Furor Over Senator's Gitmo Remarks

White House Slams Sen. Durbin For Comparing Guantanamo To Nazis

(AP) 
Durbin spokesman said Wednesday that the senator did not plan to apologize for the comments. The senator issued a statement saying it's the administration that should apologize "for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorizing torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure."

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.