A friend writes:
Thoughtful and angry piece by Ann Wright and Colleen Rowley about the new head of Amnesty International USA’s contingently defending NATO action in Afghanistan since it helps Afghan women’s rights. (This line of liberal feminist decoy apology for that war was spotted and tagged by Judith Butler in her book Precarious Life.)
Former State Department official Suzanne Nossel triangulates Hillary, Madeleine, Samantha, Susan Rice, and the Atrocity Prevention Board. See her 2007 blog on negotiations with Iran as a tactical necessity (the Dennis Ross view)–i.e. we must go through the motions because we have to prove them futile before we do what needs to be done. It is strange and unfortunate that such a person now leads Amnesty International USA. A valuable placement for the imperialists, as was Amano succeeding ElBaradei at the International Atomic Energy Agency. How they have lined up the pins!
And above is Nossel on the Goldstone Report–its flaw of putting “the most negative possible spin that you could put on Israeli behavior.”
“It draws a series of inferences about Israel’s motives and behavior that are simply not supported by the facts…. We do take exception to that…”
Former Sec of state Madeleine Albright featured at an Amnesty International ‘shadow summit’ in Chicago, people were asking how a notorious apologist for the mass murder of children should be allowed to speak on the rights of women and children. When told that half a million children had died as a result of Iraq sanctions, and whether it was worth it, Albright replied “it is a hard choice, but we think the price was worth it” Amnesty International can only go downhill from here.
“Suzanne Nossel described her own background that inspired a lifelong dedication to human rights. “Looking back to what first sparked my own interest in human rights issues, it has everything to do growing up as an American Jew,” she said. Her mother’s parents were refugees from Nazi Germany who settled in Cape Town, South Africa in the 1930s, leaving many relatives behind. As a child, she visited relatives in apartheid South Africa. “I puzzled over the disconnect between what I saw there, and the liberal values of my suburban Jewish Day School,” she said of the apartheid era. “I have vibrant memories of being mobilized as part of the movement to free Soviet Jewry, marching down Fifth Avenue into Dag Hammarsjkold Plaza and standing with thousands to demand respect for human rights. She has frequently visited relatives in Israel, saying “It’s a place where I feel very comfortable and at home.”
Ho hum, another zionist agent in the US serving Israel. Another article on her says she said she’s been successful at Dept of State in protecting Israel from being singled out for criticism.
Total Israel firster.
Sorry honey, your zionist actions speak louder than your ‘Jewish values’.
But here’s something good. The military kicked out the Muslim hater at the JFSC.
http://www.lobelog.com/suspended-u-s-military-instructor-taught-officers-to-wage-%e2%80%98total-war%e2%80%99-on-islam/
Suspended; U.S. Military Instructor Taught Officers To Wage ‘Total War’ On Islam
June 21st, 2012 |
The U.S. military is taking concrete action against an instructor, Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, who taught U.S. military officers at the Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) to wage “total war” on Islam.
The JFSC has been plagued by reports that course presentations delivered by visiting instructors as well as active duty U.S. military personnel cited numerous prominent American Islamophobes and promoted taking a war on Islam “to the civilian population wherever necessary.” Dooley’s suspension, as reported by Wired’s Danger Zone, marks a step forward in removing blatantly anti-Muslim teaching materials from the JFSC.
ThinkProgress has obtained one of Dooley’s PowerPoint presentations. The presentation (which can be downloaded here) offers a stark example of the Islamophobic curriculum taught to U.S. military officers.
The presentation, dated from July, 2011, offers a “counter-jihad op design model.” Dooley’s “model”:
..continued
Amnesty International has had a poor to deplorable record on Israeli human rights abuses for many years. Suzanne Nossel’s placement reflects long-standing AI hypocrisy rather than any change of course for the organization.
AI gives every indication of taking an approach seen with a large percentage of well-funded, well-connected NGOs — play down criticism of major powers (public or private) in the interest of maintaining contacts and funding sources. We see much the same pattern in several major environmental organizations.
Grotesque. Another reason for NPR, and others in the broadcast wing of the Israel Lobby, to boast that a fellow Jew has risen to the top of the heap in the power structure. Pointing out that the neocons are disproportionately Jewish, is still considered by them to be an observation that, however true, is anti-Semitic.