Devastating Attack on Amnesty International

Chris

>Frankly, I can't see how Amnesty can recover from this.

Having no shame, and much historical experience as a refuge for useful idiots, will probably do the trick.

Ricky

So many "charities" are now just a cover for the socialist imperative. Many are simply mouthpieces for "causes" and subsidy junkies. Other Third Sector activists are simply lobbyists. (Barnardo's no longer run orphanages but act as "advocates" for "children's rights".) Many international "caring" charities are shameless anti-Israel fronts - part of the left wing commentariats odd love affair with fundamentalist Islam.

Most represent the triumph of emotion over rationality - a necessary facet of Third Sector political correctness. Others clearly show how humane and principled ideas have been hijacked by a left wing clique hell bent on using other people's money to further their own dogma, including the romanticism of violence and terror.

Linda Smith

@"Patricia Shaw" - "Is this a Jewish thing?"
Neither Gita Saghal nor Martin Bright are Jewish.

Linda Smith

Funny thing! Patricia Shaw's comment has disappeared. Guess it's been pulled for antisemitism.

Linda Smith

I have just posted the following comment on Martin Bright's thread "Ken Livingstone stoops to new levels" in which Martin Bright described himself as an "Islamophile".
A couple of days ago I asked Martin Bright for his comments on my post re Islamic theology and antisemitism (see above).
I copied my comment to Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle - Mr Bright is a JC journalist - Mr Pollard immediately responded. Martin Bright's silence is deafening.

Snowman

What Ricky says cannot be faulted, spot on.

Rhoda Klapp

I am bemused. When did Martin find out about Amnesty? This year? Five years ago? Ten? The signs were there.

Ben

I'm not sure where this is going...
Sahgal is telling the same story over and over again with not a lot of new information, it seems she wants to raise her own personal profile.

Amnesty may have serious flaws, but hey: show me an organisation that doesn't have any problems/scandals...

dexey

Ricky said "(Barnardo's no longer run orphanages but act as "advocates" for "children's rights".) "
There are few orphans, but Barnardos still provides practical care for children most of whom are mentally or physically disabled.

Peter

It does seem strange that the Spectator is continuing the run with this story, given that the allegations Sahgal has made but never substantiated have been rehearsed over and over again, and her own writing are becoming increasingly self-aggrandising. What about the facts she doesn't discuss: her job was abolished in a restructuring just before she decided to go public with her criticisms -- so if she really had been making them for years why did she not feel that she had to exercise her conscientious objections so publicly until her job had been abolished and she was on notice of redundancy?

Cuffleyburgers

I used to be a reglar donator to AI but they went off the rails years ago.

Shame because much of their work was extremely important.

These bloody cultural marxists!

By the way I wish those obnoxious women (you know who you are!) would stop posting their rather pathetic but also disturbing anti-semitic nonsense.

Mary

At least Ben and Peter can read between the lines in Gita's story - very good points! Ms Sahgal needs a new job and is trying to raise her profile.

Linda Smith

Martin Bright has posted a riposte to Ken Livingstone's accusation that he is an "Islamophobe" on the Jewish Chronicle's website.

I do not know why Martin Bright feels compelled to describe himself either as an "Islamophobe" or an "Islamophile" because as Theodore Dalrymple (Dr Anthony Daniels) cogently puts it:

"..many in the West are unwilling to make the distinction between a respect for the rights of people to practise a religion within the law, and an exaggerated respect for the religion itself.."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-nomad-by-ayaan-hirsi-ali/article1577087/

Greystead

Amnesty International will"recover from this" simply because their supporters see no damage having been done. As far as the Main Stream Media and the intellegensia are concerned this is a non-story. AI are a deeply flawed organisation that finds it impossible to pick it's targets without trying to strike a false balance. If they criticise China, then they have to have a dig at the USA. If they find fault with North Korea, then they have to attack the USA. I think we all get the picture.

Nicholas

Patricia Shaw, hardly non-partisan in this. Google:

PatriciaShawElZatmah

Herbert Thornton

A.I. has, in common with too many other institutions, become a collection of useful idiots - and worse.

This became glaringly obvious when the family connection between Lord Hoffmann and A.I. was exposed in the Pinochet case, and in the poorly reasoned contortions of the legal establishment that then followed.

The name is more suitably written as AmNasty International.

Dixon

Good. Im sick of being accosted by their goons trying to get my bank account details. It is in itself a kind of torture having to run the gauntlet of them on the city street.

Next, who's going to finally blow the whistle on Oxfam. That such an openly political organisation is still allowed to claim "charity" status is utterly disgusting.

Dixon

Glance through the comments here again and notice the curious recurrence of a single assertion that Saghal is "self-aggrandising". Not an obvious phrase but used by at least two commemnters whilst being re-phrased by others. It is, I suggest, a rehearsed "debating point" tactic of certain groups to aim that charge at anyone whose statements they cannot in themselves refute. Playing the player not the ball. It is exactly the same tactic being used on an almost daily basis to attack Ayaan Hirsi Ali. That some of these people forget that they are meant te re-phrase it into their own words rather than take literally the guidance to "accuse the target of self-aggrandisement" simply illustrates not only that such guidance and coordination of these attacks exists but how mindlessly obedient and parroting of everything they are instructed to say such people are.

John Thomas

No one mentions AI's support for the abortion industry. Dixon "outs" Oxfam; I often wonder about Christian Aid. Always be suspicious about any organisation that trumpets it high ethical status (eg. the Coop).