ADL to Durbin: Apologize

The Anti-Defamation League blasted Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin on Thursday, demanding that he apologize for comparing U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay to "Nazis."

"Whatever your views on the treatment of detainees and alleged excesses at the Guantanamo Bay facility, it is inappropriate and insensitive to suggest that actions by American troops in any way resemble actions taken by Nazis in their treatment of prisoners," ADL chief Abraham Foxman wrote in a letter addressed to Durbin. "Suggesting some kind of equivalence between their interrogation tactics demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about the horrors that Hitler and his regime actually perpetrated," Foxman added. "We urge you to repudiate your remarks and apologize to the American people for distorting an important issue with an inappropriate comparison to Nazi tactics," the ADL chief said.

Earlier on Thursday, Sen. Durbin said he was standing by his remarks, insisting instead: "This administration should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions."

Last week the ADL called on powerful House Democrat Charlie Rangel to apologize, after Rangel compared the Iraq war to the Holocaust.

Rather than comply, Rangel charged that Mr. Foxman had a history of targeting African-Americans like himself.