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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / This Just In

This Just In

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Terrorists don’t care about human life. Via Red State, we see that Amnesty International has come to some shocking, albeit belated, conclusions:

Iraqi insurgents are committing war crimes that undermine any claim they may have to be fighting a legitimate cause, Amnesty International says.
A report by the UK-based group accuses anti-US forces in Iraq of showing “utter disdain for civilian life”.

It says there can be no justification for deliberate killings of civilians, hostage-taking and torture.

The perpetrators “place themselves totally beyond the pale of acceptable behaviour”, Amnesty International said.

“There is no honour nor heroism in blowing up people going to pray or murdering a terrified hostage,” the 56-page report entitled Iraq, In Cold Blood: Abuses by Armed Groups says.

“Those carrying out such acts are criminals, nothing less, whose actions undermine any claim they may have to be pursuing a legitimate cause.”

No shit.

Reader Interactions

24Comments

  1. 1.

    ppGaz

    Those carrying out such acts are criminals

    Yes, rhetoric like this has always stopped criminal activity dead in its tracks before.

    No reason it shouldn’t work now.

  2. 2.

    Steve

    Ha! Next they’ll be claiming that al-Qaeda commits human rights violations. Those wacky Amnesty peeps.

    It may be that this 56-page report, judging by the title (“Abuses by Armed Groups”), helps illustrate the point I was making in a different comment, that we can distinguish between the insurgent groups who are terrorists and need to be stopped, as opposed to the groups that are simply resisting occupation and can possibly be negotiated with.

    For example, there is a group called Ansar al-Sunna, which is basically an arm of al-Qaeda consisting solely of Iraqi suicide bombers. The concept, if you can believe this, is for al-Qaeda to gain legitimacy with the Iraqi people by showing that real honest-to-Allah Iraqis support al-Qaeda and are willing to blow themselves up for the cause. I would have put this group in the first category (“terrorist scum who must die”) but there have been media reports that we have actually tried to negotiate with them. That must be the kind of negotiation you send the new guy to handle.

  4. 4.

    AlanDownunder

    Amnesty finally gets redundant and states the bleeding obvious for the benefit of those that accuse it of not thinking the bleeding obvious. So those that accuse it of not thinking the bleeding obvious then say “No shit”. Serves Amnesty right for giving those that accuse it of not thinking the bleeding obvious the time of day.

  5. 5.

    Steve

    Yeah, Alan, except the report itself actually contains a shitload of useful information about the insurgency that you probably didn’t know, and I certainly didn’t. If you take the juvenile RedState approach of just quoting a couple lines from the 56-page report to trivialize the content, then yeah, it sure looks like they did nothing but report the obvious fact that terrorism is bad.

  6. 6.

    neil

    Only a small part of Amnesty’s activities consist of condemning America and its allies. Much of what they’ve done historically has been against groups of armed thugs very similar to the Iraqi insurgency; it’s just that conservatives ignore that hippy crap and only pay attention to Amnesty when they are condemning American torture or Israeli indiscriminate bombing.

    Tens of thousands of civilians are reported to have been killed or injured in military operations or attacks by armed groups since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. The lawlessness and increased killings, abductions and rapes that followed the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussain have restricted women’s freedom of movement and their ability to go to school or to work.
    Decades of suffering, now women deserve better, Feb. 22 2005

    With growing lawlessness, so-called “honour killings”, in which the victims are women or girls killed by male relatives for allegedly immoral behaviour, have continued. Such crimes are known to have been ignored by the police.
    Stop violence against women, Oct. 12 2004

    Since the start of the occupation scores, possibly hundreds, of people have been deliberately killed by individuals or armed groups in southern Iraq for political reasons, including for perceived moral infractions such as selling or buying alcohol. These killings have occurred at a time when violent crime has increased dramatically…No armed group has claimed responsibility for such killings, but there are strong indications that armed Shi’a Islamist groups are involved in at least some of them. Armed groups are clearly involved in other human rights abuses, such as kidnapping, detention and torture.
    Killings of civilians in Basra and al-‘Amara, May 11 2004

    The climate of fear and insecurity is overwhelming in Basra. The widespread looting and scavenging of public buildings, witnessed in the first days of occupation, has decreased, but crime, often involving violence, remains much higher than before the occupation…Murders motivated by personal enmity or political revenge are reported to occur daily. Kidnapping aimed at extorting large sums of money from the victim’s family is also common. Many women and girls no longer go out alone, terrified they will be the next victim of kidnapping, rape or other violence.
    Iraq : The need for security, July 4 2003

    Perhaps there’s an argument to be made that they can only effectively condemn the insurgency if they absolve Coalition forces of all blame, but I haven’t seen it attempted.

  7. 7.

    Richard Bottoms

    The usual and unsurprising dismissal of Amnesty International’s efforts to stop torture and murder by nations around the world regardless of which side of the spectrum the government in charge falls on.

    Their condemnations of Saddam when he was a US client for instance, seems to have been forgotten.

  8. 8.

    Mark

    Stupid liberal groups, how silly and pointless they are, blah, blah, blah…

    Come on John, I don’t come here to read things that are more appropriate for the Town Hall or (gasp) Free Republic morons.

  9. 9.

    John Cole

    You have to allow me some snark every now and then. Besides, if you read the dcomments, you will see the link to the report, which is a fascinating read.

  10. 10.

    Geek, Esq.

    Actually, there is something significant even about the language you quoted.

    AI here goes beyond criticizing the actions and tactics: they pretty much proclaim the entire insurgency as lacking any kind of legitimacy. That goes beyond their normal scope of evaluation.

    That said, I still prefer HRW’s reports, which are much more focused on research and facts and less on chasing headlines.

  11. 11.

    Katherine

    Damnned if you do, damned if you don’t. They’ve been condemning the insurgents all along. Now they do so in slightly stronger language, and this is evidence that Amnesty hates America? Whatever.

    I do prefer Human Rights Watch but the RedState crew’s attitude to this is sickening. You KNOW why they dismiss Amnesty, don’t you?

  14. 14.

    Kimmitt

    John, when you are saying that Amnesty is “finally” condemning these actions, you imply that they did not in the past. Do you have any support for this claim?

  15. 15.

    Mr Furious

    Boy, today sure has been dominated by the lefty commenters. One could almost feel bad for John that his site’s been taken over…

  16. 16.

    John S.

    Mr. Furious-

    Do you have a problem with people expressing their own viewpoints, or since John leans to the Right, are we all required to espouse viewpoints that mesh with his perspective?

    Just curious.

  17. 17.

    Andrei

    “You have to allow me some snark every now and then”

    That’s a joke right? You’re entire blog is based on snarks and rants. Don’t play the victim card on us. It doesn’t suit you.

  19. 19.

    Gary Farber

    Well, John, you can either make fun of them for saying things like this, or criticize them for not saying things like this, but you can’t do both. Have you picked making fun of them, then, over criticizing them for not paying attention to human rights violations by terrorists?

  21. 21.

    DougJ

    After years of all but praising suicide bombins, Amensty comes to the right conclusion shamelessly late. Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot and Americans were suicide bombing the Arabs. You can bet that all of a sudden suicide bombing would be a crime against humanity in the eyes of the Amenst nutso left-wingers. And if the Arabs were torturing us, torture would suddenly be a-okay.

  22. 22.

    chadwig

    DougJ you are devoid of facts and full of ______.

    You’re a glorified parrot, but without the excuse of a tiny brain… oh, wait…

  23. 23.

    W.B. Reeves

    After years of all but praising suicide bombins, Amensty comes to the right conclusion shamelessly late. Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot and Americans were suicide bombing the Arabs. You can bet that all of a sudden suicide bombing would be a crime against humanity in the eyes of the Amenst nutso left-wingers. And if the Arabs were torturing us, torture would suddenly be a-okay.

    Here Doug J illustrates that he knows next to nothing about Amnesty International or the broad sweep of its work.

  24. 24.

    Sojourner

    You’re a glorified parrot, but without the excuse of a tiny brain… oh, wait…

    Careful. My parrots think for themselves.

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