Immoral equivalence at the AP

This paragraph is in an AP story at CNN.

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Many African leaders appear to harbor a secret admiration for Mugabe as a man who can thumb his nose at the West and point out its perceived hypocrisies, like the Bush administration's appeals for human rights in Zimbabwe while running the Guantanamo Bay prisoner camp.

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Anyone who could make such a comparison is profoundly ignorant or dishonest. The horrific stories coming out of Zimbabwe are of no comparison to the relative discomfort of terrorist at Gitmo. In Zimbabwe people are being murdered and beaten with iron bars and clubs. They are being forced to drink drain cleaner and other poisonous concoctions. They are being brutalized and starve in ways not seen since Stalin and Mao. This comparison is obscene. The AP should be ashamed.

William Murchison is much close to the mark.

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Robert Mugabe: exalted oppressor of the Zimbabwean people, jailer of opponents, suppressor of every human right known to man and then some. Robert Mugabe, all-round tyrant, despot and jerk, as well as unwitting generator of a certain nostalgia for the bad old days of topees and gin and tonics.

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What is it about white liberal guilt that can make excuses for black tyrants? The comparison made by the AP is sick beyond words.