Amnesty International
started off in 1961
devoted to simple human rights.
Campaigning for democrats imprisoned by dictators. That kind of thing.
Sadly, like many an organisation, they gradually got taken over by people with larger agendas.
They are one of the worst examples
of left-wing
"mission creep".
They now have opinions on every topic, and many of their opinions are awful.
They have stupid and offensive leftist politics on issues to do with
the frontline Western states
- the US, UK and Israel
- and they are not trustworthy on those issues.
On other parts of the world they are fairly objective.
They are willing to criticise
communists,
Muslims, Arabs
and black Africans,
for example.
(Whereas many on the left won't.)
Ultimately, their good parts are too weak to compensate for their bad parts.
They have lost their way, and while I would quote their country reports for many countries,
I would not donate to them any more.
In 2002-2003, I was shocked to discover Amnesty opposing the War on Iraq to depose the democidal dictator Saddam Hussein.
I don't think it is appropriate
for a human rights organisation to be opposing a war to depose
a dictator.
They should stick to known human rights violations,
rather than getting involved in the political decision as to whether this war or that
against a dictator is a good idea.
The derangement of Amnesty in one image:
The most mentioned countries in Amnesty annual reports.
Israel is always no.1 or no.2.
From here.
Simplistic anti-Israel propaganda from Amnesty International.
At the time of the
2008-09 Gaza War.
Oh
Thandie Newton
I'm sorry I saw you talk such nonsense!
She says Israel has committed
"war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza."
Trying to hit Hamas rocket teams is a "crime against humanity"?
Talk about debasing the meaning of language.
The reality of the 2008-2009 Gaza war:
Hamas fighter
calls for local children to come and help him escape from a building
without being fired on from the air.
Their parents are happy for the children to be used in jihad.
The fighter leaves
using the children as human shields.
Hamas knows how decent the Israelis are.
They use that fact as a weapon of war in order to kill more Jews.
Nothing sums up the sad decline of Amnesty better than the fact that
they now claim that Jews building houses
are "war crimes".
What a pathetic organisation.
Amnesty, Nov 2019, says that Jews building houses
are "war crimes".
They absurdly say that:
"the construction & maintenance of settlements in the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, breaches international law & amounts to war crimes."
How far they have come since the days when they just focused on democrats imprisoned by dictators.
I sum up
the long and sad decline of Amnesty, July 2019.
From an organisation concerned about prisoners of conscience
to an organisation concerned about where Jews live.
"How can I be happy while Jews are building houses?"
- Amnesty International.
Image from here.
A "crime against humanity"
used to mean something.
It used to be a serious charge, of something like democide or genocide.
Now it just means any crime at all, real or imaginary.
It
just means anything leftists like Amnesty do not like.
If next week Amnesty describes Brexit as a "crime against humanity"
it would not surprise me.
For some reason, Amnesty is angry about 225,000 Jews
who it says are living "illegally" in East Jerusalem,
including in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.
Lots of
Jews living in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem
makes Amnesty angry, for some reason, that says a lot about Amnesty and not about anyone else.
Amnesty officials interviewed by Times of Israel, Feb 2022.
What is extraordinary is how vague the Amnesty officials' hatred of Israel is.
They sure hate Israel, and are angry at Jews living somewhere,
but their answers as to why
they are angry
are as vague and jumbled as any students union leftist.
"Evict 0.6 million people from their homes",
declares depraved, corrupted "human rights" organisation Amnesty, March 2023.
Amnesty are happy to partner with people who hate human rights
and support human rights abusers like the Taliban.
Amnesty sacked the head of their Gender Unit,
Gita Sahgal, in 2010
for complaining about their relationship with Moazzam Begg.
Standing up for jihadis rather than prisoners of conscience:
Amnesty, 1 Dec 2011, calls for the arrest of former U.S. President George W. Bush
for waterboarding jihadists.
As if that's a big crime.
Why don't they call for the arrest of U.S. President Barack Obama for killing jihadists without trial?
It seems agenda-driven
to call for Bush's arrest but not Obama's arrest.
Amnesty's campaign for Mohmoud Abu Rideh
(or Mahmud Abu Rideh)
illustrates why I no longer support Amnesty.
At some point, Amnesty switched from defending foreign democrats and human rights campaigners
to defending all prisoners - including
violent people who despise democracy and human rights.
The useful leftie idiots who joined the above campaign
got him freed in 2009.
In 2010, oddly enough, he was
killed fighting with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Shame on Amnesty for defending jihadis like this
and helping them do their evil work.
Amnesty MENA, 2 May 2023, mourns the death of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader
Khader Adnan.
The guy called for the killing of random Jews, and Amnesty does not care.
Amnesty main account
also promotes this violent racist terrorist who hated human rights.
Osama Saeed
was appointed in 2016 as communications director for Amnesty International.
He was formerly spokesman for the extremist Islamist
Muslim Association of Britain
from 2002 to 2007.
Quilliam, 2009,
describes him as an Islamist.
They show a mountain of evidence of his Islamist extremism,
including support for Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
See more
and more.
NGO Monitor on Yasmin Hussein, Amnesty International's Director of Faith and Human Rights.
They claim she
"has links to the Muslim Brotherhood and possibly to Hamas".
"Amnesty International - from bias to obsession". 200 page report on Amnesty and Israel by David Collier, Dec 2019.
"Every part of Amnesty's arsenal spends a disproportionate amount of time attacking Israel. When fused together in a coordinated manner, the focus appears obsessive and persecutory. Campaigns against Israel are visibly better funded, more frequent and promoted with far more energy - than anything else Amnesty International undertakes."
Scrutinize Amnesty International
by Gerald Steinberg, May 23, 2007,
says that:
"in 2006, Amnesty singled out Israel for condemnation of human rights
to a far greater extent than Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Egypt,
and other chronic abusers of human rights.
During the year, Amnesty issued 48 publications critical of Israel, compared to 35 for Iran, 2 for Saudi Arabia, and only 7 for Syria."
Head of Finland branch of Amnesty International
calls Israel a "scum state", Aug 2010.
See more.
"Asked whether there are other countries aside from Israel that, according to him, meet the definition of a "scum state," Johansson did not specify any, but noted that there are "Russian officials" who meet the criteria."
Amnesty's journey towards human rights abuser is complete.
Amnesty hosts an
anti-Israel hatefest in London, May 2011.
This featured
Islamic terror supporter
Abd al-Bari Atwan,
who supports nuking the Jews of Israel:
"If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."
See also
Michael Weiss
and
Richard Millett
on Amnesty's Islamist partner
Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
I will never donate to Amnesty again!
Elder of Ziyon
contrasts two Amnesty reports in 2014
- on Israel (counter-jihad operations by a restrained liberal democracy)
and Syria (disgusting butcher and dictator
slaughters his own citizens).
John Connolly, 12 Mar 2014, says it seems Amnesty's heart is not in things like the Syria report:
"[The Syria report] is as dry as a Wikipedia summary, reading like something Amnesty only had to do because they were obliged. [The anti-Israel report] 'Trigger-happy', on the other hand, is an emotive call to action, somebody at Amnesty's personal crusade. 'Trigger-happy' was displayed prominently on the front page of their website for two weeks. The other was there for a day."
Amnesty's obsession with Israel:
Breakdown of tweets by official Amnesty Twitter account, July-Aug 2015.
(No, there was no war on. They just hate Israel.)
From here.
This tweet of 12 July 2015 shows why you can't trust Amnesty.
The house that the IAF attacked was a major
Hamas command and control centre
with at least six
or seven
terrorist fighters present.
But Amnesty thinks we don't need to know that.
Syksy Rasanen,
board member of Amnesty Finland, is angry at Germany banning Hezbollah, May 2020.
This person shows why I no longer donate to Amnesty, and never will again until they get rid of everyone like this.
PFLP terrorist
Walid Daqqa
dies in prison in April 2024.
He kidnapped an Israeli soldier who was hitch-hiking, cut off his penis and gouged out his eyes.
And here is how Amnesty reacts.
They call him a "writer".
Old Amnesty: Campaigning for democrats unjustly imprisoned by dictators.
New Amnesty: Pimping for properly convicted murderers of Israelis for no apparent reason other than that Amnesty hates Israelis.
Amnesty International's "Apartheid" Video: 15 Lies in 15 Minutes.
From CAMERA.
Rudolph J. Rummel
estimates that 39 million innocent people
died in the Soviet gulags.
Amnesty's Idiocy
by John Podhoretz, on the difference between Guantanamo and a real gulag.
"Maybe the people who work at Amnesty International really do think that
the imprisonment of 600 certain or suspected terrorists is tantamount to
the imprisonment of 25 million slaves.
The case of Amnesty International proves that well-meaning people can make morality their life's work
and still be little more than moral idiots."
The Jawa Report,
on what the Soviet gulags were really like.
"For Amnesty International to stoop to the low of making such a comparison
reveals their ignorance of history
and their political bias against the United States.
...
Shame on you Amnesty International, I will never take your accusations seriously again."
People who were actually in the gulag
criticise Amnesty:
Pavel Litvinov:
"By any standard, Guantanamo and similar American-run prisons elsewhere do not resemble,
in their conditions of detention or their scale, the concentration camp system
that was at the core of a totalitarian communist system."
Natan Sharanksy
describes Amnesty's gulag analogy as
"typical, unfortunately".
James Taranto,
November 21, 2006,
on a case where a jihadi is refusing to have a required heart procedure
done at Guantanamo because he thinks its medical facilities are inadequate.
"The poor terrorist has to get a lawyer to keep those monsters at Guantanamo
from performing life-saving surgery on him.
You see why people keep comparing Guantanamo to Nazi Germany. The parallels are eerie."
Amnesty used to be about prisoners of conscience.
But they now seem to have an opinion on everything.
Anti-death penalty
I have long disagreed with Amnesty on
the death penalty
for murderers.
It is a matter of opinion whether there is anything wrong with this.
Amnesty over the years has used this issue to focus a disproportionate amount of attention
on the USA,
which gets more of their attention than many
actual tyrannies.
Amnesty Ireland runs a
campaign about the quality of healthcare in Ireland,
a rich western country.
Healthcare is already free in Ireland,
and accounts for
20 to 25 percent of all state spending.
Amnesty are complaining that its quality should be better
(and taxes should be higher to pay for that).
You may agree or disagree, but this is a massive divergence from Amnesty's original mission
into a general platform of left-leaning ideas that you may or may not support.
Amnesty, Jan 2017, has views on Donald Trump as well. They have views on everything.
It doesn't matter that I agree with them on Trump.
The point is they have out-of-control mission creep.
I am pro-abortion myself,
provided that the cut off point is early enough
(1st trimester or so).
However, Amnesty's decision in 2007
to take a position on this controversial topic
is perhaps the biggest example of the mission creep that has totally changed the organisation.
It is
quite a divergence from their original mission.
Amnesty are a grab bag of leftist viewpoints, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't.
This is on the
front page of Amnesty Ireland as at Dec 2014.
If you're anti-abortion, don't join Amnesty International.
Video attacking Amnesty from anti-abortion group
Youth Defence.
I don't agree with Youth Defence.
A blastocyst
is not the same as a
25 week old fetus.
However, this does illustrate how Amnesty are not really a charity any more.
They are a controversial political party now,
with controversial positions
that many people disagree with.
MacBride himself was a Nazi collaborator
during WW2.
See
[Girvin, 2006]
and
[McMahon, 2008]
and below.
He collaborated with
Eduard Hempel,
Nazi ambassador to Ireland.
His half-sister
Iseult Gonne
(also a Nazi collaborator)
was married to
Nazi collaborator and propagandist
Francis Stuart.
In 1982, MacBride, a former Nazi collaborator,
was chairman of the International Commission to enquire into
alleged violations of International Law
by Israel
during its invasion of the Lebanon.
Sean MacBride,
co-founder of Amnesty International,
was a
Nazi collaborator.
He served as
International Chairman of
Amnesty International
1965-74.
Extract from
[McMahon, 2008].
Hamas executes people without trial, Sept 2022.
Amnesty Ireland and Trocaire, who have opinions on literally everything in Israel, decline to tweet about it.
His "Activities and Interests" include
Irish Ship to Gaza,
No to English Queen in Ireland,
Communist Party of Ireland,
Nobody likes a Tory, Is Margaret Thatcher Dead Yet?,
Martin McGuinness, Martin McGuinness For President,
An Phoblacht,
Robert Fisk on The Independent,
Sinn Féin shop,
Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and
Ilan Pappé.
He is "friends" with
loads (and I mean loads!)
of people from the human rights abusing group
Sinn Fein
(who killed nearly 2,000 people in terrorist attacks).
This is not surprising because
he is a former
prominent member of
the human rights abusing group
Sinn Fein
himself.
He was Chairperson of Dublin Sinn Féin.
He has an anti-Israel past
and is "friends" with
anti-Israel campaigners
Fintan Lane
and
Freda Hughes.
He is also "friends" with
Yousef Al-Helou,
who works for the human rights abusing state of Iran
in
Gaza.
Justin Moran,
Communications Co-ordinator at Amnesty Ireland,
was formerly (as at 2007)
a prominent member of the human rights abusing group
Sinn Fein.
He was Chairperson of Dublin Sinn Féin.
The above is from
Dublin Sinn Fein newsletter, 22 June 2007.
It also shows he was an anti-Israel activist.
His Facebook shows him remaining a strong supporter of Sinn Fein
after joining Amnesty.
Amnesty Ireland has no credibility with people like this speaking for it.
Just to confirm it is the same guy:
(Left) Justin Moran
of the human rights abusing group
Sinn Fein in 2007.
(Right) Justin Moran
of Amnesty Ireland as at 2012.
Martin McGuinness calls for the death penalty for "informers".
His organisation executed
hundreds of "informers"
without any evidence
or any trial,
and without defence barristers.
Justin Moran of Amnesty supported (and still supports) this organisation.
He openly supports Martin McGuinness on Facebook.
In this
piece on China, July 16, 2009,
Justin Moran
of Amnesty
claims to be opposed to the death penalty.
He also claims to be in favour of the right to "a fair and open trial".
Where was the fair and open trial of
Paul Quinn
when your organisation applied the death penalty to him in 2007?
Or the hundreds of others
your organisation
killed without trial?
Amnesty Ireland has no credibility with people like this speaking for it.
Justin Moran signs a
2004 petition
calling for a boycott of Israel.
The future spokesman for Amnesty International Ireland
calls for the ethnic cleansing of the 550,000 Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He also wants a boycott of Israel:
"The undersigned also urge all citizens of Ireland to support a boycott of all Israeli goods and services".
Justin Moran
of Amnesty International (Ireland)
looks forward to the death of
Margaret Thatcher, Dec 2011.
His organisation (SF-IRA)
failed to kill her in 1984 when it
bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
Justin Moran left Amnesty by 2014.
He worked for Age Action and is still on their Board of Directors.
He now works for the Irish Wind Energy Association.
He has not changed.
Here he laughs at the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson getting the coronavirus, March 2020.
Colm O'Gorman,
executive director of
Amnesty Ireland from 2008 to 2022,
took the organisation in a radical left, "woke" direction, in line with his politics,
and far away from its original mission.
Despite the fact that he is gay himself, Colm O'Gorman
is hostile to Israel,
the only state in the Middle East where gays are free.
Amnesty Ireland
developed a strong and angry bias against Israel
under his watch.
He called for an
arms embargo on Israel.
He was an obsessed supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood prisoner Ibrahim Halawa.
Even though he is gone,
Amnesty Ireland is unlikely to recover.
No centre-right person could support Amnesty Ireland.
Colm O'Gorman
issues a rather self-satisfied
tweet
on 8 Dec 2012.
He tosses in a dig at Israel.
So should he be on a list?
Indeed he should.
He should be on my list of
gays who won't stand up for the state where gays are free,
in its fight for survival with states where gays are oppressed and even liquidated.
Being on that list is not something to be proud of.
Colm O'Gorman, 12 Aug 2014,
who is gay,
defends the
Muslim Brotherhood prisoner
Ibrahim Halawa
as a "prisoner of conscience".
The Muslim Brotherhood's Yusuf Al-Qaradawi replies.
He
says about homosexuals:
"The schools of thought disagree about the punishment.
...
Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom.
Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement."
Colm O'Gorman engages with me in
this thread,
but never engages with my criticism
of Amnesty's defence of the MB, Islamists and jihadists.
See more.
Amnesty weakly argues that MB people may not be involved in MB violence.
I try in Dec 2016 to get Colm O'Gorman to engage with the fact that Ibrahim Halawa's father
said gays should be executed.
He is angry with me.
His anger with
Ibrahim Halawa's father
is non-existent.
He is so angry with me that he "likes" this insane tweet
suggesting I am working for the Kremlin!
What the hell is wrong with him?
For years,
I have sent him the evidence of
Halawa links to the MB.
In Jan 2017, he makes it clear that he never reads any of it.
Colm O'Gorman is interested in everyone's opinions in Ireland except the Halawas.
In
Nov 2017
I criticised the Halawa family one too many times
for this guy's liking.
O'Gorman called Hussein Halawa "more progressive on women's rights than a Catholic Bishop".
I pointed out that he wants gays executed.
O'Gorman blocked me.
Amnesty used to refuse to defend people linked in any way to violence.
Amnesty was a better organisation then.
This is from their
1964-65 report:
"the movement recorded that it could not give the name of 'Prisoner of Conscience' to anyone associated with violence".
They refused to defend IRA prisoners in the Troubles because they were violent.
They refused to support Mandela
because he was violent.
"Prisoner of conscience"
used to mean something different.
Amnesty Ireland uses a Muslim Brotherhood supporter in their promotional video, Dec 2017.
Ibrahim Halawa could make a huge contribution if he publicly denounced (in English and Arabic)
the Muslim Brotherhood,
Yusuf al Qaradawi, Salah Soltan, sharia law, and political Islam in general.
In the absence of that, this video merely demonstrates a moral void at the heart of Amnesty.
Colm O'Gorman appears in March 2022 at a Sinn Fein event attacking Israel.
Happy to appear at an event run by the terrorist group Sinn Fein,
he is also happy to appear on a platform with the PA dictatorship
and the PFLP linked groups
Addameer
and Al Haq.
Amnesty is a sick organisation.
See full size.
From here.