Dick Durbin's remarks in the Arab press

Lest you think the Arab press might have missed the recent remarks of Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) comparing US military actions to those of the Nazis, Pol Pot and the Soviets in their gulags:

• The Arab News, in an article entitled, "Guantanamo — Where Does It End?":

  What is clear and obvious however is the overwhelming evidence of torture, extreme physical and psychological abuse and unlawful methods used by interrogators reported by human rights groups, Amnesty International, former detainees, X-military personnel and FBI secret reports that were leaked to the press on the conditions in Guantanamo. Sen. Dick Durbin made a comment on the Senate floor comparing the actions of American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a “mad regime” like Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s in Cambodia. Amnesty International, also, branded the facility the “gulag of our times”.

• Aljazeera:

  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."
  
  Durbin is not alone in his criticism.
  
  Human-rights groups have long accused the administration of unjustly detaining suspects at the prison camp. Amnesty International last month called the detention centre the "gulag of our times".

[My emphasis in each case.]