Congressman Rohrabacher says he hopes EU Parliament’s family members die

“Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives – and sometimes the insight is not pretty. On April 17, we witnessed Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) unleashing his anger onto members of the European Parliament’s House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights. The members were invited guests and witnesses at the hearing. The subcommittee had issued a report in January, 2007 that was sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either the CIA or local police, then flown by CIA jet to other countries where they were imprisoned… the European Parliament committee said that terrorist acts must be handled lawfully by both European countries and by the United States. The report said: ‘After 11 September 2001, the so-called war on terror – in its excesses – has produced a serious and dangerous erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The extraordinary rendition program undercuts the exact liberties we are defending, the rule of law, the right for a fair and speedy trial and the right to know the evidence on which one is held and prosecuted’ … Congressman Rohrabacher attacked the two British and one Italian members of the European Parliament who testified before the committee… Rohrabacher said if European countries did not cooperate with the United States and go along with whatever the Bush administration wanted, they were condemning their countrymen to terrorists by not using extralegal methods to imprison terrorist suspects. When citizens attending the hearing, including members of Codepink Women for Peace and Veterans for Peace, heard Rohrabacher’s statement, they collectively groaned. Then, much to the shock and disbelief of everyone in the hearing room, Rohrabacher said to those who had expressed displeasure at his statements: ‘I hope it’s your family members that die when terrorists strike’.”