Speaking to the New York Daily News, the Jewish civil rights leader added:

"It is so outrageous that I think he owes an apology not only to the families of the victims of the Shoah, but he also owes an apology to the soldiers who are fighting for freedom."

The controversy exploded on Monday, when Rangel was being interviewed by WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter.

Speaking of the U.S. liberation of Iraq, Rangel contended: "It's the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. This is just as bad as six million Jews being killed. The whole world knew it and they were quiet about it, because it wasn't their ox that was being gored."

Rangel charged that the Bush administration had planned to invade Iraq even before the 9/11 attacks.

"Every one of the players who made this decision - they were part of this plan to do it. From Rumsfeld to Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bolton, every one of them - Perle - [they were part of the] plan to put our kids in harm's way long before 9/11."

Given the chance to clarify his Holocaust comments, however, Rangel refused to back down.

"I am saying that people's silence when they know terrible things are happening is the same thing as the Holocaust, where everyone would have me believe that no one knew those Jews were killed over there," he told Malzberg.

The Harlem Democrat's comments on Monday went largely unnoticed until two days later, when NewMax.com covered Malzberg's Rangel interview.

Reacting to the influential Democrat's outburst, top political columnist Robert Novak noted "If a Republican had said that, comparing anything like that with the Holocaust, he'd be in huge trouble."

"I think Charlie's probably sorry he said it," Novak told CNN.

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