In the same week that the GOP-controlled House
voted to withhold U.S. dues to the UN, Senate Republicans asked the Bush administration to review U.S. payments to another international body, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC's crime: questioning treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
More.
This from the
LA Times, 6/15/05:
Senate Republicans are calling on the Bush administration to reassess U.S. financial support for the International Committee of the Red Cross, charging that the group is using American funds to lobby against U.S. interests.
The Senate Republican Policy Committee, which advances the views of the GOP Senate majority, said in a report that the international humanitarian organization had "lost its way" and veered from the impartiality on which its reputation was based. The Republican policy group titled its report: "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the
International Committee of the Red Cross?"
The congressional criticism follows reports by the Swiss-based group that have faulted U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
[...]
The Senate Republicans' report called on the Bush administration to ask the Government Accountability Office to review Red Cross operations, noting that the U.S. funds 28% of the group's budget and has contributed $1.5 billion since 1990. The International Committee of the Red Cross is separate from the American Red Cross, which has no say in how the international committee is run.
The ICRC hit back Friday, claiming GOP senators "discredit the humanitarian organization by spreading false accusations."
"The report's purpose appears to be to discredit the ICRC by putting forward false allegations and unsubstantiated accusations," said ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger.
The ICRC is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions on the protection of
prisoners of war and civilians hit by conflict.
[...]
The Senate report claims that the ICRC set out to "inaccurately and unfairly accuse the US of not adhering to the Geneva Conventions."
Details also recently surfaced of a purported angry exchange between ICRC staff and the US military, in which an aid worker allegedly compared the American soldiers to the Nazis.
Funny how often the "N" word keeps coming up in reference to U.S. treatment of detainees.
With the UN vote, the assault on Sen. Durbin for Gitmo comments, and the threat to the ICRC, the GOP sent a clear message this week: Question us and our policies and we will destroy you. And no individual or organization, no matter how distinguished or useful or credible, is immune.