And rightly so! In case you have been out of the loop, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin made remarks comparing actions at the Guantanamo Bay Terrorists detention camp with the Nazis, Soviet Communists, and the Khmer Rouge. Durbin has really stepped on his crank, to use a phrase from my Army days. The following is an excerpt from the Congressional Record (p, S6594, June 14, 2005):

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.

Durbin is saying that American military personnel have "no concern for human beings." In Durbin's reaction to the furor that his comments have caused, he tried to claim he never made any links to American military personnel. Durbin tried to claim, "I do not even know whether the interrogator involved was an American soldier. (p. S6713, June 16, 2005)" But, as you can clearly see, Durbin twice makes reference to "American" (see in Green above). Plus, as far as I know, the Guantanamo detention facility is completely an American facility. I don't believe that there are any foreign military personnel involved in the confinement and interrogation of these terrorists. Even so, if there were some Brits or other foreign nationals present, the vast majority of personnel at Gitmo are American. Durbin knows this and is choosing to conveniently forget in order to duck responsibility for his remarks.

But you must ask, what activities have caused the Senator from Illinois to go intellectually AWOL? Well, here is another quote from the Congressional Record where Durbin recounts the interrogation techniques that have evoked his ire.

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. ... 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.

The account above, again, is from an FBI report. Air conditioning set too low? No air conditioning at all? "Extremely loud rap music?" These activities are Nazi-like? Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was subjected to loud rap music in the Gulag? For these reasons Senator Durbin has compared our military police and interrogators to Nazis, Stalinists, and the Khmer Rouge?

No. We know the real reason Durbin has made these contemptible remarks. It is for the same reason that other Leftists continually compare President bush with Hitler. It is for the same reason that Senate Democrats are constantly impeding the workings of the republican majority both in the House and in the Senate. That reason -- because they no longer hold the reins of power. Despicable!

Please join Hugh Hewitt's call to have Durbin resign. Call Durbin's office(s) and register your outrage.