Terry Everett, June 20, 2005

The Nation's Capital is no stranger to heated political rhetoric. It is a by-product of our two-party system that we've come to live with. However, when one's verbal attacks exceed the limit of rationality and actually place American lives at risk, such speech deserves swift condemnation. Such was the case last week when the Senate's number two Democrat, Richard Durbin of Illinois, compared America's terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Nazi concentration camps and Soviet-era gulag prisons.

During a long discourse on the Senate floor, Senator Durbin strongly criticized the detention and interrogation of Al-Qaeda operatives and sympathizers at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo. Reading from reports on the treatment of the terrorists, Durbin stated, "'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." Senator Durbin told a despicable lie which without a doubt will endanger American servicemen and women.

Durbin's outlandish accusations of totalitarian style torture stem from an FBI agent's email that some prisoners at Guantanamo were being kept in cells with no air conditioning while others were being subjected to extreme cold, or had food and water withheld for periods of time. Durbin goes on to state that these activities were not occurring in Nazi, Soviet or Pol Pot's camps, but are "the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

Given the recent violence against our troops in the wake of false news reports that a Koran was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo, you'd think that Senator Durbin would have better judgment than to fan the flames with such absurd rhetoric. Yet he insinuated that America is torturing Muslim prisoners in Cuba on a level comparable to the most brutal, death camp regimes in modern times.

For the record, tens of millions died in Nazi, Soviet, and Khmer Rouge prisons and yet Durbin dares to compare that genocide to Guantanamo. Durbin also referenced the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, concluding that America is committing another wrong by the detention of Muslims at Guantanamo. Again, Durbin is totally distorting facts as the detainees in Cuba are not being held because they are of an ethnic or religious background, but are captured terrorists intent on killing innocent Americans.

Here is what Mr. Durbin conveniently left out of his speech. Of the more than 70,000 detainees captured in the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, nearly 800 Al Qaeda and Taliban members are being held at Guantanamo. Of that number, 235 have either been released or sent to other countries, leaving approximately 520 of the most hardened terrorists, including an intended 9/11 hijacker.

As a member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, I have personally visited our detention center at Guantanamo and found the facilities more than adequate for the housing of terrorist suspects. House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter, R-California, recently pointed out that not only are these prisoners being treated well with Korans, prayer beads and oil, but they are eating the same food our own soldiers are getting.

After the loss of 3,000 American lives on 9/11 and our fallen military in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is shocking that such comments as those of Senator Durbin could be made giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Durbin's remarks underscore a sinking level of debate by liberal Democrats in Congress to make this country look bad, whatever the cost.

Congressman Terry Everett, a Republican, represents Alabama's Second Congressional District, which includes the state capitol, Montgomery.