Remember this guy? The one UN inspectors in Iraq allowed Iraqi guards to haul away? Well, his family is asking for help in finding him. However, and perhaps unfortunately, they are asking Amnesty International. I guess you can see by that last sentence that I am not too impressed by AI's current track record in really being able to deal with thug regimes. I can only hope that the publicity this case has already received will help to get the man freed (if he is still in freeable condition, that is), but I don't have much hope. Amnesty International's method of getting results through the inducement of guilt only works on government entities that have not gone into fuck-you-all mode, and I am afraid that for better or worse Hussein has been in that mode for some time now.
(Via Instapundit.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at February 7, 2003 12:02 AMBy god, I feel for his family, but I know that poor bastard is dead, and it's only The Right that gives a tinker's damn.
Why I care, I don't know. He didn't look like he owns any oil wells.
Posted by: Scott at February 7, 2003 at 01:18 AMAndrea: "Amnesty International's method of getting results through the inducement of guilt only works on government entities that have not gone into fuck-you-all mode"
Indeed. I once ran across a quote from Gandhi in which he noted that it was only the relative decency of the British that made his non-violent tactics workable. Someone like Hitler or Saddam would look on a hunger strike as simply one less mouth to feed.
Posted by: Niccolo Machiavelli at February 7, 2003 at 09:22 AMThat poor man's family. I had assumed that the worst had happened, that he was already dead. Saddam is sometimes uncharacteristically generous for publicity's sake - he did free those political prisoners (for a little while, anyway).
Amnesty might accomplish something - but I doubt it.
Posted by: mary at February 7, 2003 at 10:01 AMMary,
Only the actual criminals were let out of the jails. The amnesty didn't apply to political prisoners.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at February 7, 2003 at 11:09 AMAccording to the Guardian, they were released - but according to the World Press Review it was a lie from the beginning. Amnesty International praised Saddam for releasing the political prisoners, but worried that they would be arrested again.
Having donated money and time to Amnesty International in the past, I’d like to think that their tactics are effective – but when we see UN inspectors turning potential defectors over to the Iraqi police and Amnesty International criticizing the UK for using AI’s own data to make a case against Saddam, these organizations appear to be - pointless.
Posted by: mary at February 7, 2003 at 12:42 PMP.S. - the World Press report mentioned above is the most recent, and probably the most accurate.
Posted by: mary at February 7, 2003 at 12:58 PMThis is another example of the helplessness and impotence of the UN to do what is right. It is a microcosm of Resolution 1441 and the UN's unwillingness to enforce its commitment to human rights.
Posted by: Matt at February 7, 2003 at 05:00 PM