WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wants Sen. Richard Durbin censured for comparing the treatment of U.S. detainees to actions of the Gestapo and KGB.
In a letter to U.S. senators, Gingrich said the Illinois Democrat had "dishonored the United States and the entire Senate."
Durbin's remarks have brought a firestorm of criticism from conservatives. The senator issued a statement Friday saying he had learned "that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood."
In his original statement, Durbin repeated an FBI report's description of detainees at Guantanamo Bay being kept chained to the floor with no food or water for 18 to 24 hours.
"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.
