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No Amnesty for the
Disingenuous
The Fifth Column/Frank
Salvato, Managing Editor |
June 10, 2005
- There is no doubt that the Internet has opened up a
whole new way of communication for everyone who can access it. Email,
websites, digital downloads; what used to take days if not weeks to
communicate through letters and photographs can now be done in less that
thirty seconds. So, it is curious how anyone can still be "played” by the
disingenuous when it comes to ideological propaganda.
Last week, Amnesty International went to great pains to orchestrate a few
well-attended press conferences. At each of these media events they repeated
the same baseless allegation: The United States of America was running an
"archipelago of gulags” around the world. They insisted that prisoners of
war were "disappearing into” these "gulags.”
This week, Amnesty International USA’s Executive Director William Schulz
pretty much debunked his organization’s "gulag” allegations. Schulz told
Chris Wallace, the host of FOX News Sunday, "We don't know for sure what all
is happening at Guantanamo and our whole point is that the United States
ought to allow independent human rights organizations to investigate." He
also said he had "absolutely no idea" whether the International Red Cross
had been given access to all prisoners and said he feared others were being
held at secret facilities or locations.
So, let’s look at the facts of the matter without Amnesty International’s
contrived spin.
Amnesty International hasn’t any proof whatsoever that any mistreatment of
prisoners is taking place at Guantanamo Bay. In fact, they wouldn’t know if
the camp was being run by America’s version of Colonel Klink and being
guarded by a like version of Sergeant Schultz. For all they know Guantanamo
Bay is the new Area 51 complete with both living and dead
extra-terrestrials. (Let’s see how long it takes for that to make the
rounds)
The inclination not to believe the allegations made by Amnesty International
is further bolstered by the fact that Mr. Schultz admitted they had no
information on whether or not the International Red Cross had seen all the
prisoners at Gitmo. Seeing as the IRC, is about as clandestine as Richard
Simmons this notion is very hard to entertain. The fact that the two
organizations routinely find themselves on the top ten lists of
organizations that spew condemnation of America would lead one to believe
that their respective chairmen have "red phones” to each other’s offices on
their desks.
So, Amnesty International has no proof of any prisoner mistreatment and they
haven’t a clue as to the conditions inside Guantanamo Bay. Based upon their
own admission they have no business making allegations. It doesn’t take a
leftist ideologue to deduce that their accusations are a manifestation of
their anti-war in Iraq, anti-War on Terror, anti-America and anti-George W.
Bush doctrine.
Amnesty International held sensationalized press conference "fiction fests”
to get its name back in the news. As a wise man once said, ‘any press is
good press.’ I can’t remember who said it so I will just attribute it to Al
Gore. He invented everything, so I am told.
When it all comes down to it, Amnesty International really has nothing to
crow about. Looking at all of the true atrocities taking place throughout
the world it is fair to say that they have failed miserably in their mission
statement while targeting the one government who has done the most to
further the ideal of human rights.
Last week, the United States released a list of 14 countries that have
failed to do enough to stop the modern-day practice of slave-trading. That
slavery is still an issue in the 21st Century is absolutely appalling. What
is even more appalling is that while the US list includes some close allies
in the War on Terror and threatens them with economic sanctions if they
continue to be delinquent in taking measures to halt this very real
atrocity, Amnesty International railed against the United States calling our
government officials human rights violators.
In Amman, Jordan last week the second "honor killing” of the week took
place. A young Muslim man tied the hands of his sister, gagged her and took
her to a deserted area west of that town where he stabbed her to death. The
divorced 25-year old woman was slaughtered because her brother said she was
"involved in immoral relationships.”Nineteen female citizens of that
country died at the hand of that immoral ideology last year. Their murderers
either went unpunished or received reduced sentences, often without jail
time. Meanwhile, Amnesty International railed against the United States
branding our government officials human rights violators.
In Sudan hundreds of thousands are being starved to death and murdered at
the hands of Islamic fundamentalists. Children are being raped at the hands
of UN Peacekeepers in Darfur. Yet indignantly, Amnesty International
fabricates human rights violations against the United States government.
Is Amnesty International being disingenuous? Only in the extreme sense of
the word.
The word atrocity is so over-used by blowhards like Williams Schulz that its
meaning is being obfuscated. This is very dangerous. We should never allow
the meaning of so chilling a word to be revised and the events it rightfully
describes rendered inconsequential.
I urge Mr. Schulz and the rest of the "silver-spoon crowd” who like to throw
around the word atrocity to watch a video clip titled,
Eleven Deaths
Before Your Eyes, hosted by Don’tStare.net. I will warn you up
front, this is probably going to be the most disturbingly graphic thing you
will ever witness if you haven’t been to war. It is not for the faint of
heart but it is a reality in the world of Islamic fundamentalism and it is
the very definition of atrocity.
After bearing witness to a true and real atrocity, courtesy of the Internet,
perhaps the privileged, insulated elite who feel compelled to hold press
conferences to accuse the greatest provider of humanitarian aid and freedom
the world has ever known of human rights violations will think twice. Then
again, even the technological marvel that is the Internet would have a
problem getting through heads that thick.
Related Reading:
Amnesty USA-'Don't know for sure' about Guantanamo
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8698181&src=rss/topNews
U.S.: 14 Nations Not Stopping Trafficking
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050603/ap_on_re_us/human_trafficking
2nd 'honour' killing in a week
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1715870,00.html
Eleven Deaths Before Your Eyes
http://dontstare.net/11dead.wmv
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