Imagine the media’s reaction if President Bush had indeed dared such a thing,  or if he had responded to critics of interrogation practices used at Gitmo with the following press release:

These criticisms, a Bush statement said, are not acceptable "because they are incompatible with the American people's right to self-determination (and) because they are not based on reality.”

Or how about this one, in response to those European critics who called for the closing of Gitmo:

"No country can accept any recommendation that contributes to the implementation of a policy designed by a foreign power with the objective of destroying the legitimate constitutional order freely chosen by its people.”

We know that the media’s response would have been furious, and immediate. Yet, when the Cuban dictatorship says the very same thing to brush off those critical of their abysmal Human Rights record, there is nary a peep.