Monday, February 8, 2010
The other day, I quicklinked to the story of Amnesty International, the Taliban/Gitmo man, and the now-suspended whistle blower. Savor the irony of the NGO Amnesty, that has descended so far as to partner with and even sanctify a man like Moazzam Begg and a site like Cageprisoners and then suspend a whistle blowing employee for complaining about it publicly. How positively Stalinist. We need not over-season this dish in order to savor it. This whole thing is so tasty I half expect to see it on the Food Network.
It's all so well-deserved, and yet so unexpected. Our hats are off to whistle blower Gita Sahgal, without whom AI simply would have gone on and on without so much as a moment of self-examination and accountability. Here are some links for you...
Noah Pollak has a good one at Contentions: The Human-Rights Facade Is Beginning to Crumble
...There is a vital role for groups like HRW and Amnesty to play in the world. Properly understood, their mission is to use their moral authority to shame and condemn tyranny and those who wish to make the world a hospitable place for tyrants and terrorists. But moral authority requires moral clarity. HRW and Amnesty have been overtaken by activists who use their position to wage easy campaigns against open societies instead of taking on the more difficult, thankless, and sometimes dangerous struggle against closed ones.
For people who do not follow these issues closely, there have been a few recent moments that indicate beyond any doubt that something is rotten in the "human-rights community." One moment was when HRW went to Saudi Arabia to raise money. We have arrived at another such moment: a human-rights organization has suspended an employee for complaining about the organization's partnership with a terrorist. [More.]
Harry's Place has posted Gita Sahgal's statement and has a good round-up of blog reactions as well: Statement by Gita Sahgal on Amnesty International and Cageprisoners
