Bloodthirsty Liberal

The European Spew-nion redefines inalienable rights:

Statement by the Spokesperson of High Representative Catherine Ashton on the case of Bassem Tamimi

The spokesperson of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the Commission, issued the following statement today:

“The High Representative is very concerned by the conviction of Bassem Tamimi in an Israeli military court on 20 May 2012 on charges of taking part in illegal demonstrations and of soliciting protesters to throw stones.

The EU considers Bassem Tamimi to be a ‘human rights defender’ committed to non-violent protest against the expansion of an Israeli settlement on lands belonging to his West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. The EU attended all court hearings in his case and is concerned at the use of evidence based on the testimony of a minor who was interrogated in violation of his rights.

The EU believes that everyone should be able to exercise their legitimate right to protest in a non-violent manner.”

“Non-violent” thusly:

Note rear-facing car seat.

Alas, the late Asher and Yonatan Palmer could not be reached for comment:

But they look like reasonable people. I’m sure they would understand the High Representative (what she was high on has yet to be revealed):

PS: Let me leave you with a smile!

Last week, we reported that one of Obama’s human rights posse acknowledged the obvious: the UN’s Human Rights Council is so discredited by institutional antisemitism, it might as well try another name-change (having once been the Human Rights Commission).

May I suggest the Wannsee Conference II?

Geneva, 14 May 2012

Dear Madam President,

Following the March session of the Human Rights Council, I wish to formally inform you of Israel’s decision to suspend its relationship with the Human Rights Council and with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, both in Geneva and in Jerusalem.

This decision was reached in light of the ongoing, unrelenting singling out of Israel in the Human Rights Council, which has been persistent since its inception in 2006, continued through the review process, and exists to this day. The Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, respectively, have become a political tool and a convenient platform, cynically used to advance certain political aims, to bash and demonize Israel.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Aharon Leshno Yaar
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

Good for Israel, and long overdue. It is shameful enough that the American regime sees fit to do business with these jackals. Israel doesn’t have the luxury of lying down with dogs.

You know how I often say the UN is incompetent at best, malevolent the rest of the time? Well, anyway, I just did.

Here’s just another reason why:

“There is no food and no clean water, nothing,” Mahmoud, a 12-year-old boy from Homs, Syria, told Reuters Thursday. “There is no shop open and we only have one meal a day. How can we live like that and survive?”

According to the World Food Program, half a million people don’t have enough to eat in Syria. Fears are growing that the regime is using hunger as a weapon.

This is the kind of emergency which should attract the attention of the UN Human Rights Council’s hunger monitor, who has the ability to spotlight situations and place them on the world agenda. Yet Olivier de Schutter of Belgium, the “Special Rapporteur on the right to food,” is not going to Syria.

Instead, the UN’s food monitor is coming to investigate Canada.

That’s right. Despite dire food emergencies around the globe, De Schutter will be devoting the scarce time and resources of the international community on an 11-day tour of Canada—a country that ranks at the bottom of global hunger concerns.

Yes, but there are excellent hookers in Montreal! Or so I am told by the Secret Service.

Anyhow, back to those gaunt Canadians:

I asked De Schutter if his time wouldn’t better be spent on calling attention to countries that actually have starving people.

“Globally, 1.3 billion people are overweight or obese,” he responded via his spokesperson, “and this causes a range of diseases such as certain types of cancers, cardio-vascular diseases or (especially) type-2 diabetes that are a huge burden.”

In other words, the hunger expert is not even that interested in hunger, but the opposite. Sure, we should all eat less fries, but do Canadians need a costly UN inquiry to tell us that?

What’s that, Mr. De Schutter? I can’t understand you with your mouth full of coq au vin and moules marinière.

But you thought I cited this article as an example of UN incompetence, didn’t you? Guess again:

First, consider the origins of the UN’s “right to food” mandate. In voluminous background information provided by De Schutter and his local promoters, there’s no mention that their sponsor was Cuba, a country where some women resort to prostitution for food. De Schutter does not want you to know that Havana’s Communist government created his post, nor that the co-sponsors included China, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe.

These and other repressive regimes are seeking a political weapon to attack the West.

…

De Schutter’s consistent argument is that if there is hunger, Western countries are to blame. His attacks on international trade are so ideologically extreme that even Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization and a member of the French Socialist party, criticized De Schutter’s approach for threatening to drive food prices higher and “exacerbating the negative impacts on poor consumers.”

Second, even when they visit the right countries, Ziegler and De Schutter reach the wrong conclusions. Ziegler went to Cuba, but it was a staged visit that hailed Castro’s policies as almost divine. De Schutter went to Syria—in 2010, long before the current crisis — and mentioned several problems, but his report took pains to repeatedly praise the Assad regime.

My experience is that when you hear the phrase “Special Rapporteur” you should put one hand over your wallet and the other over your testicles (sorry, ladies) because one’s about to get picked and the other about to get kicked. I’ve come to believe that the UN is so malevolent, it uses incompetence as a mere means to its baleful ends (awesome word from my online thesaurus!).

But notice how calmly the NY Times writes about it

The Obama administration is moving to relax restrictions on how counterterrorism analysts may retrieve, store and search information about Americans gathered by government agencies for purposes other than national security threats.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Thursday signed new guidelines for the National Counterterrorism Center, which was created in 2004 to foster intelligence sharing and serve as a terrorism threat clearinghouse.

The guidelines will lengthen to five years — from 180 days — the amount of time the center can retain private information about Americans when there is no suspicion that they are tied to terrorism, intelligence officials said. The guidelines are also expected to result in the center making more copies of entire databases and “data mining them” using complex algorithms to search for patterns that could indicate a threat.

Intelligence officials on Thursday said the new rules have been under development for about 18 months, and grew out of reviews launched after the failure to connect the dots about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber,” before his Dec. 25, 2009, attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner.

After the failed attack, government agencies discovered they had intercepted communications by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and received a report from a United States Consulate in Nigeria that could have identified the attacker, if the information had been compiled ahead of time.

The changes are intended to allow analysts to more quickly identify terrorism suspects. But they also set off civil-liberties concerns among privacy advocates who invoked the “Total Information Awareness” program. That program, proposed early in the George W. Bush administration and partially shut down by Congress after an outcry, proposed fusing vast archives of electronic records — like travel records, credit card transactions, phone calls and more — and searching for patterns of a hidden terrorist cell.

But national security officials stressed that analysts could already get the same information under the old rules, just in a more cumbersome way. They cited safeguards to protect against abuse, including audits of searches. The same rules apply to access by other federal agencies involved in counterterrorism.

“There is a genuine operational need to try to get us into a position where we can make the maximum use of the information the government already has to protect people,” said Robert S. Litt, the general counsel in the office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the National Counterterrorism Center. “We have to manage to do that in a way that provides protection to people’s civil liberties and privacy. And I really think this has been a good-faith and reasonably successful effort to do that.”

If I wasn’t so tired, I would re-write this as it would have been written when Bush was president. Headline: WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!

- Aggie

I said “serf”, not “surf”!

Hey, I give credit to CNN. Others have been talking for years about slavery still being practiced in Africa, but if the Most Busted Name in News finally gets the scent, why should we quibble?

An estimated 10% to 20% of Mauritania’s 3.4 million people are enslaved — in “real slavery,” according to the United Nations’ special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian. If that’s not unbelievable enough, consider that Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. That happened in 1981, nearly 120 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. It wasn’t until five years ago, in 2007, that Mauritania passed a law that criminalized the act of owning another person. So far, only one case has been successfully prosecuted.

The country is slavery’s last stronghold.

As I say, good for CNN. As many as 680,000 people are held in slavery in Mauritania. (The cite I link to above, iabolish.org, notes that Sudanese—now South Sudanese—suffer from the same affliction, or did until very recently.)

But I knew I had something to add. Maybe that Mauritania is a Muslim country—when Islam is supposed to forbid the abomination of slavery. No, as messed up as that is, I knew there was something else I had to add.

Oh yes, now I remember:

Mauritania is a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

Just trying to do my part.

We bloggers, I mean:

A U.N. report ridiculed worldwide for lavishing praise on the Qaddafi regime’s human rights record was unanimously adopted today by the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, with president Laura Dupuy Lasserre overruling the objection made in the plenary by UN Watch.

After it was first exposed by UN Watch last year, the report card giving high marks to Qaddafi was mocked by the New York Times, The Economist and other major media worldwide, causing a red-faced UN to postpone the report’s adoption repeatedly — until today.

…

Even ardent defenders of the council are slamming the report. Echoing UN Watch’s recent protest, Suzanne Nosssel, the head of Amnesty USA and former top human rights official in the Obama Administration, described the Libya report as “abhorrent,” and called for a complete “redo.”

That’s what I would say about the Obama regime—but that’s for another time!

UN Watch tried to tell them:

In the 16th session last year we outlined our grave concerns with this report, which records this council’s 2010 review of Libya’s human rights record under the rule of Col. Moammar Qaddafi.

…

As delegates here know, for years UN Watch brought victims of Libyan torture to testify before this council, including Bulgarian nurse Kristyana Valchyeva, Ashraf al-Hajouj and the brother of Fathi Eljahmi. Libyan delegates rudely interrupted them, and called them liars.

In May 2010, we pleaded for Libya not to be elected to this council. Tragically, our voice was ignored; it was elected in great numbers. Not a single country spoke in opposition.

…

For the victims, is that too much to ask?

Evidently so:

Allow me simply to point out that changes of government are normal, and the responsibilities of states continue, and what is important is the commitment undertaken by governments and the implementation thereof. […]

I propose that the council adopt the decision on the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Libya, as you currently see it on the screen.

I see no objection to approving this decision, therefore it is hereby adopted. Thank you very much.

No, thank you, Madame President. All the fire and brimstone I spew about the United Nations is nothing to what you all say about yourselves.

One question, though: isn’t the USA still on the Council? If the report whitewashing Qaddafi’s human rights record was approved unanimously—and it was—Obama’s representative (our representative) must have been on board.

He’s made us less safe. The world hates us.

Remember the talk about how Bush made the world hate us? Lefties, I know it is early and today the time changed, but wipe the sleep from your eyes and let’s do a time travel experiment. Once we put Obama into office, our prestige was going to shoot up in the world, and the Muslim world in particular would love us.

How’s it working out so far?

Fifteen Afghan civilians were shot by an American soldier in Kandahar province Sunday, with seven of them feared dead, the provincial government said.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed that a soldier had gone off base and fired on civilians before turning himself in, but did not say how many victims there had been.

Capt. Justin Brockhoff of ISAF said there had been “multiple” casualties and that the injured Afghans were being treated in ISAF facilities.

“One of our soldiers is reported to have killed and injured a number of civilians in villages adjacent to his base,” ISAF’s deputy commander, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, said in a statement that expressed “deep regrets and sorrow at this appalling incident.”

There has been confusion about the number of casualties since the shooting outside a military base in eastern Afghanistan.

A provincial council member, Ahsan Noorzai, said earlier that 18 people were killed, but did not say where his information came from.

The Taliban claimed that 50 people had been killed, but the Islamist militia regularly exaggerates casualty figures.

I want to deconstruct the last sentence first, the one I bolded. Am I the only one who finds it interesting that the media is aware of the fact that the Taliban exaggerates their casualties? I’m surprised, because Palestinian terror groups do this too, and we never hear a word about it from the MSM. Curious.

But I digress. What it sounds like, and remember, this is coming from the media, so we can’t be certain, but it sounds as if a soldier went nuts and committed atrocities. On Obama’s watch. On Panetta’s watch. Now, in a former lifetime, I would have given our leadership some slack. How can they be responsible for the mental health and good judgement of every single soldier?

That was then. Today I note that the standard has been established. Every time someone stubs their toe, it is Bush’s, sorry, Obama’s fault. And Panetta’s. Think about the lack of discipline, the weakness of the command, and the general racism that this implies. What lousy leadership. I guess they’re in real trouble now. There will be front page headlines demanding impeachment, no doubt.

- Aggie

If the UN were a pizza, it would be an everything pizza: anchovies atop pineapple, next to sausage and onions, mixed in with hot peppers and green olives. And Limburger cheese. And moldy tomato sauce. And burnt crust.

Topped with a dog t*rd.

Despite the council’s own inquiry this year finding evidence of war crimes by the Qaddafi regime, the UN Human Rights Council, according to the agenda of its current session, is planning to “consider and adopt the final outcome of the review of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,” which lavishes praise on the disgraced regime.

I’m a people person. Was—was a people person.

“The report completely contradicts the council’s own commission of inquiry, which found evidence of Qaddafi war crimes. The review should be entirely redone, and the council should set an example of accountability by acknowledging that its original review was deeply flawed.”

…

The report also includes praise of the old regime’s record by Qaddafi-era diplomats who changes sides and now represent the new government (click here for quotes). “With Libya’s own UN diplomats admitting that the Gaddafi regime was a gross violator of human rights, it would be nonsensical for the UN to adopt this false report,” said Neuer.

“We call on the council president to acknowledge that the council’s review of the Qaddafi regime’s record was a fraud, withdraw the report, and schedule a new session in which council members would tell the truth about the Qaddafi regime’s heinous crimes, which were committed over four decades yet ignored by the UN,” said Neuer. “Libya’s long-suffering victims deserve no less.”

That can’t be right. Who could possibly describe Muammar Qaddafi as as a champion of liberties?

You asked:

Iran noted that the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya had implemented a number of international human rights instruments and had cooperated with relevant treaty bodies.

…

Algeria noted the efforts of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to promote human rights

…

Qatar praised the legal framework for the protection of human rights and freedoms

…

Sudan noted the country’s positive experience

…

The Syrian Arab Republic praised the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya for its serious commitment to and interaction with the Human Rights Council

…

North Korea praised… Bahrain noted… Palestine commended… Iraq commended… Saudi Arabia commended… Tunisia welcomed… Venezuela acknowledged… Jordan welcomed… Cuba commended… Oman commended… Egypt commended… Malta fully recognized… Bangladesh referred to the progress… Malaysia commended… Morocco welcomed… Pakistan praised… Mexico thanked… Myanmar commended… Viet Nam congratulated… Thailand welcomed… Brazil noted… Kuwait expressed appreciation…

Whew! Do you people have any idea how hard we work for you?

Anyway, you know what I think of the UN; I know how most of you probably feel about the UN.

What is the point of the UN?

Here’s a video of that Israeli raid on the ICRC HQ in Jerusalem that Aggie mentioned yesterday. Two Hamass terrorists (operatives? activists?) were nabbed, and the Red Cross doesn’t have a thing to say about their presence there for 18 months.

The Red Cross acknowledged that the Hamas legislators were nabbed but did not explain their hiding in the building for a year and a half after Israeli authorities issued arrest warrants for them.

You’ll note that the Israeli team walks the first perp out barely a minute after going in. So, the Hamassters weren’t exactly barricaded or armed. Yet again, the ICRC—which refused to work with the Magen David Adom out of sensitivity to Moslem antisemitism—thought nothing of accommodating wanted terrorists (operatives? activists?).

We’ve already made the case that the UN—all of it, right down to UNICEF and its stupid Christmas cards—ought to be lined up in front of the firing squad. (Squirt guns, I assure you, though they may be filled with camel urine.)

This is just the frosting on the camel cakes:

A human rights monitoring group called on UNESCO’s executive board, which includes the US, France, the UK and other Western democracies, to reverse its unanimous election of Syria to a pair of committees, one dealing directly with human rights issues.

The election comes as the Syrian regime maintains its campaign of violence against its own citizens, UN Watch said.

The Arab group at UNESCO nominated Syria for the spots, and though the 58-member board approved the pick by consensus on November 11, the agency has not yet posted the results on its website.

…

“The Arab League’s suspension of Syria is stripped of any meaning when its member states elevate Syria to UN human rights committes,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch.

“It’s shameful for the UN’s prime agency on science, culture and education to take a country that is shooting its own people and empower it to decide human rights issues on a global scale,” he added.

The UN says Syria’s crackdown on opposition protests has left more than 3,500 people dead over the past eight months.

Neuer said that the executive board’s decision “should not be all that surprising, given the body recently welcomed serial human rights abusers as new members, like Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Pakistan and Russia.”

Syria was already on the executive board, noted Neuer, “as were other countries with poor human rights records, including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, China, Vietnam and Algeria.”

Neuer and his colleague, Anne Bayefsky, at Eye on the UN share the duty of flaying the UN alive (oh sorry, that’s Assad with his prisoners). We, too, offer our commentary from time to time. The world cannot say it doesn’t know.

The truth of the matter is that we have been taught to equate egalitarianism with equality. Zimbabwe, Vietnam, and Belarus aren’t the equals of the US—they aren’t even the equals of Togo. Their votes shouldn’t count the same as ours, yet they do. The UN is a worthless institution at best; at worst, well, at worst it’s the UN.

I’ve been waiting for refutation, but I’ll be long gone by that time. In the meantime: ready, aim, splat!