Outstanding, Congratulations...

Posted by Michael at June 20, 2005 01:47 PM

Here's a view on something we've been discussing from pro-war Andrew Sullivan, Woody. Not to rain on your party.

DURBIN SAID NOTHING WRONG: I've now read and re-read Senator Dick Durbin's comments on interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. They are completely, perfectly respectable. The rank hysteria being perpetrated by some on the right is what is shameful. Hugh Hewitt should answer one single question: does he doubt the FBI interrogator who witnessed the appalling treatment of some detainees at Guantanamo? Here's the 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."

Is Hewitt arguing that the interrogator was lying? Does he believe that the kind of tactics used against this prisoner are worthy of the United States? Does he believe that this happened without authorization? If he were told this story and informed that it occurred in, say, Serbia under Milosevic, would he be surprised? Hewitt should then answer the same question about the 5 detainees which the U.S. government itself has acknowledged were tortured to death by U.S. interrogators, and the scores of others who died in detention during or after "interrogation". Does he deny that this happened? Does he honestly believe that removing the legal restrictions on cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees by our current president had nothing to do with this? Maybe he needs a little refresher on the extraordinary range and scale of the record of abuse that is still accumulating. I'm just amazed that some can view what has happened and their first instinct is to attack those who have criticized it, rather than those who have perpetrated it. It is this administration that has brought indelible shame on America, and it's people like Dick Durbin who prove that some can actually stand up against this stain on American honor and call it what it is. Good for him. Thank God for him.

Posted by reg at June 20, 2005 04:29 PM

The point is not whether it is a true report or not, teh point is that it is not akin to the nazi's....why can you guys NOT get that simple point through your head?

Posted by Kender at June 20, 2005 06:03 PM

Respectable, I suppose, when you agree with what Durbin had to say--that Gitmo is treating the detainess like the Soviets treated their prisoners in the gulags. Pretty stupid, since I know people who survived some of that horror.

We have been bending over for the terrorist scumbags by giving them carefully prepared halal meals with halal meat that is blessed by an imam, a prayer rug, a new koran, a new prayer cap, prayer cup, special meals during their holy days, medical and dental care-signs in their cells that points to mecca not to mention a call to prayer 5 times a day over loudspeakers...

To you, I suppose an air conditioner that gives them goosebumps is torture. To me, starving someone to death while making them work in labor camps as big as cities is torture. Eventually the Soviets realized that it wasn't cost effective--you can't get good work out of people who are dying from starvation.

These guys aren't starving--far from it. Their meals are somewhere near 2600 calories a day. They're eating better and are getting better treatment than they were on the battlefields of Afghanistan, you can be sure of that.

It's the socialist/communist crowd like Conyers who is not only an Islamist but affiliated with the House Progressive Caucus, and if you’re not aware, that organization is considered radical to us conservatives, because it was founded in 1991 by Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Socialists of America. Socialism and socialists don’t go by the real names yet, because it can’t be sold yet under the brand name. But we’re advancing in that direction, sadly. And you're evidence of that because you stand with guys like John Conyers in your attacks on the US, crying about our mis-treating the combatants at Gitmo when they're just lying, according to their training manual.

Conyer's voting record, according to the progressive Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) tilts left between 90 and 100 percent of the time. According to the 2002 rankings of the National Journal Conyers is the most “liberal� member of the House of Representatives.

Conyers is the most prominent lawmaker lobbying to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted murderer of a Philadelphia police officer. Conyers has been a National Executive Board member of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which was created as a Soviet front and still embraces its Communist heritage. In a June 1, 1979 New York Times opinion piece he co-authored with Marcus Raskin, co-founder of the extreme leftwing think tank the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Conyers asserted that “government’s responsibility is to revitalize the nation’s economy through creative forms of public ownership� - in other words, through socialism.

You're just marking yourself as part of that same crowd and frankly, socialists like Saddam Hussein who taught his sons to put people in plastic shredders feet first just so they could hear people scream longer, are sadistic people who torture -not American who bend over backwards for the scum that throw feces through their cell bars at passersby. They're lucky they're still ALIVE, for crying out loud! To complain about playing Christina Aguilar music and calling that torture...is a bit of a stretch and I don't consider that respectable in the least.

Durbin is just as extreme as Howard Dean who calls the terrorists "freedom fighters".

_____

grrrr... alright Cao!

Posted by Cao at June 20, 2005 06:13 PM

That`s just the beginning! Let`s go for another 10.000!!!

Best regards,

Ch. Arm
http://www.brushfiresoffreedom.blogspot.com/

Posted by Ch. Arm at June 20, 2005 06:31 PM

Cool deal, GM!!! Here's looking to much more!!!

PS: Durbin s****

Posted by William Teach at June 20, 2005 06:55 PM

Reg,

Now listen to me. This is very, very very important. What I want you to do is very slowly, gently even, grab the sides of your head. Then I want you to yank it out of your b***.

"If he were told this story and informed that it occurred in, say, Serbia under Milosevic, would he be surprised?"

Um, yeah, he should be. Last time I check the U.S. wasn't filling mass graves with their vitcims, but Milosevic was. I dare say that the thousands upon thousands of men and boys shot dead in Kosovo by Serbian troops were in prison cells with three square and an air conditioner, and the worst thing they had to put up with was being made uncomfortable as opposed to a bullet to the noggin they'd be... well.. ALIVE. This entire analogy of comparing Gitmo to Nazi concentration camps and gulags is just ridiculous, and no one on the left can justify them other than to say things like:

DURBIN SAID NOTHING WRONG: I've now read and re-read Senator Dick Durbin's comments on interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. They are completely, perfectly respectable.

I guess if you agree with what Durbin said. And I can then write you off as another irrational Bush-hating, America-loathing leftist.

The rank hysteria being perpetrated by some on the right is what is shameful.

See above. (Rank hysteria.... you are not going to "shame" the right into not calling you weak-kneed liberals out on the carpet by referring to our observations of your lunacy as "rank hysteria".)

Does he believe that the kind of tactics used against this prisoner are worthy of the United States?

Any American who wants this country and our way of life to be safe from Islamofascists bent on their destruction does. This is not any different than Abu Ghraib. You guys just want to call foul on the U.S. and paint the darkest picture you are able to.

And one last observation,

Does he doubt the FBI interrogator who witnessed the appalling treatment of some detainees at Guantanamo?

I don't neccessarily doubt the FBI guy. I just don't happen to have as limp a spine as you. I don't doubt that these detainees would slit the throats of stewardesses and fly planes into buildings and kill everyone of us infidels if they were given a chance. So please forgive me if my sympathies for these monsters are lacking. You can go give them a hug and a box of cookies if it makes you feel better...

Posted by Duncan Avatar at June 20, 2005 07:26 PM

Why don’t we see what Al Jazeera has to say about the distinguished senator from Ohio:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/796AA4AC-531C-4E6F-B855-7FBC52506824.htm

A US senator has refused to apologise for comparing the actions of US soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to those of Nazis, while others have decried or defended the mandate and method used to hold prisoners there.

US Senator Dick Durbin on Wednesday refused to apologise for comments he made on the Senate floor referring to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Illinois Republican party chairman Andy McKenna had demanded he apologise. "Senator Durbin's comments come as a great disservice to our military personnel in Guantanamo," he said.

They are also a great disservice to all US soldiers and veterans who have fought, and continue to fight, to overcome evil regimes and spread democracy around the world."

Durbin did not plan to apologise for the comments, spokesman Joe Shoemaker said. "This administration should apologise to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorising torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure," Durbin had said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

Attack

During a speech on Tuesday, Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat, quoted from an FBI agent's report describing detainees at the naval base in 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."

Thank God for Senator Durbin, Reg? Well tell ya what, pud-knocker, if that’s your example of a good American, you need serious counseling and a dose of “what’s real.� Seriously, I feel sorry for you.

Posted by Mustang at June 20, 2005 08:01 PM

Congratulations George! (And Woody, too.)

Michael

Posted by Michael J. Totten at June 20, 2005 09:12 PM

Duncan Avatar answers this rhetorical question:

Does he believe that the kind of tactics used against this prisoner are worthy of the United States?

With this:

Any American who wants this country and our way of life to be safe from Islamofascists bent on their destruction does.

Uh huh. Pretty much what I'd expect from some who names himself after a Yo-Yo.

Hey, he doesn't believe that holding ourselves to a higher standard is one the hallmarks of one who truly loves his country? Fine. Just don't ask for the respect of those who do.

I would be interested in hearing how exactly having our prisoners defecate on themselves somehow makes us safer. As opposed to say, just being revenge.

You know, I can understand and appreciate the motivation behind revenge. What I have little use for is are foolish folk that that that try to couch it in term of `security' and `patriotism'. They truly need a deeper understanding of what our flag stands for.

Posted by jim hitchcock at June 20, 2005 09:35 PM

The Media Research Center makes it clear why the people are more concerned with the prisoners than the outrageous statements by the Senator. That's all the press is going to cover.

Nets Target U.S. Military "Abuses,"
But Skip Dick Durbin's "Nazi" Rant
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2005/fax20050616.asp

Here's part of what they say, "But while the networks kept their spotlight on the U.S. military's conduct, none of last night's broadcasts bothered to note a Tuesday speech by Minority Whip Dick Durbin � the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate. ...Durbin wildly charged.... On Wednesday, Durbin stuck by his crazy charge, yet none of the network morning shows on Thursday mentioned the controversy. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton made the rounds of all three shows, but none dared ask whether she agreed with Durbin's portrait of U.S. military guards as acting as if they were from 'some mad regime.'"

What another big surprise. But, remember, there is no liberal bias...or, so I'm told.

Posted by Woody at June 20, 2005 10:43 PM

Gm Roper, he da man! On behalf of the international working class, I hail you and hug you!

Posted by Marc Cooper at June 21, 2005 02:11 AM

Mustang - hate me, because I'd hate myself if you didn't. Don't insult me with that "feel sorry" bull.

Incidentally, and I think no one here got it...that post was, aside from my introductory line, a long clip from pro-war, conservative Andrew Sullivan.

Got it ?

Posted by reg at June 21, 2005 12:40 PM