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German official compares bush to hitler { September 20 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41669-2002Sep19.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41669-2002Sep19.html
German Official Compares Bush on Iraq to Hitler
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 20, 2002; Page A19
BERLIN, Sept. 19 -- Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's justice minister said yesterday that President Bush's "method" of pressuring Iraq was similar to tactics employed by Adolf Hitler because both sought to divert attention from domestic problems, according to a German newspaper.
The minister, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, was also quoted as saying that the United States "has a lousy legal system" and that "Bush would be sitting in prison today" if current U.S. laws against insider trading had been on the books when he worked in the oil industry in Texas.
The reported remarks, a new example of anti-U.S. sentiment coursing through an election campaign leading up to voting on Sunday, quickly brought calls from the opposition for Daeubler-Gmelin's resignation.
In Washington, Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, noted the long, close relations between the United States and Germany and said the Hitler remark was "outrageous" and "inexplicable."
In the run-up to the parliamentary election, Schroeder's firm stance opposing any military action against Iraq has become the dominant campaign issue, apparently helping the chancellor bounce back from a weak showing in public opinion polls. U.S. officials have expressed dismay to their German counterparts about Schroeder's position. According to the newspaper Schwaebisches Tagblatt, Daeubler-Gmelin issued her remarks while speaking to a group of trade unionists in the western city of Tuebingen and did not know that the newspaper had a reporter in the room.
Daeubler-Gmelin began by discounting oil as the reason Bush would want to wage war, according to the newspaper, a local publication. "The Americans have enough oil," it quoted her as saying. "Bush wants to distract attention from his domestic problems. This is a popular method. Hitler also used it."
Even the hint of a comparison to Hitler is a blistering insult in public discourse here, and there was a murmuring of dissent in the audience, according to news reports here. "I did not equate Bush with Hitler," Daeubler-Gmelin hastily added, according to the newspaper.
The Justice Ministry in a news release today said that the newspaper's report was "absurd and far-fetched," and officials noted that it was written by a "local reporter." But the ministry did not deny that Daeubler-Gmelin had mentioned both Bush and the Nazi dictator in the same remarks and compared their "method."
"I would deeply regret that this matter would cast even a shadow on my respect for the President of the United States," Daeubler-Gmelin said in a statement.
Daeubler-Gmelin has long been a critic of the death penalty in the U.S. judicial system, echoing a view widespread in Germany and the rest of Europe. Last month she said Germany would not hand over documentary evidence for the trial of Sept. 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui if the evidence could help secure a capital conviction; the matter has not been resolved.
The opposition immediately jumped on the quoted remarks and demanded that Schroeder fire Daeubler-Gmelin, a fellow Social Democrat.
By tonight, Schroeder had made no comment on Daeubler-Gmelin's remarks.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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