Bloodthirsty Liberal

Like a “human rights activist” scorned:

And then there is Darfur–where, since 2003, government-supported militia have left 300,000 dead and 2.7 million people internally displaced. The situation was so dire that in April 2007, Susan Rice, now the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, wrote, “The U.S. should press for a Chapter VII U.N. resolution that issues Sudan an ultimatum: accept unconditional deployment of the U.N. force within one week, or face military consequences . . . If the U.S. fails to gain U.N. support, we should act without it as [we] did in 1999 in Kosovo.” The International Criminal Court then issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the first for a sitting head of state, and other Sudanese leaders implicated in the atrocities in Darfur.

Through all of this, we have been waiting and wondering what the outcome would be to save the people of Sudan and help break the cycle of impunity.

The Obama administration recently unveiled its new policy of engagement with Sudan, aimed first at securing the full implementation of the treaty that ended the north-south Sudanese civil war. While the administration maintained it will not deal with al-Bashir or any other official charged with arrest, it has not yet announced any serious moves to enforce the decision of the ICC and execute its warrants.

There will be pressure on the United States and its partners to bring stability to Sudan, even at the expense of criminal accountability. Regardless of the rationale, the end would be the same: victims left without justice while perpetrators walk away.

Angelina, sweetie—they don’t vote. Trust me, if ACORN could register Darfurians, they would, faster than you can say “janjaweed genocide” (three times, fast), but they can’t. So “victims left without justice” get what the rest of us get who don’t trust, believe, like this president of ours: a heaping, steaming pile of bubkes.

I’m sorry. And I have a shoulder to cry on if you need one.

Mia Farrow is similarly disillusioned (sorry, honey, no shoulder for you):

The Enough Project at the Center for American Progress today released the following statement in reaction to news that the government of Sudan had arrested several members of the opposition political party, the SPLM:

“It was fanciful of the United States and other donor nations to think that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), which has ruled Sudan with an iron fist and tolerated no peaceful dissent, would suddenly loosen its grip and allow peaceful elections and their necessary precursor: peaceful freedom of assembly,” said Enough Co-founder John Prendergast. … “President Obama should recognize that any benchmarks-based policy of incentives and pressures will have no credibility unless consequences are imposed immediately when such an obvious benchmark like today’s denial of a basic element of the existing North-South peace deal — freedom of assembly for the elections — has been violated.”

We’ll excuse the convoluted syntax—but the wooly-headed thinking is inexcusable. President Obama can recognize only his reflection in the mirror, nothing else.

BTW, I don’t include the link, because Mia has the tendency to post upsetting pictures of starving and deformed children—I understand why, even if I don’t approve—as well as one-sided and ignorant attacks on Israel—which I understand (bleeding hearts tend to bleed a lot less for bleeding Israelis) and don’t approve.

Why am I so dismissive of well-intentioned, big-hearted people, with nothing but kindness and empathy in their souls?

Oh, I don’t know. You tell me:

THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL human rights watchdogs that were created to offset the unethical behavior and biases of anti-democratic governments, have become accomplices. Superpowers like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), and similar groups work closely with and support the agendas of the UNHRC and other international frameworks.

They joined officials from Arab countries in campaigning on behalf of the Goldstone Report. Instead of speaking truth to this blatant abuse of power, officials of these self-proclaimed human rights groups are part of the problem, and most journalists blindly follow their lead. The past year has seen even greater cooperation between the UN and NGOs in distorting human rights values beyond recognition. Human Rights Watch was caught raising funds from wealthy members of Saudi Arabia’s elite. Instead of leading the campaign against the abuses imposed by the Wahhabi religious police, this “watchdog” hosted a member of the Shura council at a dinner which featured more Israel-bashing and sinister warnings of the power of the “pro-Israel lobby.” And HRW’s “senior military analyst” and author of numerous attacks on Israel was suspended, while questions were raised regarding his professional qualifications and credibility.

In parallel, Amnesty International and other groups continue to warp human rights and international law into ideological platforms for fighting Western democracy and open societies. Like HRW, a highly disproportionate percentage of Amnesty’s reports and campaigns focus on criticizing the United States and NATO countries for alleged infractions in Iraq and Afghanistan, while terrorists and their state supporters get relatively little attention.

BUT IN 2009, there were also some signs that the “halo effect,” which protects human rights frameworks from scrutiny and criticism, has begun to deteriorate. Robert Bernstein, the founder of HRW, published an op-ed in the New York Times in which he denounced his own organization for betraying its moral principles. Although HRW officials launched a campaign to discredit Bernstein and other critics, the charges are too serious to be ignored, and HRW will need an entirely new and unbiased leadership to restore its credibility.

In addition, the April 2009 attempt to reproduce the catastrophic 2001 Durban NGO Forum - in which 1500 radical NGOs used a UN anti-racism conference to promote anti-Semitism - was defeated. Canada led the way, and this process highlighted the need to redesign the entire UN human rights structure.

I don’t have any clever or conclusive remarks about Darfur, or any of the other butt-holes of humanity for that matter. If President Obama can pretend they don’t exist, so can I. And I’ll be damned if I can think of a single “consequence” (as the director of the Enough Project calls for above) that people would be willing to impose that would change a damn thing.

We’re not willing, and Sudan won’t change. What else is on?

PS: Here’s what (how could I forget?):

I have been in Oslo, Norway the past few days working with the Oslo peace community in their opposition to Barack Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

…

I sat with my hosts and watched the speeches given by the Chairman of the Nobel committee (who seemed like he was going to bounce off the platform and float over to Obama and begin french kiss him in ecstasy), and the Laureate and we were shocked and appalled at the way the speeches gave legitimacy and Robber Class honor to the “necessity” of war.

The protests today were large, energetic, youthful, and angry! It is nice to see some international rejection of the “hope-nosis” that has been infecting our world with rosey-colored violence and gold-plated oppression.

“Hope-nosis”—brilliant!

I know it’s not original with her, but still…

Change! In Sudan

In a new effort to engage the government of Sudan, U.S. officials say the White House will shift its policy toward Khartoum, but they warn that the violence and humanitarian abuses in Darfur must stop.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, and the administration’s special Sudan envoy, Scott Gration, are to unveil the policy Monday at a news conference at the State Department, the officials said.

The officials spoke late Friday on condition of anonymity because Congress has not yet been briefed on the matter.

It is interesting that they are choosing Sudan as a place to show unity and presumably some sort of activity.Because, overall, the folks at Saturday Night Live are right: this has been a rather lackadaisical administration.

When, Mr. President? When will your deeds catch up to your words? The people who worked tirelessly to get you elected are getting tired of waiting. According to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday, Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the country has hit a six-month low, and those decreases were led, in both percentage and percentage-point decreases, by Democrats and independents, not by Republicans.

The fierce urgency of now has melted into the maddening wait for whenever.

Well said. Of course, speaking as one who disagrees with the President on most things, the calm, laid-back, seemingly passive-aggressive approach he’s taking toward his followers doesn’t upset me much, but some of them are noticing.

Candidate Obama pledged to make the rebuilding of New Orleans a priority, but President Obama whisked into the city on Thursday for a visit so brief that one Louisiana congressman dubbed it a “drive-through daiquiri summit.” The president spent more time on the failed Olympic bid in Copenhagen than he did in the Crescent City.

At the town hall in New Orleans, Obama appealed for patience. He said, “Change is hard, and big change is harder.” Is that the excuse? Now where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah. From George Bush.

Yep. Bush used to say: It’s hard. The Left assumed he was lying again, but what if that’s the truth?

Hey, let’s dust this one off: We Are The Change That We’ve Been Waiting For. Hmm, my seventh grade teach just hated it when I ended a sentence with “for”. She would have preferred, We Are The Change For Which We Have Been Waiting. Either way, it’s kind of a dud.

- Aggie

You know me, I hate to bum anyone out: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Blog.

So could someone see that Mia Farrow is spared from this news?

Sudanese women who escaped the Darfur conflict to eastern Chad are facing high levels of sexual violence, an Amnesty International report says.

Despite the presence of a UN force, women and girls are being attacked when they leave 12 designated camps in search of water, the report says.

It also documents cases of refugees being attacked inside the camps by Chadian aid workers.

…

Since 2003 about 250,000 Darfuris have fled the conflict in Sudan, where mass rape of civilians had allegedly been used as as strategy to displace entire villages.

“The rape that countless women and girls experienced in Darfur continues to haunt them in eastern Chad,” Tawanda Hondora, Amnesty’s Africa programme deputy director, said in a statement.

How’s that hunger strike over Darfur going? I know Mia had to give it up, since she looked like she was in week three of a hunger strike at the beginning. Didn’t Richard Branson take it up? That couldn’t have taken long either. Why don’t any fat liberal moonbats put down the cheeseburger and take up the cause? Michael Moore, are you listening?

Can’t understand you, Michael. That’s a microphone, not a drumstick.

Honestly, I don’t mean to torture anyone (which means I have no future as a leader in most African and Asian countries), but the world is a horrible, nasty place. A beautiful place, to be sure—Eden—but populated by the vilest form of life. Most humans make pond scum look like Alan Alda.

But on the rare occasions and in the rare places where we treat each other with a modicum of respect and brotherhood, we should be overjoyed and proud. The last thing we should feel is shame.

Darfur is the rule, Burma is the rule, Iran is the rule; we are the exception.

Anyhow, here’s your happy ending:

Chad’s government has denied that any Chadian has attacked a Sudan refugee.

See? Nothing to worry about. Have another slice of sweet potato pie, Michael.

But the African Union says he’s our indicted genocidalist:

The African Union’s (AU) decision not to help arrest Sudan’s president will not affect the International Criminal Court’s work, its prosecutor says.

Luis Moreno Ocampo told the BBC Omar al-Bashir was still a wanted man and that it was up to each African state to decide whether to arrest him.

Mr Bashir was indicted over alleged atrocities in Darfur in March.

But on Friday an AU meeting in Libya agreed a resolution saying they would not co-operate in his arrest.

And you know who’s head of the AU these days, don’t you?

He is the very model of a modern Major-General

I received this alert from Eye on the UN. They don’t have it online yet, but guess who’s in at the United Nations?

New UN Authority Figures

Libya, Sudan, Iran and Algeria Chosen for UN Leadership Roles

LIBYA - PRESIDENT OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

…

US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Libya:
“Citizens did not have the right to change their government. Remaining problems included reported disappearances; torture; arbitrary arrest; lengthy pretrial and sometimes incommunicado detention; official impunity and poor prison conditions…denial of a fair public trial by an independent judiciary, political prisoners and detainees, and the lack of judicial recourse for alleged human rights violations…The government restricted civil liberties and freedoms of speech, press…assembly, and association…freedom of religion; corruption and lack of transparency; societal discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and foreign workers; trafficking in persons; and restriction of labor rights.”

…

SUDAN - A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

…

US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Sudan:
“Civilians in Darfur continued to suffer from the effects of genocide. Government forces bombed villages, killed civilians including internally displaced persons (IDPs), and collaborated with janjaweed militias and tribal factions to raze villages and perpetrate violence against women…The government’s human rights record…abridgement of citizens’ right to change their government; extrajudicial and other unlawful killings by government forces and other government-aligned groups throughout the country; disappearances…torture, beatings, rape, and other cruel, inhumane treatment or punishment by security forces; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention, incommunicado detention of suspected government opponents, and prolonged pretrial detention; executive interference with the judiciary and denial of due process; obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian assistance; restrictions on privacy; restrictions on freedom of speech…on the press…on freedoms of assembly, association, religion, and movement…violence and discrimination against women, including female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse, including sexual violence and recruitment of child soldiers…”

ALGERIA - CHAIR OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S LEGAL (SIXTH) COMMITTEE

…

US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Algeria:
“[T]he president exercises supreme judicial authority, and executive branch decrees and influence limited judicial independence…[A]uthorities did not completely respect legal provisions regarding defendants’ rights and denied due process. The High Judicial Council is responsible for judicial discipline and the appointment of all judges. President Bouteflika serves as the president of the council…Legal decisions regarding family matters are based on Shari’a (Islamic law) as well as civil law…The judiciary…lacked independence in human rights cases. Family connections and status of the parties involved reportedly influenced decisions.”

IRAN - A VICE-CHAIR OF THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S LEGAL (SIXTH) COMMITTEE

…

US State Department’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2008, Iran:
“[T]he court system was corrupt and subject to government and religious influence…[T]he head of the judiciary shall be a cleric chosen by the supreme leader. The head of the Supreme Court and prosecutor general also must be clerics. Women continued to be barred from serving as certain types of judges…Defendants did not have the right to confront their accusers, and were not granted access to government-held evidence…Revolutionary court judges were chosen in part due to their ideological commitment to the system. Authorities often charged individuals with undefined crimes, such as “antirevolutionary behavior,” “moral corruption,” and “siding with global arrogance.”…Secret or summary trials of only five minutes’ duration occurred frequently. Other trials were deliberately designed to publicize a coerced confession…”

THE UN’S IDEA OF AUTHORITY FIGURES: CROOKS, DESPOTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS

Now, now—we won’t have that editorializing here.

You’re going to hate me (I don’t feel proud of it myself), but I have to take another swing at Mia Farrow. Darfur deserves better.

Bless her sunken cheeks, she means well—but meaning well and doing well just aren’t the same thing. She’s been on a hunger strike for 12 days now, and what strikes me about her campaign is her naivete and the complete present-tense of her perspective.

Two days ago, she marveled at how well she felt (other than the listlessness and the occasional hunger pangs); a day later, all she could write was “I’m really struggling today,” and today: “Feeling awful. Blood sugar under 40. Muscles hurt. I won’t be able to continue much longer.”

Honey, we care, we really do—but it’s really not about you.

Also, she exhorts her followers to call up the White House, and urge President Obama to keep his campaign promise to help the starving Darfurians—a laudable, if laughable goal—and seems puzzled and perplexed that Obama has taken the phone off the hook. (At least, that’s how I interpret the busy signals everyone complains they get.)

So she writes down a web link and holds it up to the computer camera, crookedly, and too close to read the whole thing.

Again, the girl is on the right side of the issue—better to be fer Darfur than agin’ it—but who’s running this operation, Ted Mack?

And she asks sarcastically why China, Sudan’s biggest backer, isn’t doing more to help. Honestly, if she’s not serious, why should we be?

Still, in interest of full disclosure, I will report that the hard heart of Omar al-Bashir has softened, if just a touch:

Sudan announced earlier that it was inviting new aid groups to work in Darfur in a move welcomed by the UN.

It expelled 13 foreign aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

But on Thursday, the Minister for Humanitarian Assistance, Haroun Lual Ruun, said Khartoum would invite new non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to Darfur and allow UN agencies and NGOs currently operating there to “expand their existing operations”.

Has Mighty Mia stared down the Lion of the Desert? Draw your our own conclusions.

Aggie here with an update. We’ll all be relieved to learn that Mia Farrow has given up her hunger strike and that Richard Branson has taken over for her for the next three days:

Richard Branson made this statement
“I’m honoured to be taking over the fast for the next three days from Mia Farrow in her courageous stance to support the people of Darfur. Over a year and a half ago, I travelled to Darfur and was horrified by the stories that people of all ages shared with us. Young children had watched their entire family get killed and then had to survive on their own in unimaginable conditions. I was humbled and inspired by the courage of the Darfuri people and the commitment of the aid organisations that were working on the frontlines. Now, with 13 aid organisations expelled from the country, over 1m people are at grave risk. We cannot stand and watch as 1m people suffer. We all need to stand up and demand that international aid is restored and that the people of Darfur are protected and given the chance to live in peace.”

Day 12
I have been instructed by my doctor to stop my fast immediately due to health concerns—including possible seizures. I am fortunate. The women, children, and men I am fasting for do not have that option.

When beginning this fast twelve days ago, I said that when I could go no longer, I hoped another would take my place, and another, and another, until the expelled humanitarian agencies are readmitted and finally there there is finally justice and peace for the people of Darfur. Richard Branson has stepped forward and so I have ended this fast.

I think that the doctors have been reading BTL’s posts and realized that she needed some food. I marvel at her ability to tolerate the coffee headache myself.

- Aggie

I always feel like Tommy Smothers when I return from to this blog: you always liked Aggie best.

Not that I blame you.

But this blog is at its best when we’re both flailing away against the prevailing “wisdom” in the media. At least I like to think so.

Anyhow, someone did some “flailing” at Iran the other day.

An Iranian vessel laden with weapons bound for the Gaza Strip was torpedoed off the coast of Sudan last week, allegedly by Israeli or American forces operating in the area, the Egyptian newspaper El-Aosboa reported on Sunday.

Anonymous sources in Khartoum told the newspaper that an unidentified warship bombed the Iranian vessel as it prepared to dock on Sudan before transferring its load for shipment to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

These sources said they suspects U.S. or Israeli involvement in the attack, but neither Washington nor Jerusalem have released a statement yet on the matter.

Ed Morrissey opines:

If anyone’s doing this, I’ll bet on the Israelis over the US, especially given the new administrations in both countries.

I’ll second that emotion. It occurs to me that President Obama is following the Clinton model of intervention—lobbing missiles from a distance where no American serviceman is harmed (yet plenty of foreign civilians are). And that’s not a complaint.

But I recall the outrage people expressed when President Clinton bombed the Balkans from the air, antiseptically, with no threat of harm to a single hair on an American head. Clinton also never met a Sudanese aspirin factory he liked.

In just the same way, Obama loves Predator drones. I’ll bet he even has his own presidential joystick which he uses to blast suspected Taliban camps (or wedding ceremonies, same difference) in the Swat Valley. This is how Democrats conduct war: the other guys suffer, and we just change an oil filter or two. I repeat: this is not a complaint. The bad guys should suffer.

But sometimes self-defense requires an even tougher approach. When you get the clean head shot, take it; if such an opportunity does not present itself, you may have to get your hands dirty (and bloody).

So this story could go either way: Obama taking out a perceived threat from a distance, without harm to any American force; or Obama not getting within a hundred miles of facing off against Iran. My money’s on the latter—and Israel.

I don’t want to make anyone sad (no, no, not I), but sometimes your best intentions are someone else’s worst nightmares:

Spokesman for the Somali Shabab Al-Mujahideen Movement, Sheik Mukhtar Robow, Vows to Continue Fighting Foreign Forces in Somalia, and States:

“African Peacekeeping Forces Are the Enemies of Allah”

That’s all there is without a paid subscription, so we’ll just have remain ignorant of why (to paraphrase) peace is anathema to Islam.

Which is what he’s saying, make no mistake: the religion of peace takes peace as an offense to its god.

So whether it’s Somalia or Sudan, the message is assuredly the same: don’t come over here with that peace s**t.

Still want to Save Darfur? Or would you rather stay right with Allah? Can’t do both.

Which reminds me: I was stopped at a red light this morning behind someone with a Free Tibet license plate holder. There was a bumper sticker, too—but that’s so ephemeral. A license plate holder says ineffectual political candy-assedness is forever.

See, you have to know how to handle these guys. Leave them to their own squabbles and feuds, and they’ll fight each other forever—like the Qaddafi/Abdullah fracas we reported on earlier (see earlier post).

But the moment someone from the outside criticizes them, they circle the camels:

Arab leaders have concluded their annual summit by showing their support for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted for war crimes.

The Arab League said it rejected the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue a warrant for his arrest.

President Bashir had earlier spoken at the summit in Qatar, and won strong support from his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.

See? You scratch my Bashir, I scratch yours.

This is the result we’re after:

Hamas’s takeover of the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip last week may lead to the deaths of Palestinians who require immediate medical care in Israel and Egypt, the United Nations warned on Monday.

On March 22, Hamas took control of the PA Health Ministry’s Referral Abroad Department, which oversees the process by which Palestinians in Gaza receive approval from the PA to travel to Israel and Egypt for medical treatment.

The World Health Organization and the UN humanitarian coordinator said Monday that the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah was refusing to approve and fund applications. As a result, the patients are not allowed to travel to Israeli or Egyptian hospitals.

Defense officials said they were aware of the situation and that it was not surprising.

“This is another example of the effect Hamas’s takeover has on the Palestinian people without any connection to Israel,” one official said. “This is a political dispute between the PA in Ramallah and Hamas in Gaza, and unfortunately the Palestinian people in Gaza are caught in the middle.”

Exactly. In fact, if Israel plays its cards right, it may never have to fire another shot in self-defense. Just keep enough Fatah and Hamass around occupy each other, and the only innocents to suffer will be Palestinian.

And how many of them are innocent anyway? Honestly.

It’s still not clear if Israel bombed the arms-smuggling convoy in Sudan the other day, but if she did, America ratted her out to international criminal Bashir Assad’s government:

A senior American official contacted a high-ranking Sudanese official before the alleged Israeli strikes on a Hamas weapons convoy and alerted him to the fact that the arms smuggling route going through the country to the Gaza Strip was being monitored by a third party and that the smuggling must be stopped immediately, the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Monday, quoting “reliable” sources.

…

The strike was revealed on Thursday on American television network CBS. According to the report, 17 trucks were bombed in January, leaving 39 people dead. State and army officials said in response that Israel would not comment on such reports.

On Saturday, American ABC network reported that Israel had struck in Sunday three times since January, and not twice as reported earlier. Official sources in the United States have confirmed that the raid was carried out by Israeli warplanes.

Is this now Obama policy? Taking the side of international pariah Sudan over American ally Israel? Tipping off the smugglers before the fact, and back-stabbing Israel after?

I knew this administration liked pork, but I didn’t think they’d take it as far as “squealing” on a friend.