so directly. And even if this is a legitimate point of view, it doesn't excuse his smearing American soldiers as Nazi-like.
Bravo1-3
06-16-2005, 18:51
I posted this on another board, but just to elaborate:
Around 1938, my grandfather was picked up by the NKVD while he was at work. His family was not notified. He was beaten with a sap, and had a pistol pointed at his head and told to name 5 names of other local "sedicious jew traitors". When he refused, they drove a nail through his left foot into the floor of the room, smashed his hand with a hammer, and used his abdomen as an ashtray.
They put him on a train after making him sign a statement confessing to counter-revolutionary activities. He spent 3 years breaking rocks for the trans-siberian railway and a canal. He lived on less than 1000 calories per day in a camp with no heat in the prisoners barracks, with guards who would randomly beat and execute prisoners for no reason other than boredom. Every morning, they would have to remove the bodies of prisoners who had died and dump them into a pit.
My grandmother survived the Warsaw Ghetto, and a concentration camp where she lost every member of her family.
Comparing anything that has happened at Gitmo to a Gulag or a Concentration Camp makes me think about doing irrational things. Did we make the nice "Freedom Fighter" sad? Did he make a poopie on himself? Didums get cold and not have his blankie? Tough shit.
Dick Durban has obviously found a new a new job as a head hunter for Al Queda
Look,... anyone who follows this man's lead on this is a political sheep, nothing more. Hopefully he will be admonished by his peers from the same party.
Wouldn't hold my breath too long on that one...you hear some of the other senators on GITMO?
Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator
332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Primary Phone: (202) 224-2152
Fax: (202) 228-0400
E-Mail: ed_greelegs@durbin.senate.gov
CoLawman
06-16-2005, 21:58
I wish you are right but sadly Durbin refuses to apologize for his idiotic comments.
from the AP:
The only good that is coming out of stuff like this is that the modern Democratic party is speeding along blindly towards irrelevance. Most American's have no issues with officials who don't like Gitmo but they rightfully draw the line when they attack the troops there.
I concur with Rubberneck!
"DICK" just insulted some very powerful lobbyists.
American Legion
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Marines
Families of Soldiers
This list goes on.
"DICK" is now a front runner for the Neville Chamberlain award!
He is alot like the idiot that ignores that bumper sticker in Fayetteville!
You chose the wrong city to pick a bar fight in!
Wouldn't hold my breath too long on that one...you hear some of the other senators on GITMO?
Dick Durbin, U.S. Senator
332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Primary Phone: (202) 224-2152
Fax: (202) 228-0400
E-Mail: ed_greelegs@durbin.senate.gov
No disrespect towards you ma'am, but I refuse to hold my breath for this F***ing Punk.
I will however continue to put my ass on the line for the greater good of this nation and gracious citizens like yourself.
Team Sergeant
06-17-2005, 07:58
I concur with Rubberneck!
"DICK" just insulted some very powerful lobbyists.
American Legion
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Marines
Families of Soldiers
This list goes on.
And this is the reason he will issue an apology! He will fold soon enough.
No disrespect towards you ma'am, but I refuse to hold my breath for this F***ing Punk.
I will however continue to put my ass on the line for the greater good of this nation and gracious citizens like yourself.
I wouldn't either...and I thank you.
My comment was only in reference to your comment that hopefully others in his party would admonish him.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159885,00.html
Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said Friday that he was sorry if his initial inflammatory comments had been taken the wrong way.
"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," he said. "My statement in the Senate was critical of the policies of this administration, which add to the risk our soldiers face."
Why is it he can't see that what he said IS adding to the risk? This is no apology.
Dick Durbin can ES&D as far as I'm concerned.
aricbcool
06-21-2005, 17:08
The latest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050621/ap_on_go_co/guantanamo_durbin_3
Sen. Durbin Apologizes for Gitmo Remarks
WASHINGTON - Under fire from Republicans and some fellow Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin apologized Tuesday for comparing American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Nazis and other historically infamous figures.
"Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Illinois Democrat said. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."
His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate also apologized to any soldiers who felt insulted by his remarks.
"They're the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them," he said.
The apology came a week after Durbin, the Senate minority whip, quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the Naval base in a U.S.-controlled portion of 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," the senator said June 14.
The comment created a buzz on the Internet and among conservative talk radio hosts, but Durbin initially refused to apologize.
"This administration should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorizing torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure," he said the day after his initial comments.
By last Friday, Durbin was trying to clarify his comments, yet the White House and top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist refused to relent. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in an interview scheduled for broadcast Wednesday on Fox News radio's "The Tony Snow Show," tried to equate the comment with actress Jane Fonda calling U.S. soldiers war criminals during a visit to North Vietnam in 1972.
On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley — a fellow Democrat — added his voice to the chorus of criticism, saying, "I think it's a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military would act like that."
Durbin said in his apology: "I made reference to Nazis, to Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I've come to understand that's a very poor choice of words."
It's a real pity if that's the best he can do...
The lesson here is don't be a Dick.
Peregrino
06-21-2005, 17:43
Patience, it will come. I'd place money on it. ;) This guy doesn't have the balls of the common nat. Give him a day,he'll soon cave in.
And Now (Drumroll!) the All Seeing, All Knowing, TS! (Cheers and applause!) With true insight into the character (or lack thereof) of Demo Slime. :D We just had to be a little extra patient. Peregrino
Bill Harsey
06-21-2005, 18:30
And Now (Drumroll!) the All Seeing, All Knowing, TS! (Cheers and applause!) With true insight into the character (or lack thereof) of Demo Slime. :D We just had to be a little extra patient. Peregrino
You nailed it TS, Thanks Peregrino.
French must be his native tongue by the way Dicky's been talking.
Maybe he would understand "phook off and chew le poo poo"
Ambush Master
06-21-2005, 18:55
Sounds like "dick" has stepped on it.
"dick" does not realize, yet, the ramifications of what he has said.
I’m betting "dick" will issue an apology before the day ends, or within 24 hours.
See "dick" run.
What a dick.
I'm on the phone with TS as I type, he called me just to have me make this post !!! He said that he rolled off of the couch when "dick" made his statement !!! TS will return on Thursday and he expects a full apology from the doubters !!! :munchin
Later
MArtin
"His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes..."
pussy
Jack Moroney (RIP)
06-22-2005, 09:38
I just don't get it. Where did all these congress critters loose the bubble. These clowns are elected to represent their constituency so when any of them stand up and pontificate they should be doing so for whomever put them in office. I really do not care to hear things like "in my view", "in my opinion", "it seems to me", "I think", or any other introductory clause to any sentence unless it starts with "all those that voted for me", "the people of the great state of ......", "I have heard from the majority of the voters in my state, district, or whatever and they wish me to take a stand on this issue in their behalf". Somewhere along the line these folks seem to have forgotten that they are not there to foist their opinions or further their agenda but the opinions and desires of the folks that are paying their damn salary. So who exactly in Illinois forwarded this position to Durbin? Just my .02 cents.
Jack Moroney-I would rather be a leg KP on permanent grease pit detail than a politician as I could at least remove the stench of my work with a shower at the end of the day.
LMAO @ skibum. You nailed it.
The typical lib non-apology apology.
"On June 14, I took the floor of the Senate to speak about genuine heartfelt concerns about the treatment of prisoners and detainees at Guantanamo and other places. I raised legitimate concerns that others have raised, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, about the policies of this administration and whether they truly do serve our needs to make America safer and more secure, whether, in fact, some of the policies might, in fact, endanger our troops, or in some ways disparage the image of America around the world."
Aww, the poor terrorists.
Legitimate concerns?? Yeah to a CS lib.
Oops.. it's Powell's fault.
Might in fact endanger our troops. Not like you just did DICK!!
Only libs like Durbin can "disparage America's image" They work extremely hard everyday to do just that.
"During the course of that presentation, I read an e-mail from the federal bureau of investigation that was discovered to exist last August, and has now been produced as part of the Freedom of Information Act. After reading the horrible details in that memo, which characterized the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, I then, on my own, my own words, made some characterizations about that memo. I made reference to the Nazis, to the Soviets and other repressive regimes."
Damn! How convenient that e-mail found it's way into his soft, sweaty lil' paws at just that moment.
The horrible details.... :eek: Yo DICKKKKKK. What about our guys operating in 100 plus temps in full gear??
Oh yes. Just SOME 'characterizations'. No big deal comparing the guards at Gitmo to those that have murdered millions.
"Mr. President, I have come to understand that was a very poor choice of words. I tried to make this very clear last Friday that I understood to those analogies to the nazis, soviets and others were poorly chosen. I issued a release which I thought made my intentions and my inner-most feeling as clear as I possibly could."
Amazing! he has come to understand that it was a very poor choice of words. Good God gimme a break!!
But hey!, He issued a RELEASE. That should make it alllllllll better.
Those ARE his "innermost feelings"!!!
I could go on and on. Why callous my two typing finger tips for this waste of O2.
Here is one article of DICK's "apology". So much more to tear into.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050621durbinstatement,1,71574.story?coll=chi-news-hed
That last paragraph rises the bile in one's throat.
As much crap as this so called apology was, you can bet on one thing. Al jazera sure as hell won't carry it. They're still floating around in Utopia over his original statements. Perhaps they cut a deal with the treasonous Senator from IL and promised him 144 virgins, when he died for thier cause.......
"A pussy's just an inch and a half from being an asshole"
The Senator has bridged that gap.
Not that it matters, but why doesn't he just come out and speak the truth: "I was wrong for comparing our troops to Nazis/Stalin/Pol Pot and only did so to hurt the president politically."
I like his "if my words in anyway offended" qualification. "If" they did? What a "dick."