Senator Compares Gitmo to Concentration Death Camps

On the Senate floor, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) read an e-mail from an FBI agent, complaining:

one al Qaeda suspect was chained to the floor, kept in an extremely cold air-conditioned cell and forced to hear loud rap music.

After reading the e-mail, Mr. Durbin said, "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."

On behalf of the United States of America, I would like to apologize to the souls of my dead Jewish ancestors who perished in the Holocaust and holocaust victims and survivors everywhere.

Most of us know that Hitler did not just force Jewish people to listen to Wagner, quote Nietzsche to them, or make them catch chills. Most of us know that these two things do not equate. Mr. Durbin, however, apparently slept through history class.

Not, of course, that I am equating Wagner with rap music. Rap music is obviously far, far worse.

I hope the voters of Illinois plan to send a real apology. On his "contact center" page, Durbin expresses his "hope you take a moment to share your thoughts with me so that I may continue to serve and represent your interests and concerns." Please also keep this in mind in 2008 when Mr. Durbin is up for reelection.