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Durbin Visits Guantanamo Prison Camp
Dennis Conrad
Associated Press
July 10, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday made his first trip to a prison camp at Guantanamo Naval Base since his remarks last year criticizing U.S. soldiers there for allegedly bad treatment of prisoners from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Durbin, the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, had said in recent weeks that he was eager to visit the U.S.-controlled base in Cuba but wanted assurances from the Pentagon that he would receive a complete tour of the facility.
Virginia Sen. George Allen, who is running for re-election this year and is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008, accompanied Durbin on the trip.
Criticism of Durbin's remarks about Guantanamo last year was widespread, with even Democratic Chicago Mayor Richard Daley questioning how Durbin could compare U.S. interrogation methods at the camp to the methods of Nazis.
Teary-eyed, Durbin apologized a week later on the Senate floor, saying he never meant disrespect for U.S. soldiers around the world.
The controversy stemmed from Durbin having quoted from an FBI agent's memo describing detainees 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 then.
A statement released by Durbin's office Monday said Durbin and Allen were scheduled to visit a variety of the detention facilities at Guantanamo, be briefed by commanders and eat lunch with Illinois and Virginia soldiers. Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker said the trip was expected to keep the senators busy all day.
Due to security concerns, more details were not to be released until after the senators returned to Washington.
Durbin, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is expected to participate in a hearing Tuesday focusing on military commissions such as those used to send detainees from Iraq and Afghanistan to GuantanamoBay.
The Supreme Court last month ruled that President Bush's plan to try detainees captured in the war on terror through secret military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
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